ANMC  This is one of those apps that is very specialised, but once you start using it, there is no going back.

So much easier than struggling with the Character Palette (lang & keyboard options in the menu bar) - at least I found it so.

Good value too - several years of free upgrades with a purchased licence and a development team that is continually adding features.

Once you have the icon in your menu bar (at the corners or in the middle - even invisible until you mouse to it, if you prefer) there is no excuse for not including those pesky trademark and copyright symbols or whatever else you need.

Recommended very highly for what it does!  
(Version 4.2)

SUNDAYS  The price goes always higher since I tested it.

It is a very helpful program.  
(Version 4.1.1)

DRFRANK  Three clicks* on the PopChar 4.1 menubar icon caused my system to hang; everything except my cursor was frozen and I was forced to power down. Unfortunately, this 'hang' was reproducible. Ergonis support responded quickly, but was to recommend a solution. I've been using OS X since it was introduced, this is my first system hang.

*Clicks

Click 1 - PopChar window opened

Click 2 - PopChar window closed

Click 3 - System hang  
(Version 4.1)

CORPSECORPS  It's looking very good with some of the more recent developments.

It's still NOT looking like enough functionality to cost $40.  
(Version 4.1)

BOSSKEV  PopChar is an excellent utility. I have been using PopChar as a paid/registered user for many, many years and through many, many versions of the Mac OS. I consider PopChar a MUST-HAVE tool and, while I have to admit I'd like the license key to be just a tiny bit lower than the equivalent of $38 US--blame it on the US economy, not the developer's €29.99--it is nonetheless a product I feel is worth owning. I use it daily to call up those hundreds of oddball characters, such as ® ™ ¶ æ Ω ç and €. I don't have to try and remember any of the keyboard contortions to access these infrequently typed characters, I just pull up PopChar, see the character I want, tap on it and the character pops into my text for me. Hey, look at that...character pops...do I see a product name here? ;^)

FYI, I also wrote a reply to the previous reviewer who I believe misunderstands how the PopChar license key works. Bluntly stated, the previous guy is wrong, see my reply there. I don't want one unfortunately incorrect review to throw people off track and possibly hurt the longevity of a product I consider essential.  
(Version 4.1)

SHANE C SMITH  Ha ha ha! Oh my.... the people at Ergonis Software are sure funny. $38 for a character viewer, good one Ergonis. So how much is it really? Oh its not a joke, $38... hummmmmm... yeah I think I will pass.

For the people who actually were considering purchasing this software be aware after 2 years your license expires. So if they only make an upgrade to say 4.3 within 2 years you have to purchase another license even though they haven't made any significant changes.  
(Version 4.1)

CORPSECORPS  This has always been a great little app. It's easier to use and slicker than the OS X character palette and this version takes it even farther.

However, it was overpriced at $30.

Now they want $45?! )8^H

Now we're in la-la land. It's not even REMOTELY close to $45 dollars better than the free character palette.

For $15 i'd snap it up.

.  
(Version 4.0.1)

PLASTERPYRUS  45 dollars, You have got to be kidding! You know for the life of me I can't understand developers like this guy. They make a nice little application like this, that is basically is a one trick pony, a bit extravagant I suppose but none the less, a one trick pony (like some one said it's a glorified character pallet ) and then they ask an excorbadent amount of money than the average user can't afford and than what? Does it just exist sitting there without many people buying it except the few that don't know about the character pallet that comes with the OS X, that even has a way to launch it from your menu bar! I mean does some one like this really makes any money from his creation?  
(Version 4.0.1)

BOBZOZUS  At least under Tiger, I believe that the previous reviewer is correct. The Mac OS provides similar functionality. The only benefits I can see from PopChar over the character palette is the fact that PopChar does not take space on your menu bar- and does offer a more complete listing of possible character types to insert in a document.

For those thinking of purchasing- I would first try the Mac OS Menu bar solution. And, then try PopChar. Only then can one judge whether PopChar is worth $45. I think that price is quite high, actually.

