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ࡗ 588 Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ V ista includes more fonts and more symbols that you can insert into documents than ever before. In addition, the Arial Unicode MS font, which is preinstalled with Microsoft Office on many PCs, offers a huge assortment of symbols and character sets from around the world. Getting the Symbols You Want To enter graphical symbols into your documents in Vista, it’s no longer necessary to switch to Symbol, an old-style font that has only about 220 distinct characters. The Windows core fonts — including Arial, Times New Roman, and Courier New — now support 1,000 to 2,000 characters. This acccomodates every European language as well as providing many pictorial symbols. If you can’t find the symbol you want in a core font, Vista provides the Wingdings, Webdings, and Lucida Sans Unicode fonts. ࡗ Wingdings and Webdings have been included with the operating system since Windows 3.1 and Windows 98, respectively. These two fonts, like Symbol, also support only about 220 designs, but several of them are offbeat images that may be exactly what you’re looking for. ࡗ Lucida Sans Unicode is a wide-ranging collection of characters and symbols that has been included in the OS since Windows 95. With the introduction of Windows 2000, Lucida Sans Unicode grew to encompass some 1,776 characters. That number has risen only slightly to date, so almost anyone who’s installed a version of Windows since 2000 will have the same Lucida characters that Vista users do. For the ultimate in language and symbology support, Microsoft provides a giant font called Arial Unicode MS. This font, which is currently over 22MB in size, includes more than 50,000 shapes representing about 39,000 different characters. At this writing, Arial Unicode MS is not included with Vista but is loaded by default when you install Microsoft Office 2000 or higher. Because many PCs today come with Office preinstalled, the char- acters present in Arial Unicode MS are available to a large number of Windows users. Figure A-1 shows a tiny sampling of the symbols you can insert into your documents using the Vista and Office fonts described previously. When It’s Safe to Use Your Fonts A great deal of information about which fonts are present in different versions of Windows— and how best to use them —is presented earlier in this book in Chapter 7. In this appendix, we’ll just quickly review a few rules of thumb. And we’ll plunge into a few figures that show you which symbols are available to you as a Vista user. You can safely use any font in Vista if you observe the following guidelines: 1. Print-only documents. If you plan to distribute only hard copies of your docu- ments, and you don’t expect anyone other than yourself to be editing the files, you can use any font and any character you wish. If you can see the character on your screen, and it prints correctly on your printer, that’s all that matters. 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 588 ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 589 2. Adobe PDF files. If you have Adobe Acrobat or an alternative program that cre- ates PDF (Portable Document Format) files, you can also use any font or character you wish. The PDF technology automatically saves the outlines of any fonts used in a document. This makes the document display and print the same way on the computers of other people you distribute the file to. (Widely used “core” fonts, such as Arial, are exceptions that are sometimes not included in PDF files. But, at your option, you can require the inclusion of even these fonts. In Acrobat, click Advanced ➪Acrobat Distiller➪Settings➪Edit Adobe PDF Settings➪Fonts➪Embed All Fonts.) 3. Sharing .doc files. If you want other people to be able to edit a document that you’ve created using noncore fonts, you have two choices. You can make sure that your associates are all using the same version of Windows that you are. This makes it very likely that they’ll also have the same fonts and characters on their PCs that you do. Or you can save all the fonts you use within the document itself so others are guaranteed to have all the same characters you do. To do this in Microsoft Word, click Tools ➪Options➪Save➪Embed TrueType Fonts. Embedding a font makes your file take up more space on disk, but it’s usually worth it to prevent editing problems. (To reduce the disk-space require- ments, the Embed TrueType Fonts check box allows you to save only those char- acters you actually use in a document. This reduced character set, however, makes it impossible for other people to edit the document and include characters you didn’t use, if they don’t have the same fonts installed.) 