Access more symbols?

[thelizard1079]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel Hello,
I'm new to Macs and Mac version of Excel. The symbols listed under View-Object Palette-Symbols seem limited, and I don't have nearly as many options as in a PC version of Excel (even the older versions). At the moment, I'm trying to insert an EN-DASH and EM-DASH into cells (progressively longer versions of hyphens and minus signs, which I use a lot for work). Any idea where I can access those for insertion?

Thank you!

 

[CyberTaz]

On a Mac you're better off using the OS X Character Viewer. You can add it
to the main menu bar so you can access it from any program, not just Excel,
and it provides far more functionality than a "feature" can.

You'll find it in AppleMenu> System Preferences> International - Input Menu.
Investigate it further in OS X Help from a Finder window.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[glenno]

I'm sorry to reiterate something I mentioned in another thread, but it relates to this topic too so I figured it's worth mentioning.

It's a serious usability problem that the Symbol dialog doesn't let you access all your fonts (indeed, it only allows access to a tiny handful) in Office for Mac, like it does in Office for Windows.

The Mac OS X Character Viewer has a major usability limitation for Mac users of Office applications: you can't assign keyboard shortcuts to symbols in Office programs.

In Word (for example) for Windows, you can easily access ALL of your font symbols and characters from within Word, and assign keyboard shortcuts to all those you want. For years I've had about two dozen keyboard shortcuts for commonly-used symbol characters in Word for Windows, which made daily work extremely easy and fast.

Now, in Office for Mac, inserting these characters requires a time waste that breaks the flow of your work. You can't simply type at normal speed. You have to go searching for those symbols or characters, then drag them into your document (when double-clicking doesn't work, which is often). Even if you make a Favorites collection, it's still a time waste that interrupts your work. (And if your com.apple.CharacterPaletteIM.plist file gets corrupted and you have to reset it, you lose all those favorites you've collected.)

Microsoft really needs to fix this flaw in Office for Mac. Perhaps there's something in OS X's architecture that makes this a challenge, but I trust that MS programmers can work it out.

If anyone knows of a viable workaround in the meantime, though, it'd be greatly appreciated!

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

On a Mac you're better off using the OS X Character Viewer. You can add it
to the main menu bar so you can access it from any program, not just Excel,
and it provides far more functionality than a "feature" can.

You'll find it in AppleMenu> System Preferences> International - Input Menu.
Investigate it further in OS X Help from a Finder window.

And these special dashes are also accessible directly through
System-wide shortcuts.
You can discover the shortcuts using the modifier keys and visualizing
the effect through the Keyboard viewer (which can be activated the same
way).

(Try option-dash and option-shift-dash for n and m-dash respetively).

Corentin

 

[glenno]

BTW, Jim Gordon explained a workaround solution to the keyboard shortcut problem, here: http://www.officeformac.com/ms/ProductForums/Word/8951/0

 

[thelizard1079]

Thank you all - this was very helpful!