Design Tool Tips - Accent Marks and Special Characters

ACCENT MARKS AND SPECIAL CHARACTERS

• Windows: 
  1. To select text, click and drag the cursor until the text you want to copy is highlighted, then release the mouse button.  An example would be to select this: «Qué» 
     
  2. Right-click the mouse or trackpad, and select Copy from the context menu.  The selected text will be copied to the Clipboard (which uses the computer's memory as temporary storage) on your computer.
     1. If using a trackpad, depending on your computer's settings you can perform a right-click by either using two fingers to click the trackpad or by tapping the far-right side of the trackpad with a single finger. 
     2. Or... If available in the program's menu bar, select Edit, and then select Copy.  
        
     3. Or... You may also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+C (for the Copy command). 
  3. Right-click in the ODT's Text Editor field.  Click Paste. The text will be inserted into the field at the place where you put the cursor.  You may also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+V (for the Paste command).  As in Step 3, you can also click Edit in the menu bar, then click Paste.
     
     
• OSX / Mac: 
  1. To select text, click and drag the cursor until the text you want to copy is highlighted, then release the mouse button.  An example would be to select this: «Qué»
  2. Right-click on the mouse or trackpad.  If using a trackpad, depending on your computer's settings you can perform a right-click by either using two fingers to click the trackpad or by tapping the far-right side of the trackpad with a single finger.
  3. If available, select Edit, and then select Copy. The selected text will be copied to the Clipboard (a type of temporary storage) on your computer.  You may also use the keyboard shortcut ?+C (Command+C), or right-click on the mouse or trackpad and then click Copy.
     1. If using a Mac without the right-click function, use the Control+Click combination to open the context menu, then select Copy.
  4. Right-click in the ODT's Text Editor field.  Click Paste. The text will be inserted into the field at the place where you put the cursor.  You may also use the keyboard shortcut ?+V (Command+V), or right-click on the mouse or trackpad and then click Paste.
     1. If using a Mac without the right-click function, use the Control+Click combination to open the context menu, then select Paste.
        
        
• ChromeOS:
  ChromeOS users may not have a right-click menu available.
  1. To select text, click and drag the cursor until the text you want to copy is highlighted, then release the mouse button.  An example would be to select this: «Qué»
  2. If available, select Edit, and then select Copy.  The selected text will be copied to the Clipboard (which uses the computer's memory as temporary storage) on your computer.  You may also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+C (for the Copy command).  Many programs/applications include an Edit option in their menu bars.  That menu will include the click Copy command.
  3. Left-click the ODT's Text field to place the cursor in it.  If available, select Edit, and then select Paste. The text will be inserted into the field at the place where you put the cursor.  You may also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+V (for the Paste command).

Character Map (Windows):  At times the need for an Accented or Special Character will be for just that: a single character (such as the Copyright symbol — © — or an "acute e" — é).  One fairly easy method for this on Windows computers will be the Character Map.  This utility program displays the fonts which are included in each installed font, and the ALT codes for those characters (when available).  It also makes it possible to use Copy-&-Paste with a selected character (or set of characters). While there have been some changes to it over the years, the Character Map has been a part of Windows since at least Windows 3.11/Windows NT 3.51.  Launching the Character map can be accomplished in several ways but for ease of use we'll use the method that is virtually identical in all versions of Windows.

	As an example, we'll enter this text into the ODT's Text Editor:  12"×18" We can enter all of that direct except for the Multiplication Sign.  As there are a lot of fonts installed on today's computers right out of the box, and we already know which symbol we're looking for, we'll find it in the Character Map the easy way; using the Character Map's Search For feature.  To do that, select Advanced View and locate the Search For field at the bottom of the window.   While we could enter the complete name of the symbol, we don't always have to do that. In this case I've entered the first five letters of the word multiplication and pressed ENTER. The result shows the symbol we're looking for without our having to scroll through every available character.
To add the × symbol to the ODT, we can use Character Map's Select button to place the symbol into the Characters to Copy field, and then use the Copy button to put the symbol into the Clipboard.  We can then Paste the symbol into the Text Editor.  If using a computer with a keyboard which includes the number pad, we could also add the symbol to the ODT by using the character's ALT code (which we go into more detail about later in this article).  The ALT code for the × symbol is:  ALT+0215.  To use the ALT code, we place our cursor where we want to place the character, press-&-hold one of the ALT keys, and then use the number pad to enter the digits 0215, and then release the ALT key. The example images below show the same 18"×24" text.  First, using the Franklin font on the left.  Second, after changing the selected font to Frizt Quadrata.  The second font does not include the Multiplication Sign, which is why instead we have a space where the symbol should be shown.

