Special Letter Symbols Are Sooooooooooooo ...

Ken · Apr 23, 2013

... hard to find, on MS Word

Pulling up the dialogue box is easy enough:

Insert > Symbols > More Symbols

But when the dialogue box comes up there are thousands,
and thousands of symbols and each font has a different set,
and there are even two dozen or so subsets to select from.

By the time you find the one you're looking for, years have elapsed.

(Just went thru this when trying to find an "a,"
with a left-pointing accent mark over it.)

Can anyone else relate; sniffle, sniffle :-(

bearilou · Apr 23, 2013

It's for this reason I will go through major acrobatics to avoid any special letters and symbols in anything I write.

If I find I can't avoid it, I usually end up CnP the special letter/symbol each time it has to be used.

shaldna · Apr 23, 2013

Ken said:
... hard to find, on MS Word

Pulling up the dialogue box is easy enough:

Insert > Symbols > More Symbols

But when the dialogue box comes up there are thousands,
and thousands of symbols and each font has a different set,
and there are even two dozen or so subsets to select from.

By the time you find the one you're looking for, years have elapsed.

(Just went thru this when trying to find an "a,"
with a left-pointing accent mark over it.)

Can anyone else relate; sniffle, sniffle :-(

Notsure what version of word you are using, but you used to be able able to reset some of your keys for certain symbols - so keys that you don't use a lot (or ever) you could reassign a character to. Alternatively, someone who is better at computers than me could tell you how to set up a short key to a certain symbol.

Personally I just keep a copy of the ones I use most often in a word doc and copy and paste them in when I need them.

Also, sometimes autocorrect is your friend - especially when it comes to names which are always spelt with a fada, for example, you just add it to your dictionary and it should pick it up okay,

Ken · Apr 23, 2013

... good tips, Shaldna. Thnx.

Mainly for me it's more a matter of symbols I've never used before,
like that accented "a" I mentioned.
Every six months or so that happens.
Then it's a scramble to find the symbol.

I'm using 2010 MS Word.
And that even has a nifty "most recently used symbols" selection.
But again, the trouble arises when I'm seeking something I've never used before.
Then misery sets in. Like looking for a needle in a haystack :-(

Good tip about the number pad. BLou.
I really should get organized and make a document for the combos I use!

Buffysquirrel · Apr 23, 2013

Copy & paste has always been my solution, as well. Sometimes for months it was the em-dash, and that's an easier one to find....

Maryn · Apr 23, 2013

I'm on a much older version of Word, but I've been in the same situation. The few I use often are easy to find because even in Ye Olden Dayes the program put in a line of those you'd last used. But the first time I want the joined a-e, I have to hunt.

What's worked for me is copying a list I found online of special and accent characters, which I saved in a document named Characters-Keyboard. I can copy what I want as soon as I see it, which I've made even faster by changing the font color of the ones I use most often. (The degree symbol, really?) Copy, Paste Special (so I don't bring the color with me), done.

It would be easy to make a second copy of that list and have the characters findable by name alphabetically, from Degree to Pound to Section.

You can also hit Word's Help menu for Character Map, which some people find useful.

For those you use quite a bit, it may be worth learning the keystrokes. For instance, holding down the Alt key while typing 0241 gets you this: ñ.

Try these:

Alt 0169
Alt 0191
Alt 0176

Maryn, who had teenagers at exactly the right time, technology-wise

Mare · Apr 23, 2013

That's why I love my Mac—it makes things so easy.

moth · Apr 23, 2013

I use the Alt codes Maryn mentioned. I loooove this chart. á and à are both on there. æ too.

blacbird · Apr 23, 2013

Maryn said:
What's worked for me is copying a list I found online of special and accent characters, which I saved in a document named Characters-Keyboard. I can copy what I want as soon as I see it, which I've made even faster by changing the font color of the ones I use most often. (The degree symbol, really?) Copy, Paste Special (so I don't bring the color with me), done.

It would be easy to make a second copy of that list and have the characters findable by name alphabetically, from Degree to Pound to Section.

You can also hit Word's Help menu for Character Map, which some people find useful.

For those you use quite a bit, it may be worth learning the keystrokes. For instance, holding down the Alt key while typing 0241 gets you this: ñ.

Try these:

Alt 0169
Alt 0191
Alt 0176

Maryn, who had teenagers at exactly the right time, technology-wise

A good many years back I took the time to make a list of all the Alt-numerical codes, because they are useful even in MS-DOS text files. I printed it, and keep it a couple of copies around, wherever my computers are. Very very handy. I still do a lot of academic writing in a scientific field, and heed to reference foreign academic publications and authors, many of which have letters with diacriticals. If you do it a lot, you get the dozen or so most common ones in memory just like the alphabet itself.

