Show Character Palette corrupted

If I choose Show Character Palette from the Menu Bar at the right hand side of the screen, the palette appears but is blank and cycles on and off every few seconds. Before this happened I had been trying to access one of the other tabs in this palette (don't know which one, of course, being unable to see the blank palette).
I've tried the tip of deleting the following files from the system>library>cache and rebooting:
com.apple.IntlDataCache.le
com.apple.IntlDataCache.le.kbdx
com.apple.IntlDataCache.le.sbdl
com.apple.IntlDataCache.le.tecx
Although my files didn't have the ".le" at the end of the file names it still worked insofar as I was able to, at least, "Hide Character Palette".
I had an idea it might be a fonts issue as I haven't been able to launch Address Book or iCal for some time now.
Any ideas please?
Michael

To keep the Character Palette from playing "Pop Goes the Weasel", delete the following file from the Preferences folder in your user account.
com.apple.systemuiserver.plist
Restart your Mac.

Similar Messages

US Flag / Character palette?? Where did this come from?

I noticed the other day that I have a US flag symbol up at the top of my screen, in between the volume icon and the symbol for the battery indicator, right next to the clock. When I click on it, I can't find any info about the program. When clicked, it has three options:
"Show Character Palette"
"Show/Hide Input Source Name"
"International"
What is this program, is it needed, and how did it get up there, and how do I remove it from showing?
Thanks.

Before you remove the item as per jtcluck's instructions, and while in the International pane of System Preferences, try clicking on the Keyboard Viewer checkbox on the Input Menu tab. This will add a "Show Keyboard Viewer" item on the menu when you click on the flag.
What is this good for? It opens up a tiny image of your keyboard, showing where each character is located. Especially useful for locating characters that require typing several keys at once (like this: € ).
In the old MacOS 9 and in the Windows worlds, this feature used to be called Key Caps. Having easy access to this utility is the only reason why I keep the flag on the menu.

Show Nested Character Styles in Character Palette

When a character style is nested in a paragraph style it would be nice if the Character palette highlighted the character style used when text with that nested paragraph/character style is selected.
It would also be nice if when a character style used in a nested style is changed on the page (and not through the character style) if then the "Redefine Style" option from the Character palette fly-out menu could be used to redefine the style.

I posted this in another thread before I discovered this one:
I just upgraded to Pages 5.
I opened a document that I'd been working on in the previous version of Pages. It has several styles, incuding a bulleted list style called "main bullet".
I attempted to apply that style to a section of text, and while it did indent the text properly, it did not add bullets. (Also, in the Style panel a bullet does not appear next to the "main bullet" style as it does in Pages 4. This was my first clue that something was wrong.)
So I went back in the text to a bulleted list that uses the "main bullet" style. I selected the text, then went to the Style panel and chose "main bullet" > update style. This did not seem to help. The "main bullet" style still has no bullet next to it in the Style panel, and when I tried again to apply it to some text, the bullet doesn't appear.
I decided to try a different style, in this case "body". I went to a section that has the "main bullet" style, selected it, and applied "body". The indentation changed, but it did not remove the bullet as it was supposed to.
Is this a bug, or do styles work differently in Pages 5?
It appears that styles do not include formatting like bullets, which, if true, is a huge problem.
I was also upset to learn that once I've opened a document in Pages 5, I can no longer open it in Pages 4. So I'm essentially stuck with Pages 5 whether I like it or not.
Is anyone else noticing this?

Character palette no longer works for me with Leopard

I need to use the Character Palette frequently in my work, but since going to 10.5 it is not working. Only the bottom part appears, starting with the "View" drop-down menu, and under that the large character on the left and the "Related" scroll box next to it. Therefore, I can't select any other characters from the categories that should be at the top of the CP (or were in 10.4), and I'm stuck with whatever happens to appear in the large character box. How can I get the whole CP back?