I bought PopChar as part of the Macility bundle- which costs around $70 USD for PopChar, KeyCue, & Typinator. This is one of those times where I believe I made a mistake in my software purchase. PopChar is not such an improvement over the Mac OS system functionality that it is worth more than $20 USD to me. Rather than Typinator, I use TypeIt4Me- which has the ability to select your abbreviation from the menu item- and is just generally a more robust type expander- in my view. KeyCue is useful rarely to remind me of keyboard short-cuts: but to be honest, has only proven useful a few times in about 6 months of use. I think it would be worth $10 USD for me. So, I paid $70 for what I think should have cost me- at most- $30 (since I just use PopChar & KeyCue)! Of course, your mileage may vary. That is why it is so important to utilize shareware before you buy. That is why I wrote this- to encourage those interested in this app- or the Macility Bundle- to try it on for size before purchasing. Do not buy without kicking the tires. I wish I did. Have no one to blame but myself!  
(Version 4.0.1)

ANONYMOUS  What is with the ugly new 'P' icon? For $45 a license I think you can do better than that.  
(Version 4.0)

XPLICIT  The price is far too high.  
(Version 3.4)

EASER  At least be honest in a review. If you go to the developer's site, it clearly states:

"Please note that this does not mean that your license will expire after two years. You can use a registered copy of PopChar without limitation, but your license key will not be valid for newer versions that are released more than two years after the purchase of the license key."

You can complain as you wish about the price; that's valid. But do not say the license expires after 2 years per se. That's inaccurate.  
(Version 3.4)

MACSOLU  The developer of PopChar has become greedy. $40 is way overpriced, and this is for a two-year license... After that time, you have to pay MORE or else the software is disabled!  
(Version 3.4)

WHYTOI  Been using PopChar for years since Classic Mac OS days. But I could never understand the transition to 3.x where it became a standalone application. The old screen corner drop down screen was just so convenient. Why take it away? Anyway, fortunate that v2.3 still works well under Mac OS X 10.5.  
(Version 3.3.2)

COLETTE  Works fine but the price?  
(Version 3.3.1)

HEAVY_SHOWER  Several postscript fonts don't show their typeface when selected (for version 3.2 and 3.3) -- But I just re-installed version 2.3 as an experiment, and there they are! I deleted PopChar 3's prefs, but that didn't amount to anything.  
(Version 3.3)

CORPSECORPS  $40!?

Either there's a lot of functionality i'm not seeing, or that's a horrendous price for a minor utility!  
(Version 3.3)

GREEKTRANSCODER.ORG  I've been using PopChar for years, starting with System 7 back in the early 90's (I then registered the Pro version and then the X version).

The latest incarnation of the program works very well and has been a great help to me when I was working on transcoders to convert texts written using older ASCII fonts to Unicode.

As for Mac OS X providing a Character Palette, it's true, but it's harder to use than PopChar X, it takes much more screen real estate when enlarged enough to be useful and it doesn't offer access to Unicode blocks in a straightforward way (it's much harder to get the to the codepoint: the UI gets very complicated when one asks the Character Palette for "Code Tables").

I also use UnicodeChecker, which is a great tool, but not as convenient as PopChar for instant use.

I agree that the brushed metal interface is annoying. I hope that with Leopard will come an update that will do away with it.

However, all in all, it's a great utility, it has never crashed on me. And as part of the Macility Bundle it's quite cheap too (Typinator and KeyCue are great addtions to one's arsenal: the bundle is a great value).

Highly recommended.  
(Version 3.2)

THEORDER  um, what happened to using the character palette built into mac osx? its much easier to use. go to system prefs => international => input menu => show input menu in menu bar, and access the palette from the input menu  
(Version 3.2)

ERGONIS SOFTWARE  Dear Stonevil,

please note that we have not got any reports about a crash from our customers so far. If PopChar 3.1 crashes on your Mac, I'd suggest that you download and install version 3.2. If this does not help, please send a problem report to . We'll be happy to help you.

Thanks!

ergonis software customer service   
(Version 3.2)

STONEVIL  3.1 really buggy, crash time after time

I hate this 'metal" interface!  
(Version 3.2)

MADMACMAD  ... can't live without this !!!!!

What a great Helper App.

These nice little App's i miss on the Windows side...

That#s why i work on Mac if i can ;-)

P.S. I really like the new Interface !!!  
(Version 3.2)

GRYPHONENT  I too hate the new GUI. Loved the old interface and only can agree with the previous reviewer on that. PopChar2 also was significantly faster. Do I regret updating... a bit. But then again, I had to get a universal binary version of the application, so there was no choice for me. I just wish the old GUI would return... and the speed.  
(Version 3.1)

CUNEYT  I think the PopChar 3 interface is very ugly comparing to PopChar 2.3. I regret I have updated it to 3.0.

