Guillemets (French quotation marks) in MS Word.

[James Silverton]

I had occasion to want to use French quotation marks several times and
I found that they were available in Insert Symbols as ALT-0171 and
ALT-0187. There is a minor problem in that I am told that the left
quote should be followed by one *non-breaking* space and the right
preceded by one. I can figure out how to achieve the first with
autocorrect but not the second. I suppose I could write macros and
assign buttons to them but that takes up space on the bars for
something that I won't use a lot. I can also see how to get what I
want with Edit...Replace.

Has anyone any ideas for getting a properly space right guillemet with
autocorrect?
Forgive me if this puzzle has been solved many times. I assume the
correct spacing is taken care of automatically in the French language
version of Word.

 

[James Silverton]

I had occasion to want to use French quotation marks several times and
I found that they were available in Insert Symbols as ALT-0171 and
ALT-0187. There is a minor problem in that I am told that the left
quote should be followed by one *non-breaking* space and the right
preceded by one. I can figure out how to achieve the first with
autocorrect but not the second. I suppose I could write macros and
assign buttons to them but that takes up space on the bars for
something that I won't use a lot. I can also see how to get what I
want with Edit...Replace.

Has anyone any ideas for getting a properly space right guillemet with
autocorrect?
Forgive me if this puzzle has been solved many times. I assume the
correct spacing is taken care of automatically in the French language
version of Word.

Sorry, replying to my own post, I managed to use the correct words in
a Google search and I guess I have a partial answer

"In Microsoft Word 97 the non-breaking space U+00A0 is automatically
inserted when the French language is selected and a guillemet is
typed. ...
www.microsoft.com/typography/ developers/fdsspec/punc.htm "

I am still intrigued by the problem of dealing with the right
guillemet using autocorrect but it is probably of no great practical
value.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Are you using Word 97?

Using Word 2003, I have no problem creating autocorrect entries for both
left and right (I like to use << and >> as the triggers). What difficulty
are you encountering?

 

[James Silverton]

Are you using Word 97?

Using Word 2003, I have no problem creating autocorrect entries for both
left and right (I like to use << and >> as the triggers). What difficulty
are you encountering?

That's interesting! What I really wanted was a right guillemet, »,
attached to the last word by a non-breaking space. I used the
unlikely alphabetic combination, raq. This is not corrected unless
there is a space in front of it and I could not think how to change an
ordinary space into a non-breaking space so that the guillemet was
attached to the last word. I had not thought of using the two greater
than signs which *does* work even in the Word XP that I use.

Thanks again!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

....and has the added advantage, perhaps, of actually looking somewhat like »
<grin>.

 

[James Silverton]

...and has the added advantage, perhaps, of actually looking somewhat like ;
<grin>.

There is still another advantage: if I ever want to use French
quotation marks in posting to this newsgroup, << and >> will survive
the posting process unlike » (ALT-0187) and probably « (ALT-0171).

Thanks again,

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

BTW, a shorter "long" way of typing them is Alt+174 and Alt+175 (don't type
the 0's). Personally, I could never remember Alt+0187 and ALT+0171.

 

[James Silverton]

BTW, a shorter "long" way of typing them is Alt+174 and Alt+175 (don't type
the 0's). Personally, I could never remember Alt+0187 and ALT+0171.

Thanks; just for interest where are the shorter codes documented? I
have happily set up and will continue use your autocorrect with << andsince, as I mentioned, true guillemets don't always appear in the
posted message if ALT+0187 or 171 are used.

Many thanks,

Jim.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Documented, schmocumented <grin>. Heck if I know. All I know is that I've
been using Alt+174/5 since the 1980s, before Windows, when I need to use
them in writing about XyWrite (which uses something that looks like them to
enclose formatting commands, and other things). I *think* they were that
when chr$(128) thorugh chr$(255) were referred to as "extended ASCII", and
the Alt+0### versions came in when folks started talking about ANSI,
instead. But, I'm old, and my memory could be failing. ;-)

 

[Carey N.]

Thanks; just for interest where are the shorter codes documented? I
have happily set up and will continue use your autocorrect with << andsince, as I mentioned, true guillemets don't always appear in the
posted message if ALT+0187 or 171 are used.

Many thanks,

Jim.

You might take a look here; might be useful as a code chart:
http://www.cdrummond.qc.ca/cegep/informat/Professeurs/Alain/files/ascii.htm

(I found this by a search for "extended ASCII character chart" in IE
provided by Verizon Online.)

