Converting hard hyphens & other 3-byte characters

[holmgrn@xxxxxxxx]

> I am vexed by the hyphens from some WordPerfect 5.1 files
> that are actually 2D in hex and appear as ^2D when converted
> to XyWrite and flowed into Quark.
> Does anybody know a quick remedy for making all hyphens
> regular hyphens -- either on the WP side or the XyWrite
> side? (I've been stripping the XyWrite
> files to ascii and seaching and replacing 2D with a hyphen.)

An all-purpose/generic way to generate the kinds of 3- byte
characters (like an unbreakable hyphen) that can be plugged into
a search-and-replace (or any other) situation, is to dedicate a
key in your KBD file to a 1-byte Ascii-255, thus:

 nn=NO,[255+70+70] or
 nn=NI,[255+70+70]

Enter the 255 by tapping (XY4.KBD) Alt-Shift-2+5+5 on the keypad
(three keystrokes). Note that what you are entering in your KBD
file is a 3-byte 255, but that when you use this key in text or
on the CMline, it puts a 1-byte 255.

Now all you have to do is hit your dedicated 255 key (note that
_nothing happens_ after this first keystroke) followed by the two
alphanumerics of the hexadecimal code you want.
For example, an unbreakable hyphen=Ascii-45=Hex-2D. So hit the
dedicated 255 key, then 2, then D. Presto, a 3-byte hyphen
appears either on the CMline or in text, wherever your cursor is
located. This makes it an easy matter to swap
(CHange) any 3-byte string (character/function/whatever) for any
other string. Very handy very often.

=======
Robert J. Holmgren holmgrn@xxxxxxxx
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