Underdotted characters

[Guest]

I'm using Word 2003 SP2 in Windows XP. While preparing teaching materials in
Italian, I need a convenient way to place underdotted vowels (e.g. Unicode
1EA1) inside text to indicate the stress of particular words, such as
"sabbato" which is stressed on the first "a". I can do the "1EA1" followed
by Alt-X, but that takes too long. Can I set up a keyboard shortcut like:
"if I type 'a+', then automatically convert it to '(underdotted) a' "? I
tried creating a macro, but kept getting some kind of error message.
Thanks. - Wayne

 

[Jay Freedman]

No macro is needed.

In the Insert > Symbol dialog, type 1EA1 into the Character Code box
(with Unicode selected in the From dropdown), and the character will
be selected in the main area of the dialog. (You don't have to know
the Unicode character code, although that's the fast way; you can just
browse the dialog and click once on any character.) Then click the
Shortcut Key button, which opens the Shortcut dialog.

Press a key combination, which is any single letter, number, or
function key combined with any of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift. Click the
Assign button and close the dialogs.

The dialog will tell you if the combination is already assigned to
another function, but you can grab the assignment anyway. By default,
Ctrl+Shift+A is assigned to All Caps formatting, but Ctrl+Alt+Shift+A
isn't assigned to anything.

Repeat for the other vowels.

For more information, see
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/InsertSpecChars.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Jay Freedman]

No macro is needed.

In the Insert > Symbol dialog, type 1EA1 into the Character Code box
(with Unicode selected in the From dropdown), and the character will
be selected in the main area of the dialog. (You don't have to know
the Unicode character code, although that's the fast way; you can just
browse the dialog and click once on any character.) Then click the
Shortcut Key button, which opens the Shortcut dialog.

Press a key combination, which is any single letter, number, or
function key combined with any of Ctrl, Alt, and Shift. Click the
Assign button and close the dialogs.

The dialog will tell you if the combination is already assigned to
another function, but you can grab the assignment anyway. By default,
Ctrl+Shift+A is assigned to All Caps formatting, but Ctrl+Alt+Shift+A
isn't assigned to anything.

Repeat for the other vowels.

For more information, see
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/General/InsertSpecChars.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup so all may benefit.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Following up on this, one more step:

A key combination doesn't have to be a single keystroke; you can assign a
"prefix key" to make a two-keystroke (or more) combination. Because all your
vowels have a dot below, you can make Ctrl+. the prefix for all of them
(that is, the Ctrl key plus a period). In the Shortcut dialog, when the
cursor is in the "Press new shortcut key" box, first press and release
Ctrl+. and then press the letter without any modifiers. For the a with a dot
below, the box should now show
Ctrl+.,A
Then click the Assign button. Close the Shortcut dialog, select the next
vowel in the Symbol dialog, and repeat.

To use these shortcuts, first press Ctrl+. You won't see anything yet. Now
press the vowel letter, and it will appear with the dot below it. This is a
little easier to remember than five separate shortcut combinations.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Jay Freedman]

Following up on this, one more step:

A key combination doesn't have to be a single keystroke; you can assign a
"prefix key" to make a two-keystroke (or more) combination. Because all your
vowels have a dot below, you can make Ctrl+. the prefix for all of them
(that is, the Ctrl key plus a period). In the Shortcut dialog, when the
cursor is in the "Press new shortcut key" box, first press and release
Ctrl+. and then press the letter without any modifiers. For the a with a dot
below, the box should now show
Ctrl+.,A
Then click the Assign button. Close the Shortcut dialog, select the next
vowel in the Symbol dialog, and repeat.

To use these shortcuts, first press Ctrl+. You won't see anything yet. Now
press the vowel letter, and it will appear with the dot below it. This is a
little easier to remember than five separate shortcut combinations.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.