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Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2011-08 > 1313822767


From: "Keith Meintjes" <>
Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] symbols in SA genealogies (Sonia van Heerden)
Date: Sat, 20 Aug 2011 02:46:07 -0400


Joy,

Yes. As a variation, when you go to Insert ... Symbol in MS Word, you can
assign a "Shortcut" key. So, for example, you can assign Alt+(Dollar sign) to
be the Euro symbol.

Other likely assignments might be Alt+(plus) to be died (dagger), and
Alt+(equals) to be baptised (wavy equals).

These assignments are specific to you as a user on a particular computer.
They are saved in your Word template file.

Keith

------ Original Message ------
Received: Sat, 20 Aug 2011 02:22:54 AM EDT
From: "joy" <>
To: <>
Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] symbols in SA genealogies (Sonia van Heerden)

A much, much easier (GRIN) way, is to use MS Word's "Auto Correct" feature !
All you need to do is to decide on an easy to remember short cut of say 2
letters that do not make a known word or abbreviation, such as zx, and using
the auto correct feature say that when every you type zx word must replace it
(automatically, as you type) with the control character equivalent.

Joy

----- Original Message -----
From: Johann Hanekom
To:
Sent: Thursday, August 18, 2011 10:06 AM
Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] symbols in SA genealogies (Sonia van Heerden)


Hi Sonia

On a laptop you will find a number of keys with numbers on them, such as on
U, I, O, P, etc

To type Alt-number combinations, you need to depress and hold the blue Fn
key (bottom left of your keyboard), together with the Alt key, and then
type
the number using the numbered keys shown on the various letter keys.

Much easier to put the symbols in a text file, though, from which you can
easily copy and paste when needed...

Johann


Message: 1
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:34:59 -0400
From: Sonia van Heerden <>
Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] symbols in SA genealogies
To: <>
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"


Hi Keith

Thanks for the advice. I will try translating a short article from Dutch as
well as Afrikaans to see how it will turn out.

Some of the translations were weird. I had one article with a woman names
Catherina, and the Afrikaans translation changed her name to Margarita in
every case. In another article there was the word Nederlands, and the
translation programme changed the word to Canada, perhaps because it sees I
am in Canada.

Unfortunately with my laptop, because I do not have a numeric keypad, the
Alt numbers do not work, with the numberic lock on or off, but I did find
the character map and have used that to add the symbols in my text.

Thanks again.

Sonia


Message: 5
Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:14:44 -0400
From: "Keith Meintjes" <>
Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] symbols in SA genealogies
To: <>
Message-ID: <>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Sonia,

When using Google translate, try Dutch => English as well as Afrikaans =>
English.

For symbols, it is somewhat a matter of trial and error. In Word, try
Insert ... Symbol and see if the symbol you want is in the table that is
displayed.
Otherwise, do a Google search on ASCII Code for some sort of explanation.

To get an ASCII (or extended ASCII) symbol, hold down the ALT key and then
type the 3 or 4 digit code on the numeric key pad. Release the ALT key,
and
voila!

Baptised (wavy equal): 247
Died (dagger): 0134
Divorced (divide): 0247
Euro: 0128
British pound: 163

You can also find a vast number of Unicode symbols. To enter a Unicode
symbol, type the 4-digit number. Then, highlight (select) the number, and
type ALT+X. For instance, 2248 is the baptised symbol.

There is also a way to type HTML characters, but we won't go there!

Keith





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