How to draw a box around characters

[bobk21020394]

Hello,

I'm trying to figure out a way to draw a box around characters to indicate certain keyboard actions. For example, I'd like to draw a box around CR to indicate Carriage return and LF for line feed. I need to include these this kind of thing a number of times throughout the document. I was trying to use a table (which might work) or text frame but thus far, I couldn't get it the way I wanted. Plus, I was hoping that there might be an easier way to do it.

Here is an example of what I am trying to do. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[LinSims]

There are two options.

1. Create individual graphics and insert them inline using the File > Import > Image function. You can probably find free graphics images of the different keyboard keycaps.
2. Find a keycap font and use a character tag to alter regular letters to a keycap image. There's one at the ShareFonts site. I've never used the site or the font, though, so I can't really comment on how well either would suit your needs.

Both of these will probably require some fiddling with the spacing between lines to prevent overlap, but Frame does a fair job of handling that if you make sure that the paragraph tag does NOT have Fixed line spacing selected.

[bobk21020394]

Thank you for the help. I'm going to try your first suggestion and see how works.

[LinSims]

Hmmm. Looking at the preview for keycaps, it doesn't appear to have anything like CR or LF as a character. So it looks as if your option is to create a graphic that can be inserted using the image insert. Sorry about that.

[Bob_Niland]

What's the semantic context here?

I haven't seen a keyboard with a LineFeed cap since the ASR 33 teletype, and don't ever recall seeing one that had a Return/Enter key actually labeled "CR" or "CarriageReturn". The only key usually seen nowadays is "Enter↵" (and even that will vary by localization).

When I've had this requirement, I usually rely on a keycap-style font, or use a custom embedded vector graphic enclosing actual text (Frame graphics or SVG).

In a Unicode future that may not be near us, and a suitably populated font, the literal enclosed CR and LFs might be implemented with:
U+240D SYMBOL FOR CARRIAGE RETURN
U+240A SYMBOL FOR LINE FEED
U+20E3 COMBINING ENCLOSING KEYCAP

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

You might also create a character style and set a background.

This would also highlight your characters.

Best regards

Winfried

[bobk21020394]

Thanks Winfried.

[bobk21020394]

Thanks for the reply Bob. I will have to take a look and see the reasons for requiring carriage return etc. I'd rather use something a bit more up to date if I can.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools · Accepted solution]

*I noticed my first screen capture didn't show the character designer settings. I've updated to include the settings I used in the example.

Here's an example, using Winfried Reng​'s suggestion of using a character tag to control the "box" and the color of the text. Note that because LF has both a leading and trailing space, Smart Spaces needs to be turned off in Format > Document > Text Options, or you need to place the LF and character tag in a variable.

While this doesn't have a box around the characters like your example, the text and background color can be whatever you want.

Placing the text and character tag in a variable would also give you an easy way to quickly and consistently insert the codes you need.

[bobk21020394]

Thank you Matt. I've never used this feature before. I'll give it a try.

[Matt S - Tech Comm Tools]

did you get something usable?

[bobk21020394]

Yes. I ended up going with a dark colored background and white text and it seems to serve the purpose. My LF box did not have spaces before and after the letters so I did not need to turn off Smart Spaces. The only small issue with this method is that when the boxes were side by side, I had to leave space between them so that it looks like they are separate.

That being said, it certainly does the trick for my purposes.

Thanks for checking up.

Bob