Typing foreign symbols (accents) in TRADOS
Thread poster: Robin Salmon (X)
Robin Salmon (X)
Robin Salmon (X)  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 05:22
German to English
+ ...
Dec 31, 2002

For a couple of years now, I have been happily typing letters with accents in French and German by using ALT and the right-hand keypad. Now, all of a sudden, the accents are not appearing and I am told things like \"Trados Workbench is not running\". In other words, the ALT key is providing shortcuts I don\'t want but is not fulfilling its usual purpose for me. Has anyone come across this same problem and, if so, how did you solve it, please? (I have reloaded the keyboard software and Office 97,... See more
For a couple of years now, I have been happily typing letters with accents in French and German by using ALT and the right-hand keypad. Now, all of a sudden, the accents are not appearing and I am told things like \"Trados Workbench is not running\". In other words, the ALT key is providing shortcuts I don\'t want but is not fulfilling its usual purpose for me. Has anyone come across this same problem and, if so, how did you solve it, please? (I have reloaded the keyboard software and Office 97, both to no effect.)

Robin
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Csaba Ban
Csaba Ban  Identity Verified
Hungary
Local time: 20:22
Member (2002)
English to Hungarian
+ ...
redefine your keys Dec 31, 2002

If you use only a handful of French and German characters (a total of around 12, if my calculations are correct), you can do happily with redefining your keys.

(in Insert: Symbol)

Instead of assigning the symbols to Alt+key combinations, you can redefine them as Alt+Ctrl+key or Alt+Shift+key, etc. even by keeping the actual keys that you are used to.

When you define a key combination, you will see what it is assigned to already, so you can avoid any double definitio
... See more
If you use only a handful of French and German characters (a total of around 12, if my calculations are correct), you can do happily with redefining your keys.

(in Insert: Symbol)

Instead of assigning the symbols to Alt+key combinations, you can redefine them as Alt+Ctrl+key or Alt+Shift+key, etc. even by keeping the actual keys that you are used to.

When you define a key combination, you will see what it is assigned to already, so you can avoid any double definitions with Trados, for example.
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Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:22
Member (2004)
English to Italian
check that the "Num Lock" key is activated Dec 31, 2002

if it\'s not, you will get the Trados maessage. It\'s happened to me. You can activate it by pressing it on the keyboard. If you don\'t want to do this every time, when you start the computer, get into setup by pressing the Del key (usually) and one of the option listed in one of the setup submenus will be Num Lock on/off. Set it on on, save the changes and exit.



HTH



Giovanni


 
Henk Peelen
Henk Peelen  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 20:22
Member (2002)
German to Dutch
+ ...
SITE LOCALIZER
Num Lock Dec 31, 2002

press Num Lock and your problems are gone.

 
Robin Salmon (X)
Robin Salmon (X)  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 05:22
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks Dec 31, 2002

Thanks, Henk! I thought

it might be something simple.

Köszönöm szépen, Csaba! I\'ll try that when I get time.


 
pidzej
pidzej  Identity Verified
Poland
Local time: 20:22
Polish to English
+ ...
forget Alt + digits Dec 31, 2002

in Word - and I suppose all language versions support it - use Ctrl + \' followed by the character you want accented (assuming you want the acute (slash-like) accent; for the grave mark, i.e., the backslash-like accent, use Ctrl+` followed by the letter of your choice; likewise, use Ctrl+Shift+; (in other words, Ctrl+ plus o, a, u, i, y to get the umlauts; remember to release the control key after the first stroke, leave Shift depressed for upper c... See more
in Word - and I suppose all language versions support it - use Ctrl + \' followed by the character you want accented (assuming you want the acute (slash-like) accent; for the grave mark, i.e., the backslash-like accent, use Ctrl+` followed by the letter of your choice; likewise, use Ctrl+Shift+; (in other words, Ctrl+ plus o, a, u, i, y to get the umlauts; remember to release the control key after the first stroke, leave Shift depressed for upper case umlaut characters; strangely, I cannot reproduce these characters in this window (why?- any ideas?) but in Word it works













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Robin Salmon (X)
Robin Salmon (X)  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 05:22
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Accents - thanks again & reasons for using ALT key Jan 1, 2003

Thanks also, Giovanni, and sorry for calling you by your surname, Ban (I should know better by now).



I know the Word system , pidzej, but stopped using it as it doesn\'t work in e-mails (or on this site); it only seems to work in Word.



I think the problem with ALT can be knowing which numbers to use. I have a list of HTML codes whih I took out of a book about building your website. Obviously, you use them in HTML to get accents.



I
... See more
Thanks also, Giovanni, and sorry for calling you by your surname, Ban (I should know better by now).



I know the Word system , pidzej, but stopped using it as it doesn\'t work in e-mails (or on this site); it only seems to work in Word.



I think the problem with ALT can be knowing which numbers to use. I have a list of HTML codes whih I took out of a book about building your website. Obviously, you use them in HTML to get accents.



I convert them as follows (2 examples):



ü: HTML ü Keyboard ALT+ 0252;

è: HTML è Keyboard ALT+ 0232.



Remember to use the numbers in the right keypad, of course.



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Robin Salmon (X)
Robin Salmon (X)  Identity Verified
Australia
Local time: 05:22
German to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Accents: showing HTML codes Jan 1, 2003

Referring to my last posting, the HTML codes are listed as & and then # (ampersand and then hash) and the number followed by a semicolon (when I typed them in, the HTML on this site turned them into the actual accents. Forgot about that - better jump-start my brain!)

 
Jack Doughty
Jack Doughty  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:22
Russian to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Set up different language keyboards Jan 1, 2003

Thanks to pidzej for the information about the Word Control key method. I had never heard of it but now I\'ve tried it and it certainly works as you say.

But as robtrans says, it only works in Word.

I prefer to set up alternative keyboards in several languages. It is easy to switch between them. I sometimes switch just to type one letter (for example, ç or â in French). This gives you a much wider choice and can be used anywhere in Windows, including here, as you see.


 


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Typing foreign symbols (accents) in TRADOS







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