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yoxi
Cipher
Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon
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 Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 12:45 am Post subject: Extension: compose special characters |
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I'm just mentioning useful extensions here as I come across them, so folk know about them when NeoOffice goes 3.
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/ComposeSpecialCharacters
This extension (which needs v2.3.1 or above) pops an extra item 'Compose Characters' into the Insert menu. This calls up a panel which tells you all the available character shortcuts, and you can assign a shortcut key from there too:
Then you've got access to quite a lot of the basic accents and special characters (including maths symbols, for all you formulamongers) through keystrokes - e.g. c) + shortcut key -> č.
At my request, he's immediately added the 'dot under' characters for IAST Devanagari transliteration, which are rather out of fashion now but still used a lot. I'm sure he'd be happy to add any other characters or symbols that are frequently used, and for which there might be an obvious 2-character combo.
He's come up with a way to make this work in Calc cells too (you have to add a flag character, as Calc doesn't know where the cursor is, otherwise).
This is a very useful addition to the stable - I've already asked him if he can get the extension to recognise it's on a mac and show the relevant modifiers cmd/shift only. I'm sure he'd appreciate help with localisations too if anyone feels up for that.
- padmavyuha |
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sardisson
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Joined: Feb 01, 2004
Posts: 4588
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 11:28 am Post subject: |
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Is there any reason this is better than a Mac OS X keyboard layout that supports these with option-foo keystrokes?
Smokey
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"[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki |
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Lorinda
Captain Mifune
Joined: Jun 20, 2006
Posts: 2051
Location: Midwest, USA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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At first glance it looks like it might be easier (for me) to find certain symbols. I'm still struggling with finding things in the Character Palette/Insert Special Character dialog. And the Keyboard view is great for some things, but sometimes hard to use for others.
But maybe that's just me.
Lorinda
As a side note, I'm thinking these extensions should be listed in the wiki. But since they won't work in Neo until we move to the OOo 3 codebase, I'm thinking we should either wait or put them on a harder-to-find page for the moment. |
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yoxi
Cipher
Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 5:03 am Post subject: |
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| sardisson wrote: | | Is there any reason this is better than a Mac OS X keyboard layout that supports these with option-foo keystrokes? |
Only in that it's more flexible (for the moment). It's pretty hard to construct an OSX keyboard layout that will successfully insert all the different types of characters-with-accent - for example, getting macron-over or dot-under characters is not yet possible. Whatever the framework is that's behind the Keyboard Layout system, it can cope with deadkeys for some accents but not others. 
- padmavyuha |
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sardisson
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Joined: Feb 01, 2004
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:08 am Post subject: |
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| yoxi wrote: | | It's pretty hard to construct an OSX keyboard layout that will successfully insert all the different types of characters-with-accent - for example, getting macron-over or dot-under characters is not yet possible. |
 I use the macron and dot-under dead keys often (well, not so often any more, but I did a couple of years ago)...US Extended works very well for this. Is there not a UK Extended that does the same thing with whatever UK differences there are?
Smokey
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"[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki |
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yoxi
Cipher
Joined: Sep 07, 2004
Posts: 1799
Location: Dawlish, Devon
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 9:35 am Post subject: |
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Blimey - no, there's nothing like US Extended for the UK, but I'd never used US Extended before, and it's got all the deadkeys I'm missing. Maybe I can mutate it in ukelele to make it into a UK Extended - thanks for drawing my attention to it.
- padmavyuha
*edit* now I have a BritishExtended keyboard with all the bells, whistles, and macrons - hōōṛāḥ !!! |
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sardisson
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| Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 11:49 am Post subject: |
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| yoxi wrote: | | *edit* now I have a BritishExtended keyboard with all the bells, whistles, and macrons - hōōṛāḥ !!! |
Smokey
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"[...] whether the duck drinks hot chocolate or coffee is irrelevant." -- ovvldc and sardisson in the NeoWiki |
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