Character palette and foreign characters

[ajfisher]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

Hi,

For some reason in Word 2008 I cannot toggle OSX's character palette (Command+Option+T), which is much easier to use than "Insert -- > Symbol...". I removed the assignment of this combination from the command TableSelectTable, so there should be no conflict... however, pressing Commmand+Option+T still does not invoke the Character Palette. Does anyone know a solution to this? Thanks!

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

For some reason in Word 2008 I cannot toggle OSX's character palette
(Command+Option+T), which is much easier to use than "Insert -- >
Symbol...". I removed the assignment of this combination from the
command TableSelectTable, so there should be no conflict... however,
pressing Commmand+Option+T still does not invoke the Character Palette.
Does anyone know a solution to this? Thanks!

Go to the System Prefenrences/International Prefpane.
In there, go to the input methods tab. You can select various input
methods there, but more importantly, you can select the character
palette. A new input method menu item should show up in the menu bar,
allowing you to hide or display the character palette.


Corentin

 

[ajfisher]

Thanks for the response. I was hoping, though, to be able to use a keyboard shortcut to call the Character Palette, rather than have to mouse over to the menu bar each time.

 

[Samuel]

I am using Word: Mac 2004. I try to go to character pallette to input Yijing Hexagram (Apply Symbols fonts) into microsoft word, but cannot succeed.

How do I do it.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Thanks for the response. I was hoping, though, to be able to use a
keyboard shortcut to call the Character Palette, rather than have to
mouse over to the menu bar each time.

I know :-\
I suspect a shortcut in Word is conflicting, buit I haven't figured out
which one yet.

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I am using Word: Mac 2004. I try to go to character pallette to input
Yijing Hexagram (Apply Symbols fonts) into microsoft word, but cannot
succeed.

How do I do it.

What happens when you put the insertion point in a Word document and
double-click the character in the character palette??

Corentin

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Corentin -

I know :-\
I suspect a shortcut in Word is conflicting, buit I haven't figured out
which one yet.

It's Command+Option+T which is used by OS X to display the Character
Palette. However, it appears to be used by several Office apps for different
purposes:

Word = Select Table
E'rage = Mark All as Read

So it appears to be "reserved" by Office. I tried removing it in Word but it
still didn't launch the Character Palette even though the stroked worked
from a Finder window or something other than an Office app.

Mac System Prefs (Keyboard & Mouse/Keyboard Shortcuts) gives you access to
it there. but no matter what I changed it to it wouldn't work in Word - or
anywhere else, for that matter:-( Seems like an OS issue involved because
you can change the stroke to anything you want without getting any kind of
conflict warning but it just won't work. I'll try to find out more if I can,
but perhaps you may have some insights on it.

In the meantime I would think it should be scriptable - perhaps one is
already available. I may have another (less convenient) workaround to post
later but I want to test it first.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Thanks for the response. I was hoping, though, to be able to use a keyboard shortcut to call the Character Palette, rather than have to mouse over to the menu bar each time.

Does the shortcut actually work in other apps? I set a new shortcut
(cmd-option-control-shift-T) to eliminate any chance of Word conflict,
but my new shortcut doesn't work in Pages, TextEdit, Thunderbird, or the
Finder either. But OS X shortcuts consistently misbehave for me (PPC
Tiger 10.4.11), and I neglected to test the default cmd-opt-T in other
apps before setting a new one.

I removed Word's assignment for cmd-opt-T and even restarted Word, but
that didn't work either.

I wonder if you could install a Finder script/Automator Action to open
the character palette in the Word script menu and assign a keyboard
shortcut that way.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Does the shortcut actually work in other apps? I set a new shortcut
(cmd-option-control-shift-T) to eliminate any chance of Word conflict,
but my new shortcut doesn't work in Pages, TextEdit, Thunderbird, or
the Finder either. But OS X shortcuts consistently misbehave for me
(PPC Tiger 10.4.11), and I neglected to test the default cmd-opt-T in
other apps before setting a new one.

Yet, despite setting a new shortcut for the Character Palette in sys
prefs, cmd-opt-T still brings it up in TextEdit. Thank you, Apple.

Potential script links here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080326102502259
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080326102502259

quicksilver plus script:
http://groups.google.com/group/blacktree-quicksilver/browse_thread/thread/f182e13bcdedb0fa

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Word = Select Table
E'rage = Mark All as Read

So it appears to be "reserved" by Office. I tried removing it in Word but it
still didn't launch the Character Palette even though the stroked worked
from a Finder window or something other than an Office app.

Thank you so much for figuring out which one it was!!
I removed it as well, but now some other utility on my Mac is "stealing"
it to do Paste. Really annoying. The hunt begins....

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Yet, despite setting a new shortcut for the Character Palette in sys
prefs, cmd-opt-T still brings it up in TextEdit. Thank you, Apple.

Potential script links here:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080326102502259

Wonderful!!!
After removing the shortcut for Select Table in the Keyboard
customization, I used the first script posted on:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080326102502259

I created a script and saved it in the Word AppleScript folder:
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Word Script Menu Items/

I added the proper extension to the name of the script (\moT) to get
something like:
Toggle Character Palette\moT.scpt

and now it works like a charm!!!!!

Corentin

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Thank you so much for figuring out which one it was!!
I removed it as well, but now some other utility on my Mac is "stealing"
it to do Paste. Really annoying. The hunt begins....

Keyboard Maestro :->

I dont understand though why even after removing this shortcut as a
shortcut for selecting tables, Word still "steals" it and refuses to
pass it on to the System :-\

Corentin

 

[ajfisher]

That sounds promising. I'm completely new to AppleScripts - do I just copy the text in that first box (beginning with "set app_ to "CharPaletteServer") and save it as a text file with a .scpt extension?

Or do I have to download and install Proxi?

Thanks.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

That sounds promising. I'm completely new to AppleScripts - do I just
copy the text in that first box (beginning with "set app_ to
"CharPaletteServer") and save it as a text file with a .scpt extension?

Open /Application/AppleScript/Script Editor.
The Script Editor will help you create a new script where you can paste
the code. You can then save it with the name you want, wherever you
want,

Or do I have to download and install Proxi?

Proxi is a completely different thing. It triggers actions based on
multiple factors.



Corentin

 

[ajfisher]

That's working great - many thanks.