Quote:
Originally Posted by Nate the Great
Not really a PNQ, but a tech support question.
I'm doing a lot of writing in Microsoft Word right now that requires me to insert a lot of symbols (Greek letters for variables, mathematical operators, etc.). And using Insert->Symbol is getting tedious. Is there a way to set up a toolbar that just shows a row of symbols so I can click the toolbar and instantly add a symbol in just one click?
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If you have pre-ribbon Word, yes, you should be able at least to add the Symbol dialog to a toolbar or to a keyboard shortcut. Certainly you should be able to give the symbols their own keyboard shortcuts, I think. I never tried assigning buttons to individual symbols. I would doubt that that would be available.
However, if you've got a ribbon Word, congratulations! You have the most stylish Microsoft Word ever created. Unfortunately I guess maintaining code for useful things like editing toolbars and keyboard shortcuts was too hard, so instead Microsoft gave us a bunch of pointless visual "upgrades". I think the ability to add and remove pre-existing toolbars has finally been added, however, so maybe they'll get around to full customization within a few years.
Personally, whatever word processor I use, I keep all the symbols I use in a convenient place -- either I put them in another window or I keep track of where I just used them -- and copy + paste from there, rather than going to Insert Symbol or Symbol Map every single time I want to put in a theta.
[edit] I checked on Word 6 and there's no way to do a toolbar button, aside from a macro. Which you could totally do if the symbol has a keyboard shortcut. So if newer versions don't have the symbol-on-a-button capability, you could record a macro and assign it to a button.