Special Characters
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From: Johnny Rosenberg on 7 Apr 2010 16:41 2010/4/7 Thibault Holcombe <thibault-holcombe(a)utulsa.edu>: > I love openoffice but the biggest flaw for me is not being able to creat > shortcuts for special characters like in Word. Â I am forced to use word for > that reason when I write papers in different languages. Â I hope you guys can > change that and let me know when you do! thx! > Why do you need that? What's wrong with using the Compose key or enter Unicode characters by unicode (Shift+Ctrl+u hex-code Enter)? Or what's wrong with creating your own keyboard layout (which is easy by manipulating some files in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols and /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules)? If you still want to assign special characters to keyboard shortcuts, just make a macro for each character and assign them to some keyboard shortcuts. Regards Johnny Rosenberg --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe(a)openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help(a)openoffice.org
From: John W Kennedy on 7 Apr 2010 17:22 On Apr 6, 2010, at 7:31 PM, Thibault Holcombe wrote: > I love openoffice but the biggest flaw for me is not being able to creat > shortcuts for special characters like in Word. I am forced to use word for > that reason when I write papers in different languages. I hope you guys can > change that and let me know when you do! thx! If it is merely a question of using different languages, the easy solution may be to install national keyboards at the operating-system level, and switch to them at need. For example, I can switch to get абÐÐ³Ð´ÐµÑ or αβγδε or ××××× at will, and if I limit myself to western Europe, the US International keyboard gives me é, þ, Ã, ñ, ø, Ã¥ and dozens of others without even switching. Windows and Mac OS X can both do this quite easily, and you don't even need any special feature in your word processor; it's built in, and works just as well with any program. I don't actually know whether Linux can do it, but I suppose it must. If, however, this is not enough (say you have some dingbats like â or â or â¡ that you need to insert regularly), Openoffice.org can do that too. First, record a macro that uses Insert->Special character. Then, under Tools->Customize, set an available keystroke to invoke the macro. -- John W Kennedy "Give up vows and dogmas, and fixed things, and you may grow like That. ....you may come to think a blow bad, because it hurts, and not because it humiliates. You may come to think murder wrong, because it is violent, and not because it is unjust." -- G. K. Chesterton. "The Ball and the Cross" --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe(a)openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help(a)openoffice.org
From: Bruce Martin on 7 Apr 2010 17:42 Dear Polyglots: I work in 3 languages and lots of special characters. My answer is different for windows and Linux, as follows: Windows (XP): On the root of the boot drive, search for "clip" You should find an item calles clipbrd.exe in /windows/system 32. Right click, drag and make a shortcut for it on the desktop. Do not copy or move the file! Next, search the boot drive again, this time for "startup". Be sure you are in the detail view. You will see a number of folders with that name, but with the paths of each user account, including one for "default user". The latter one is especially important if there is only one user account configured. On the left of this line, open this folder (not full screen). Now take the shortcut you made for clipbrd.exe, right-click and drag it into the startup folder I just mentioned. Note: you need to be precise in the location of this in the file hierarchy. Now right-click the shortcut that is in the startup folder and click for properties. In the shortcut tab, on the line that says "run" there is a down-pointing chevron (arrow). Click this and choose "Minimized". Do this only for that shortcut, not the others. Close the shortcut with the OK button. _*Results:*_ 1) You will have a shortcut to the added part of Windows you need for your accented characters in the coming steps. 2) After you have rebooted (no immediate need to reboot), the shortcut will load by default in the tray where you can get at it when you need it and the rest of the screen is crammed with other work! Preparing your personal clipboard library: In a separate folder in the root of a drive, (This can be your boot drive if you have only 1 drive/partiton, but if you use more than 1 drive/partition, it is safer to pit this in the root of another drive, so it will not be lost if you have a major Windows problem and have to reinstall.) Create a folder called "CLP". Now create a shortcut to that in "My Documents". (Do not put the actual CLP folder there!) Next, As sub folders of CLP, for each language you use, create a folder with the name of the language in question. You may also have other folders there for other clipboard files, such as technical terms you use in a specialised profession, etc.) Now close the CLP folder, and open a Blank Writer file. In it, Go Inseret, Special character, and choose each special character you commonly need, placing them in the .ODT file. Save the file under a different name (This could well be in the CLP folder as a logical place to remember to retrieve it later when needed from time to time.) Now select each character in turn and... Copy it to the clipboard. Open the clipboard.exe file (It should show the current contents of the clipboard.) (If you see a gray window, look for the white one in the lower left corner of the gray window and open it as you would any other window that was in the tray.) You should now seethe copied text. Once you have confirmed in this way that the copied character is the right one, click file, save as, and look for the CLP folder or the shortcut. If you find yourself in the My documents folder (most likely), use the CLP shortut you placed there to go to the CLP folder directly. Then navigate down the internal hierarchy of the CLP folder to the subfolder appropriate to the language and/or nature of the contents to be saved. To create the filename, paste the contents of the clipboard into the save as filename, and be sure the filename ends with the extension .CLP. Save, and you have created a file with the contents of the clipboard. Repeat for each desired special character or clipboard contents (this works for pictures and much more than just text) desired. This can be done piecemeal as you go, it is not necessary to create all the .CLP files at one time. Later, when you need one of these characters, open clipbrd.exe and go file/open and navigate to the appropriate .CLP file, and double click. If the clipboard was empty at the time, the contents of the file will load immediately, and you will be ready to paste it into wherever it ios then needed, (could be more than one place, until a new .CLP file is loaded. You cannot open a .CLP file directly, it must be opened in this manner, within the clipboard viewer (that is the people name for clipboard.exe). /*With all this, you should have clipped your problem in the bud!!