4. Posting documents on the Web. If you use the correct methods, you can safely include special characters in articles that you post on the Web. The trick is to specify characters above decimal 127 using an HTML feature called numbered entities. For example, don’t insert an em dash ( — ) into your writing by entering character number 150. This only displays properly in Windows, not in Macs or Linux. Instead, make sure your HTML code uses the Unicode decimal value of the em dash, which is 8212, in an encoded entity like this: — All modern Web browsers, at least since version 4.0 of the Internet Explorer and Netscape browsers and version 1.0 of Firefox, will convert a numbered entity into the desired character as long as any font present on the visitor’s machine supports that character. This means that you don’t have to know every font that your visi- tors may have installed. As long as you use a character that’s present in a core font or in Lucida Sans Unicode, 99 percent of Web surfers will be able to see it. The preceding comments about embedding fonts into PDF and DOC files assume that the particular fonts you’re using don’t prohibit embedding. Fortunately, most of the fonts pro- vided by Vista do allow embedding. If you’ve purchased fonts from other sources, how- ever, check that they’re “embeddable” or, even better, “editable.” If not, don’t assume these fonts can be saved within your PDF and DOC files. It’s easy to check whether a given font is “editable” (it allows whoever opens the file to enter new characters from the embedded font) or merely “embeddable” (it allows who- ever opens the file to see all same characters in whichever font you originally used). To do this, open the Fonts control panel, right-click a font name, click Properties, and select the Details tab. The Font Embeddability line will show you the font’s status. tip 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 589 Figure A-1: Common symbols. To insert symbols such as these into your documents, select the recommended font in your application, and then use the Alt+number method described in this appendix to enter the decimal value of each character. ࡗ 590 Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 590 Figure A-1 (continued) ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 591 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 591 Entering Special Characters Many applications have their own unique methods that allow you to enter special charac- ters into documents. Microsoft Word, for example, supports an Insert ➪Symbol command. This enables you to select any character you wish from within a list of all installed fonts. The following method, however, works the same way in almost all Windows applications, regardless of who developed them. It involves holding down the Alt key while you enter a decimal number on your numeric keypad. Entering Characters Using Alt+number 1. In your application, select a font that contains the character you wish to insert. 2. Make sure NumLock is on (the NumLock light is lighted). 3. Hold down your Alt key. 4. Type the decimal number of the character on your numeric keypad. (This even works on laptops with no numeric keypad, as long as they have a NumLock key and numerals that are printed on alphabetical characters on the keyboard.) 5. Release the Alt key. The desired character should instantly appear. For example, to enter an em dash into text, hold down Alt and type 8212 on your numeric keypad. (This is usually written “Alt+8212.”) Vista’s core fonts and most of the other fonts will display a dash at your cursor location as soon as you release the Alt key. ࡗ 592 Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ The Leading Zero Is No Longer Needed Windows users have long used the Alt+number method to enter special characters. Alt+0169, for example, accesses a copyright symbol in most fonts. Vista eliminates the need to enter a leading zero in front of the rest of the number. Any decimal number may now be entered by holding down Alt, typing the number on the numeric keypad, and releasing Alt. Alt+169, for example, is all that’s needed to get a copyright symbol. In previous versions of Windows, using the Alt+number method to enter a number between 128 and 255 without the leading zero resulted in the insertion of a charac- ter from the old DOS upper-ANSI character set — but no longer. Secret What if you forget to switch to the appropriate font before entering the character number — or it turns out that the font you selected doesn’t in fact support that character? Most appli- cations allow you to select a different font for specified text even after you’ve entered it. The Alt+number method, unfortunately, is somewhat dependent on the specific input lan- guage that’s in effect when you’re typing. For example, Alt+number works in the English (United States) input language but not in every input language that can be used by Windows. Check your input language. To find out which input language Vista is using, open the Regional and Language Options control panel. In the Keyboards and Languages tab, click the Change Keyboards button. Your default input language should be shown. tip 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 592 Entering Characters Using CharMap If the Alt+number method doesn’t work for you, a technique that always works is to use CharMap.exe. This little accessory allows you to scroll through the entire character set of any installed font. You can then pick characters using the Select button, copy them to the Clipboard using the Copy button, and finally paste them into your word-processing appli- cation. Your pasted characters should retain their font information, just as they appeared in CharMap. To launch CharMap, click Start ➪All Programs➪Accessories➪System Tools➪Character Map. Or enter charmap.exe in the search bar. Figure A-2 shows an example of using ChapMap to select the copyright symbol (Alt+169). Figure A-2: Selecting characters using CharMap. Clicking a character shows an enlarged version of it. Clicking the Select button enters a character into the “Characters to copy” area. Clicking the Copy button copies the characters in this area to the Clipboard, after which you can paste the characters into documents. ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 593 Apps That Help You Pick Your Fonts Some Vista applications will actually help you find a character you enter, if that char- acter isn’t present in your currently selected font. Try this in WordPad, for instance: Change the current font to Lucida Sans Unicode. Enter Alt+9398 to insert a circled letter “A.” Without warning, WordPad switches the current font to SimSun and inserts a circled “A,” because Lucida doesn’t contain that symbol but SimSun does. You’ll need to manually switch back to your base font if you don’t want to use SimSun (a font widely used in China) for the rest of your document. Secret 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 593 Choosing the Right Font for the Job When entering symbols, selecting a font that’s “low on the food chain” will reduce any potential problems if you want to allow others to open and edit your document. Look for the characters you want in the following kinds of fonts, from the most prevelent to the least: 1. Use “core” fonts first. If you can find a desired symbol in Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier New, select one of these fonts. Almost all users of Windows, Macs, and Linux have versions of these fonts installed. 2. Use Lucida Sans Unicode when needed. This font has been present by default in Windows since version 98 and most Windows users will therefore have it installed. If Mac or Linux users will be receiving your document, however, they may not have Lucida available. In that case, distribute your document only with Lucida embedded when you save the file. 3. Use Wingdings or Webdings sparingly. Only Windows users typically have these fonts installed. So use them only if necessary, and always embed them when you do. Figures A-3 and A-4 show the symbols available in Wingdings and Webdings, respectively. If possible, use instead the characters in the Dingbats range of Unicode: hex 2700 to 27BF. 4. Use Arial Unicode MS when necessary. Even many Windows users don’t have this font handy, because it’s currently installed only by Microsoft Office 2000 and higher. Even so, others can see and edit your document — including even the most offbeat Unicode characters — if, when you save the file, you embed the characters that you used. Be aware that Arial Unicode MS is over 22MB by itself, so embedding the entire font can enormously increase the size of your files. The Benefits of Unicode Unicode is an international standard, first published in 1991, that now defines more than 100,000 different characters, ideograms, and symbols from almost every language group in the world. The decimal and hexadecimal values of the characters shown in this appen- dix are the same as the values specified in Unicode. The standardization of these language groups’ symbols — known as glyphs — is a huge boon for communication. Microsoft is a strong supporter of Unicode. Files saved in Windows are now stored using an encoding of Unicode called UTF-8. This encoding ensures that the characters in a disk file will remain stable regardless of the various input languages that may be selected on a computer at any given time. ࡗ 594 Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 594 We haven’t attempted to include every known Unicode character here. Entire books that document the standard — including tens of thousands of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ideograms — are available from the Unicode Consortium at www.unicode.org. In this book, Chapter 7 includes a chart of some of the Unicode characters available in Arial and Times New Roman. In this appendix, by contrast, Figure A-5 is a chart showing useful symbols that are found in Lucida Sans Unicode and Arial Unicode MS. We show a column for each character in both of those fonts because the appearance sometimes dif- fers notably between the two. Also, some symbols appear only in one font and not the other. This is indicated by a blank space in one font’s column. The position of a character in the Unicode scheme is often represented using a number, as follows: U+20AC, for instance, for a euro sign (decimal 8364). We simply show in our charts the decimal and hex values without tacking on the “U+” indicator. Also, the Unicode Consortium usually specifies the names of defined characters in all caps. For leg- ibility’s sake, we’ve written out the character names for you in upper- and lowercase, although the all-cap version is technically more correct. In no way do we believe that we’ve shown here every character that might possibly be useful to you. Also, please note that the charts we’ve designed for this book were created using a beta version of Windows Vista. Characters that weren’t included in the Vista fonts then may have become a part of those fonts by the time you read this or shortly thereafter. As always, be sure to test any characters and fonts you wish to include in a document before relying on those characters to be there. Have fun using these characters! The only limit is your imagination. Make your own snowman. Does a collection of all the glyphs of all the world’s language groups really need a symbol of a snowman? Who knows, but there he is, top hat and all, at position U+2603. (see Figure A-5) That’s funny, but some sillier things have been fended off by the Unicode Consortium. The group rejected a request to reserve charac- ter positions for Klingon, a made-up language spoken only by Star Trek devotees. For a complete set of Vista glyphs and symbols, download Strange Characters in Vista, a PDF e-book, from http://WindowsSecrets.com/vista. note ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 595 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 595 Figure A-3: The Wingdings character set. The original Wingdings font first appeared way back in Windows 3.1. Like its 1998 sibling, named Webdings, Wingdings contains approximately 220 symbols, most of which require a fairly large size to be legible. ࡗ 596 Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 596 Figure A-3 (continued) ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 597 34_577048 appa.qxp 11/29/06 8:24 PM Page 597 [...]