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I just upgraded to Yosemite, I find that I cannot minimise the Character Viewer into the dock as I used to... is this normal? It saved me a lot of trouble to have it pop-up every time I started the computer. Or maybe there's a way to have it a login item?
Maybe this is related but I find this complex...
I think the issue you're facing is that the Character Viewer is no longer global, but is now per-app, so if you open it in, for instance, Safari, then switch to Finder, it will vanish.
Open it again in Finder & its stored size, position & last viewed will be different.
The advantage is you can keep it open in 2 different apps at the same time [with the one attached to any backgrounded app hidden] & be working on 2 different things.
The downside would be if that's not what you want to do ;-)
Simplest way to activate it is Cmd ⌘ Ctrl ⌃ Space but there's no 'close' command other than clicking the red dot, or temporarily, by switching to another app.
I am not aware of any Character Viewer app that could be placed in the Dock (then again, I don't remember if I used this thing before Yosemite, though I think so). But in Settings > Keyboard you can find Show Keyboard & Character Viewers in menu bar so they are accessible. I agree it's handy at times, but to my knowledge, only apps and folders can be placed into the Dock.
