Re: font/unicode question

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CallistaZM wrote on Fri, 8 Jul 2005:

I have kind of an odd/tough question. I have a font with several characters
that are encoded only in Unicode...I think. When I open up Character Map, I
can see the characters there and it of course gives me the Unicode numbers
for it. These characters have no corresponding keyboard key or Alt code. They
appear to be solely Unicode. Normally, in such a case, in the Character Map I
can hit Select and Copy and then paste the character in whatever text program
I want. For some reason though, I can't with these characters. I don't know
if the font is damaged or what. I've tried everything I can think of but it
won't allow me to use them. Is there a way to straight type in a Unicode
character given the Unicode coding numbers or is the Select and Copy the only
way to access these?
*confused and annoyed*



Hi Callista

Here are a few ideas that might help:

1. Depending on what text program you're using, you may be able to just drag the character out of Character Map and into your document. This works in Wordpad and probably in versions of Word newer than mine (2000), but *not* in Notepad. From there if necessary you can copy and paste the character into any other app.

2. This also works in Wordpad and newer versions of Word, and I'm sure other Unicode-aware programs:

Type the Unicode (hex) value of the character.

(It doesn't matter if you use the keypad with Num Lock on, or the numbers on the regular keyboard. Also, if your code includes a capital letter, for example 04A2, you can just type the lowercase one.)

Then press Alt+X. The code will be replaced by the character you wanted.

Actually Alt+X is a toggle and you can use it to find out any character's Unicode number by putting the insertion point to the right of the character. Press Alt+X and the character is replaced by the code. Press again to switch back.

3. Download a small free program called BabelMap as a replacement for Character Map. It's a souped-up version especially for Unicode fonts with a much bigger display (easier on the eyes!), great search capabilities, font analysis, character properties and more and more. . . :-) You can get it from here:
http://www.babelstone.co.uk/Software/BabelMap.html

4. In BabelPad if you click on a character then click on "NCR decimal" near the bottom of the window, it will show you the character's alternative decimal code, preceded by &# and ending with a semi-colon. (This is a code for entering the character in an HTML document.) You can then enter it in your doc in the familiar Windows way by holding down Alt and typing just the numbers on the keypad (with Num Lock on).

Again, you need to be using a Unicode-aware program -- Wordpad worked perfectly but in my old Word I got a different character entirely :-). But even though I couldn't enter the characters directly, Word happily accepted them when pasted in from Wordpad.

5. Visit this site for some really useful information on using Unicode in your documents, with details of fonts, utilities, making web pages and more:
http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/index.html

Hope this helps you.

--
Nightowl
.

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