Arrow characters in Frame 9

[Lori J Brown]

Greetings,

Trying to create a right arrow in Frame 9. The ADOBE® FRAMEMAKER ®9 Character Sets document page 15 says this:

0174 \xae Control+q . → arrowright

Pressing Alt (with NumLock on) plus 0174 doesn't work. Neither does the keyboard shortcut. What is the best way? The File -> Utilities -> Hex Input doesn't work either. The Character palette shows the item I need, but it inserts something else other than the picture. I've tried various fonts.

Thanks!

[Arnis Gubins]

Lori,

You need to set that specific character to the Symbol font for this to work, e.g. create a Character style.

[Lori J Brown]

Greetings--I created a Character style with the Symbol font, but am still getting the wrong symbol. Am doing something wrong...

[Arnis Gubins · Accepted solution]

Try this:

1. Insert the code, e.g. alt+0174, and you should see the Register symbol: ®

2. Select that character.

3. Apply the Symbol character style that you created.

4. You should now see the right arrow.

[Lori J Brown]

That works--thanks!

[Bob_Niland]

Another arrow tip (cloned from an older thread), if you're going to use the traditional character format override method:

I only ever type special characters (or more usually, hex codes), into create Variable dialogs.

Frame's "arrowright", for example, would be:
Name: char.symbol.arrowright
Definition: <Symbol>\xae<Default ¶ Font>

... where Character Format "Symbol" already exists, and it is:

Family: Symbol

everything else As-Is or blank (which is as-is).

In addition to saving the bother of looking up key sequences or hex codes more than once per document, doing special characters as Variables also:

• eliminates the annoyance of subsequent characters being in the alternate font, and
• eliminates false positive spell check errors

[Michael314]

Error,

This topic caught my eye. Thanks for the technical tips.

1. I was able to figure out how to create the variable so as to insert the right arrow. You might have said "First, you need to create a character format named "Symbol" (Family:Symbol and all other font settings "as-is") so that it's selectable from the Character Formats list in the Create Variable dialog box."

When you said "... where Character Format "Symbol" already exists,"

I looked at my list and it did not yet exist. I then re-read your reply and realized I needed to create it.

2. When you mentioned Unicode arrows, how exactly do you enter the code? I checked the Framemaker Character Sets doc and it does not explain how to enter them. (Framemaker 7.2)

Yours,

Michael F

=======

[Bob_Niland]

When you mentioned Unicode arrows, how exactly do you enter the code? I checked the Framemaker Character Sets doc and it does not explain how to enter them. (Framemaker 7.2)

You don't. Frame didn't get Unicode support until 8.0. For prior versions (including the 7.1/Unix I use most of the time), you have to stick with the legacy technique.

For FM8 and later on Windows, an easy way to enter a known code point, such as

U+2794

➔

Heavy wide-headed rightward arrow

is to hold down the [ Alt ] key and type 2794 on the numpad.

If the current font is populated with that glyph, it appears, otherwise, you may get nothing or a surprise. When I type U+2794 into FM9 using Arial Unicode MS, I get a U+03A9 omega instead of an arrow. Windows Character Map shows the arrow for U+2794, so I'm not sure who* is mapping an omega instead. If I select that arrow from CM and paste it into FM9, it's correct.

FM9 also has Hex Input and Character Map tools, but they seem to merely show the code point, and provide no obvious way to insert the entered or selected character.

________

* On further research, entering 4-character Unicode hex values on newer Windows versions is not enabled by default. It requires a Registry hack, a re-boot, and the use of the [+] key in addtion to the numpad keys (and the A-E keys). It would seem that anyone using Unicode in Window Frame for the first time is probably in for a typical Mr.Bill [mis]adventure.

[Mike Wickham]

For FM8 and later on Windows, an easy way to enter a known code point...

> is to hold down the key and type 2794 on the numpad.

As I recall, that didn't work for me. I couldn't enter Unicode

characters, but someone posted instructions on the FrameUsers list that

got things going:

http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/2011-August/023891.html

It involves making a change to the EnableHexNumpad registry key. Then

you hold down the Alt key and type a plus sign, followed by the

four-digit Unicode number.

According to the note, some Windows applications have a "RichEdit" mode

that allows omitting the plus sign, but FM is not one of them.

For convenience, if you create a plain text file called

Turn_Unicode_Keypad_On.reg and put the following text in it (the text is

between the lines), double clicking the file will insert the correct

registry key without having to manually create it from within the registry:

[Bob_Niland]

As I recall, that didn't work for me.

Probably while you were composing your responses, I edited mine to reflect the reg hack.

For convenience, if you create a plain text file called

Turn_Unicode_Keypad_On.reg and put the following text in it (the text is

between the lines), double clicking the file ...

I suspect that requires Admin privileges (or should - it seems extremely risky). I'd expect making mods with regedit.exe to also require admin.

In any case, the reg hack details are widely documented, even on Wiki.

[Mike Wickham]

In my previous message, I forgot to mention that a reboot is necessary

after the registry change.

[Mike Wickham]

Dang, I also see that the text for the registry file didn't post. There

must be a filter that removes it. The information for making the manual

change is all in the link posted in my original post, however.

[Bob_Niland]

You need to set that specific character to the Symbol font for this to work, e.g. create a Character style.

If the body font happens to be a generously glyphed Unicode font, an alternative is to use a Unicode arrow, which requires no character format overlay.

Unicode arrows are principally in hex code points:

U+2190 to U+21FF (thin plain style arrows)

and

U+2794 to U+27BE (Dingbats ornate style arrows)