Add two text utilities to PL (Windows)

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photoken
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Add two text utilities to PL (Windows)

Beitrag von photoken »

There are two very useful utilities for working with text that can be added to your copy of PhotoLine:
  • A tool to select and apply any special character included in a font. For Adobe "Pro" fonts, this can mean ligatures, old-style numerals, additional accents and fractions, etc.
  • An ability to generate the "Lorem Ipsum" filler text.
Special Characters
Use the Windows Character Map utility -- add it to PL's external programs and specify its image type as "None". The executable's fully qualified path is:
"C:\Windows\System32\charmap.exe"

To access the special characters (such as the old-style numerals): In the "Group by" field, select the "Unicode Subrange" item, then in the auxiliary "Group By" window, scroll down to select the "Private Use Characters" item. Then you can scroll down through the characters in the main window to find the ones you need. This image shows where to find the old-style numerals:
charmap.jpg
Lorem Ipsum generator
This one is trickier to implement because it uses an IE shortcut to access the Lorem Ipsum site on the Internet where you can generate the text and copy it for pasting into PL. Here are the steps:
  1. Create a shortcut to IE in any convenient folder. The path to the IE executable is:
    "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"
  2. Open the Properties of that newly created shortcut and add the URL for the Lorem Ipsum site to the "Target" field on the "Shortcut" tab. The target field should look like this (quotes included):
    "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" http://lipsum.com/
  3. Optionally, change the name of the shortcut to "Lorem Ipsum".
  4. In PL, add that shortcut to the list of external programs. Unfortunately, the path to the executable will automatically revert to the "C:\Program Files..." entry for IE, so you'll have to manually change the path to point to the shortcut that you've created. For example:
    "F:\Program Files\Misc\Lorem Ipsum.lnk"
  5. Set the image type to "None".
That's it! Now you can instantly access the Lorem Ipsum site to generate the filler text that you need.

N.B.: When pasting the text into PL, make sure you use Edit...Paste as Unformatted Text (Ctrl+Shift+V). Otherwise, the pasted text will change your font settings.

Enjoy!
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Ken
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mwenz
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Re: Add two text utilities to PL (Windows)

Beitrag von mwenz »

For Windows, BableMap is a "better" (certainly fuller) character map utility. Mac users don't "suffer" from Windows' lack of a good character map utility. I would like to see MS rectify this in the future.

For Ipsum text, there are dozens or more generators on the Internet. I'm partial to using the non-standard ones, like Coffee Ipsum. When I need to quickly generate some plaeholder text for an application that doesn't have the facility, I use PagePlus, InDesign or QuarkXpress as they have it built-in. Which works for me as I almost always am already working in one of those applications.
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Herbert123
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Re: Add two text utilities to PL (Windows)

Beitrag von Herbert123 »

There is a far, FAR superior character map utility available in Windows, but you will have to install Japanese input support first.
http://www.yesjapan.com/video/pages/ins ... vista.html

Next, after installing the language bar, draw a new text frame in Photoline. Select a well supported font, such as Myriad Pro.

Then open the language bar, and switch to Japanese.
step1.jpg
Next, click on "IME Pad", and be amazed: start writing your characters by actually writing the character you require. Works for Japanese and Chinese support. But Western ones can be written as well.

Of course, works best with a tablet ;-)
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Zuletzt geändert von Herbert123 am Mo 06 Jul 2015 03:31, insgesamt 1-mal geändert.
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Herbert123
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Re: Add two text utilities to PL (Windows)

Beitrag von Herbert123 »

To display the character map, click on the second icon on the far left (second of four from the top).

Unfortunately, I cannot load up a screenshot, because this forum software refuses the 60kb 900x600px screenshot for some inexplicable reason!!! And external linking only allows a measly 640x480px!!! So no screenshot.

The great thing about this character map is that it includes far more categories, and the character map window can be resized. The characters can be changed in size as well.
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System: Win10 64bit - i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), Nvidia GTX1080 8GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820, 2XSamsung SA850 (2560*1440) and 1XHP2408H 1920*1200 portrait