If you missed my first two posts on how to spice up your blogs and comments with special symbols like ☺, ♥, ♦, ♣, ♠, ♂, ♀, ♪, ♫, ☼, ¶, §, ™, ¢, ©, ®, ¼, ½, ¾, and more, click here for part one and click here for part two.
Now let us explore how to add billions and billions and billions of all types of symbols to your blogs and comments.
First, let us presume that you have a version of Microsoft Word on your computer. If you don't you must be the only one in the world who doesn't -- ☺☺☺. Doesn't really matter what version, although the layout will be different.
I will be using screen shots of Word 2007, but if there's enough demand for a separate post using Word 2003, let me know via a comment.
Open your copy of Word 2007.
At the top left of the screen, you should see the Insert command:
Click on Insert and you should see this over at the far top right:
Click on that itty bitty little down arrow directly under the word Symbol and you should see this:
Symbols that you have used recently show up in those first four rows. We want to explore more symbols, though, billions and billions and billions of symbols, so click on "More Symbols":
Once you click on "More Symbols," you should see this:
Ah-ha! Look at where we are!
The "Font" should show (normal text) as it does here. If it doesn't on your computer, click on the font down arrow, scroll all the way to the top, and click on "(normal text)" to make it easier for you to follow along.
Use the scroll bar (red arrow in the screen shot below) in the Symbol window to scroll down until you see the © symbol (yellow arrow):
From here, there are two choices, depending on just exactly how your computer is set up. Once the © symbol is highlighted, some of you will be able to simply click on the Insert button (blue arrow) to insert the © symbol in Word 2007. Then you can simply copy it from Word 2007 to your ActiveRain blog or comment.
Others will need to use the Character code (green arrow). Note that it's a three-digit code. If the three-digit code doesn't work on your computer, add a leading zero (0169). The Character codes work by holding the ALT key down and typing the three- or four-digit code.
Now let's go back and click on the down arrow for the Font box (red arrow in screen shot below) and you should see the beginning of an alphabetical list of all the fonts installed on your computer:
Click on any font and it will display all the characters you can get from that font. Use the scroll bar to scroll up and down in the font character list, click on any character or symbol you want, and then note the character code for that character or symbol.
Once again, there are two choices, depending on just exactly how your computer is set up. Some of you will be able to simply click on the Insert button to insert symbols in Word 2007 and then simply copy them from Word 2007 to your ActiveRain blog or comment.
Others will need to use the ALT key and the Character code, remembering to add a leading zero if the three-digit code doesn't work.
You can also make a list of all the characters and Character codes that you use most often and simply resort to the ALT key and character code whenever you are typing in your ActiveRain blog or comment.
Here's the caveat, though. The ALT key and Character codes in your blog or comments (usually) only work using the "(normal text)." Here's how to work around that and get billions and billions and billions of symbols:
Let's say that I want to use the telephone symbol from Wingdings. Choose the font Wingdings from the Font box and click on the telephone symbol. You'll see that the Character code is 40, but you might need to make that into a three-digit or four-digit code using leading zeroes depending on your computer.
If I hold the ALT key down and type 40, 040, or 0040, all I get is an opening parenthesis: ( ( (
This is where it gets a little tricky for your blog. Leave those parentheses there, save your blog post, edit it, and switch to the HTML tab:
When you do that, here is what you'll see for those parentheses (red arrow):
What you want to do is surround those three parentheses with the HTML code that tells ActiveRain to use the WingDings font. Notice that I'm using the Georgia font for my post (yellow arrow). Somewhere in your HTML coding, probably at the very beginning, you'll see "span style" coding within two brackets (green arrows). Copy that span style coding -- make sure you get the opening and closing brackets -- and paste it directly in front of your first parenthesis. Then put a closing span command directly behind your third parenthesis:
Where it says "font-family: 'georgia': in my example, change georgia to wingdings.
When you do that and save your draft, you should see your three telephones, albeit old-fashioned ones from my generation: ( ( (
You can make your telephone monster size if you want, simply by changing the font-size command (currently 12 pt) to a monster number, like 72 pt (green arrow below). If you change it to a monster number, make sure you change the line-height number to match (red arrow below) or you'll just get part of a telephone because the line's not tall enough to show all of the monster symbol:
Once you do that, and save your post again, you'll get a giant telephone:
(
You can make the telephone as big as you want. Just change the font-size and the line-height. Here is a 400 pt telephone:
(
Because there are billions of fonts, and each font has an extended character symbol set, you now have access to billions and billions and billions of symbols simply by choosing a different font and using the Character codes and HTML span codes.
To use the different fonts in your comments, you'll have to use something like Nvu or Kompozer for PCs and something like Scribefire (I think it is) for Apples.
Leave a comment if you find this post helpful or if you have any questions.
We are ActiveRain!
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Wow that's a lot of information and steps, I hope I can remember it all when I try it out. Thanks