Not sure if this is the right place to ask but here goes:
I'm working with a friend on a potential supplement for PF2, and we are currently using MS Publisher because we are plebians. The Pathfinder Icon font does not appear to have support in publisher for standard ligatures, even though MS word does.
I can't suss out if this is an issue with the font or with publisher, but would love it if someone can point me in the right direction as to what to do. Regular MS fonts appear to work just fine and the "All ligatures" option can be enabled, whereas the pathfinder icons font has all the options grayed out except for standard ligatures, which only work for the [reaction] ligature by default.
Any advice?
-CC
That's strange, if it works for one ligature, it should work for all in the same font. Are you sure that you're doing [one-action] [two-actions] [three-actions] [free-action] [reaction]??
Honestly I'm using LaTeX, but I don't think it should matter much if you've got the font installed correctly.
I'm using LaTeXI've been told to try that but it seems hard to learn. How are you finding it? Can I see an example of the layout that's possible with it? Can it build a document that reflows on a phone?
If you are comfortable programming in any language, you should be fine. You have all the control you could possibly want, and more; or you can be supremely lazy, and do almost nothing and it will look good ("good" meaning "I can get this published in a science or math journal and everyone will accept it because it's readable").
OTOH, it basically only outputs PDF files, so you go from text straight to PDF. There is probably a way to go from LaTeX to HTML & CSS to display on the web, but I haven't found a good way to do it yet (and I prefer outputting to PDF).
As for styling, there is this GitHub repo that I've used to base my own stuff on: https://github.com/serialhex/PF2e-TeX. It seems that it hasn't been updated in a while, I'll have to get on them to update it. It's VERY rough right now, but works well enough.
I know the author of that, and I'll see if I can get them to link me an example PDF of what they are able to do, just so you can see the result.
I hope that helps a bit.
That's strange, if it works for one ligature, it should work for all in the same font. Are you sure that you're doing [one-action] [two-actions] [three-actions] [free-action] [reaction]??
Honestly I'm using LaTeX, but I don't think it should matter much if you've got the font installed correctly.
I do have the font installed correctly and have used the same ligatures in MS word with no problems. I know I'm typing it out right because I'm literally copying and pasting from my MS word doc.
Here's a screenshot of what it looks like
It's driving me insane. I would try to learn LaTeX but frankly don't have enough bandwidth with my normal day job and it also prevents my friend from being able to work on stuff since he's currently in school and we're more rules guys, less layout guys.
Right now we're making space and inserting the images without wrapping text around them which looks good, but is an arduous process.
I have no idea if its the font or publisher, considering ligatures for other fonts work just fine and the [reaction] works fine too
Have you tried using Pandoc to convert LaTeX to HTML?OTOH, it basically only outputs PDF files, so you go from text straight to PDF. There is probably a way to go from LaTeX to HTML & CSS to display on the web, but I haven't found a good way to do it yet (and I prefer outputting to PDF).
Apparently it doesn't work 100% on everything. For instance, you need to use specific kinds of tables in LaTeX for it to carry over to HTML. And making your own commands doesn't play too nicely with Pandoc. This was actually his first method of doing things, but once he needed things to look all perdy it stopped working (I was his guinea pig).
I am not a computer programmer.
I can write asciidoc and wikipedia markup, which have some arcane formatting codes to make tables.
My friend is trying to get his LaTeX stuff to the point where someone who is familiar with Markdown or asciidoc or the like would be able to use it fairly easily. I'm trying to convince him to work harder, and publish more, but he's lazy.
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But that is not really what this thread is really about now is it?
After typing up a response, and then re-reading your problem I think I know a solution...
I do have the font installed correctly and have used the same ligatures in MS word with no problems. I know I'm typing it out right because I'm literally copying and pasting from my MS word doc.
It may be Word converting a keyboard hyphen into a fancy unicode hyphen, which when you copy-paste into Publisher isn't actually a hyphen that you would type on your keyboard, but some other fancy unicode thing that looks EXACTLY like a hyphen when you're reading it. Here are some hyphens for you: http://jkorpela.fi/dashes.html The same thing happens if you type three dots in a row "..." you get "…". The first is 3 characters, the second is 1, which I copy-pasted from Word 2013 after typing in the 3 character sequence. (go ahead and try to select only the first period in that second set of ellipsis) There is probably a way to turn this off, but I know not what that way is.
So, instead of copy-pasting [one-action], simply type [one-action]. Or remove the hyphen-that-is-not-a-hyphen and re-insert it manually from your keyboard.
By the way, you can thank printing press era publishers for all of these weird quirks. And the fact that we dropped a handful of letters from the english language because they didn't want to make characters for them. And "Ye Olde Bookbinder" was pronounced "The Old Bookbinder" because blah blah blah reasons (Wikipedia it if you're interested).
I do have the font installed correctly and have used the same ligatures in MS word with no problems. I know I'm typing it out right because I'm literally copying and pasting from my MS word doc.It may be Word converting a keyboard hyphen into a fancy unicode hyphen, which when you copy-paste into Publisher isn't actually a hyphen that you would type on your keyboard, but some other fancy unicode thing that looks EXACTLY like a hyphen when you're reading it. Here are some hyphens for you: http://jkorpela.fi/dashes.html The same thing happens if you type three dots in a row "..." you get "…". The first is 3 characters, the...
I've typed it in manually as well, the screenshot above is me typing out each action in the font; I've tried BOTH ways and neither works, it just reproduces the issue where only the reaction works.
I figure the hyphen is breaking the ligature, but I just can't figure out if there's anything I can do to fix it!
My best guess then is to follow krobrina's suggestion, and look into the Autocorrect menus.
This is honestly why I hate WYSIWYG interfaces for text & writing documents. I understand that it's the easiest thing for you to use, and I really wish it wasn't broken this way. I really hope you find a solution soon!
Alas, I turned off smart quotes and am still experiencing the issue. I will see if I can get anywhere with a microsoft office ticket. could just be a limitation with the application.
Worst case I have to manually place action images. Annoying, but not impossible.