For some unknown reason the international data caches can get corrupted and prevent character palette and keyboard viewer to appear in the input tab of the international preference pane. This also prevent from working the special characters item in the edit menu of many applications, including the Finder, Safari and Text Edit.
If this happened to you, go to System/Library/Caches folder and trash the following files (don't worry, they will be re-created when you restart your Mac):
com.apple.IntlDataCache.le
com.apple.IntlDataCache.le.kbdx
com.apple.IntlDataCache.le.sbdl
com.apple.IntlDataCache.le.tecx
As you are attempting to cancel files from System folder, you will be asked for an administrator ID and password.
If you don't have an administrator ID and password, ask the system manager in your office.
After you insert an administrator ID and password, the files will be trashed.
Restart your Mac.
Open System Prefererences (in the apple menu, or inside the main Applications folder), open the International pane, and click the input menu. You will find again the character palette and keyboard viewer items with their chechboxes.
Click the two checkboxes. Be sure to click also at the bottom of the pane the checkbox labeled show the keyboard menu in the menu bar.
Exit System Preferences.
In the right side of the menu bar you will find a menulet with your nation's flag. Click the flag and you will find both character palette and keyboard viewer.
Also, the special characters item in the edit menu of the applications that have this item will work as expected, and will open the characters palette.

Character Palette Not Working

I have the options in my International - Input Menu to show the character palette in the menubar. However, when I click on it nothing happens. I have tried all the suggestions I have found on these forums to make it appear, but nothing has worked. (Which has resulted in no longer having a .plist item for the palette, or any of the items in Library > Caches).
It almost seems like I no longer have a character palette to make appear anyway. But then why would I still have the option for it in the Input Menu?
If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it.

alethe wrote:
Would it matter if the character palette shows up in the Components of the system (System/Library/Components), but not under my admin user (user/Library/Components)?
I don't know. There's no Components directory in my home Library and the one in the root-level library is empty, whereas /System/Library/Components/ is full.
If you want to resolve the conflict/corruption in the original admin account, you'll have to do something like this:
While logged into the newly created admin account, backup the bad account's folder, delete the bad account, selecting the save data option (which is stored in /Users/Deleted Users/ as a disk image), recreate the bad account using the same username/password combo, log out and back into the recreated original account. If the problem's solved, open the saved data dmg file in /Users/Deleted Users/, open the /Library/Preferences/ folder from the saved data, open the current /Users/restored account/Library/Preferences/ folder, and slowly copy plist files from the saved data folder to the current one that don't exist in it. Log out and back in to ensure there's no conflict and things still work correctly. Resolving conflicts or identifying corrupt plist files is a laborious process. Good luck.

Character palette window malfunction

In trying to sort out a problem I was having with non-English fonts, I went to the Help Viewer and thought I had a lead with the Special Characters selection under the Edit menu. I opened the Special Characters window and found a variety of non-English fonts (I was specially interested in Hebrew). The instructions said to open an application and select the charachter. I opened Textedit and made an attempt which did not work that I could tell. What it did do, was cause the Character Palette window to malfunction. It flashes partially open on an irregular but frequent basis, perhaps connected to program activity. The window appears in the middle of the screen, it is titled and has the litlle rotating activity icon in the middle but is blank otherwise. It remains for less than a second and then disappears. When I look at it with the Console utility, it gives this sort of message:
Nov 23 19:08:24 william-scotts-ibook-g4 crashdump[608]: CharPaletteServer crashed
Nov 23 19:08:24 william-scotts-ibook-g4 crashdump[608]: crash report written to: /Users/williamscott/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/CharPaletteServer.crash.log
Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8718
Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8717
Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8718
Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8717
Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8718
Looking for devices matching vendor ID=1193 and product ID=8717
etc...
I can't seem to make it stop. Relaunching the Finder didn't help. Logging out didn't help. Turning the machine completely off and restarting didn't help. Its driving me nuts...
I have an iBook G4 running 10.4.8