The a-accent grave is Alt-133

càw

dangerousbill · Apr 23, 2013

Ken said:
... hard to find, on MS Word

Pulling up the dialogue box is easy enough:

Insert > Symbols > More Symbols

Open a new document. Whenever you look up a symbol, put a copy of it into the new document as well as into your manuscript. That way, you can find the most common symbols right away. Name and save the document where you can find it easily, eg, Mysymbols.doc

kiera · Apr 23, 2013

You don't even have to learn the four-digit codes for your basic accent symbols:

For á: press CTRL + ', then a.

For à: press CTRL + `, then a.

(This works for any vowel that you wish to accent!)

Ken · Apr 23, 2013

moth said:
this chart

... Moth = my knightress in shining armor. Really cool

There's even a key combo for a French zero. Ø

blacbird said:
I printed it,
The a-accent grave is Alt-133
càw

Good idea.
lol about the accented caw.

dangerousbill said:
Mysymbols.doc

Good tip. Maybe I'll have a print version and a comp version for reference.
Then I can determine which works best. Maybe both?

Mare said:
Mac

Hmm. Something to consider down the road.
Would love to try one out for a month or so.

Maryn said:
older version of Word

copying a list I found online of special and accent characters, which I saved in a document named Characters-Keyboard.

findable by name alphabetically

Try these: Alt 0169 Alt 0191 Alt 0176

Maryn, who had teenagers at exactly the right time, technology-wise

You make it seem like you got your kids by typing Alt-key combos ;-)
Thnx for the tips. Good ones. I like the findable approach. Great idea!
I have an older comp, too, besides my newer one. It's got 2003 on it which I love. No Ribbon up top!
Copyright symbol is always useful.

Buffysquirrel said:
em-dash

You and me both with that.
My solution is to type a dash then a space then a letter at which point the dash turns to an em-dash and then backspace and delete the extra letter I typed.
Gotta be an easier way ;-)

kiera said:
Y
For á: press CTRL + ', then a.
For à: press CTRL + `, then a.
(This works for any vowel that you wish to accent!)

Awesome. Tried that out. The first worked like a charm.
Not the second though.
Out of two dozen tries I only got à to type twice.
Still very interesting. Thnx.
I wonder if there are other combos like that?
With the caret symbol for instance.

guttersquid · Apr 23, 2013

Ken said:
My solution is to type a dash then a space then a letter at which point the dash turns to an em-dash and then backspace and delete the extra letter I typed.
Gotta be an easier way ;-)

If you're using Word, find the em-dash in the symbol chart and assign it to the F12 key (if it's available). Easiest solution I've found, and I use it all the time.

blacbird · Apr 23, 2013

Common Alt-numerical codes:

129 ü
130 é
131 â
132 ä
133 à
134 å
135 ç
136 ê
137 ë
138 è
139 ï
140 î
141 ì
142 Ä
143 Å
144 É
145 æ
146 Æ
147 ô
148 ö
149 ò
150 û
151 ù
152 ÿ
153 Ö
154 Ü
155 ¢
156 £
157 ¥
158 ₧
159 ƒ
160 á
161 í
162 ó
163 ú
164 ñ
165 Ñ

caw

Corinne Duyvis · Apr 23, 2013

My Word autocorrects -- to an em-dash. Super useful. Looking at the settings briefly, this seems to be something you can activate by going to Settings -> AutoCorrect -> AutoFormat as you type and ticking the appropriate box. (This is for Mac--would look it up for Windows except I'm lazy.

)

ETA: Thanks to this thread I finally got fed up and searched out the easiest way to use accented vowels on my Mac. My Windows computer makes it super easy--just type the accent and follow it with the vowel--but I never found the Mac equivalent. Just did. Réjòïciñg!

Ken · Apr 23, 2013

guttersquid said:
If you're using Word, find the em-dash in the symbol chart and assign it to the F12 key (if it's available). Easiest solution I've found, and I use it all the time.

... thanks. I found what you describe, to assign keys.
That's neat. I vaguely recall learning that once but forgot about that.
It seems like there is already a key combo assigned to the em dash,
but I can't figure out which key is being referred to.

Alt + Ctrl + Num -

What's "Num -" ?

F12 may well be the better option.

AHH! Found it. "Num -" is the minus sign on the number pad on the right side of the keyboard.

