Clone Microsoft emoji keyboard behaviour for a better and recognised UX behaviour

[mrandreastoth]

Activating the toolbar more often than not results in unwanted side-effects such as extra spaces or cursor movements or incorrect case being used. Then, when the toolbar appears, it provides very little opportunity to properly interact with it and often results in the incorrect character to be picked.

A better implementation of PowerAccent would be one that was similar to the Microsoft emoji keyboard: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-keyboard-tips-and-tricks-588e0b72-0fff-6d3f-aeee-6e5116097942.

Behaviour summary..

• Instead of the user having to pre-type a letter before displaying the window, the window is activated using a hotkey, possibly Windows logo key + , (comma) with a setting to override the default

• The window appears relative to the user's input

• Unique to the accent keyboard: the window provides a "character set" drop-down allowing the character set to be changed and with it the listed matching accented characters, which are dynamically updated

• The window monitors the user's input and lists the matching accented characters based on the selected character set

• The user navigates the listed accented characters using the cursors and selects one with enter or the mouse with the window remaining open until closed

• The user can close using the ESC key or by clicking the close icon or by clicking outside of the window

• Like the Microsoft emoji keyboard, the window provides a character history but, unlike the Microsoft implementation, this also provides a check-box that, when ticked, lists all previously used accented characters even if they don't belong in the current character set