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yoohooos12-Amethyst
12-Amethyst
June 9, 2020
Question

Degree Celcius unit shortcut?

  • June 9, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 5637 views

Is there a keyboard shortcut for degree celcius unit? Instead of go to unit and select the unit itself? Thank you!

    1 reply

    F
    Fred_Kohlhepp23-Emerald I
    23-Emerald I
    June 9, 2020

    I don't believe that Prime has shortcut keys for units, any units.

     

    Note that a centigrade degree is equal to a Kelvin degree, which you can get by simply typing "K", and you can change the label by "cntrl-Q".  (I usually have to do it twice to get to "units".)

     

    Degree is "alt-0176", but that expects a value in front of it; if you follow it with "C" it won't work.

     

    You can create a text region, type "alt-0176" then "C". You'll see  "°C" which you can select and copy.  Then type a number, and paste, adjust your label.  Et viola:

    FredKohlhepp_0-1591703499660.png

    I think the ribbon pull-down is probably faster!  

     

    Degrees Centigrade and Fahrenheit are functions and don't behave well--they can create a lot of problems.

    C
    CH_104446393-Newcomer
    3-Newcomer
    March 15, 2023

    With all the other units, you can simply type them into the units placeholder in a result and they will be accepted. °C does not work that way, because as soon as you type the degree symbol °, it places it to the top right and enters the following C to its left. The C is interpreted as Coulomb, and MathCad doesn't understand what to do with the degree symbol.

     

    So you have to either select it manually with the mouse from the units pull-down, or use this suggestion with copy-paste. Probably a toss-up as to which is faster. 

     

    Personally, I would prefer if I could just type "Celsius" fully rather than have to go to the units pull-down to select °C

    W
    Werner_E25-Diamond I
    25-Diamond I
    March 15, 2023

    I fully agree that these units should be accessible much easier.

    The problem sure is that °C actually is a function and not just a scaling factor as most other units. Nonetheless it should be possible for a software to recognize the meaning of °C when its simply typed in and act accordingly. Having a keyboard short or being able to use a verbal paraphrase like "celsius" as we also have it additionally for volt, ohm, .. would be second best.

     

    In real Mathcad we also could not type T:=20°C, but at least we could simply type °C in the unit placeholder when we evaluated an expression T=.. and the unit was much more readily available using the floating toolbar "Custom Characters" - no need to fumble around with the units list.

    Those floating toolbars in Mathcad which you also can dock on either of the four windows sides are extremely valuable and speed up workflow significantly.

    After all Prime is just about a dozen years old and maybe it will grow up and mature in the future. I just ask myself why PTC is selling it as a successor of real Mathcad 😞

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