Lowercase:  To enter a lowercase accented character, press and hold the appropriate letter key on the keyboard until a menu like the one shown a right appears.  If no menu appears, no accented options are available for that character.  The example image here shows the options available for the lowercase "e".  To select one of the accented options, press the key for the number shown below the desired character.  To select the 'acute e' (é), a user would enter the number two [2].
	Uppercase:  To enter an uppercase accented character, press and hold a SHIFT key along with the appropriate letter key on the keyboard until a menu like the one shown at left appears.  If no menu appears, no accented options are available for that character.  The example image here shows the options available for the uppercase "E".  To select one of the accented options, press the key for the number shown below the desired character.  To select the 'acute e' (É), a user would enter the number two [2]

To add the selected character to the ODT's Text Editor, double-click that character in the Character Viewer. Continuing with the first example mentioned earlier, the copyright symbol: 1 - Left click in the Text Editor's field to place a typing cursor there. 2 - CTRL+COMMAND+SPACE BAR to launch the Character Viewer. 3 - Select Letterlike Symbols. 4 - Locate and double-click the © symbol. You should see that symbol in the ODT's text field now. As with any other method used to directly enter Special or Accented Characters into the ODT, please double-check the text before ordering.  Fonts available in the ODT may not include all of the characters or symbols shown in the Character Viewer.  If one or more desired characters aren't available using the Character Viewer, it may be necessary to use one of the alternative methods described later in this article.

• Emoji — Not accepted
  • Smileys & People 
  • Animals & Nature 
  • Food & Drink 
  • Activity 
  • Travel & Places 
  • Objects 
  • Symbols 
  • Flags
• Arrows — May be accepted, depending upon which characters are available in the selected ODT font.
• Bullets/Stars — May be accepted.
• Currency Symbols — May be accepted.
• Latin — May be accepted.
• Letterlike Symbols — May be accepted.
• Math Symbols — May be accepted.
• Parenthesis — May be accepted.
• Pictographs — Not accepted. 
• Punctuation — May be accepted.

• Press CONTROL+SHIFT+U in order, then release them together.
  
• After a symbol like an underline "u" appears, type 00A9 and press ENTER.
  
• To finish, click the Add Text button to place the into the design.
  

— Text As Graphic — 

Most of this text will be plain simple letters.  There are three specific special characters in this quote; the opening [«] and closing [»] French quotation marks, and the acute capital letter e [É].  Using Photoshop®, I've created a new image using these settings:   • Height = 6" • Width = 84" • Colors = RGB • Background = Transparent

— Design Tool Tricks —

• Change the font's size value (e.g. from 60 to 30).
• Use "Scale Down".
• Click-&-drag one of the selection box's corner handles.

	ODT Spell Checker: In the image at left, a red line is visible under the Spanish word hacen.  The line shows that the text editor's spell checker has flagged the word as being misspelt.   When working with text for other languages the spell checker may flag a word as being incorrect when it isn't, as the spell checker is set to work with American English as its primary language.
If a non-English word is going to be used often users may it helpful to add that word to their eSigns.com account's dictionary.  This may be accomplished by right-clicking on that word in the Text Editor and selecting Add to dictionary from the context menu.

To demonstrate, we'll use this Spanish text: «Escúchenlos. Niños de la noche. Qué música hacen.».  We'll also assume that the accented characters and angled quotation marks are lost when the text is added to the design, giving us Escchenlos. Nios de la noche. Qu msica hacen..  First, we have to replace the missing letters.  After doing so, we get what is shown at right.

