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How to create an Omega or other character

Under "Wiring and Regulations", the thread "Confessions of an Electrician" ran off many topics. I managed to make my contribution about two-way switched immersion heater (which elicited a lively discussion) and Weirdbeard complained about the problems of creating the Greek letter Omega. Lisa has rightly called time on the thread now, but I think that continuation of this discussion on a new thread is quite in order.


 

Posted by Legh Richardson on Sep 13, 2019 4:33 pm





Chris Pearson:




weirdbeard:

It must have just been one of those glitches, all seems normal my end except still not being able to log out and despite many requests it still seems beyond the technical capabilities to make an ohms available. :(




WhΩse capabilities?



It is possible but I think it depends how your keyboard layout is arranged.

In MS Word, use insert tab, then symbol, then select appropriate symbol …. Ω, then copy, then paste into here. Seems a long way round but the ALT codes are not recognised  by my keyboard setup...



Legh




 





It seems that nobody has described the use of the Microsoft Character Map for this purpose. The Insert | Symbol command in Word produces quite a number of symbols but the Character Map is  much more extensive and works in virtually any Windows application, not just Word.


The Character Map is found in all recent versions of Windows. In Windows 10 it is invoked under Start | Windows Accessories, or you can just  search for it by right-clicking Start (Windows symbol) then selecting Run and entering its name. I use it a lot so I have created a short cut on my task bar.


The grid shows all the regular alphabetic and numeric characters, punctuation marks, then goes on to common accentuated versions of letters. Then follows a whole slew of Greek, Cyrillic and Arabic characters.







You select a character from the grid. You then click the SELECT button and it shows below. Then click the COPY button to copy it to the clipboard. You then go the text where you want to insert it and select Paste, or CTRL + V.


When a character is selected, a number shows bottom left following "U +". This is the Unicode for the character expressed in hexadecimal. On the right shows the corresponding fast key-stroke. This is done by holding down the ALT key and keying in the four-digit decimal equivalent of the Unicode on the right numerical keypad. In the first example I have shown, I have selected a proper, mid-height decimal point. The Unicode is 00B7 and the decimal equivalent is 0183. It is also possible to produce this same symbol by holding down the ALT key and keying in the three-digit decimal equivalent of the extended 8-bit ASCII code, in this case 250.


To produce a capital Omega,  you  need to scroll down a bit further to find and select it, then click on COPY, then SELECT and go to the text and enter CTRL + V. As Legh says, there is no key-code available here - because the Unicode value in decimal would be too large for four digits.





Examples of use.


Characteristic impedance 75 Ω
π = 3·1416


If you want more fun with the Character Map, select the Advanced View box. However this is well beyond where I want to go.


It is odd that the "Insert Special Character" button on this forum front end message compose box produces only a limited number of characters, not even the Omega symbol used to illustrate the button.


The usage of HTML and XML directives to produce these characters, as some have demonstrated, seems to me to bit like using a steamroller to crack a nut - unless you are seriously involved with web page design or the like.








  • Denis,

    I found this an interesting discussion also. My approach has always been rather like yours (though as I generally have it open I normally just switch into word without using the character map application). Perhaps with the character map you can explain the difference between the 'Greek Capital Omega' character (Ω U+03A9) and the 'Ohm Sign' character (Ω U+2126) as I have never seen any difference.

    Alasdair
  • Δ Θ Σ Φ Ω α β γ δ ε ζ η θ λ μ π σ ω ϕ ϵ ..... How right you are Denis.. Useful information


    Legh

  • Alasdair Anderson:

    . . .  Perhaps with the character map you can explain the difference between the 'Greek Capital Omega' character (Ω U+03A9) and the 'Ohm Sign' character (Ω U+2126) as I have never seen any difference.

    Alasdair




     

    No, I don't see any difference either, Alasdair. My guess is that this duplication is due to grouping. The first instance is a group of Greek letters; the second is a group of awkward but useful symbols.


    There are probably a few other duplications like this if you look around.
  • Denis,

    I think you are probably right, though I am not sure about 'awkward but useful'. Those using the ohm sign should know it is a Greek capital Omega while the rest of them seem to be currencies (though ₤ is Lira, not Pound which is £ in the normal character set with a single line), none of which I can see myself using in normal circumstances, and a few others which I am unlikely to use, the only exceptions being perhaps № and Tm. More useful might be symbols such as μₒ and εₒ which currently have to be two separate characters but we can't have everything.

    Alasdair
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Denis, I agree it is odd that in the replying to a post toolbar menu, the special character menu as denoted by an ohms symbol does not contain an ohms symbol, 


    This was posted 4th of April 2019 in a topic by Sparkingchip called 'here we are time to start checking in:

     

    Lisa Miles:

    Quick update for you. Had our teleconference call with the community software suppliers and they too understood the hilarious irony of having the omega symbol as the icon for a symbols pack which doesn't actually contain the omega symbol or any other greek alphabet letters either... ?


    They'll look to add those in shortly if its an easy configuration change or if not, then look to using a different symbol pack set altogether, much as they recently did with our general emoji offering for those who remember the pack of only 10 available emojis that we had previously... ?


    I'll keep you updated on progress... ?



    And here is a 2012 topic on the same subject:

    https://www2.theiet.org/forums/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=205&threadid=48189