In 2.3 you had a simple slide of the window into the corner, now with 3.0 you get a big window (and no slide effect unfortunately)..  
(Version 3.0)

JADDIE  I really love this product. I got FontBook for free with my purchase of Suitcase, but PopChar is really the bulldog app for setting alternate characters.  
(Version 3.0)

ROGREROGRE  I have used PopChar for years on OS 9 and for about a year on OSX (version 2.2.1). It has always been a good product. When I seen there was a new version in beta (v. 3) I tried it out. I actually didn't think I would update as I have never used it a lot and the 2.2 version was just fine. I am a graphic artist and about the time I picked up the beta I started on a couple of book projects; I was using PopChar X a lot more than ever before.

I have many applications and ways to look up special characters on my Mac, but non are dedicated to doing just this. If you are looking up characters more than once a day the clumsy methods in OSX and all the font management software become a real pain. PopChar has always made getting to these characters efficient; But the new version three is even better than the earlier versions. But there is one place where Version three was a "must have" for these old eyes. PopChar X 3.0 is the most readable font display I have ever seen.

I won't go into the application any deeper here because you can download a trial to see PopChar for yourself. But I think I have something you will like as much as the application.

After I tried the new PopChar 3 beta for OSX and decided I would upgrade to it, if the price wasn't too high. I went to the web site to get an upgrade price and could not immediately find it. As I searched for the upgrade price I went to look at the license and found I was still good for a free upgrade; All versions of the upgrades were for two years. I was a bit surprised to get a whole number upgrade for free, but I am happier than I was surprised. I find that to be a good licensing policy on upgrades. They make money and I find the cost of the application to fit into my very tight budget.  
(Version 3.0)

DARRYLLEWIS  Thank you. PopChar and PopChar X have been wonderful time savers, and this new 3.0 version makes PopChar even better.

Darryl Lewis

Everything Macintosh

P.O. Box 284

Zebulon, NC 27597

919-404-0222

919-269-6695 Fax  
(Version 3.0)

ERGONIS SOFTWARE  Dear HEAVY_SHOWER,

the memory requirements of PopChar 3 are roughly the same as those of earlier versions. In fact, PopChar 3 sometimes even takes up LESS memory, thanks to improved memory management.

A test with a typical PowerPC desktop Mac showed that version 3.0 takes up only 14 MB, compared to 18 MB for the previous version 2.3. Actual figures may vary, depending on the type of processor and the number of installed fonts.  
(Version 3.0)

FFASS  I won't rate this just yet, but I simply can't get this latest version to work at all. It won't insert characters into any application, even TextEdit. I've played around with the preferences but to no avail...v.3 simply does not work for me. When I attempt to insert a character into TextEdit, for example, the focus is shifted away from TextEdit and to the PopChar window, so no insertion is possible. So, I'm back to the previous version.  
(Version 3.0)

HEAVY_SHOWER  I would imagine that all these new features are taking up more memory. Currently, with my v2.3, PopChar is using almost 13 megs, which is nothing to complain about. What about v3? Anyone?  
(Version 3.0)

ERGONIS SOFTWARE  Bob Coogan, whytoi,

the new interface as a floating window was a feature that was demanded heavily from our customers. It offers much higher flexibility than the old menu like behavior.

However, we are still offering the old behavior - please just open the Preferences pane and check all three checkboxes for automatically closing the window, and you will see that it behaves exactly as before. It is just more flexible now.

If there is still anything you want get changed, please contact us at popchar-support@ergonis.com. We love to hear from our customers. Many of the new features are in fact customer requests. Talking to our support helps us a lot more than anonymous posts here. Thank you for helping us to build the product you want to get.

ergonis software  
(Version 3.0fc1)

BEN_MARKO  I agree with whytoi. Interface now needs to go, the floating window is annoying. The old pop-down interface was much better. It makes no sense to have a floating window if it is that ugly. I thought software for the Mac was supposed to be cool looking? Otherwise no big noticable change, still a good useful app.  
(Version 3.0b6)

WHYTOI  Not impressed with 3.0b6. The older version's interface is much much better with its drop down menu. This huge pop-up window is a terrible waste of space and ugly. And where did the character type display selection go? I don't need to see A-z but just all the funny characters.  
(Version 3.0b6)

KTD  There are many other 'character finders and pickers' in all sorts of apps (not to mention the one in OS X), but I have relied upon PopChar more than any others--consistently.

It is just the right size and it fits in just the right place on my desktop--it's unobtrusive and handy.

I have employed it countless times to insert needed characters into my writing, which I code for use on the web.

