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unicode arrows in FM 10

Advisor ,
Dec 09, 2012 Dec 09, 2012

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OK, so I'm using Arial as my standard font. I go to the curiously geeky character palette and select Arial as the font. Then I locate 21E7, a.k.a. upwards white arrow; it's clearly visible on the palette, which is encouraging. But what shows up in my document, both on-screen and as a .pdf? a question-mark.  Clearly some sort of gap or discrepancy between interface and reality which I'm failing to appreciate … hints and tips welcome.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 10, 2012 Dec 10, 2012

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> ... so I'm using Arial as my standard font.

Try Arial Unicode MS.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 10, 2012 Dec 10, 2012

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Are you using the system or the FM character map?

Anyway, I just tried this in FM9 on Win7/64.

The 21E7 code point is not populated in "Arial", although simple Arial does seem to have numerous Unicode glpyhs. I had expected it to be the same old Western 1252 set, but MS has apparently extended it somewhat.

21E7 is populated in "Arial Unicode MS", and pastes into FM with no problem, as an "UPWARDS WHITE ARROW". If I change the font to Arial, it reverts to a "?".

If I were going to use this in a document, I'd be tempted to implement it as a Variable, so that the font assignment is deliberate, sticky and ends after the glyph.

Character Format:

Name: Arial_Unicode_MS

Font Family Arial Unicode MS (everything else As-Is)

New Variable:

Name: char.U+2137.upwards_white_arrow

Def: <Arial_Unicode_MS>\u21e7

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Advisor ,
Dec 10, 2012 Dec 10, 2012

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Thanks for the assorted tips – I beat the problem into submission by going for Arial Unicode MS and a character style. When the FM character palette offers visible characters for U+2423 and U+21E7 in Arial it's clearly being optimistic … or using some sort of hard-coded list instead of reading the font from the PC.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 11, 2012 Dec 11, 2012

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> When the FM character palette ...

Ah. I was using the MS Windows7 Character Map, and it does not show U+21E7 as populated in regular Arial.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 10, 2012 Dec 10, 2012

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When I run this experiment in Wordpad, I get a similar result; a "no glyph" box when Arial is applied to the U+21E7 character.

If I save that setup as RTF, and open it in MS Word, on the other hand, Word silently converts the missing glyph's font to "Cambria Math", and shows an outlined up arrow. This is all-to-typical "Bill Gates is smarter than you are" MS behavior. I haven't checked to see if one can drill down into a menu that would turn this feature off.

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Participant ,
Dec 11, 2012 Dec 11, 2012

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Hi Niels

Try this:

1. Search for "Upwards arrow" on this site:

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/2191/index.htm

Typing Alt +2191 does not work, so proceed with the next steps.

2. In Windows Character Map, go to Unicode 2191.

3. Copy the character and paste it in FrameMaker.

This always works for me, even in DITA XML and HTML.

Cheers

Yves

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Community Expert ,
Dec 11, 2012 Dec 11, 2012

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> Typing Alt +2191 does not work ...

There's a registry hack to enable that, and other alternatives.

Here's a typical resource:

http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/08/17/three-ways-to-enter-unicode-characters-in-windows/

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Advisor ,
Dec 11, 2012 Dec 11, 2012

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Hello, Yves – I've found when mixing Windows and Frame that I get irritating messages about MS Shell Dlg [or something like that], so I tend to avoid it. fileformat.info is a great resource for checking unicode values, though; I've used it many times, probably most often when updating my harmonium scores wiki from a W*ws PC or a Mac instead of its native Linux …

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