Adding symbols to the SYmbols drop-down menu

[tech-comm-mgr]

How can you add symbols to the SYmbols drop-down menu located on the toolbar? I frequently use symbols for electronic components and values and would like to add those symbols to the drop-down menu.

[Arnis Gubins · Accepted solution]

The Symbols in the drop-down menu refer to specific glyphs in a font, so if the symbols that you frequently use aren't in a font, it can't be done. It now also depends upon the version of FM that you are using.

With an older version (FM8 or older) you can use the information available in the Customizing FrameMaker pdf ( http://help.adobe.com/en_US/FrameMaker/customize_frame_7.pdf ).

In newer versions of FM, if these are in a font, you can use the File > Utilities > Character Palette... (<win> i shortcut key) to insert the glyph/symbol. This palette is "sticky" in that it remembers the last used Font and code range, so when you bring up the palete again, it will be ready to go to seelect the symbol needed.

If you're using clipart for these symbols, then Silicon Prairie's Auto-Text may be the tool you need (it will also work for special characters in fonts). See: http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/Products.html  The documentation is available from thee Downloads link.

[tech-comm-mgr]

Thanks very much, Arnis! I didn't know about the keyboard shortcut "<win> i," so thanks for sharing!

I've just switched to the brand-new FrameMaker 12. Within the Symbols menu, there are 12 symbols, a couple of which I won't use - like the Yen and the British Pound. Do you know of any method to delete those from the menu and replace with something more useful to me?

[Arnis Gubins]

You can edit the menu configuration files and the basic rules for doing that are found in the Customizing FrameMaker PDF. Pleae note that the menu config files are found in two locations (the main FM installation area and the specific User area), e.g.

<drive>:\Program Files\Adobe\AdobeFrameMaker12\fminit\WorkSpaces\UnStructured\WYSIWYGView\menus\menus.cfg

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\FrameMaker\12\WorkSpaces\UnStructured\WYSIWYGView\menus\menus.cfg

There is a menu file for each Workspace category and FM interface, so depending upon which one you're going to use, you have to edit the appropriate pairs of .cfg files.

It is highly advisable to make back-up copies of the original menu config files so that you can get back to a working configuration in case something goes awry in editing these files.

You may also want to look at Shlomo Perets' Express Customization ToolKit at http://microtype.com/resources.html [ ~$25; You can use Shlomo's configurations as a starting point for further customizing your own configuration and to see how he's done it if the PDF file instructions are a bit obtuse.]

There's also some information on customizing FM12 available from Klaus Daube at: http://daube.ch/docu/files/etb-customising-fm12.pdf