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TypeAnySymbol – Unicode Symbol Picker

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TypeAnySymbol – Unicode Symbol Picker

by typeanysymbol

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Description

TypeAnySymbol adds a Symbols button to the block editor’s formatting toolbar.
Edit a post or page, click inside a text block, and choose Symbols from the
block toolbar to open a clean, WordPress-native picker.

The workflow is simply: search, select, insert. Find the character you need
and it is inserted as a real Unicode character at your cursor.

It works in any rich-text field – Paragraph, Heading, List, Quote, Button and
more.

  • Smart search – match by Unicode name (“rightwards arrow”), everyday term
    (“right arrow”, “em dash”, “not equal”), the actual character, or a code point
    (U+2192, 2192, →). Case, spaces and hyphens are all ignored.
  • Curated library – roughly 1,000 genuinely useful visible characters,
    organised into Popular, Arrows, Math, Currency, Punctuation, Greek, Accented
    Letters, Shapes, Technical, Signs and Numbers & Fractions.
  • Real characters only – Insert drops a plain Unicode character at the
    caret. No shortcodes, no wrapper spans, no custom blocks. Deactivate the
    plugin and every symbol you inserted stays exactly as it was.
  • Favorites & Recently Used – kept in your browser only (localStorage), no
    database tables, no account.
  • Keyboard friendly – full arrow-key navigation, visible focus, Escape to
    close, proper labels and ARIA roles.
  • Nothing on the front end – no scripts, styles, fonts, APIs, analytics or
    telemetry are ever loaded for your visitors. Assets load only inside the
    block editor.

There is no plugin settings page. The symbol picker works directly inside the
WordPress Block Editor.

Version 1.0 focuses on visible Unicode characters useful for everyday writing
and editing.

  1. Install and activate the plugin (from Plugins Add New Upload Plugin,
    or by uploading the typeanysymbol-unicode-symbol-picker folder to
    /wp-content/plugins/).
  2. Open a post or page using the WordPress Block Editor.
  3. Click inside a Paragraph, Heading, List, Quote, Button, or another supported
    text field.
  4. Find the Symbols button in the block text toolbar. Depending on
    available toolbar space, it may appear directly or inside the toolbar’s
    More menu.
  5. Search for a symbol such as “copyright”, “degree”, “em dash”, “theta”, or
    “right arrow”.
  6. Select the character and click Insert.
  7. The real Unicode character is inserted directly into the content.

There is no plugin settings page. The symbol picker works directly inside the
WordPress Block Editor.

Where do I find the symbol picker?

There is no settings page. Edit a post or page in the WordPress Block Editor,
click inside a supported text block, and choose Symbols from the block
toolbar (it may be under the toolbar’s More menu when space is tight).

Does this plugin add frontend scripts?

No. All assets are enqueued exclusively on enqueue_block_editor_assets.
Your site’s front end is completely untouched.

Does it use an API?

No. Everything ships with the plugin. It never makes a network request.

Does it collect data?

No. There is no analytics, no telemetry, no licensing server and no account.
Favorites and recently-used symbols are stored only in your own browser.

What happens when I deactivate it?

Nothing changes in your content. Inserted characters are ordinary Unicode text,
so they remain intact and display exactly as before.

Can I search by Unicode code point?

Yes. U+2192, u+2192, 0x2192, a bare 2192, → and → all
resolve to .

Does it support the Classic Editor?

No. Version 1.0 targets the block editor only.

Which characters are included?

Around 1,000 hand-picked visible characters that are useful to writers,
bloggers, developers, teachers, students and editors – arrows, math and logic
symbols, currency signs, smart punctuation, Greek letters, accented Latin
letters, geometric shapes, technical and keyboard symbols, and common
fractions. It is intentionally not a full Unicode database.

1.0.0

  • Initial release.
  • Block-editor toolbar button for RichText fields.
  • Symbol picker with search, category tabs, grid, symbol details and Insert.
  • Curated library of ~1,000 visible Unicode characters.
  • Client-side smart search by name, alias, keyword, character and code point.
  • Favorites and Recently Used stored in localStorage.
  • One-time admin welcome notice and a “How to use” Plugins-screen link.
  • No front-end assets, no network requests, no data collection.
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