Special Characters and Symbols

[BobSullivan]

On the Insert ribbon in 2007/10, there is an insert symbol button that displays common symbols. Well, they are common for some people.

The symbols I want are not in the drop-down box. So, I want to be able to do one of two things...
1. customize this box so that the symbols I want are there (namely, section symbol, paragraph symbol and others).
2. Add a symbol (or symbols) to the quick access toolbar so that I can add them to a document with a single click.

Are either of these two requests possible?

thanks for any help,

[StuartR]

In Word 2007 or Word 2010, when I use the Insert Symbol from the Ribbon and click more symbols... to get at a complete set of symbols, it adds the symbol that I just inserted to the dialog box that pops up next time.

[BobSullivan]

Thanks for the input.

Actually, what I really need is to somehow get the special characters under a non-keyboard shortcut. I want to insert the special characters for the section symbol and the paragraph symbol. Any way to get those on the Symbol gallery or the Quick Access Toolbar? I know I can set up keyboard shortcuts, but I'm trying to roll this out to a group.

[HansV]

As Stuart indicated, if you click More Symbols..., then select and insert (for example) the section character, it'll be on the Symbols gallery next time you display it. But over time, it may be pushed off the gallery again by other symbols.

Unlike in earlier versions, there doesn't appear to be a direct way to create a button for symbols in Word 2007 (I don't know about Word 2010). But you can create macros in your Normal.dotm and assign them to Quick Access Toolbar buttons. Unfortunately, the number of available icons for QAT buttons is limited.

Code: Select all

Sub InsertSectionChar()
  Selection.TypeText Text:=Chr(167)
End Sub

Sub InsertParagraphChar()
  Selection.TypeText Text:=Chr(182)
End Sub

[JudyL]

This won’t help Bob, unfortunately, but there is a wonderful source of symbols that can be added to the QAT, called “Equation Symbols.” Just add the Equation Symbols command to the QAT.

It seems to literally be the Symbols section of the Equation ribbon. [To see the Equation ribbon and its Symbols group, press Alt + (but watch out, this also inserts an equation box into your document!).]

The Equation Symbols set only contains math symbols though. It’d be great if they’d put all of the symbols into such an easy to access little window, someday…

When you press your new QAT Equation Symbols button, a “Basic Math” group of symbols appears. Several other fascinating groups of symbols can be accessed by pressing the pull-down arrow next to the words “Basic Math.”

[If you’re looking at the symbols on the Equations ribbon rather than from a QAT button, press the pull-down arrow at the bottom right of the Symbols scrollbar. You’ll see the whole Basic Math set and the pull-down arrow leading to the menu of other sets.]

These symbols are in Cambria Math font, which is apparently now Microsoft’s default math font or something. I’m a little worried about symbols not appearing or printing properly on older systems, when we send a document out to a client.

Judy

[wasbit]

I'm not sure if this will work, but there is a small freeware programme called CatchChar which says it works with any text editor. Worth a try possibly?

- http://helpingthings.com/index.php/inse ... characters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;