So, you’re wanting to type some Latin notes quickly, but you’re sick of using the numeric keypad or you’re unable to because your laptop hates you. Here’s a good way to work around it, by having buttons to insert the text into the current point you are at in the document!
- Right click and Save-As on this link to download the file - this is all the magic code to make this work.
- Open Word 2003.
- From the main screen, press the key combination Alt-F11.
- Ensure you’re working on the Normal template, by double-clicking on Normal then Microsoft Word Objects then ThisDocument.
- Right click on the Normal title and click Import File…
- Select the file and click Open.
- This should import the file into a Module called Module1 or similar, double click on Modules then double click on the newly created module item.
- To rename it so we know what we’re dealing with, go down to the module properties (which should be in the bottom left) and click next to (Name).
- Delete what’s in the box and rename it to Macrons.
- Hit enter and it’ll update the name.
- Click on the Save icon in the top of the window to confirm the changes to the Normal template.
- Close the Microsoft Visual Basic window and you’ll be back in Word
- Click on View -> Toolbars -> Customize…
- Go to the Toolbars tab and create a new toolbar by clicking on New… and giving it a name. Ensure you’ve set Make toolbar available to: to Normal.dot.
- Change to the Commands tab.
- Scroll down in the left hand window and find Macros then click on it.
For each of the Commands in the right hand side which start with Normal.Macrons.:
- Drag the option up onto your new toolbar.
- Right click on the option and give it a more useful name. I tend to go with just the letter (or accent-free representation of it) to take up less room.
- Set the style to Text Only (Always) by clicking on that option.
At this point you’re done, and you can click on a toolbar button to insert the character in your document!
If you want to set a keyboard shortcut for your macros:
- Click on Keyboard… from the Customize screen.
- Select Macros on the left, then find the applicable macro on the right and click on it.
- Click in the box under Press new shortcut key:
- Press the key combination you want to use.
- If you are replacing an existing key combination, it’ll show what you’re replacing next to Currently assigned to:, otherwise it’ll say [unassigned]
- Click on Assign and it’s your new shortcut key.
If you want to later remove the shortcut, come back to the screen, find the macro and click Remove.
This is what the toolbar looks like on one of the computers I’ve set it up on:
**If someone wants me to make a version for OpenOffice, I’ll have a look - please leave a comment below and I’ll get right on it. **
I’d love to do one for Apple’s Pages application, but I’d need someone to buy me a copy first! 🙂