Em dash, en dash, copyright, trademark and other useful ascii character shortcuts, tips and Alt key codes

First of all, did you realize you can type in characters such as those on the next line?
▐▀█▄▌— · – ♫ ♪ … ♥ ‼ » ►◄ ☺ ♦ ♣ ♠ ₪  ≡ ░░░ ▓▓▓ ™, ©, ½, ± etc

Dashes and quotation marks are among the handiest to know. But for IM and micro-blogging services like Twitter, wouldn't it be nice to know how to type ♥?

You could just bookmark an ascii example quick-reference page like this one or this one and copy and paste the characters as you need them. For Twitter or places where there is a character limit, notice the the ellipses (…) and double exclamation marks (‼) in the symbols above are each just one character (try selecting just one of those "periods!)

But there are several tricks to make them easier to access. In Microsoft Word, you can just try to Insert>Symbol and then find them from a list. Or for example, if you type three periods (...) and then press space, it will be converted into the single ellipses character in Microsoft Word. But most useful to know is how to create the em and en dashes and different “curly” quotes. (Put these on a post-it note on your computer for handy reference):

Creating an Em dash —
This works on most Windows computers: 

• On the keyboard: hold down the alt key and type 0151 on the number pad (make sure num lock is on)
• The Microsoft Word trick: With no spaces type two hypens (minus signs) after a word, type another word (or any character) and then press space. The hypen will elongate into an em dash.

Creating an En dash –
This is the slightly shorter dash. Similar tips here:

• On the keyboard: hold down alt and type 0150 on the number pad (make sure num lock is on)
• The Microsoft Word Trick: type any word, then type space hyphen space (" - ") then type another word (or any character) and then press space. The hypen will elongate into an en dash.

Curly quotes

• ‘    Curly single open quote ALT + 0145
• ’    Curly single close quote ALT + 0146
• “    ALT + 0147 (Tip: on a num pad, this uses all the keys on the left)
  
• ”    ALT + 0148

Automating curly quotes in Word

Microsoft Word automatically changes straight quotation marks ( ' or " ) to curly (smart or typographer's) quotes (’‘or“”) as you type, and you can turn this feature on or off:
1.    On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.
2.    Under Replace as you type, select or clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box.
 
You can also find and replace all instances of single or double curly quotes with straight quotes in a Word document. To do this, clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box on the AutoFormat As You Type tab. On the Edit menu, click Replace. In both the Find what and Replace with boxes, type ' or ", and then click Find Next or Replace All. To replace all straight quotes with curly quotes, select the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box, and repeat the find and replace procedure.


Other useful keyboard shortcuts:

• –   Endash … Alt+0150 (see above for Word trick)
  
• —  Emdash … Alt+0151 (see above for Word trick)
•  •   Bullet … Alt+0149 
• ·     Centered Period/dot/small bullet … Alt+0183
  
• ¼ One Quarter/Fourth … Alt+0188
  ½ One Half … Alt+0189
• © Copyright Symbol … Alt+0169
• ® Registered Symbol … Alt+0174
• ™ Trademark Symbol … Alt+0153
• …  Ellipses … Alt+0133
• ±  Plus/Minus Symbol … Alt+0177
• °   Degree/Ring Symbol … Alt+0176
• ²   Squared Symbol … Alt+0178
• ³   Cubed Symbol … Alt+0179
• µ   Mu Symbol … Alt+0181

Fun symbols:
Here's a great list you can use from your browser toolbar (follow the tip under the icons to drag the link to your toolbar). Many of these less usual ones you may need to cut and paste, unless you are in Microsoft Word.

• ♥   Alt+9829
• ☺ Alt+9786
• ► Alt+9658
• ♪  Alt+9834
• ♫ Alt+9835
• ♀ Alt+9792
• ♂ Alt+9794
• ♦ Alt+9830
• † Alt+0134

Related word processing keystrokes:
Nonbreaking Space … Esc-space-h
Nonbreaking Hyphen … Esc-(hyphen)-h
Straight Quote Single … Ctrl+'
Straight Quote Double … Esc "

Foreign characters and Math symbols

General basics everyone should know
This is from the New York Times (click the headline above). This is a very short must read. If you know it all, send the article to the people who look to you for help. It's short, and there are also a lot of great tips in the comments.

Read more!

How to use voice recognition free on your computer.

Lots of people don't realize voice recognition is already available free on their computer (if they own a recent edition of Office or are running Vista). You just have to turn it on/activate it. Or, it can be purchased for under $40 (see bottom of this post). It bothers me that there were no replies to request for help on this issue anywhere on the web--meaning few are using this great feature.



Not that many people are using voice recognition, and that's a shame. It's a great FREE feature in all the recent versions of Office until 2007 (which was removed because Microsoft put it directly into Vista). I do get asked how easy it is to use (very!!) and what you need to get started.



If you do want to start using it, a few recommendations are:

• You can start with any microphone that is convenient, but I recommend that you...
  
  


• Get a head-mounted noise-canceling microphone (as little $15). Even better is to pay more and get a USB-based noise-cancelling microphone, starting around $30;


• Go through all the training scripts (a few extra minutes of talking into a microphone);


• Set accuracy for maximum (runs slow, but better results);


• Click on incorrect words and say "correction" and choose the correct word from the drop-down list (if the correct word is shown). Helps the engine improve recognition.

Don't have it and want it? Here are three highly rated vendors you can buy it from in early 2008: $36.95 �� $47.23 �� $46.55. (The product you are buying in some cases is Works 2002 Suite with Word 2002/XP included. It's Word that gives you the voice recognition--plus you get the whole suite of Works products!)



