Anyone else interested in easier-to-use symbols in the fora?

Folks,

It’s occurred to me that it would be helpful if there were special characters made available here the way the Smilies are to the left of the box in which one types. That would save one the currently-necessary contortions to embed such things as degree signs in ones posts. My recollection (although I can’t recall, at the moment, from where) is that the admins have the power to add things to the Smilies patch.

My initial list includes:

  • - Degree sign
  • - Upper case omega (symbol for ohms)
  • - Lower case mu (symbol for micro)
  • - Lower case omega (common symbol for angular velocity)
  • - Lower case phi (common symbol for an angle)
  • - Lower case theta (common symbol for an angle)
  • - Lower case tau (common symbol for a time constant)
  • - Plus or minus sign
  • - Less than or equal to sign
  • - Greater than or equal to sign
  • - Not equal to sign
  • - Lower case pi
  • If there’s an easy way to do this and I’m just not bright enough to have found it, please let me know.

    If any of you agrees with me, please chime in with your symbol suggestions.

    TIA,

    Eric

    Nice idea but most of those symbols can be gotten from your keyboard. For example the degree symbol ° is gotten by holding the ALT key while type 0176 on the NumPad. These are called Alt Key Codes.

    So here are the other you asked about:

    Ω µ Φ φ Θ τ ± ≥ ≤ π

    http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/inte … dealt.html

    http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/altchrc.html

    waltr,

    Thanks for the linx!

    I wasn’t asserting that one couldn’t enter them now, I was just asking if others would appreciate, as would I, it being made easier. Also, isn’t your method dependent on the operating system and on having a numeric key pad?

    Eric

    Eric,

    Yes it would.

    I still think its a neat idea for forums such as this one. And it would make the symbols independent of the devide you’re accessing this forum from. Maybe Sparkfun will be the first to implement your idea.

    I would suggest taking it one step further and add support for LATEX which would allow for fully formatted equations and the like.

    -Bill