Re: Boxed Command Keys?

["Wilcox, John (Contractor)" <wilcoxj -at- WDNI -dot- COM>]

Monica Milla wrote:

> Hello! Normally, I make action keys bold in statements like "Press
> Enter," or
> "click OK." (Enter and OK would be bold.) However, one of my clients
> insists
> that action keys should be shown within a box, so they look more like
> the
> actual key.
>
> I'm using Word 6 for Windows 95 and can't figure out how to create
> boxes

Peggy Schillinger replied:

> You need to use a actual font that produces keycap-type letters instead
of trying t create a small piece of art.  I know that Adobe offers such
a font although I can't put my hands on it right now.   The name is
something like "Keycap" or "Keyboard Cap."  You can browse through their
fonts at www.adobe.com or at www.imageclub.com/store.  Call Image Club
at 800-661-9410.

I respond:

I'm glad somebody brought this subject up, because I've been looking for
a complete key font, and I might be able to help someone else in the
process.  Monica, Word doesn't provide a way of doing what you want to
do, as you have discovered.  Peggy, thank you for the pointers, but I
didn't find any key font at Image Club or Adobe.  However, I did find a
link to 3rd party font companies:
http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/NOTES/231e.htm
I haven't checked them out yet.  I'll let you know if I find anything
applicable.

I have 3 key fonts, and I'll be glad to mail them to anyone who wants to
try them out, but you need to know about the problems I have with them.
Here's a summary.  BKCap is a nice TrueType key font.  Unfortunately, it
is missing F5, F12, and PageUp.  I suppose these were just oversights on
the part of the person who made the font.  (It was a person by the name
of D. Rakowski, and he or she used Altsys Metamorphosis to produce the
font.  This info I found in the font file.)  To make up for the lack, I
use Key Caps for the missing characters.  Key Caps belongs to Corel.  It
is a PostScript font.  This is a problem for me because I can't embed it
in Word documents; this is fast becoming a requirement for distributed
docs, and I'm sure the company doesn't want to buy ATM for everybody
just to accommodate 6 characters in one font.  Further complicating the
situation, PageUp in Key Caps looks nothing like PageDown in BKCap.
Since these keys are often used near each other, and since they also
occur often near Home, End, Insert, or Delete, I use Key Caps for all
six keys in that cluster.  Key Caps doesn't have any alphanumeric keys.
Another complication: these fonts are not the same size!  To set the
characters properly in a line of 10-point body text, BKCap must be
formatted at 9 points and lowered 1 point, while Key Caps must be
formatted at 11 points and raised 1 point.  The third font is called
Keystroke, a TrueType font.  It is complete, but the lettering on the
special keys is illegible at body text size.  (Also, it needs to be set
at 11 points and lowered 1 point.)  (I have defined styles and shortcut
keys for each of these fonts/sizes/offsets.)

So there you have it -- three fonts, none of which can be used
effectively by itself.  What I figure I'll have to do is buy some
font-editing software and create the missing characters in BKCap.  If I
do this, I'll make it available to techwr-l.


Regards,

John Wilcox, Documentation Specialist
Timberlands Information Services
Weyerhaeuser, WWC 2E2
Tacoma, WA  98477-0001  USA
253-924-7972   wilcoxj -at- wdni -dot- com

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