Since the switch to Windows I had a problem to solve as soon as possible: find a way to write the backtick (`) and tilde (~) characters.

Both the characters, on a mac, can be stroked by pressing AltGr + \ (backtick) and AltGr + 6 (tilde).

On Windows the actual combination is incredible and unmemorizable - and, on my Dell XPS laptop, I just can'tuse it. It requires me to use the numeric pad (that I don't have) so I have to press the function key... well, it's a lot of strokes only to gain a single character.

So, that's my solution.

AutoHotkey

The first step is to install AutoHotkey from the official website.

What is AutoHotkey? Here is their official description:

AutoHotkey is a free, open-source scripting language for Windows that allows users to easily create small to complex scripts for all kinds of tasks such as: form fillers, auto-clicking, macros, etc.

What we really need is the ability to remap some keys for our purposes.

Write a AutoHotkey script

Once downloaded, we need to create the AutoHotkey script with our desired configuration.

AutoHotkey doesn't do anything on its own; it needs a script to tell it what to do.

So we have to create a file startup.ahk to fill in with our commands.

Here is mine:

<^>!6:: Send ~ Return

<^>!:: SendRaw ``` Return

<^>!n:: Send ñ Return

Explanation of the first block (the others are similar):

• <^>! means AltGr
• <^>!6 means AltGr + 6*, pressed together
• :: means that the input sequence has endend.
• Send ~: that's the AutoHotkey magic. It will send the ~ character upon receiving of this sequence.

To send the backtick, I had to use the function SendRaw because the backtick is a reserved character in AutoHotkey.

I have also mapped the n with tilde (ñ) useful if you write some spanish.

Execute the script (at startup)

To simply execute this script, just double click on it. Now you can start writing backticks, tildes, and ñ everywhere.

If you want to start the script automatically at every Windows start, just put this script in this folder:

C:\Users$USER\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Remember to change $USER with your username.

Now Markdown will not be a problem anymore!