Hi sonopan
Fully understand the frustration
Open "Activity Monitor" in /Applications/Utilities/
On the panel you will see all of the programs in memory
scroll down and one click on "ChaPaletteServer" it will highlight
click on "Quit Process" at the top of the screen
that should clear it
To use another language I select it in System Preferences > International > Input Menu
enable "Character Palette" and "Keyboard Viewer"
at the bottom of the pane
enable "Allow a different input source for each document"
and "Show input menu in menu bar"
Open Textedit
click on the flag icon on the menu bar
select "Show keyboard viewer"
select the language
and away you go - the keyboard viewer shows the characters as available on your keyboard
You can access the International Prefs from the icon as well so if you want to deselect a language you can but change back to English (if that's you normal language) before doing so
chris
Please use the "Question Answered" and "Points Systems" (if appropriate) as it does indicate to others the need for help, or a possible answer for others with a similar problem.

Favorite glyphs in Character Palette

In Panther, I was able to put frequently used special glyphs like © into the Favorites panel of Character Palette so that I did not have to hunt for them all over Unicode space. In Tiger, the Favorites panel still shows up in Character Palette, but there seems to be no way of adding anything to it. The "Add to Favorites" button at the bottom of Character Palette in Panther has been replaced by a Spotlight query field. So what's the deal here? This is very un-Apple.

Bottom left, gearwheel, "add to favorites"

Why is Character Palette flashing on & off on my screen?

When working in Pages, suddenly the Character Palette became non-functioning...I saved my document, then closed the program, but the non-functioning Character Palette continued to show. I then tried a re-boot-shut down the computer & restarted it. It then froze once it opened & didn't show any docking station or other menu items---rebooting 3 times continued this freeze. I then shut down, unplugged & restarted. This time the docking station & everything else showed up, but for some reason the Character Palette flashed on & off-a completely blank window with just the title...it's still flashing on & off randomly! Do I attempt a reboot again? What's the bug? I'm frustrated!!

Hello Jerrene,
welcome to the Pages Discussions. This problem was mentioned in some threads and this is what helped before:
Try to delete the "com.apple.CharPaletteCache.plist" at "<YourHDName>/Users/<YourAccount>/Library/Caches/"? And the "com.apple.CharPaletteServer.plist" at "<YourHDName>/Users/<YourAccount>/Library/Preferences".
Frank.

Character Palette Berzerk

When I go into the Character Palette, set the View to All Characters & click 'by Radical' the palette locks up completely. I can still turn it on/off thru the menu, as well as turning off the pref altogether. But as long as it remains on it periodically attempts to display but disappears instantly.
Various actions seem to trigger its attempt to display, such as opening/closing files, switching windows, etc., but the only 'cure' is to delete com.apple.CharPaletteServer.plist, which is obviously being corrupted by the action described above.
Does anyone know if this is a known issue or why the behavior occurs? I have found no specific reference in Discussioons or elsewhere.
Any input would be appreciated.
TIA

Thanx for the reply, Tom. I think you hit the nail on the head... I did remove most unneeded fonts from the System fonts folder, not realizing that Character Palette uses it directly.
Since Character Palette works just fine otherwise I'm simply going to stay away from the 'Radicals' altogether.
Regards |:>)

Character palette super tiny

Anybody know how to fix this? My character palette is opening up to be just big enough to see the red "close window" button in the top left corner of the window.
I trashed my system preferences plist file; could not find anything specific to the character palette.
Here's a screenshot:
http://homepage.mac.com/adinal/charpalette.png
thanks in advance!

Hi Again Adina!
I found this KB Article Chinese Language Kit 2.0: About The TrueType Font Editor.
From reviewing that, I think what I have discovered is, that the input mode palette, that you are looking for, works for Chinese languages.
The international language that you have enabled, Japanese Kana Palette, doesn't seem to utilize the input menu
Try this:
In SP > International > Input Menu, checkmark the option Show input menu in menu bar.
Then from that icon, select Show Japanese Kana Palette.
Does it open for you now?
ali b

AI CC 2014.1.0 -- Character palette does not tell me the name of font in selected text. It remains on the default font.

