ZWNBSP (Today's WOW-MM) (Word 2000/SR-1/SP2)

[jscher2000]

In today's WOODY's OFFICE FOR MERE MORTALS (sign up here), it is said that you can insert a unicode character by typing:

FEFF

and then immediately pressing Alt+X. This does not seem to do anything on my computer. Note: It might be easier to test with 0025 (which should give you a % sign) than the code above, which makes a character that you normally can't see.

Request: If this works on your computer, can you open the Tools>Customize...>Keyboard... dialog, press Alt+X and tell me what command it is assigned to?

Workaround: If this turns out to be an XP and higher option, you can insert the ZWNBSP (zero-width non-breaking space) in Word 2000 using a macro like this one:

<pre>Sub InsertZeroWidthNonBreakingSpace()
If Selection.Type <> wdSelectionIP Then
If MsgBox("Replace selection?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo) = vbNo Then Exit Sub
End If
Selection.TypeText ChrW(&HFEFF)
ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.ShowAll = True
End Sub</pre>

to which you can assign a keystroke (such as Ctrl+Alt+Spacebar).

Or, if you prefer an AutoCorrect or AutoText solution, you can enter the unusual gray box character into your document from the VB Editor's Immediate window by pasting in the following and pressing Enter to run it:

Selection.TypeText ChrW(&HFEFF)

and then, upon returning to your document, selecting the box (if not visible, use Show All), and saving it as AutoText or an AutoCorrect entry in the usual way.

[HansV]

Hi Jefferson, in my Word 2002, Alt+X is assigned by default to the ToggleCharacterCode command. This command is not in the list of Word commands from http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/CommandsList.htm, so it must be new for Word 2002.

[StuartR]

I've looked at the Tools > Customize > Keyboard dialog box but I can't work out how you tell what command is associated with a keystroke?
(The reverse operation of finding the keystroke for a command is of course trivially easy)

StuartR

[jscher2000]

It's a "warning" feature that you're using not for its original purpose:

[StuartR]

Thanks, very useful.
Mine is the same as Hans'

StuartR

[Phil Rabichow]

Hi Stuart:
You can also find keyboard commands quickly by pressing Alt+Ctrl+NumPad+ followed by the keyboard command. See <post#=127986>post 127986</post#>

[StuartR]

Thanks Phil. I did know that once, but the grey cells seem to be wearing out...

StuartR

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Jefferson,

The following macro should work somewhat like "ToggleCharacterCode", in Word2000.
You could assign Alt+X as the shortcut.

I don't have access to Word2002 right now, so perhaps it works a little differently.
To keep it simple, the hex numbers have to have four digits (so you'd need to use 006d or 006D for an "m").
The letter or hex number is selected after the macro has run, but you don't need to select anything before you run it (it toggles the character or hex number to the left of the IP, or at the end of the current selection).
Running it again toggles back.

I just hacked it together, so no guarantees...
BTW, I didn't see anything in WOW-MM (current issue on the web: Feb 7th); do you have the number of the issue by chance?

<img src=/S/cheers.gif border=0 alt=cheers width=30 height=16> Klaus

<pre>Sub ToggleCharacterCode2000()
Dim i
Dim sLike As String
sLike = "[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]"
Dim sHexNumber As String
Dim rngHexNumber As Range
Selection.Collapse (wdCollapseEnd)
Set rngHexNumber = Selection.Range
rngHexNumber.start = rngHexNumber.start - 4
If rngHexNumber.Text Like sLike Then
rngHexNumber.Text = ChrW("&H" & rngHexNumber.Text)
Else
rngHexNumber.start = rngHexNumber.End - 1
sHexNumber = AscW(rngHexNumber.Text)
sHexNumber = Hex(sHexNumber And &HFFFF&)
While Len(sHexNumber) < 4
sHexNumber = "0" & sHexNumber
Wend
rngHexNumber.Text = sHexNumber
End If
rngHexNumber.Select
End Sub</pre>

[Phil Rabichow]

<hr>grey cells seem to be wearing out<hr>

Grey cells--grey cells. That's what they have in my retirement home. <img src=/S/rofl.gif border=0 alt=rofl width=15 height=15>

[jscher2000]

<P ID="edit" class=small>(Edited by jscher2000 on 25-Apr-03 11:08. Fixed line wrapping in the attachment. Paste into a mail message to bring the links to life.)</P>Thanks, Klaus. I haven't tried that one yet. I am attaching the newsletter as text.

[Klaus Linke]

Hi Jefferson,

Thank you -- didn't get that edition yet, and it was very interesting.

OT: Woody's {eq} field avoids all hyphenations.
Jack Lyon's method of inserting a FEFF (zero-width no-break space) where you don't want Word to hyphenate works well -- but Word will never hyphenate the part that follows the FEFF.

So if you inserted it at unbe(U+FEFF)lievable to avoid the hyphenation unbe-lievable, Word will still hyphenate un-believable, but never unbelie-vable (at least in my Word2000).

If you want to allow hyphenation points after the U+FEFF (or in fact anyplace where Word wouldn't usually hyphenate), you could do that with combinations of the two characters U+FEFF and 1F (optional hyphen = Ctrl+Hyphen).
(slightly edited *twice* because the original combinations didn't work right)

But that's so geeky I doubt I'll ever use it <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

All this seems more like "dirty tricks" than proper use of the Unicode character FEFF, since FEFF really marks a word boundary... no wonder that Word puts a red squiggly line under most words if you insert it.

<img src=/S/cheers.gif border=0 alt=cheers width=30 height=16> Klaus

[Klaus Linke]

That's so embarrassingly stupid that I'm tempted to delete the previous message and hide under a stone for the rest of the weekend.

The optional hyphen alone does quite well anywhere to allow Word to hyphenate ("unb-elievable").
No combinations with FEFF needed.

Together with the optional hyphen (Ctrl+hyphen) and its twin brother, 200B (zero-width space), FEFF (zero width no-break space) should take care of all hyphenation problems.

You can use 200B to make Word line-wrap where it usually wouldn't do so (for example after the slash / in "national/international trade", or in URLs).

<img src=/S/cheers.gif border=0 alt=cheers width=30 height=16> Klaus