Toolbar for frequently used symbols

[Gaby]

Would it be possible to make a toolbar for frequesntly used special
characters? We deal with a lot of European offices and it is a real pain to
have to remember the keyboard shortcuts for things like è etc...

 

[Chad DeMeyer]

Gaby,

Apart from Steve's suggestion, the only way would be to record a macro for
insertion of each symbol you want to be able to insert more easily, then
either add a button for each macro to a custom toolbar, or add a new menu to
either a built-in or custom toolbar and add each macro to the menu's list.

Regards,
Chad

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It's really surprising that Word allows you to create toolbar buttons for
specific fonts, styles, AutoText entries, etc., but not for specific
characters.

 

[Chad DeMeyer]

I agree. I had to open the Customize dialog and double-check that it wasn't
an option before sending my previous post.

Regards,
Chad

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Me, too!

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi folks

For what it's worth, I frequently create a drop down menu to hold
commonly-used symbols. I create an AutoText for each one (ie an AutoText
that's just one character). And put the AutoText on a drop down menu. And I
name each menu item using the relevant symbol (eg "= Equal to or greater
than"). It works really well in offices where people use the same symbols
frequently.

Cheers

Shauna

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

AutoText! <slaps forehead> Of course. I knew there had to be an easier way
than a macro. <g>

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

But think of what a mess the Tools | Customize dialog would be if somehow it
included the whole range of Unicode characters.....'cause it's too easy to
use as is, right?

Dayo

 

[Chad DeMeyer]

For me, macros would be just as easy, but autotext is preferable because it
can't stumble over macro security. Good call, Shauna.

Regards,
Chad

 

[Chad DeMeyer]

Maybe it's improved in later versions (I'm still on Word 2000), but if not
then it's about due for a redesign anyhow. If you don't explicitly name
your VBProjects and Modules with short but descriptive names (and to a
lesser extent even if you do), it gets to be a real pain in the ... to
select the right macro in the commands list. And that's just one example.
But that's what you were getting at, isn't it?

Regards,
Chad

 

[Dayo Mitchell]

Oh yeah, that was highly sarcastic but I forgot the smiley. I'm pretty
obsolete as well (MacWord 2001) but I don't get the impression it's been
improved at all.

All my macros are apparently named NormalProject.BorrowedMacros, so far as I
can tell. At least we can control the VBA parts--just trying to figure
out the exact name for a command you know exists is worse.

Dayo

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It actually used to be much better because in Word 97 and earlier, you could
click on a button to get a description of what a command did. Some of the
descriptions were still pretty cryptic (it was often almost impossible to
figure out which of two or more similar commands was the one you really
wanted), but they were a lot better than nothing. The removal of
context-sensitive help in Word 2002 and above is criminal IMO.