User Created Short Cuts

[ruhar]

I have an idea that would be nice to have but would be a low priority if it's even possible to do.

I would like to be able to create short cuts to do different things. Example: I sometimes need to be able to know that a GM note was done (marking it is another discussion already out there). I went through the symbols and found a square with a check mark in it. I put this in the upper left hand corner of the first line. Instead of searching for it each time or going to User Notes to copy and paste it would be nice to hit a key sequence and the symbol is there.

This could be used for common used names, entering a specific code for a color choice, etc.

Is this possible?

[rob]

Here's a trick you can use...

1. Make sure that the Numlock key is ON.
2. Hold down the <Alt> key on your keyboard.
3. With the <Alt> key down, press and release the <1> key on the numeric keypad.

At this point, a decorative character should appear in the text. The same occurs with <Alt+2>, etc. You can also enter multiple numeric keys, such as holding down <Alt> and pressing <1> then <2>. Each code yields a different decorative character, and I'm sure that some of them will work well for your needs as markers.

Pick a few symbols that you like and jot down the codes you entered. Then you can repeat the code at any time. I do this all the time with the bullet character, which I get via <Alt> with the sequence <0><1><4><9>.

I'm not sure where the official list of all these codes can be found. I found it years ago when I was looking for the bullet character. Hopefully, someone else here on the forums can point you to it.

[AEIOU]

Do a google search on "ANSI code table".

The ones I use daily are:
ALT-0150 – (en dash)
ALT-0151 — (em dash)
ALT-0149 • (bullet)
ALT-0176 ° (the degree symbol)

Here's a page for you to use: http://ascii-table.com/ansi-codes.php

A quick edit to change my first sentence from ASCII to ANSI. ASCII codes go back to the dawn of computing. With Windows, Microsoft couldn't ditch them because they were so embedded, but they did change/extend some of the code definitions. If you look up ASCII code table, you'll see that ALT-0151 brings up a u with a grave accent. In the Windows world, we use ANSI codes so ALT-0151 is mapped to em dash.

[Parody]

I usually use the Character Map program (it starts in Accessories/System Tools) because I forget the character codes and it shows them to you (if available in the selected font) as well as letting you copy/paste characters.

There's plenty of sites that have lists of "alt codes", character codes, and Unicode values. Windows lets you input from three lists:

Hold Alt while typing a number from 1-255 on the numeric keypad: picks a character from your system's default Code Page (on my machine it's 437, the US English DOS characters). This is what Rob's showing you above.

Hold Alt while typing 0 and a decimal number on the numeric keypad: pick a character using your system's input language. These are shown in the bottom-right corner of Character Map.

Hold Alt, type + on the numeric keypad, then enter a four-digit hexadecimal number: pick a character from Unicode (16-bit). These are shown on the bottom-left corner of Character Map.

Hope this helps.