Where is "Find or Go to Character"?

[sudleyplace]

Using MainType 7.0 Standard: At least one previous version of MT (perhaps as far back as 2.1) for a selected font provided a dialog accessible by Ctrl-f or "Edit|Find Character..." to find characters by name such as "rightwards arrow", and it would display the characters sequentially by pressing Enter. Exactly what I need.

Now that I upgraded to MT 7.0, I can no longer find this capability. Ctrl-f appears to do nothing. There is a Quick search which finds a font by name.

Am I just missing something in MT 7.0, or is this capability available in the Professional version only?

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

My recollection of earlier versions of MainType doesn't go back very far, but this feature does exist in FontCreator. Are you perhaps missing a feature that you used in FontCreator, that has never existed in MainType?

[Erwin Denissen]

I think it was available in MainType before we made is database driven. Back then several features didn't make it into the new version, but fortunately most have been added later on. I guess we missed this one. I'll add it to the to-do list.

[sudleyplace]

My recollection of earlier versions of MainType doesn't go back very far, but this feature does exist in FontCreator. Are you perhaps missing a feature that you used in FontCreator, that has never existed in MainType?

Until a few days ago, I had never used FontCreator.

[sudleyplace]

I think it was available in MainType before we made is database driven. Back then several features didn't make it into the new version, but fortunately most have been added later on. I guess we missed this one. I'll add it to the to-do list.

Do you happen to recall which version was the last to have that feature?

In any case, thanks for the update -- I look forward to the new version.

[Erwin Denissen]

I thin it was first available in MainType 2 back in 2006, and was last available in version 3.

[sudleyplace]

I just bought and downloaded MainType 8 (as an upgrade from Version 7) and was disappointed not to find this feature in your latest version. In version 2.1, that feature is available under the Edit menu which is where I looked for it in Version 8 without success. Perhaps I didn't look carefully enough. Is the "Find or Go to Character" feature indeed missing from Version 8?

I still use Maintype 2.1 just so I have access to that feature where I use it often to search for characters similar to a given character.

Assuming it is indeed missing, could you please put that feature into your very next release?

[Erwin Denissen]

MainType 8 includes a Goto codepoint feature, available when you right-click within the character grid.

You then need to provide the Unicode code point value.

Your request is a little different, but sounds like a nice enhancement, so we've added it to our to-do list.

[sudleyplace]

MainType 8 includes a Goto codepoint feature, available when you right-click within the character grid.

You then need to provide the Unicode code point value.

Your request is a little different, but sounds like a nice enhancement, so we've added it to our to-do list.

I'm not asking for anything different from what was in version 2.1of Maintype and is currently in FontCreator under "Edit | Find...". I would like to search for characters by "Part of character name".

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I'm not asking for anything different from what was in version 2.1 of Maintype.

No, but you're asking from something different to search by codepoint, which is what Erwin said. Just because something existed in an earlier version does not mean that it's easy to just re-enable. The code is completely different, so the feature needs to be recreated from scratch.

The find feature in FontCreator is very powerful, allowing a search by part of a glyph name, codepoints, etc., and can display the results in a filtered list.

Regular expressions are supported too. Something like that might work in the Character Panel. Currently, we can filter it by character set, or show all glyphs. A list filtered by part of a glyph name would be good.

[sudleyplace]

Has this item bubbled up on your ToDo list? I really miss it.

[sudleyplace]

MT 9 is out and the feature from MT 2.1 I've been requesting for over three years for you to put back in is still missing. OK, I can take a hint and will look for it in a different product. Bye.

[Erwin Denissen]

I'm sorry, but it is still on the to-do list, so we haven't forgotten it.

[sudleyplace]

I'm sorry, but it is still on the to-do list, so we haven't forgotten it.

Does MainType version 10 support this feature request?

[Erwin Denissen]

Yes, it now supports search by (part of) name. It is not in the official release yet, but you can already try it here:

MainType 10.0.0.1234 (64-bit)

MainTypeSearchCharacter.png (302.78 KiB) Viewed 14678 times