Adding special characters to text

You can insert special characters into text in three ways; by using the Character drop-down list on the Text toolbar, by typing the character value, or by using the Character Map dialog. Default special characters are available in the drop-down list as standard, but other special characters can be added.

To add default special characters to text:

1. Double-click the text to enter text-insertion mode. The Text toolbar is displayed.
2. Move the insertion point to where you want to insert the special character.
3. Select a character from the Character drop-down list on the toolbar to insert it.

   By default, the list contains diameter, degrees, and plus or minus characters.

You can also insert the default special characters directly into the text using the following keyboard shortcuts:

Ø	diameter	Ctrl+Alt+D
±	plus/minus	Ctrl+Alt+P
°	degrees	Ctrl+Alt+S

To add other special characters to the text:

1. Double-click the text to enter text-insertion mode.
2. Move the insertion point to where you want to insert the special character.
3. If you know the Windows character value, hold down the Alt key and use the keypad to type the value of the required character.

   This inserts the character into the text, and into the Character drop-down list on the Text toolbar.

4. If you do not know the character value, select All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Character Map from the Windows Start menu.

   The Character Map dialog is displayed, and contains the available Windows characters and their values.

5. Select the Advanced view option to display all the options on the dialog.
6. From the Character set list, select Unicode. Ensure the Font in the Character Map dialog is the same font used in PowerShape.
   Note: The PowerShape default font is Tahoma.
7. Click a character from the dialog.

   The example below shows the ÷ (divided by) character:

   

   In the bottom-right corner of the Character Map dialog, the character value (Keystroke) is displayed, in this example Alt+0247.

8. Click Select. This displays the character in the Characters to Copy box.
9. Click Copy.
10. In PowerShape, right-click in the Character drop-down list on the Text toolbar, and select Paste from the context menu.
11. Select the character from the drop-down list to insert it into the text at the specified insertion point.
    Note: Only Windows character values between 32 and 256 are valid.

Note: To store the characters in the model and add them to the Character drop-down list, insert the characters into the Special Characters box on the Text page of the Options dialog.