Legend/Labels dialog: one set of symbols?

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Roberto
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Legend/Labels dialog: one set of symbols?

Post by Roberto »

Hi,

1) In the Legend/Labels dialog there's an 'alpha' button to add symbols but clicking on that button a dialog shows up offering only a single fixed set of symbols.

I remember in the past copy-paste through the Windows Character map dialog didn't work (other mathematics/physics characters) but when just trying I succeeded in adding at least an euro sign.

Nevertheless my question stands: is it normal that the Legend/Labels-Alpha dialog in DPlot only features a single limited set of special characters? Or should there be a button to browse in other fonts?

2) Selecting special characters from the Legend/Labels dialog - Alpha button doesn't work: there's a single set of characters to choose from but once selecting any of those nothing is added to a Legend title or curve label text.
I remember in the past when using the Alpha button I could add symbols and they were added along with control characters (consuming a lot of line space when adding multiple special characters).

Sorry for the fuzzy 'I remember' stuff: I'm an on and off DPlot user. Sometimes I use DPlot a lot while other times there are weeks or months in between... not the ideal situation for getting to know software well :oops:
Roberto
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Post by DPlotAdmin »

1) In the Legend/Labels dialog there's an 'alpha' button to add symbols but clicking on that button a dialog shows up offering only a single fixed set of symbols.
Yes, the Symbol font is the only one accessible with the alpha button. You can enter Wingdings 1, 2, or 3 characters with {\w1text}, {\w2text}, or {\w3text}, but it is inconvenient because you can't see what those characters look like (at least not within this dialog). I should probably expand that "Insert Symbol" dialog to include the Wingdings fonts.
but when just trying I succeeded in adding at least an euro sign.
This should work with any character that is part of the same character set used by the font you're using for the legend. If you're using Arial or any "normal" text fonts the euro symbol is #8364 and it will work fine.
Selecting special characters from the Legend/Labels dialog - Alpha button doesn't work
Worked fine for me just now, but you have to make sure to click the Select button so that the character appears in the Insert box.
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Roberto
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Post by Roberto »

Hi David,

More characters would be useful in theory. However, Wingdings contains a lot of off-topic characters (for plotting graphs).
How comes only Symbol and Wingdings 1,2,3 are supported and not any symbol font or rather any font?
Fonts may contain 6500+ characters: character numbers 0 to 10FFF0. With fonts the character numbers are categorized: one set of numbers is supposed to be used for Latin text, an other for symbols, etc.
If DPlot only uses the character number range for symbols (range F000 - F0FF) then any dedicated symbol font could be used in DPlot so it confuses me only the four mentioned symbol fonts could be used.

If DPlot would support any symbol font it would be useful for technical realms having their own dedicated font sets or perhaps a companies house style could be reflected in their plots made with DPlot. (Eventhough a workaround for the latter could be setting a companies own font in DPlot).
Anyway, I know I had troubles more than once to add the correct e.g. units along e.g. axes and had to go second choice by e.g. using full words instead of 'official' units. However, the symbol font supported by DPlot also helped me out several times with containing e.g. micro, delta, ohm, etc.
Perhaps a dedicated symbol font for DPlot would be nice: containing a bunch of technical symbols commonly related to all supported plot types :-P

Oops, yes I forgot to select the character using the select button. I assumed highlighted = selected. Sorry: the mentoned 'bug' is not a bug; it works fine actually. Sometimes trying hasty one overlooks whole buttons apparently :-)
Roberto
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