2007/2/24, Harold Fuchs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> > Bill, it should indeed be easy ! And - thanks to JJJ - it certainly has > become much easier ! Here are the glyphs you were wished to produce from > your keyboard, produced directly from mine : ✔ ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦. The procedure is > as > follows : Ctrl + Shift + u, then release, type the hexcode, and then > space-bar, e g, Ctrl + Shift + u, 2660, space-bar = ♠. It works splendidly > on my Ubuntu machine ; try it and see if it doesn't work on your Fedora > set-up ! All credit here is due not me, but JJJ, who patiently explained > the > process so that even I could understand.... > > Henri > This doesn't *seem* to work on Windows, not on my XP Pro system anyway unless I'm doing something wrong - please tell me if I am, somebody. However, I've found a wonderful free program that will allow you to map pretty much anything including mouse clicks to pretty much anything you like, on Windows. Take a look at http://sourceforge.net/projects/ahk/ It works beautifully with OpenOffice, letting one map ligatures, accented characters etc. to key combinations of one's choice and without having to install alien keyboards ;-) It even allows use of the Windows key as well as supporting left and right Alt or Ctrl or Shift *separately*. So you can make Left Ctrl X and Right Ctrl X do different things if you want, or you can have the left and right versions do the same thing. And all via a simple, text file (editable with e.g. Notepad) in which you specify the key bindings. Fantastic. No, I have no connection to the project or to any of its creators. I've also found an "in the box" Windows accessory called Character Map: Start>Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Character Map It behaves a little like OO's Insert Special Character facility with three important exceptions: a) You can drag a character from it into your OO document. You need to select the character first and then, after releasing the mouse button, drag it to where you want it; so two separate mouse clicks, one to select and the second to drag. b) It stays open after you have dragged a character; you could have it permanently open next to your document windows. c) You can select multiple characters by double clicking each and then copying the entire string in one go using its Copy button. I installed it in my Taskbar. A good morning's work :-) -- Harold Fuchs London, England
I hope and trust that many of us have found this an enlightening discussion, which has led to many surprising and useful discoveries ! Just for the record - in Ubuntu, too, there exists a «Character Map», which is accessed via Applications → (I write the arrow using Alt Gr + i) Accessories → Character Map. Here to, a glyph can be dragged from the map to the text. Simply clicking on the graph reveals the Unicode hex code, so that (in Ubuntu), it can also be typed in using the method described above. A nice piece of work, and just possible easier that going to the Unicode site.... Henri
