German umlaut

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German umlaut

Postby eftilton » Sat Sep 15, 2012 8:12 am

I have several shows which require captions using German umlauts. In Version 4 this option was easily produced by using copy and paste from any source of an umlauted vowel. However in Version 5 it does not work to do that same operation, and I have no way to produce an umlaut.

Can anyone please help me? Many thanks from
Elizabeth

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Re: German umlaut

Postby im42n8 » Sat Sep 15, 2012 12:47 pm

Open "Character Map" in windows. Find the character you want, the copy it and then paste it within the caption. You should be using a character set that has the appropriate unicode version of the character for your ProShow caption.

You can convert the hexidecimal character to its decimal equivalent and then enter that into the caption as an ALT-[number] where number is the decimal equivalent (e.g., 0xf6 is decimal 0246 for the o with umlaut).

http://www.biega.com/special-char.html
Try this site for the unicode character mapping to the appropriate codes to use.

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
FPVP Blog "Making the Difficult Easier," FPVP News

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Re: German umlaut

Postby eftilton » Sat Sep 15, 2012 2:23 pm

Hi Dave,

Thanks much for your suggestion. I had already tried copy and paste from the character map, but instead of getting the umlauted vowel I get in place of a letter a strange little character somewhat resembling a comma. Maybe I do not have the correct character set.

By trial and error I found a way to get what I want. Some of my shows had been originally created in Version 4, in which the umlaut was easily produced by copy and paste. I have to take the slide containing the caption I want from one of those shows, copy the whole slide (not just the caption, doesn't work that way), and paste it into the show I am producing from scratch in Version 5. Then by combining two slides and rearranging the contents I have my umlauted vowel. I have no clue as to why or how it works that way and there must be a better option. Maybe Part 2 of your reply contains the secret but this Old Lady can't figure out how to do it. :?

Thanks anyway from
Elizabeth

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Re: German umlaut

Postby im42n8 » Mon Sep 17, 2012 8:56 am

You must have the right character set. That is, you need a character set that contains the character(s) you're looking for. The typeface you're using for your caption must, therefore, be the same as the typeface from which you're obtaining the umlauted character. If they're different, there's no telling what character you're going to end up with in your caption.

Copy and paste is no different in v5 than it is in v4. Something else must be going on in your case. You should see no difference whatsoever. If the typeface is not the same in both versions, you very well could see a difference in the resulting character.

So, knowing what the ALT-[number] sequence is for the desired character is not enough. Make sure that if one typeface is VERDANA, so is the other typeface.

Note: a typeface is the way a character looks. A font is composed of multiple characteristics including typeface, weight, size, slope, width, etc. 10-Point Arial is a font, 12-point bold italic Arial is a different font. But, ProShow uses the term "font" loosely to refer to the typeface (you specify the slope (i.e, italic or not) and weight (bold or not). In producer, you also can change the effective kerning (spacing between characters) and leading (spacing between lines). Each is an element of a font.

Dale
What's New: Tools for ProShow: v11.42a Access ProShow capabilities Photodex doesn't provide (For PSG & PSP).
FPVP Blog "Making the Difficult Easier," FPVP News

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Re: German umlaut

Postby eftilton » Mon Sep 17, 2012 10:08 am

Hi Dale,

I am sorry I addressed you by the wrong name before, but I have a son named Dave and once I have typed in Da the rest is autofill.

I really appreciate your taking the time to explain this to me. I think I have got the knack of it now. I believe my problem was that I was using a free font downloaded from the internet, and its character map is either unavailable or I couldn't find it. Instead of an umlauted vowel I was getting a strange little character resembling but not identical to a comma. Once I switched to a more standard font it comes out great to copy and paste from the character map.

Thank you so much.

Be well, Elizabeth

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