[fading back into Lurkdom. . . ]

 

[James Silverton]

You might take a look here; might be useful as a code chart:
http://www.cdrummond.qc.ca/cegep/informat/Professeurs/Alain/files/ascii.htm

Thanks very much; it's quite intriguing. What puzzles me is the
difference between ALT+(3 digit number) which is what is tabulated in
your reference and ALT+(four digit number preceded by 0). For example,
ALT + 128 gives capital C cedilla, Ç, and ALT + 0128 gives the Euro
symbol, €. I can't guarantee that these will appear when posted tho'
they are fine as I compose this note. What I'd really like to know is
where are the differences documented. Just furthering my education

When I tried to send this post, IE asked me whether I wanted to send
the post as Unicode so I'll post it with and without.

 

[James Silverton]

You might take a look here; might be useful as a code chart:
http://www.cdrummond.qc.ca/cegep/informat/Professeurs/Alain/files/ascii.htm

(I found this by a search for "extended ASCII character chart" in IE
provided by Verizon Online.)

Thanks very much; it's quite intriguing. What puzzles me is the
difference between ALT+(3 digit number) which is what is tabulated in
your reference and ALT+(four digit number preceded by 0). For example,
ALT + 128 gives capital C cedilla, Ç, and ALT + 0128 gives the Euro
symbol, €. I can't guarantee that these will appear when posted tho'
they are fine as I compose this note. What I'd really like to know is
where are the differences documented. Just furthering my education

When I tried to send this post, IE asked me whether I wanted to send
the post as Unicode so I'll post it with and without.

 

[James Silverton]

ALT+0171.

Thanks; just for interest where are the shorter codes documented? I
have happily set up and will continue use your autocorrect with << and
since, as I mentioned, true guillemets don't always appear in the
posted message if ALT+0187 or 171 are used.

Many thanks,

Jim.

You might take a look here; might be useful as a code chart:
http://www.cdrummond.qc.ca/cegep/informat/Professeurs/Alain/files/ascii.htm

(I found this by a search for "extended ASCII character chart" in IE
provided by Verizon Online.)

[fading back into Lurkdom. . . ]

Thanks very much; it's quite intriguing. What puzzles me is the
difference between ALT+(3 digit number) which is what is tabulated in
your reference and ALT+(four digit number preceded by 0). For example,
ALT + 128 gives capital C cedilla, Ç, and ALT + 0128 gives the Euro
symbol, ?. I can't guarantee that these will appear when posted tho'
they are fine as I compose this note. What I'd really like to know is
where are the differences documented. Just furthering my education

When I tried to send this post, IE asked me whether I wanted to send
the post as Unicode so I'll post it with and without.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi James,

You didn't mention the version of Word you're using but basically
if you have inserted into your document the non-break-space from
Insert=>Symbol=>Special Characters follwed by the printable character
you want you should be able to put it in Autocorrect by this method.

1. Turn on the view of nonprinting characters
(pilcrow/paragraph mark icon on the toolbar).

2. Select only the printable character you want and used Ctrl+C
to put it on the clipboard.

3. Select (highlight) the non-break-space plus the following
character that you inserted and use Tools=>Autocorrect.

4. In Tools=>Autocorrect select (o) Formatted text and you
should see the non-breakspace + character combination
in the 'replace with' box.

5. In the 'replace what box' use Ctrl+V to copy your single
character entry from the clipboard.

=======
I had occasion to want to use French quotation marks several times and
I found that they were available in Insert Symbols as ALT-0171 and
ALT-0187. There is a minor problem in that I am told that the left
quote should be followed by one *non-breaking* space and the right
preceded by one. I can figure out how to achieve the first with
autocorrect but not the second. I suppose I could write macros and
assign buttons to them but that takes up space on the bars for
something that I won't use a lot. I can also see how to get what I
want with Edit...Replace.

Has anyone any ideas for getting a properly space right guillemet with
autocorrect?
Forgive me if this puzzle has been solved many times. I assume the
correct spacing is taken care of automatically in the French language
version of Word.

James V. Silverton>>
--
I hope this helps you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 explained
http://microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.asp

 

[James Silverton]

Hi James,

You didn't mention the version of Word you're using but basically
if you have inserted into your document the non-break-space from
Insert=>Symbol=>Special Characters follwed by the printable character
you want you should be able to put it in Autocorrect by this method.

1. Turn on the view of nonprinting characters
(pilcrow/paragraph mark icon on the toolbar).

2. Select only the printable character you want and used Ctrl+C
to put it on the clipboard.

3. Select (highlight) the non-break-space plus the following
character that you inserted and use Tools=>Autocorrect.

4. In Tools=>Autocorrect select (o) Formatted text and you
should see the non-breakspace + character combination
in the 'replace with' box.

5. In the 'replace what box' use Ctrl+V to copy your single
character entry from the clipboard.

=======
I had occasion to want to use French quotation marks several times

and

I am grateful to both you and Herb Tyson for your replies and
especially to you for sending the very complete instructions. I was
able to set up the autocorrect as Herb suggested using Word XP (2002,
I suppose). The non-breaking space is available as a special character
under the Insert...Symbol menu.

Thanks again!