CopyUnicode Guide
For info on which characters you should be encoding, see the guide Entering special characters. Basically, if it's not in the following list, encode it:A-Z a-z 0-9 ! " # $ % ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; = ? @ [ ] \ ^ _ ` { } | ~ space tab newline
Be particularly careful about quote, apostrophe, dash and elipses characters in text you copy/paste from other sources.
How to get CopyUnicode
Download the Java JAR from Jon Freeman's website. It is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The 32-bit version should work with any reasonably current system; the 64-bit version is more efficient, if your system can run it.
64-bit JAR (needs Java version 1.6.0 or later)
32-bit JAR
Alternative download locations:
Joe-web (Joe Offer): 64-bit, 32-bit
SkyDrive (Artful Codger): 64-bit, 32-bit
You can download the JAR directly to your desktop, or to any convenient location where you typically store programs. It can be run from a shortcut/alias/softlink, so you only need one copy on your system. If you need to run the JAR from the command line, however, you'll need to put it in a directory referenced by your JAVAPATH environment setting. The command-line command to run it is:
java -jar CopyUnicode.jar
How to use CopyUnicode
Start the program by double-clicking on the JAR file (or shortcut/alias). A dialog appears, presenting a scrollable grid of characters (all the Unicode 16-bit characters). Ensure that the "Copy the HTML code" checkbox is checked. Browse to the character you want and click on it; an HTML sequence will be placed on your clipboard. Go to the Mudcat message entry area, click on it, then paste (Control-V on Windows, Command-V on Mac). In the entry area you should see a sequence like é—you should not see the character you selected, but rather something starting with &#x and ending with semicolon, with a few hexadecimal digits (which include A-F) in between. If you see the actual character, delete it, check the checkbox and try again.
To verify that what you've entered is what you want, use the Preview option below the message entry area: check it, then click Submit. In the upper part of the preview page, you should see the characters you want; in the lower part (the message entry area) you should still see the ampersand sequence instead.
As Grishka says, this tool can also be used to enter characters in other web pages, in word processors and in other programs (like spreadsheets) which can accept Unicode characters directly. In this case, just uncheck the "Copy the HTML code" checkbox, and you'll get the actual Unicode character instead.
Both Mac and Windows have OS utilities for browsing the character maps and copying characters to the clipboard. (On Mac, it's the Character Palette.) They also report the Unicode value, from which one can form a character reference by enclosing the value in "&#x" and ";". But they won't copy the character automatically for you in an HTML-encoded form, which is the only portable way to enter your text in Mudcat.