[Plugin] SpecialCharacterConfig – GUI editor for Sigil's custom special characters

[BeckyEbook]

Updated: October 1, 2026
Current Version: 0.2.4
Status: Beta
Plugin type: edit

Plugin icon:


How it works:
SpecialCharacterConfig is a GUI editor for Sigil's custom special character configuration, which is a new feature introduced in Sigil 2.8.5.

The plugin:

• creates and edits special character groups;
• allows Unicode characters to be searched and added;
• allows characters to be moved between groups;
• allows characters to be reordered within a group;
• allows groups to be reordered;
• allows groups to be hidden from or shown in Sigil's Insert Special Character list;
• allows character labels and descriptions to be edited;
• allows character descriptions to be auto-completed from their Unicode name via a right-click context menu;
• allows the same character to be placed in multiple groups;
• allows groups to be added, renamed, and deleted;
• allows Unicode 18.0 blocks to be enabled or disabled;
• opens existing special_characters.xml files;
• supports Save and Save As...;
• creates a backup when overwriting an existing configuration.

The configuration is stored in Sigil's optional special_characters.xml file. Sigil uses this file after it is restarted.

The plugin does not replace Sigil's built-in special character set unless the user deliberately creates and saves a special_characters.xml configuration for Sigil.

This also makes it possible to maintain several different personal character sets and switch between them simply by saving the desired configuration as special_characters.xml.

Installation:
1. Select Manage Plugins from the Plugins menu. In the Manage Plugins dialog box, select Use Bundled Python, if it isn't already selected. (If your Sigil version doesn't have a Use Bundled Python option, click one of the Auto buttons to detect the path or Set to manually select the Python interpreter path.)
2. Click Add Plugin and select SpecialCharacterConfig_v0.X.Y.zip. This will install the SpecialCharacterConfig plugin, which you can then run via Plugins > Edit > SpecialCharacterConfig.

Issues:
This is a beta release. Feedback, bug reports, and suggestions are welcome.

In particular, testing on different operating systems, Unicode ranges, and larger character collections would be useful.

OS Requirements:
Windows, Linux, and macOS should be supported.
Tested on Windows 10 and 11 with Sigil 2.8.5 prerelease. It should also work on Linux and macOS.
*** Linux users will have to make sure that the PySide6 module is present if it's not already. ***

Sigil Requirements:
Minimum version of Sigil: 2.8.5 beta.

Credits/Thanks:
Special thanks to KevinH for implementing support for custom special character groups in Sigil and for his help in defining the XML format used by the plugin.

The plugin itself was developed with the assistance of GPT (vibe coding). It turned out to be a particularly interesting example of using AI-assisted development for a real Qt/Python application.

License/Copying: GNU LGPL Version 2 or Version 3, your choice. Any other license terms are only available directly from the author in writing.

[BeckyEbook]

Change Log

v0.1.4
- First public beta release.
- GUI editor for Sigil's special_characters.xml configuration file.
- Create, open, edit, and save custom special-character configurations.
- Manage groups and add Unicode characters with a searchable character picker.
- Edit character labels and descriptions.
- Save As support for maintaining multiple personal character sets.
- Automatic .bak backup when overwriting an existing XML file.
- Compatible with Sigil 2.8.5 beta and newer.
- Changes take effect after restarting Sigil.

v0.1.5
- Add Move... to move selected characters between groups.
- Prevent moving a character into a group where it already exists.

v0.1.6
- Add Move Up / Move Down buttons to reorder groups in the Groups list.

v0.1.7
- Add "Move Character Up" / "Move Character Down" buttons to reorder
characters within the selected group. Works with multiple selected rows.

v0.1.8
- Replace the "Move Character Up/Down" text buttons with compact arrow
(Qt::UpArrow / Qt::DownArrow) tool buttons next to Add.../Move.../Remove.
- Fix multi-row selection not being preserved after moving several
characters at once (selectRow() was replacing the selection instead
of extending it).

v0.1.9
- Update the Unicode character browser to the Unicode 18.0 block set,
including newly defined blocks and blocks added since the original list.
- Add Geometric Shapes Extended, including U+1F7EB LARGE BROWN SQUARE.
- Include newly assigned Unicode 17.0 and 18.0 characters even when the
Python runtime uses an older Unicode database, with Unicode-version
fallback names where necessary.
- Add algorithmic fallback names for CJK ideographs, Jurchen, Tangut,
Khitan Small Script, and Small Seal characters.

v0.2.0
- Add a "Unicode Blocks..." dialog to choose which Unicode blocks are
displayed in the Add Special Characters window.
- Allow individual blocks to be enabled or disabled under each main
category; a main category disappears when all of its blocks are disabled.
- Store the Unicode block selection in Sigil plugin preferences.
- Keep all Unicode 18.0 blocks enabled by default.
- Add Select All and Clear All controls to the Unicode Blocks dialog.

v0.2.1
- Add "Hide" / "Show" buttons next to "Move Up" / "Move Down" to toggle
whether a group appears in Sigil's "Insert Special Character" list
(Sigil >= 2.8.5, chargroup hidden="true"). Hidden groups are shown
italicized/greyed out in the Groups list.
- Button enablement follows the selected group's state: "Hide" is
enabled only for a visible group, "Show" only for a hidden one.
- On load, accept hidden="true" (any case) or hidden="1" as hidden;
any other value (missing, "false", "0", garbage...) is treated as
visible and the attribute is dropped on save - matching Sigil's own
SelectCharacter.cpp parsing.

v0.2.2
- Replace the separate "Hide" / "Show" buttons with a single toggle
button next to "Move Up" / "Move Down" that reads "Hide" for a
visible group and "Show" for a hidden one.

v0.2.3
- Additional spacing before the Show/Hide button

v0.2.4
- Add a "Complete the Description" context-menu action on the
character table (works on one or several selected rows): fills in
the Description column from the character's Unicode name (or the
same fallback names used by the Unicode character browser) for any
selected character that doesn't already have one. Existing
descriptions are left untouched.

[DNSB]

I moved the ¥ sign to currency, added a few more currency symbols, some bits and bobs from my old saved symbols. Saved, restarted Sigil and looked good.

Only issue is that I could not find a way to move an item so ended up deleting the ¥ sign and recreating it.

[BeckyEbook]

Thank you for the feedback, @DNSB. You're right – this makes moving characters between groups much easier.

Added in v0.1.5.

[DNSB]

I tried adding the angle quotation marks («, », ‹ & ›) plus moving the narrow non-breaking space to the punctuation block and no issues.