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!
