April 2004 Tech Tip

This month I will explain how to align text in your signs. The main idea is to place a <return> character in strategic places in the sign text in order for you to customize its display. The picture below shows a typical example of how sign text can look without the adjustments that will be explained later:

As you can see, the default alignment of the sign text without adjustments can leave a lot to be desired. To display a multi-word text line so it stays in a single line, you will have to insert one or more text <returns> before and after the text in the sign. In CNW though, you'll have to do more than just press your <return> key. Start by placing your cursor at the beginning of the text (see picture below)

Then hold down your Ctrl key on your keyboard while you press your Enter key (known as Return on older keyboards). In this case you'll have to press Enter twice. Here's what that will look like:

Next, place your cursor at the end of the sign text, like this:

Now, as before, hold down your Ctrl key and press your Enter key, once again in this case press it twice and it will look like this:

You can then close the Object Properties box of the sign object and here's the final result:

Pretty cool, huh? This of course is not all you can do to rearrange your sign text. Experiment with different words and placements of the <returns> in your sign to see how you can come up with customized text in all of your signs!

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Shown below are some little known characters that can also be used in sign text in CNW. The easiest way to use them here is to simply highlight the character you want with your cursor (right here in the article) then right-click the highlighted character and choose Copy from the menu. Then you can place your cursor where you want it to appear in your sign, right click there and choose Paste to insert the desired character.

Extra Text Characters:

 € ƒ … † ‡ ˆ ‰ Š š ‹ › Œ œ • · – — ¯ ˜ ™ © ® Ÿ ¡ ¿

¢ £ ¤ ¥ § ¨ ª º ° « » ¬ ± × ÷ ¹ ² ³ ¼ ½ ¾ µ ¶ ¸ ´ Þ

þ ß À à Á á Â â Ã ã Ä ä Å å Æ æ Ç ç È è É é Ê ê Ë ë

Ì ì Í í Î î Ï ï Ð ð Ñ ñ Ò ò Ó ó Ô ô Õ õ Ö ö Ø ø Ù ù Ú

ú Û û Ü ü

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If you have any questions, you can contact me at:

Ewasx@cybernetworlds.net

Or you can telegram me while you are in CNW.

~Ewasx~