Bill:
Apparently you did not try the procedure. It would have been obvious then that
the quotes were intended to distinguish the u from the other text only.
Nevertheless, if you got confused, I will take the quotes out in the next
sending a few years from now. Hopefully that move will not generate an opposite
reaction
Stan
PS: You have a good eye. Thousands had seen the text and noone pointed this
out. Will you try the method now? Do it. It will save time.
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Potts
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: 08 Jul 21, Monday 11:27
Subject: [USMA:41465] RE: SI symbols typing
Stan:
I was referring to the following sentence:
The shorthand is an easily-remembered substitute such as "u" that should
change to μ; r. to · (raised dot); om to Ω; Nm to N·m; d to ° (degree).
You appear to be suggesting that one type a u in quotes ("u") in order to get
a mu (µ). It's quicker to put it between hyphens (-u-), as that doesn't involve
using the shift key.
Bill
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Potts
WFP Consulting
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stan Jakuba
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2008 04:16
To: U.S. Metric Association
Subject: [USMA:41460] RE: SI symbols typing
Bill:
Good of you to comment. I am not sure I understand what you mean by using
enclosing quotes as part of the sequence to be replaced by auto-correction.
Please explain.
As to the convenience of the MSWord Autocorrect feature, I find it quicker
and easier to use once set as I wrote than ASCII or any other method. My
writing was intended to show how to do it, not to persuade. However, typing m3
that changes automatically to m³, u to µ, etc. requires the least amount of
strikes of any method.
Over the years I noticed that one or two of my selected shortcuts have the
flaw you mentioned. Some I changed and others I never did having been too used
to the quirk to bather with finding a better shortcut.
It took me and a friend a while to figure out the described method (some 20
years ago - it was then published in Metric Today). Since, it saved me tons
(metric!) of time in writing the many letters, reports, manuals and training
material in SI. The only problem (and it is not specific to Autocorrect) has
been the need to modify the method as necessitated by the MSWord updates.
Stan Jakuba
----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Potts
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: 08 Jul 19, Saturday 14:25
Subject: [USMA:41450] RE: SI symbols typing
Stan:
I'm not sure I like the idea of using enclosing quotes as part of the
sequence to be replaced by auto-correction.
I use auto-correction myself (in MS Word 2003) for a number of things.
For example, to create an em-dash, I type -em-. For an en-dash, I type -en-.
The point about those is that short sequences enclosed by hyphens don't
normally appear in text, meaning that one is therefore unlikely to get an
unwanted auto-correction.
Using the same logic, one could use -mu- to create a µ. As the omega is
always used as the symbol for ohm, the sequence to create it would be -ohm-.
Superscripted 2's and 3's can similarly be -2- and -3-. Bear in mind, in those
two cases, that most fonts already include a superscripted 2 and 3. Thus, they
don't require that one use the superscript font property on an ordinary 2 or 3.
For this reason, I see no need to create special cases for square meters and
cubic meters.
Of course, I do most of the special characters by the use of the US
International keyboard layout. For µ, I simply type Ctrl+Alt+m. For ² and ³, I
type Ctrl+Alt+2 and Ctrl+Alt+3, respectively. If I want to talk about the
famous Swedish scientist, Ångstrom, and his now-deprecated unit, ångstrom, I
use Ctrl+Alt+Shift+w for the first letter of his name and Ctrl+Alt+w for the
first letter of the unit.
Best regards,
Bill
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Potts
WFP Consulting
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Stan
Jakuba
Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 09:46
To: U.S. Metric Association; SCC14 IEEE
Subject: SI symbols typing
Complementing the attachment "SI Writing Rules" I sent last week, I am
forwarding the method for typing SI symbols via the Autocorrect feature of the
MSWord.
The method may look cumbersome, but after you set one of the shortcuts,
repeating the procedure a dozen times for all the symbols you often use is a
breeze and the benefit of the effort lasts forever.
Not having tried the latest MSWord and Vista, I am curious to know
whether those can be set up the same or an easier way or needs no setup at all.
Stan Jakuba
