accented words

[Bernie]

Had to reinstall Office Standard XP (2002) because of a disk crash. Now it no
longer works as it used to. I used to do foreign accented characters by using
the ALT key with a number combination. (That still works in Wordpad today).
Now it no longer works in Microsoft Word. I need to use the cumbersome
InsertSymbol function. Isn't there a way around this, a setup step I don't
know about or am overlooking?
I would appreciate any tips and help.

 

[db ´¯`·.. >]

I usually run from
the start button,
charmap.exe

to copy the one
I want or to get
the key combi.



--

db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @hotmail.com
"share the nirvana" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[M]

Had to reinstall Office Standard XP (2002) because of a disk crash. Now it no
longer works as it used to. I used to do foreign accented characters by using
the ALT key with a number combination. (That still works in Wordpad today).
Now it no longer works in Microsoft Word. I need to use the cumbersome
InsertSymbol function. Isn't there a way around this, a setup step I don't
know about or am overlooking?
I would appreciate any tips and help.

Add the language you're trying to use to your keyboard and then
Alt+Shift will change the keyboard layout or you can use the icon that
will appear near your clock.

M

 

[James Silverton]

Bernie wrote on Sun, 3 May 2009 14:23:01 -0700:

Had to reinstall Office Standard XP (2002) because of a disk
crash. Now it no longer works as it used to. I used to do
foreign accented characters by using the ALT key with a number
combination. (That still works in Wordpad today). Now it no
longer works in Microsoft Word. I need to use the cumbersome
InsertSymbol function. Isn't there a way around this, a setup
step I don't know about or am overlooking?
I would appreciate any tips and help.

I have been resisting installing the 2007 versions since I am reasonably
comfortable with 2002. Is it really true that you can't use the
ALT+number method for special characters? Can you use the control key
method, eg. CTRL+" then o for o umlaut ("ö") , in Word?

I think my adoption of the 2007 versions just got postponed again




--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have been resisting installing the 2007 versions since I am reasonably
comfortable with 2002. Is it really true that you can't use the
ALT+number method for special characters?

No, it's not true. Apparently something's causing the OP problems but it's
not a "feature" of Office.

Can you use the control key

method, eg. CTRL+" then o for o umlaut ("ö") , in Word?

Ctrl+O brings up the File Open dialog box, but it does that in 2003 and
probably earlier versions.

Ctrl+Shift+: (colon) + the letter gives you the letter plus umlaut.

In 2002, 2003 and 2007.

I think my adoption of the 2007 versions just got postponed again

Not for this reason, at least. ;-)

 

[Earle Horton]

See the help entry "Keyboard shortcuts for international characters". The
person you are responding to below is talking about combinations like Ctrl +
apostrophe, followed by "o", to produce ó. They continue to work, but as
always they only work in Office applications. The ALT-number trick is
supposed to work in all text-entry situations, and it is working fine in my
Office 2007 applications. As you say, the OP has some other problem.

Earle

 

[James Silverton]

Steve wrote on Mon, 04 May 2009 10:00:24 -0400:

No, it's not true. Apparently something's causing the OP
problems but it's not a "feature" of Office.

Can you use the control key

Ctrl+O brings up the File Open dialog box, but it does that in
2003 and probably earlier versions.

Ctrl+Shift+: (colon) + the letter gives you the letter plus umlaut.

In 2002, 2003 and 2007.

Thanks! CTRL+" was an error of course. I find I can remember the CTRL
method better than most for foreign characters but, obviously, I can
make mistakes The CTRL method also gives the Spanish introductory
inverted question and exclamation point.

To a large extent, I have set up autocorrects for commonly needed
characters, an example being the French guillemet quotes, which I enter
as << and >>. They used to be more common in Spanish than presently when
the standard quotes are taking over. It's happening even in France, too.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

 

[Earle Horton]

Steve wrote on Mon, 04 May 2009 10:00:24 -0400:








Thanks! CTRL+" was an error of course. I find I can remember the CTRL
method better than most for foreign characters but, obviously, I can make
mistakes The CTRL method also gives the Spanish introductory inverted
question and exclamation point.

To a large extent, I have set up autocorrects for commonly needed
characters, an example being the French guillemet quotes, which I enter as
<< and >>. They used to be more common in Spanish than presently when the
standard quotes are taking over. It's happening even in France, too.

In Spanish we have «comillas españoles» and "comillas inglesas", but in
novels one still sees mostly dashes.

Saludos,

Earle

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

See the help entry "Keyboard shortcuts for international characters". The
person you are responding to below is talking about combinations like Ctrl +
apostrophe, followed by "o", to produce ó. They continue to work, but as
always they only work in Office applications.

Went there, did that, replied saying the same thing. Did I miss something?

The ALT-number trick is
supposed to work in all text-entry situations, and it is working fine in my
Office 2007 applications.

Good distinction to make.

In addition, there's a trick in Word (but not PPT, I don't know about Excel,
and certainly not in all apps) for entering any Unicode character supported by
the current font:

nnnn Alt+x (ie, the character's 4-character unicode hex representation
followed by Alt+X)





As you say, the OP has some other problem.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

In addition, there's a trick in Word (but not PPT, I don't know about Excel,
and certainly not in all apps) for entering any Unicode character supported by
the current font:

nnnn Alt+x (ie, the character's 4-character unicode hex representation
followed by Alt+X)

Oh, forgot one. If you highlight a character and press Alt+x, the character
turns into the Unicode hex value for the character. Alt+x is a toggle. Handy
when the character's already there and you need a quick way to find out how to
make more of them.

 

[James Silverton]

Steve wrote on Mon, 04 May 2009 11:26:38 -0400:

Went there, did that, replied saying the same thing. Did I
miss something?

Good distinction to make.

In addition, there's a trick in Word (but not PPT, I don't
know about Excel, and certainly not in all apps) for entering
any Unicode character supported by the current font:

nnnn Alt+x (ie, the character's 4-character unicode hex
representation followed by Alt+X)

As you say, the OP has some other problem.

The unicode method uuuuALT-x works in Word 2002 but not in Excel of the
same vintage. Strangely enough, if a symbol has been set up with
autocorrect in Word, it also changes in Excel. Thus, I can get °F in
Excel because I have an autocorrect for ~F.

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

The unicode method uuuuALT-x works in Word 2002 but not in Excel of the
same vintage. Strangely enough, if a symbol has been set up with
autocorrect in Word, it also changes in Excel. Thus, I can get °F in
Excel because I have an autocorrect for ~F.

Thanks for the added info.