*/ _*For Linux:*_ If you are sharing data in Linux with the location of the previously created CLP folder, there are 2 possibilities: (This is based on a Fedora 12 hard drive installation, not run as a live from a CD or DVD.) 1) You are sharing it in a machine that boots both operating systems and the Linux distribution supports NTFS partitions, or you are sharing the drive in a manner that it mounts automatically on boot: In this case, Make a link to the .ODT file that you used to create the ..CLP files in Windows. Move the link to your User name folder. (You could also copy it to the desktop, and configure it in many ways.) 2) If you are sharing this data through a windows network using Samba, which does not automount, copy the entire CLP folder to a local folder (such as the user name folder, and use that copy in Linux, as this folder will automount, saving you repeated nuisances. (After all, who would want to fight with Tux every time, he's just too cute!!) 3) It is also possible to use the Linux clipboard to paste the characters into a yellow Linux note at the top of the screen if you are using Fedora 12 with the Gnome desktop. From one polyglot to another! Bruce M. Thibault Holcombe wrote: > I love openoffice but the biggest flaw for me is not being able to creat > shortcuts for special characters like in Word. I am forced to use word for > that reason when I write papers in different languages. I hope you guys can > change that and let me know when you do! thx! >
From: Johnny Rosenberg on 8 Apr 2010 11:03 2010/4/7 John W Kennedy <jwkenne(a)attglobal.net>: > > On Apr 6, 2010, at 7:31 PM, Thibault Holcombe wrote: > >> I love openoffice but the biggest flaw for me is not being able to creat >> shortcuts for special characters like in Word.  I am forced to use word for >> that reason when I write papers in different languages.  I hope you guys can >> change that and let me know when you do! thx! > > If it is merely a question of using different languages, the easy solution may be to install national keyboards at the operating-system level, and switch to them at need. For example, I can switch to get абÐÐ³Ð´ÐµÑ or αβγδε or ××××× at will, and if I limit myself to western Europe, the US International keyboard gives me é, þ, Ã, ñ, ø, Ã¥ and dozens of others without even switching. Windows and Mac OS X can both do this quite easily, and you don't even need any special feature in your word processor; it's built in, and works just as well with any program. I don't actually know whether Linux can do it, but I suppose it must. Well, Linux is known for this (among other things, of course) so yes, it's very doable in Linux. I use nothing else but Linux and I have my own keyboard layout (don't even need an application for creating new ones; a text editor is enough, but I have actually created an OpenOffice.org macro that does most of the job for me, though it's not 100% finished yet) and I can easily switch among hundreds of alternative layouts (most languages have a couple of variants), create new ones and so on. But you don't need to, most of the time since there is some nice features like the compose character feature and the Unicode feature built in from start (unless those features are Gnome features rather than Linux features, I don't know since I use Gnome exclusively). Regards Johnny Rosenberg > > If, however, this is not enough (say you have some dingbats like â or â or â¡ that you need to insert regularly), Openoffice.org can do that too. First, record a macro that uses Insert->Special character. Then, under Tools->Customize, set an available keystroke to invoke the macro. > > -- > John W Kennedy > "Give up vows and dogmas, and fixed things, and you may grow like That. ....you may come to think a blow bad, because it hurts, and not because it humiliates.  You may come to think murder wrong, because it is violent, and not because it is unjust." >  -- G. K. Chesterton.  "The Ball and the Cross" > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe(a)openoffice.org > For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help(a)openoffice.org > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe(a)openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help(a)openoffice.org
From: jonathon on 8 Apr 2010 12:35
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 John W Kennedy wrote: > If it is merely a question of using different languages, the easy solution may be to install national keyboards at the operating-system level, For a paragraph of more, switching keyboards is usually a simpler solution than using macros, or strange keystroke combinations. > I don't actually know whether Linux can do it, but I suppose it must. Linux also has that capability. With both KDE and Gnome desktops, there is slightly more flexibility in keyboard setup, than Windows offers. The downside is that to take advantage of that flexibility, one has to dig into the keyboard configuration files, using a text editor. jonathon - -- Non-list email sent to this email address is forwarded to Dave Null, unread. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEUEARECAAYFAku+BcIACgkQVyQBHg3MfvQnoACfbAcpM9v9WnMZlGmHBEN6h/Ay yNoAl3aak1zopuB6SsDZKacRCZTl7w8= =RjZo -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: discuss-unsubscribe(a)openoffice.org For additional commands, e-mail: discuss-help(a)openoffice.org |