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thank you
Tom Leland wrote:
because all I can do is plug in a period from the Character Viewer, or paste it in from some random document, rather than actually using the period key...
How you make the period does not matter. But you must type more than just = to get the change, like = plus space. It works fine for me with OO, with "while typing" also checked in Format > Autocorrect.
Hi T,
Go to System Preferences > Language & Text > click on Input Sources > click the checkbox for Keyboard & Character Viewer > scroll down to US and make sure it's checked. Close out of Sys Prefs. Char View should now appear in your upper menu bar. Click on it > click on Show Character Viewer > in the View dropdown menu select Roman > click on punctuation > double click on the period and it will show up on your open document > copy the period. Now you can paste a period whenever you need to. This works in 10.6.8. I can't say if it works in later OSes.
Of course if you have a document with a period in it, you can simply copy a period from it and use paste. 😉
Hi,
I really appreciate all the time you took on this -- but this is basically the same as copying and pasting
any period I might find on any document, correct? If so, it doesn't help because I'm often cutting and pasting other things, and each time I do of course the period is gone, and I have to copy another period when I need one -- which is often, of course -- I was hoping to be able to customize some multi-key shortcut with the key of my choice -- like maybe tab - shift would always paste a period -- etc
thanks again
Tom Leland wrote:
I was hoping to be able to customize some multi-key shortcut with the key of my choice -- like maybe tab - shift would always paste a period -- etc
Google for Mac keyboard remapping or something similar; there may be an app out there to do this.
A USB keyboard is another simple option.
Another option is to use show keyboard viewer and click on the period whenever you need it.
Thank you,
but since I can't type an actual period, I don't think I can make the change; I tried inserting the period
from the Character Viewer, and swapping the period for the equal sign, but when I tested it, it was still an equal sign; any thoughts?
Nothing seems to work, I assume because all I can do is plug in a period from the Character Viewer, or paste it in from some random document, rather than actually using the period key...
unless you can tell something I'm not understanding here,
thanks for your time anyway
sorry to be an idiot, but don't know what I'm doing wrong. I go to Format, then Auto Correct (and yes "While Typing" is checked) -- I'm trying to turn my = key into a period key -- so in the Replace box I'm typing =,
and in the With box I'm inserting a period from my Character Viewer. Then after inserting the period, I typed an extra space. I then opened my document and typed =, hoping it would be a period -- but it was the usual equal sign.
Did you click on the New button after entering your characters in the Replace and With boxes?
The place where you need to type the extra space is after the = in your document, not anywhere in the autocorrect setup dialogue.
ah i see, that is better -- didn't realize box stays there! thanks again
Tom Leland wrote:
ah i see, that is better -- didn't realize box stays there! thanks again
You can shrink it down too, so it isn't overlapping your doc. You're welcome. 😉
Tom Leland wrote:
I was hoping to be able to customize some multi-key shortcut with the key of my choice
You can do this in system preferences/language & text/text/symbol and text substitution
You have to type one more character before it changes, and make sure Edit > Substitutions has Text Replacement checked. Also some apps like Word and Pages 4 have separate substitution settings.
Sorry, not sure what you mean by typing one more character --
I use Open Office
OO doesn't use OS X for such things. Go to Format > Autocorrect > Autocorrect Options
Ah, did it! But you mean every time I want a period, I have to hit the equal key twice, correct?
my period key doesn't work; until I get it fixed, can I create a shortcut that makes a period?
