Is there an issue with 'Character Map' and text in PDN - or is it just me?

[Geist]

I have been having trouble today putting text onto a banner. The problem arises when I want to use 'É' which I get from XP's Character Map. Sometimes I found I couldn't complete the rest of the word, and sometimes I found that while I could complete the word, I couldn't subsequently move the line of text. Finally, I did manage to achieve my goal - but there were so many twists and turns and experimentation along the way that I don't now know how I did it and I am dreading ever having to type 'na hÉireann' ('of Ireland') in PDN again!

I suspect that I am simply doing the operation in the wrong order (I have only had PDN for nine days), but any help would be appreciated.

[Djisves]

I usually type Greek into MS Word and then copy-paste it into PDN. Provided I choose the right font all is well. Perhaps this could be the solution in your case too.

[Crazy Man Dan]

I'm not sure about the first scenario you described - being unable to continue typing - but for the second scenario - being unable to move the text - were you clicking the Move Text grabber and it wasn't responding, or was the grabber completely gone?

The Ctrl key on its own toggles the visibility of the grabber, so, if the grabber was gone, it is possible that you accidentally hit the Ctrl key an extra time during the paste process. If you're ever in that situation again, try striking Ctrl once more and see if it reappears.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

I usually type Greek into MS Word and then copy-paste it into PDN. Provided I choose the right font all is well.

I follow this method as well.

For any text that has extended characters or multiple lines I always store a copy of the text in a MS Word file. I also specify the font used and size, so cutting & (re)pasting into PDN is assured to be the same each time.

Editing and spellcheckers are so much easier in a word processor

[Geist]

I'm not sure about the first scenario you described - being unable to continue typing - but for the second scenario - being unable to move the text - were you clicking the Move Text grabber and it wasn't responding, or was the grabber completely gone?

The Ctrl key on its own toggles the visibility of the grabber, so, if the grabber was gone, it is possible that you accidentally hit the Ctrl key an extra time during the paste process. If you're ever in that situation again, try striking Ctrl once more and see if it reappears.

Thank you for your reply, Crazy Man Dan.

Yes, one of the things I do know about PDN is that the Ctrl key togles the visibilityof the grabber. What happened was that the grabber was indeed visible and it could be moved around but the text remained stubbornly in the same position.

Thank you for your suggestion, Djisves and Ego Eram Reputo, that I cut and paste text from a word processing program. Also, while I understand your preference for doing it that way, EER, I wonder if either of you have tried and had problems using Character Map. (If I can sort out my problems, using Character Map seems the obvious way to go because I have very little Irish text to deal with and the only unusual characters in modern Irish are: á, é, í, ó and ú.)

[Sarkut]

The text tool is rudimentary, and does some weird things

when trying to insert Character Map code by Alt+xxxx.

The simplest way is by copy/paste.

The best tool I've found for prepping the text

is the portable (no installation) freeware Jarte.

Makes it really easy to insert special characters.

Jarte

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/1662/charmap01.png">

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/1662/charmap01.png

[Geist]

The text tool is rudimentary, and does some weird things

when trying to insert Character Map code by Alt+xxxx.

The simplest way is by copy/paste.

The best tool I've found for prepping the text

is the portable (no installation) freeware Jarte.

Makes it really easy to insert special characters.

Jarte

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/1662/charmap01.png

OK, Sarkut, thanks for that. Looks like I'll just copy and paste.

(Incidentally, I was in a vague way looking on behalf of someone else for a word processor that was a bit more sophisticated than WordPad and Jarte, which I've now dowloaded, seems to be the business. Thanks.)

[Ego Eram Reputo]

On an individual character basis, WhichSymbol+ is a character picker for Paint.Net (link in my sig).

Due to the rendering differences, I cannot guarantee that WhichSymbol+ will exactly reproduce what the text tool does.

If you have just a few characters, I recommend Sarkut's sugestion of using the ALT key and the four digit code.

1. Select the text tool + correct font & size, etc...,

2. Hold down the ALT key

3. Type in 0169 (for copyright symbol)

4. Release ALT.

You can find the four digit code using Windows charmap.exe. Just for you:

á ALT + 0225

é ALT + 0233

í ALT + 0237

ó ALT + 0243

ú ALT + 0250

[Geist]

Thank you for your post, Ego Eram Reputo.

I have only had time, so far, for a brief look at WhichSymbol+.

I can't figure out whether I am getting better results using Alt and the four-digit code compared with the way I had been using Character Map - clicking on the character I want, then clicking on the Select button and then pasting using the Edit menu in Paint.net. Either way, what sometimes happens is that once I paste the character from Character Map, the text before it can no longer be changed or moved.

I suppose I'll turn to the word-processor method if I run into time-consuming problems using Character Map.

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions - now I've got to go because it's nearly Lá Fhéile Pádraig here.