Can Greek symbols like mu be included in front-panel string labels or indicators?

[LakeLogic]

I would like to use some Greek symbols in labeling my front-panel controls and/or indicators. In particular, I want to include the Greek symbol mu (ASCII character 230) in a text string to represent the prefix "micro" as in "us" for microseconds. Is there an ASCII conversion function that will do this? (Win98 and LV5.1)

[Jared 323]

I just tried what you are asking. I selected the text in the string label and then selected font dialog from the drop down menu on the toolbar. I then specified 'Symbol' font and closed the dialog. I can now type in any symbol character supported by this font. I would think this font would come standard in either W98 or some version of Office because aside from those 2 sources, i've not installed any other font program.

Good luck,
Jared

[LakeLogic]

Jared-
Thanks for your suggestion. However, unless you can find a font that contains both the standard alphanumeric characters and the desired Greek symbols, you can't in general build front-panel text strings that include Greek symbols. The fonts I've seen generally don't contain a full set of Greek symbols. What seems to be missing is a means to mix characters from more than one font in any one front panel indicator or text string. Hence, I'm still open for suggestions.

[CraigGraham]

If you're desperate, do a search in here for the word "Hebrew". This came up
a while ago and I suggested an ActiveX solution that I tested using Hebrew
text. That word is not likely to be a common word in this group and so the
messages should be easy to find.

Russ wrote in message
news:506500000005000000691E0000-984882144000@quiq.com...

> is a means to mix characters from more than one font in any one front
> panel indicator or text string. Hence, I'm still open for
> suggestions.

[Brian_Vibert]

If you make a string indicator and set it to display "\" codes (do this by selecting ""\" Codes Display" from its popup menu) then type \XX into the indicator, where XX is the hex value of the ASCII character you want to type ,ex. \E6 to display the ASCII 230 character. Then change it back to normal display. The character represnting ASCII 230 should be displayed, you can type other text around it as you please.

If you use the simple string indicator from the classic controls palette you can make it the same color as the panel so that it looks like a normal label.

The only problem I've found with this is that the mu doesn't always seem to be 230 in all fonts, the only one that I found that it was is the Terminal font, most of the others seem to
have the mu as 181.

I hope this is somewhat helpful.

Brian

[Brian_Vibert]

oops just noticed that you are using 5.1, so the simple string indicator would just be in your string palette, other than that everything else should be the same.

If this is unclear let me know, and I will try to explain better.

Brian
bvibert(@)bristolbabcock(.)com

[LakeLogic]

Gentlemen -
I can't thank you enough for your comments. I would have gotten back to you sooner, but I was having too much fun playing around with my newly-found labelling capability.

In playing around with "\" code method I found that I could embed high-ASCII characters (like the Greek mu symbol) in a wide variety of front-panel (FP) objects, but not all. Those that work include the following:
- FP string indicators and the default values of string controls
- Listboxes, Rings, and Tables
- Dialog string controls and indicators
- Dialog rings and listboxes
- Boolean labels, captions, and text via an attribute node

In some cases it is not possible to specify "\" codes directly on the FP. In those cases, it is necessary to wire a string constant on the Diagram to the attribute node. The string constant allows you to use "\" codes. Finally, I see no way to embed high-ASCII characters into the text entered on to the FP using the "Edit Text" tool from the Tools Palette.

I should also point out two more things. First, you need to have available a FP font that contains both the desired high-ASCII character and all of the standard alphanumeric characters. I see no way to combine characters from different fonts within any one FP text object. Secondly, it is the font that you selected for the FP object that rules; not the font specified in the Diagram. That's just the way it is. Hence, you can't concatenate strings with different fonts in the Diagram and hope to produce a combined font text string on the FP. Too bad.

As for the Alt-key method that Jean-Pierre suggested, I can't seem to make that work. Is this a PC / Mac difference? or is there a config parameter on my PC that I need to set for this to work?

Again, much thanks for the help. Boy, do my front panels look professional now. I guess I'll have think about the cross-platform issues associated with this labelling problem. Enough for today, though.
- Russ

[Jean-Pierre Drolet]

> I should also point out two more things. First, you need to have
> available a FP font that contains both the desired high-ASCII
> character and all of the standard alphanumeric characters. I see no
> way to combine characters from different fonts within any one FP text
> object. Secondly, it is the font that you selected for the FP object
> that rules; not the font specified in the Diagram. That's just the
> way it is. Hence, you can't concatenate strings with different fonts
> in the Diagram and hope to produce a combined font text string on the
> FP. Too bad.

Did you have a look to picture control functions? I think they are not
included in the LabVIEW 5.1 Base system b
ut they are in Full and Pro.
The Draw Text... functions allows to write text in a picture control
specifying font attributes. To concatenate text of different font
attributes, you have to make the layout yourself.

By the way, there is a technique using "Import String" method to
display text in labels with mixed font attributes but it is too akward to
be of practical use. I devise it on a lazy evening and never used it
since...
It does not make no more that the picture control VIs and is now
completely obsolete with the LV6i property nodes for labels

>
> As for the Alt-key method that Jean-Pierre suggested, I can't
> seem to make that work. Is this a PC / Mac difference? or is there a
> config parameter on my PC that I need to set for this to work?
>

It is a PC thing but probably dependent of the keyboard driver installed.


Jean-Pierre Drolet
Scientech R&D

[Jean-Pierre Drolet]

In LV5.1 you can mix fonts/colors/styles/sizes on free labels and on
captions but not on strings, boolean texts and labels. By the way, the greek
µ is available on my keyboard as Alt-m and Alt-230.

Jean-Pierre Drolet
Scientech R&D

"Russ" a écrit dans le message news:
506500000005000000691E0000-984882144000@quiq.com...
> Jared-
> Thanks for your suggestion. However, unless you can find a font
> that contains both the standard alphanumeric characters and the
> desired Greek symbols, you can't in general build front-panel text
> strings that include Greek symbols. The fonts I've seen generally
> don't contain a full set of Greek symbols. What seems to be missing
> is a means to mix characters from
more than one font in any one front
> panel indicator or text string. Hence, I'm still open for
> suggestions.

[CraigGraham]

Now that's very cool to know. I've just been playing with it in LV6, and for
the caption of a control you can programmatically set the font name and
other attributes on a character by character basis by using attribute nodes
to select a portion of the caption and then setting the font properties for
that portion. Previously, even in LV5, I was using multiple free labels
aligned to get mixtures of different fonts in an individual control label,
which in previous versions I think was the only way to do it.

Jean-Pierre Drolet wrote in message
news:3aba5597@newsgroups.ni.com...
> In LV5.1 you can mix fonts/colors/styles/sizes on free labels and on
> captions but not on strings, boolean texts and labels. By the way, the

greek
> µ is available on my keyboard as Alt-m and Alt-230.