En Dash = Ctrl + Num -

blacbird said:
Common Alt-numerical codes:

Copied and pasted into a Word document.
Thanks! Am set with accents, which is a great help.

Corinne Duyvis said:
My Word autocorrects -- to an em-dash. Super useful. Looking at the settings briefly, this seems to be something you can activate by going to Settings -> AutoCorrect -> AutoFormat as you type and ticking the appropriate box. (This is for Mac--would look it up for Windows except I'm lazy. )

ETA: Thanks to this thread I finally got fed up and searched out the easiest way to use accented vowels on my Mac. My Windows computer makes it super easy--just type the accent and follow it with the vowel--but I never found the Mac equivalent. Just did. Réjòïciñg!

Tried finding settings. Unable to locate it. Will search about some more. Thanks for setting me in the right direction. Cool that the Mac can do that. Very sensible approach.

Ken · Apr 24, 2013

... calling Blacbird. Calling Blacbird. Frantic plea.

Would you happen to have the code for a capital V with a line above it ?
(I need to type 5000 in Roman Numerals.)

blacbird · Apr 24, 2013

Ken said:
... calling Blacbird. Calling Blacbird. Frantic plea.

Would you happen to have the code for a capital V with a line above it ?
(I need to type 5000 in Roman Numerals.)

Don't believe there is one of those in any standard font set I have. But you might find a font set that contains such a thing. You can render 5000 as MMMMM, which is an alternative to the V with a bar:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_5000_in_roman_numerals

caw

Corinne Duyvis · Apr 24, 2013

Ken said:
Tried finding settings. Unable to locate it. Will search about some more. Thanks for setting me in the right direction. Cool that the Mac can do that. Very sensible approach.

Found it on my PC, as well. This is Word 2010: File -> Options -> Proofing -> AutoCorrect Options -> AutoFormat As You Type -> tick the appropriate box.

I imagine it might be different for other versions of Word, but once you find the main options panel you should be able to find it somehow.

I love this method because it's much more intuitive while writing than using shortcuts. I think even if the AutoFormat didn't exist, I'd just use -- and do a find & replace afterward, just so I wouldn't interrupt the flow of writing.

Robin Passaic · Apr 24, 2013

It is annoying, but if you're often dealing with a particular non-English language, there may be a better solution than Word. I write a good deal in Spanish and use a site called Type Spanish Accents. It includes special letters and punctuation: á é í ñ ó ú ¿ ¡

(I think it's possible to change my settings so that my keyboard can handle special Spanish characters, but the site above works fine.)

If you're dealing with an entirely different alphabet, it might be worthwhile to purchase a special keyboard. One of my Israeli friends invested in a Hebrew/English keyboard, for example.

Ken · Apr 24, 2013

Robin Passaic said:
Hebrew/English keyboard

... that's really interesting. Not something I need right now,
but it puts things in a different perspective.
Thnx

Corinne Duyvis said:
Found it on my PC, as well. This is Word 2010: File -> Options -> Proofing -> AutoCorrect Options -> AutoFormat As You Type -> tick the appropriate box.

Wow. That is awesome. And it works. Thnx!
And I can set it to replace other things as well.
And unset it to not replace certain things,
like smiley faces with

blacbird said:
Don't believe there is one of those in any standard font set I have. But you might find a font set that contains such a thing. You can render 5000 as MMMMM, which is an alternative to the V with a bar:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_5000_in_roman_numerals

caw

Thnx for trying. Now I know where not to search, which is a big help!
I'd still prefer the V with a line over it rather than 5 M's.
Suits the purpose and character using it. (A bit of an odd fish.)

Corinne Duyvis · Apr 24, 2013

Glad I could help!

shaldna · Apr 24, 2013

Checked this out yesterday - in the most recent version of word, when you open the 'insert symbol' tab there is a button for you to assign a hot key code - one that you'll remember easily.

Ken · Apr 25, 2013

shaldna said:
Checked this out yesterday - in the most recent version of word, when you open the 'insert symbol' tab there is a button for you to assign a hot key code - one that you'll remember easily.

... found it. "Shortcut Key." When you click that a dialogue box pops up to set a key combo. And it also tells which are set for the one currently selected symbol, e.g. an accented "a" ( cntrl + ', shift + a ). Very helpful. Thnx

Ken · May 18, 2013

... found a roundabout way to make a V with a line over it.
Essentially, you combine two characters by using Fields.
Works fine.

Good explanation of the process for anyone interested:

http://wordfaqs.mvps.org/overbar.htm

Special Letter Symbols Are Sooooooooooooo ...

Ken

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I agree with Roxxsmom.

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