... (continued) Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 607 ࡗ 608 Appendix A: Vista Symbols Figure A-5 (continued) ࡗࡗࡗ ࡗࡗࡗ Figure A-5 (continued) Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 609 ࡗ 610 Appendix A: Vista Symbols Figure A-5 (continued) ࡗࡗࡗ ࡗࡗࡗ Figure A-5 (continued) Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 611 ࡗ 612 Appendix A: Vista Symbols Figure A-5 (continued) ࡗࡗࡗ ࡗࡗࡗ Figure A-5 (continued) Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 613 Index... 102 103 memory requirements, 105 product edition availability, 98 technical requirements, 105 thumbnail view availability, 104 visual style arrangement, 106 WDDM driver requirements, 105 window color scheme/ transparency choices, 106 viewing, 4 window chrome translucency, 3 album selection, WMP 11, 261 alerts, Security Center, 218 All Programs command (Start menu), 7, 60, 108 109 , 148 Always Available... options, Windows Sidebar, 158–160 advanced customization, Start menu, 113–114 advanced features, Mail feature, 506 advanced restoration, 559 Advanced Search button, 141 Advanced tab (System Properties dialog box), 70 Aero interface thumbnail views, 3 user experiences configuration, 106 dynamic window animations, 104 Flip 3D feature availability, 103 104 heightened sense of depth advantage, 102 103 memory...ࡗ 598 Appendix A: Vista Symbols Figure A-3 (continued) ࡗࡗࡗ ࡗࡗࡗ Figure A-3 (continued) Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 599 ࡗ 600 Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗࡗࡗ Figure A-4: The Webdings character set The Webdings font has been included in every version of Windows since Windows 98 ࡗࡗࡗ Figure A-4 (continued) Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 601 ࡗ 602 Appendix A: Vista Symbols Figure A-4 (continued)... (continued) Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 603 ࡗ 604 Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗࡗࡗ Figure A-5: Symbols in Lucida Sans Unicode and Arial Unicode MS These fonts support approximately 1,800 and 39,000 characters, respectively We show on these pages a subset of the symbols in these fonts that may be most useful to you ࡗࡗࡗ Figure A-5 (continued) Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 605 ࡗ 606 Appendix A: Vista Symbols Figure... advantages/disadvantages, 100 features, 100 product edition availability, 98 battery meters, mobile power management, 415 BIOS screen, clean install method, 47 bit rate HD video settings, 341–342 regular video settings, 341 BitLocker feature accessing, 229 advantages of, 15 availability, 15 Manage Keys link, 230 black shadow appearance, Windows Sidebar, 148–149 Blocked Senders list, Mail feature, 505 blue Sidebar icon (Windows. .. 55 time formats, 47 time zone configuration, 55–56 user name prompt, 53 Welcome Center window, 57–58 Windows is loading files message, 47–48 Windows Updates, 60 Clear command, 574 ClearType fonts, 192, 194–195 ࡗࡗࡗ clock new features, 117 three clock display, 118 Clock gadget, Windows Sidebar, 153 Close Windows Media Center action, 372 Closed Captioning, Media Center configuration, 371 Cmdlets (commandlets),... Where, 586 Write, 586 commercial fonts, 210 211 commercials, removing from recorded TV shows, 334 Compare command, 574 Compatibility Report, Vista installation, 63 composing e-mail messages, 499 Computer Management window, 59 Computer option, Start menu, 112 computer-related options, clean install method, 54 condensed fonts, 211 configuration Aero user experience, 106 Calendar application appointments,... 238–239 Windows Sidebar advanced configuration options, 158–159 display, 150–151 gadgets, 154–156 general, 7 property configuration, 150–151 Connect To option, Start menu, 112 consent options, User Account Control, 236 Consolas fonts, 191–192 Constantia fonts, 191–192 contacts, e-mail adding new, 509 discussed, 507 editing, 510 exporting, 511 folder access, 508 importing, 511 organizing, 510 viewing,... 508 importing, 511 organizing, 510 viewing, 509 Contacts folder, 126 Contacts gadget, Windows Sidebar, 153 contacts integration, Mail feature, 503 context sensitivity command bar, 121 searches, 110, 121, 140 control codes, 128 through 159, 173–174 Control Panel command (Start menu), 3, 12 Control Panel search bar, 9 10 controllers, game, 402 Convert command, 574–575 Cookies option (Delete Browsing History . devotees. For a complete set of Vista glyphs and symbols, download Strange Characters in Vista, a PDF e-book, from http://WindowsSecrets.com /vista. note ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 595 34_577048. which you can paste the characters into documents. ࡗ ࡗ ࡗ Appendix A: Vista Symbols ࡗ 593 Apps That Help You Pick Your Fonts Some Vista applications will actually help you find a character you enter,. users of Windows, Macs, and Linux have versions of these fonts installed. 2. Use Lucida Sans Unicode when needed. This font has been present by default in Windows since version 98 and most Windows