Also, here's a tip on a minor annoyance to be aware of.

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Voice Dictation problem/error in Office XP Speech recognition: "Dictation paused" or "Dictating" balloons block normal operation.

Microsoft Speech/Voice Recognition really makes life easier for bloggers and anyone who will take the few minutes to start using it. You might already have it free on your computer and not know it: Microsoft Office XP and 2003 have it. Office 2007 does NOT have it, but it is built into the Windows Vista operating system, which many Office 2007 users have.

If you don't have it, I recommend getting it with Word 2002/XP. But don't buy Word 2002 alone: the Works 2002 Suite often costs less and includes Word 2002 and voice recognition in the suite of products. Here are three high-rated online vendors you can buy Works Suite 2002 from: $36.95 · $46.55 · $47.23. (The Works Suite 2002 includes tools for scheduling, finance management, picture editing and organizing, the Encarta encyclopedia and a mapping application.)

For Microsoft Office XP and 2003 users there are small annoyances to using voice recognition efficiently. As of early 2008, amazingly, there are no solutions to these issues anywhere on the web, other than the workarounds I'm going to share here.

First, make sure the program you want to dictate into has focus. Just click anywhere in it's window to give it focus. That solves some problems.

Have you ever noticed the bar sometimes gets stuck showing "Dictating" (or even "Listening") but nothing works? See Workaround #3 below to fix this one.

PROBLEM WITH KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

But the problem that bothers me the most mainly occurs when using keyboard shortcuts such as the Start+v (windows start button held down while pressing the "v" key) shortcut to toggle voice recognition off. I like to turn off the microphone from the keyboard so I can keep my hands where they're the most productive. The voice bar then sets to "Dictation Paused" before turning off the microphone. This can also happen if you use the "Alt+th" keyboard shortcut.

The least problems seem to occur for users that turn the microphone off and on using a switch on your hardware, or by using the mouse to click the language bar. However, Workaround #3 will fix the "Dictating" but nothing works problem that seems to crop up sometimes for almost everyone.

And if you at least turn dictation off without using a keyboard shortcut (Start+v or Alt+th) you'll have less problems. You can then turn the microphone on however you prefer.

WORKAROUNDS:

Workaround #1: Use Start+vtt to turn on the microphone for dictation. (Hold down the Windows Start button and press the letters v, t, t) This turns the microphone on, and toggles to voice command mode and then back to dictation mode. Don't type the letters too fast or you might end up in voice command mode. Just type Start+t once if you accidentally ended up in voice command mode to get back into dictation mode.

You might sometimes still get stuck with the bar saying "Dictating," but nothing is happening. Use workaround #3 in this case: leave the microphone on, switch to (open if you need to) another document, switch back, and you should be working normally.

Workaround #2: Use the mouse to turn off the microphone for dictation. Then you CAN turn it on with the Start+v shortcut.

Workaround #3: AFTER turning the microphone on, switch to another document of the same type (such as Microsoft Word), and switch back. You'll need to always have another document open to switch to after opening your primary document if you want to use this workaround.

Using this method also stops the frustrating "Dictating" balloons from blocking normal operation.

THE STRANGEST THING THAT CAN HAPPEN:

Finally, let me point out that the existence of keyboard shortcuts means you (or your cat) can accidentally activate dictation or voice command mode. If typing ever appears on your screen "out of nowhere" check the language bar first! Even if you're not wearing your microphone it may be picking up and trying to interpret whatever sounds it picks up.

And if you've got a better workaround or a solution for these annoyances, let me know! Read this if you'd like more info on getting started with voice recognition.

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Save your outline unchanged in Word Outline View

A pet peeve of mine is that Microsoft Word doesn't save which levels are visible and which are hidden in Outline View. I finally put my preferred workaround into some simple macros and so thought I'd share it.

This is little shy on technical details, but I'll try to answer any questions left in the comments!

The main trick is that you leave Fast Save on (Tools > Options > Save) while you work on the document, but turn it off just before you save. So the first macro turns Fast Save off, saves and then closes the document ("CloseOffFastSave"). The second macro turns Fast Save on just before you open a document.

I put the close macro in the file menu, as well as have it in it's own toolbar button. Leave the existing "Close" there (without the shortcut key) as a convenience for closing documents you don't want to save. Let the Macro save your document! Make sure the last save is done by the Macro.

Here's Microsoft's explanation for how to set up these macros, and here are the macros you'll need:

Sub AutoExec()
'
' AutoExec Macro
' Turns Fast Save On
' Allows saving view of Outline levels later
'
With Options
.AllowFastSave = True
End With
Application.DefaultSaveFormat = "MSWord6RTFExp"
End Sub
------------------------------------------
Sub CloseOffFastSave()
'
' Saves view of expanded/unexpanded levels
' in Outline View, so everything isn't automatically expanded
' when you next open the document--and then closes document
'
With Options
.AllowFastSave = False
End With
Application.DefaultSaveFormat = "MSWord6RTFExp"
ActiveDocument.Save
ActiveDocument.Close
End Sub
------------------------------------------
Sub AutoOpen()
'
' AutoExec Macro
' Turns Fast Save On
' Allows saving view of Outline levels later
'
With Options
.AllowFastSave = True
End With
Application.DefaultSaveFormat = "MSWord6RTFExp"
End Sub

Remember, let the Macro save your document! Make sure the last save is done by the Macro.

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