Since the last update, when I select a piece of text (area or pt), the Character palette still displays the default font. When I am setting or modifying a Paragraph Style, the font is displayed.
It does not make any difference if I am using Typekit.
Is this a glitch? Could this be associated with a prefs setting?
Thanks.

DanBo,
You may try the list.
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
If possible/applicable, you should save curent artwork first, of course.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to at least 5 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Customize (shorten) list of languages in Character palette?

I often have to change the language for short text sections in a paragraph. I work with five languages, but of course, the language drop-down menu in InDesign’s Character palette shows all languages. I would like to reduce this menu to just the languages I need on a daily basis (e.g. English: USA, German and French).
I thought that “Edit” > “Menus” might help, but unless I missed something, it won’t.
So would I really have to remove all (Hunspell) dictionaries for the languages I don’t need? In InDesign CC on OS X, this is a 156 MB “bundle” (AdobeHunspellPlugin.bundle). Going in there, physically removing all language folders and editing the plist file as described in http://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/kb/add_cs_dictionaries.html#id_69116 seems a bit… brutal. Is there a more flexible approach?

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/407/kb407377.html
http://forums.adobe.com/message/1873054
http://forums.adobe.com/message/1978127
http://forums.adobe.com/message/1271274

Illustrator CS4 no longer previews fonts in Character palette after Yosemite upgrade

Howdy. Recently upgraded to Yosemite. In my copy of Adobe CS4, fonts no longer preview in the dropdown menu of the Character palette, unless the mouse rolls over them. Very frustrating. Does this occur with any other version of Illustrator? Any way I can fix this?
Here's an image that shows you what I mean:

Tom, Lisbeth,
Bryan,
What ahppens if you open System Preferences and go to Accessibility. Next, select Display from the source list along the left, then check the box labelled “Reduce transparency.”?
It seems to work for CS5, see here:
Re: Compatibility with Yosemite — Illustrator CS5

Can't find character in character palette or in Font Book

I have used the Om symbol (Sanskrit symbol used in lots of spiritual stuff - looks like "30") in a couple of documents in the past but when I open them now the Om symbol is missing and I can't find it in the Character Palette or anywhere in Font Book. The docs were created and used under previous OS. I don't actually remember if it was in Char Palette in earlier OS's but if anyone knows where I can find it for Leopard I'd really appreciate it. Many thanks.

Thanks! But, sorry, I don't how to get to that to use it. How do I navigate U+0950?
Here's one way. Copy/paste the OM from this webpage into TextEdit. Select the OM in TextEdit. In Character Palette go to the gear wheel at bottom left and click and select "Show Character Selected in Application."

HELP!! Lost the "character palette" - how do I retrieve it?

Somehow I managed to lose the "character palette" - it froze, and I couldn't get it to close, so I shut down the computer, but when it restarted, the character palette would not open. Or rather, a blank "ghost" of it appeared for a couple of seconds, then vanished. Clicking on either "show palette" or "hide palette" does nothing. I tried Spotlight to try to locate it on the hard drive, but nothing that showed up led me to it.
Any ideas? Will I have to reinstall it?
Thanks for any suggestions.......
Sophiecat

It sounds like you may have a bad font. That happened
to me once and I discovered Character Palette was
very sensitive to bad fonts. You might also try
deleting:
"/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.apple.CharPal
etteServer.plist"
If removing that doesn't do it I suspect you'll have
to start looking at your fonts to find the one
causing the problem. In my case it was an old Adobe
Garamonde font I had installed not long before I
discovered the Character Palette problem.
Francine
Hi Francine,
THANK YOU-- THANK YOU-- THANK YOU!!!
Your suggestion worked like a dream. I truly appreciate your responding so quickly.
Regards,
Sophiecat

Show Character Palette corrupted

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for