Æ© (01A9), for example, is a "bug" I use to end my essays. It represents not only the strictly mathematical meaning, but an emblem of the power of the "sum" of group unity.

And scanning new fonts to see all the unicode characters they contain is a powerful and fun eye-catcher.

ktd  
(Version 3.0b5)

ERGONIS SOFTWARE  Dear Gryphonent, dear Anonymous,

if you think that the new features of PopChar 3 are just one or minimal, you were probably fooled by the description that has been online here at MacUpdate for a short period of time (until we realized it). The description just listed the differences between the two beta versions of PopChar 3, b3 and b4.

In fact, PopChar 3 has been re-implemented from ground up. It is now a Cocoa application with all the associated advantages like best platform integration, Universal binary, etc.

The new version has dozens of new features and improvements compared

to version 2.3, the 25 most important ones are listed on our

beta page http://www.macility.com/products/popcharx/beta.

We encourage you to visit the beta page, read about the new features and download and try the new version. In case of any feedback, bug reports or feature requests, we would be happy to hear from you. Please send us your personal e-mail - we love to hear back from you.

Thank you

ergonis software

(5/8/2006, Version: 3.0b5)   
(Version 3.0b5)

ANONYMOUS  There are actually more new features, their just not mentioned here. Still though, the new features are minimal and would find it hard to pay for this upgrade unless your one of the lucky people who own a Intel Mac. Now lets talk about the new icon... what the hell were they thinking! Please hire a designer to make a proper icon if your going to change it, otherwise leave it alone!  
(Version 3.0b4)

GRYPHONENT  I’ve been using PopChar since version 1 and though I’m as upset about the two year update policy as other posters here I have to say this version 3 just doesn’t warrant a new version. Speaking of which: the only new feature is that the “P” can now be placed in the right corner too!! Everything else are bug fixes, which should be free to registered users anyway, because they purchased and paid for a software that should be free from bugs in the first place!! By definition updates are free and fix bugs, upgrades introduce new features and cost money. Shame on this developer. Do not support these scrupulous methods and stay with version 2!  
(Version 3.0b4)

TIM27  They should just make this thing freeware. What ever happened to PopChar Lite?  
(Version 3.0b4)

SHANE SMITH  I purchased this when it was version 2 and it is still version 2 except my licence no longers works because it's been over 2 years! What kind of crap is this! No major upgrade in 2 years and you want me to give you more money! Stay away from this product, or at least this version. This update is nothing more than money scheme!  
(Version 2.3)

NOX  PopChar X 2.2.1 works fine with tiger. I don't want toi miss it.  
(Version 2.2.1)

ANONYMOUS  are they ever updating this app for tiger?  
(Version 2.2.1)

DAVE  Handy tool even with Panther's latest Character Palette which is very good. Still, this tool doesn't get into your way and is useful for the odd character you wish to quickly insert. I'm using a lot of 'exotic' characters deep inside the Unicode ranges. "No more memorizing keystrokes" is, of course, nonsense as you will want to learn by heart those that you most use (still faster than PopChar). So, if you use a limited range of characters only, no need to artificially keep your brain from memorizing, but if you find yourself using a wide range of different characters, this thing is for you.

Note: I had to upgrade to 2.1.2 to use it in Panther. The price isn't small but I don't regret paying for it as it does its job excellently. Also, as has been noted, upgrades are free for years to come.  
(Version 2.1.2)

MADRA  indispensible under OS9 but OSX has a popchar type 'character palette' built in. for those of you who didnae know this [and it's quite well hidden!] - you can enable it in the 'input menu' tab of the 'international' section in system prefs.  
(Version 2.1.2)

WORDMAN  This has, over the years, been an invaluable tool for me, going back as far as Mac OS 7.5.3. I've seen complaints (not here) about the price, which I regard as ridiculous: the present version includes free updates until 2005. Few apps have such a generous updates policy.  
(Version 2.1)

WANDERLUST  By far the most comprehensive, useful font character utility in its class. Bar none. I've been using this little gem since system 7 and it's been on the long ride with me ever since. I don't know what I'd do with out it! In fact, popchar and photoshop were the two main reasons I didn't upgrade to OS X until I did. I'm a visual designer and popchar is one of my all time favorite utilities.  
(Version 2.0.1)

SKALLAGRIMSON  crashes within seconds of trying to do anything with it or not trying too. Deleting the old plist didn't help.  
(Version 2.0)