DEGREE SYMBOL

[_carl_fargon_]

I am trying to follow the directions to add the degree symbol to the toolbar. I need the degree symbol code to enter. Also, there is already a degree symbol in the cmds.cfg and menu.cfg files. Not sure why the symbol does not appear on the drop-down? the /xXX is what I believe I need.
Thanks,
Carl

[_Niels_Grundtvig_Nielsen_]

If it's the same \x code as you'd use for MML (not meant to sound condescending, it's just that's about all I ever use the \x codes for) then the Windows Character Sets .pdf buried in the installation proposes [alt+] 0176
[\x code] \xfb
[FM shortcut] Control+q {
[output] °
[name] ring

HTH

[Karen Farrell]

(Niels_Grundtvig_Nielsen) wrote:

[FM shortcut] Control+q {

Thank you!

I love the shortcut keys. That is just what I was looking for. You're a gem!

Karen

[Karen Farrell]

For those of you looking for the character set (and other docs) in the installation folder, here is where it is in Windows 7 64bit for FM9:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\FrameMaker9\Documents

[_carl_fargon_]

Nope that did not work, thanks. It also says there is a probelm in the menu? If whomever wrote the FAQ for adding the symbols to the menu could just write down the directions for a degree symbol it would all be great,
Thanks again,
Carl

[Arnis Gubins]

Carl,<br /><br />To add the Ring character to your Special Symbols menu selection, in<br />the menus.cfg file (in both locations), add the following lines to the<br />block of character definitions already there:<br /><br /><Modify CharRingAbove <Label Ring>><br /><Add CharRingAbove <Menu SpecialSymbols>><br /><br />The alternative is to get Shlomo Perets' FM ToolBar Express, which has<br />this (along with a host of other special symbols defined for use from<br />the menus and context menus), see<br />http://www.microtype.com/ToolbarPlus.html

[_Van_Kurtz_]

Carl,

Unless your FrameMaker files have to be cross-platform, open the accessory Windows Character Map, find the degree symbol, copy it, and paste it into your FrameMaker document. Much easier than trying to remember or find the Frame key sequence.

Van

[_Kenneth_Benson_]

In Windows, a degree symbol is ALT 0186 (from the numeric keypad). After
you look it up (in Windows Character Map) three or four times, you'll
remember it.

--
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

[_Dennis_Brunnenmeyer_]

Try Alt-0176, not Alt-0186. I found it very convenient to make up a little laminated "cheat sheet" for the common symbols I often use: ° ± ® © , etc.

It might be possible that the codes could be different for some font families...I'm not sure.

[_Kenneth_Benson_]

Dennis Brunnenmeyer wrote:
> Try Alt-0176, not Alt-0186.


Thanks, Dennis. Good catch. 0186 is ordinal o, a sort of superscript o
that's used only in Spanish or Portuguese, I think. Definitely not a
degree sign.

--
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

[mickz51260847]

Alt-0176 worked for me.  Thanks!:)

[_Niels_Grundtvig_Nielsen_]

You mean, 176 like I mentioned above? <rofl>

[_Kenneth_Benson_]

Yes, my bad.

--
Kenneth Benson
Pegasus Type, Inc.
www.pegtype.com

[Bob_Niland]

Just something to think about...

We do special characters (i.e. anything not in the ASCII set) as Variables. For example, degree would be:

Name: char.symbol.degree

Definition: <Symbol>\xb0<Default ¶ Font>

The last element of the Name ("degree") is either the name from the Frame special characters document, or the formal Unicode name.

We do this  for several reasons, some of which might not apply to other users:

• We're on FM7.1, and since no one seems to know exactly when and how Adobe does Unicode conversion when migrating a document to FM8 or later, this isolates any problems to the Variable Catalog. This is not just future planning. Our outside translators, usually on later Frame, probably find it helpful already.
• When you use keyboard shortcuts, you often have to apply a character format (Font name and/or Style). The next character you type after that is by default also in that override. Using a Variable automatically resumes the current formatting.
• The appearance of all instances of the char is controlled from one place. So if, for example, you can no longer use the inherently superscripted 0123 (usually because you need 4), it's easy to change all the current ones to explicity supers.

[Tigdave]

When you convert a legacy FM document to FM 8 or later, the conversion is pretty smart. FM will look at the font used for every character (either stylesheet of hardcoded), and the character map used by that font, and will convert that character to the correct unicode character.

I used it to convert some multi-lingual masters (English, Russian, and Chinese mixed, along with dingbat and Symbol) and it converted all document text perfectly, although I had to hardcode the double-byte Chinese text into a Chinese font because the main stylesheet font could only handle English and Russian. It was impressive, and a real time-saver for a 60-manual set. Another remarkable thing is that I could still use the old (non-unicode font) if I wanted, within the limitations of that font of course. In my case, FM8 could still display the converted Russian text correctly using the old non-unicode font! FM will backmap the unicode document characters (which are stored in unicode and stay as unicode) on-the-fly and use the old font to display the characters correctly using the old font. It was very useful and it gave me workable documents for the interim, until I could set up stylesheets that used the new proper unicode fonts that came with FM 8.

However, no conversion is performed on features with "internal" text that has no inherent font format such as cross-reference formats, variables or markers, which is probably just as well because remapping the cross-ref marker text would break the links). You'll have to convert or rebuild those by hand.

I have some related questions. Using \x code to make special characters that you can pick off a menu only works for the "traditional" character slots at position 256 (ff hex) or below. Is there any syntax that works for unicode slot numbers that are higher than 256? I have tried \u and \U followed by the four-digit UTF-8 code but I get nothing.

Also, is it also good practice (or perhaps even absolutely necessary) to read, edit, and save all FM8 and later config files as UTF-8?

[Bob_Niland]

Now this old thread will never fall out of "Popular Discussions"

> Definition: <Symbol>\xb0<Default ¶ Font>

The <Symbol> tag implies that a Character Format of name Symbol was previously created. In general when creating such a tag, make sure that all fields of the dialog are blank or As-Is except the key one (Font Family in this case).

The trailing <Default ¶ Font> is unnecessary and is harmful if any other overrides or character tags were applied to the surrounding text.

> Is there any syntax that works for unicode slot numbers

> that are higher than 256? I have tried \u and \U followed

> by the four-digit UTF-8 code but I get nothing.

\u1234 is supposed to be the notation. No _, +, or space between the lowercase "u" and the UTF8 codepoint

See:

Enter Unicode U+21CC code point in dialogs?

and

Entering a Unicode Value as a Bullet in an Autonumber Format

Of course, for Framemaker 8.0 and later, with any minimally populated Unicode font (having the Latin-1 Supplement), a rigorus way to implement the degree symbol is to use code point:

\u00b0

It wouldn't surprise me if this also works for older ISO 8859 fonts, which use the same code point for the same symbol.