Tips and Tricks

This page is mainly focusing on some not well known feature that Fcitx 5 provides.

If you need help on how to setup, please check Setup Fcitx 5 instead.

Type special characters

Quick phrase

Quick phrase is a built-in addon that allows you to type something to search and match the text that usually requires more effort to type.

It can be triggered globally with default hotkey Meta + `.

It has some a few built-in tables, which can be browsed on Github, or locally with the quickphrase editor GUI (launched from quickphrase setting in Configtool).

The built in tables contain: 1. Latex, which allows you type math/other symbol in latex syntax. For example "\alpha" will produce "α". 2. Emoji Ascii Code, which allows you type Unicode emoji character leading with ":", which you commonly see in instant messaging software. For example, ":smile:" will produce 😄. 3. Emoji, which contains a list of "Kaomoji-like" phrase, e.g. "smile" for "(・∀・)".

Quick phrase can also be extended with Lua or C++.

Type with Unicode

Fcitx 5 also provides a Unicode addon, that allows you to type Unicode with hex number, or search with description.

Ctrl + Shift + U gives you a similar experience like Gtk's built-in Unicode feature, that you just simply type the Hex number and press space. E.g. type Ctrl + Shift + U, 2, 6, 3, a, space will give you the Unicode character ☺.

Or with Ctrl + Shift + Alt + U, you will be able to search with description. If you just press Ctrl + Shift + Alt + U, it will show you the Unicode of string in your clipboard and current selection.

If you want to search with description, you just simply type the description, for example, you can search eggplant for Unicode character 🍆.

Type with compose

This is the old-school X11 feature, but also works anywhere that Fcitx supports. You can find some description of the file syntax at xkbcommon documentation.

It allows you to convert a sequence of key press to any string. But be aware this feature is global that you can't easily disable it.

Use long press in keyboard engine

When long press option is enabled in keyboard engine, you can get a list of candidate text that's mapping to the key you pressed. The mapping is fully customizable and allows you to disable it in certain applications.

Type Emoji

If you are using layout engine (input method named as "Keyboard - Layout name"), you can use quick phrase to search Unicode CLDR annotation. E.g. using "Keyboard - English (US)" allows you to search apple for 🍎 & 🍏. The language that can be used for searching is associated with layout language.

You can also use other methods like Quick phrase built-in table method, or with Unicode addon, or compose that are described above.