Command Line – Launching Character Viewer from Terminal

alfredapplescriptcommand linekeyboard

So, recently I have being using the Character and Keyboard Viewer a fair bit and set up simple Alfred keywords that toggle the launch/quitting of these apps so as not to have to leave the keyboard.

This works splendidly for Keyboard Viewer running the applescript:

    if application "KeyboardViewer" is running then
    tell application "KeyboardViewer" to quit
else
    tell application "KeyboardViewer" to activate
end if

But the same for "CharacterPalatte" (Character Viewer) which launches OK according to Activity Monitor does not show show the window!

The Character Viewer window is nowhere to be seen. It launches just fine using the menu dropdowns from the menu bar.

Any ideas?

CharacterPalette running, but no window)

Best Answer

My approach to launching Character Viewer ("CharacterPalette") proved otiose as there is an OS X shortcut I was previously unaware of: ctrl+cmd+space opens character Viewer.

For reference this call in Applescript is:

    tell application "System Events"
        key code 49 using {control down, command down}
    end
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