1. Left-click the line of text to select it
2. Use the Copy button to create a copy of the selected line of text.  It will help with the rest of this process to move the copied text to a different area in the design now.  The arrow keys on the keyboard or the mouse may be used to move the copied line of text.  Using this method helps ensure that the marks and special characters being created retain the settings used for the actual text—font, size, color, et cetera.
3. Double-click the text object that was just moved to open the copied line in the Text Editor. 
4. In the editor, select the entire line of text so that it is highlighted.  In this example, the highlighted text will appear in white against a blue background:
   
5. Once the line of text has been highlighted, press the "Backquote" key on your keyboard (sometimes called the Grave Accent key), which is located at the top-left corner of the keyboard for most Windows-based computers.  This will replace the copied line of text with a stand-alone Grave Accent mark:  `
   
6. We now have the original line of text and one grave accent mark in my example design. Please note that certain fonts may not include the grave accent [`] mark, so you may have to use an apostrophe, comma, or a "line" image from the clip art instead.  While the grave accent mark is selected this a good time to change it so that it faces the proper direction, using the side-to-side Flip button.
7. Because we need a total of three [3] acute accent marks in this design, we first ensure the mark is selected—a selected design element will be surrounded by the selection box small white dots (those dots being the design tool's click-&-drag handles) which may be used to resize an element freehand; then we click the Copy button twice, giving us three copies of the acute accent mark that are ready to be moved into position, especially if using the mouse.
8. The next step needed for these acute marks is to move them into position over the letters which require them.  Moving a small object can be difficult when the selection box and click-&-drag handles are showing, but there is an easy way to avoid that difficulty: Click somewhere else in the design to deselect that object, and left-click and hold down the mouse button; we will then be able to move the object without the selection box or click-&-drag handles getting in the way.
9. Once the Grave accents have been added, the process would be repeated once to add the Tilde over the second "N" in Niños.
10. To make the Spanish quotation marks (<< and >>) we'll essentially repeat Steps 1-6 above, but with the Less Than symbol (for the left quote) entered twice, instead of the Grave accent or Tilde.  In Windows, the Less Than symbol is entered using the key combination of SHIFT+< as shown below.  The pair of Less Than symbols will be our opening Spanish quotes.  While there are a couple of ways to make the closing Spanish quotation marks the method we recommend is to use the Copy button to make a copy of the opening quote just created; then use the side-to-side Flip button to mirror the copied marks and make them point to the right.
    
11. Once all the accent marks have been created and moved into position we recommend selecting the text and the accent marks, and then using the Group button to make the selected objects a Group.  When grouped the objects can be manipulated as if they were a single object.  This will make things like changing the color of the text and the accents, or moving the text and objects much easier to do.  

Special Character	Design Tool Trick
Acute:	Backquote/Grave accent key; if not included in font an apostrophe or comma may be used.  Make Copy of text to retain font settings, select all text in copy and replace with stand-alone Grave accent mark; <–> Mirror, move into position.
Circumflex:	Shift+6 key; if not included in font a rotated Less Than [<] or Greater [>] than symbol may be used.  Make Copy of text to retain font settings, select all text in copy and replace with stand-alone Circumflex accent mark; move into position.
Grave:	Backquote/Grave accent key; if not included in font an apostrophe or comma may be used.  Make Copy of text to retain font settings, select all text in copy and replace with stand-alone Grave accent mark; move into position.
Tilde:	Shift + Grave Accent key.  Make Copy of text to retain font settings, select all text in copy and replace with stand-alone Tilde; move into position.
Umlaut:	Shift + Semi-Colon key.  Make Copy of text to retain font settings, select all text in copy and replace with stand-alone Colon; Rotate so it is horizontal, move into position.
Inverted Exclamation:	Shift + 1 key.  Make Copy of text to retain font settings, select all text in copy and replace with stand-alone Exclamation Point; Mirror Vertically so it is upside-down, move into position.  Please Note that when this is added that about half of the mark should extend below the bottom (baseline) of the text.
Inverted Question:	Shift + / key.  Make Copy of text to retain font settings, select all text in copy and replace with stand-alone Question mark; Mirror Vertically so it is upside-down, then Mirror Horizontally so that it 'faces' right, move into position.  Please Note that when this is added that about half of the mark should extend below the bottom (baseline) of the text.
Fraction:	Fractions are one of the more complex elements to create, but are still fairly easy to enter in an online design.  Fractions can be built using a total of three pieces, which are the numerator [n], the forward slash [/], and the denominator [d].  To help keep the fraction from being too much taller than the rest of the text around it, I recommend using the -Size button to reduce the size of the n and d numbers somewhat before moving them into position.

 

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