inserting symbols SOLVED

[luays]

Hi
I'm using the pro version to mark mathematics students' work as are many of my colleagues but there seems to be no simple way of inserting symbols - e.g. pi - into comments. If I'm working in MSword or similar it will recognise ALT+960 for that symbol but it does nothing in Editor when using the typewriter boxes.

Does anyone know if there's a way or this a development request? I can find nothing on any of the forums.

thanks

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi luays,

Thanks for the post - this is working fine for me here. Please make sure that you are using the latest build by downloading and running the following installer:
https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFXVE5.zip

Cheers,

[luays]

thanks for quick reply

tried updating but still nothing - it won't accept any character when Alt key is held

Luay

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi luays,

thanks for that. It only accepts number input from the numpad - not the numbers above the letters on the keyboard. Does that make a difference for you?

hth

[luays]

That's interesting, my laptop doesn't have a number keypad so I downloaded a free version onto another computer that does and yes the alt+ key does now work. However the codes don't correspond to the ones I use in MSword. For example pi is Alt+960 but that gives └ in Editor.........

I was under the impression these were standardised codes but I cannot find the one for pi (for example) at all

thanks

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for that luays,

we are going to look a little more into this as we are seeing different results in different applications. Even within Microsoft applications it is not consistent, notepad works as does the Editor, Word and Skype show Pi. It seems that Adobe Reader is doing the same as us.

I've raised a Support Request Ticket to track the progress of this investigation, (RT#2867: inserting symbols, Editor inserts different symbols from Word etc) we'll let you know what we find out about this.

Do you see the same in notepad as our Editor?

[luays]

Yes! - just tried that and you're right the same symbols appear in notepad.

Thank you very much for this - if it is any incentive there is a very large group of us at the http://www.open.ac.uk using this software for the first time as all of our mathematics assessment are now submitted in pdf format and we're desperate for a pi at least!

thanks

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

My pleasure Luay,

hopefully this will be something that we can resolve quickly. Any changes will appear in upcoming builds as we don't 'patch' the software but release fixes in each new build. Fingers crossed that this is something that can be done for the next build (312) slated for later this month.

hth

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Opera also give me └ with Alt + 960.

Users who constantly work with Greek would probably be able to switch to a Greek keyboard, but for typing the occasional symbol, PDF-XChange needs a more user-friendly method than opening character map and copy/paste.

Alt + code is not too bad for ANSI characters in the range 130-255, but users will need more than that. Remembering code numbers like 960 for π, or 952 for θ is not user-friendly either.

How much work would it be to program a character map or clipboard to remember frequently used symbols?

I suggest using BabelMap for this task. Currently, it's the most powerful solution

[Vasyl - PDF-XChange]

Interesting idea. It might be like "Insert Symbol..." feature. Thanks Bhikkhu.
We will think about it...

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for that Bhikkhu!

in fact, when I discussed this with the lead Editor developer he was so taken by the idea that we've made a formal feature request for this. RT#2868: Feature Request : inserting symbols; character map or clipboard to remember frequently used symbols. In particular we like the idea of quick access to recently and frequently used characters.

While a feature request does not guarantee delivery of said feature it does mean the chances are very good it will happen at some point in the future.

Thanks for the link to BabelMap too, I'll be using that myself!

Regards the current issue with different characters showing we are finding that this is not trivial, much is OS dependant and we are still looking into how to work with this. It is not immediately obvious how it is handled in Word etc. Bear with us, we should have something more here soon.

hth

[luays]

Hello, I notice there has been an update of Editor - has there been any development on the issue of inserting symbols?

Thanks

Luay

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Luays,

I'm afraid not - 312 was specifically to address bugs, as well as the remaining features of the Viewer that had not yet been implemented in the Editor.

For now, we do not have any ETA on when and no specific confirmation on if, this will be implemented. Please note that placement of a feature request is not a promise to deliver, only a promise that the implementation will be seriously considered.

Cheers,

[luays]

ok thanks - I'll remain hopeful!

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]