Sooner or later, almost everyone working in a text editor is faced with the need to print square brackets. On the keyboard, these characters are clearly visible, but when typing in Cyrillic, using standard keys leads to unnecessary time and errors, so many people wonder how to make square brackets quickly without switching the layout.
In what cases are square brackets
In the text in Russian, the square bracket can perform a variety of functions.
Firstly, this is the traditional design of phonetic transcription, therefore, this sign may be required for schoolchildren when printing text on phonetics or completing tasks in a foreign language.
Secondly, the author’s comments are drawn in square brackets inside the quoted text. Most often, a comment, in addition to parentheses, is provided with an indication of the author's initials: “In that year, they already knew many of him [A. S. Pushkin. - M. O.] verses by heart. "
Finally, recently in such brackets bibliographic references to the list of references are indicated (the publication number in the list or the name of the author, the year of publication and page number may be indicated, depending on the requirements of the genre or edition).
In addition, square brackets are used when writing mathematical and other formulas.
Standard Key Usage
When printing, the opening or closing square bracket is put by pressing the corresponding key (the Russian letters X and are also located on them) if the keyboard is translated into the Latin layout. That is, when printing in Russian, the sequence of actions should be as follows: change the layout - the opening bracket key - change the layout - print the text inside the brackets - change the layout - the closing bracket - again switch to Cyrillic letters.
Remembering this sequence is very simple, it is absolutely logical, but usually a rather large number of errors occur because the printer does not switch in time from one alphabet to another. Therefore, this method is only suitable for placing single brackets.
Mouse setting
It seems to many quite convenient when a square bracket is printed using the mouse and menu. To do this, go to the "Insert" tab, find the "Symbol" button and click it. In the drop-down list you will see either special characters by default, or those special characters that you used last. In order for the square bracket to be visible in this list, you need to click “Other Symbols”, find the necessary brackets among the characters and print them alternately in the current document. Now both signs - opening and closing - are visible in the "Symbols" drop-down list, and they are easy to insert with the mouse.
This is also far from the most rational way, but it attracts many due to the fact that you do not need to switch from one layout to another.
Assign a special keyboard shortcut
If the square brackets in Word need to be printed constantly, it is better to assign a special key combination for them to avoid constant switching between layouts. Perhaps this is the most convenient way to insert these characters.
In order to assign a key combination for both characters, go to the "Insert" tab, click on the "Symbol" buttons, and then click "Other Symbols". In the window that opens, you will see a list of characters in which you need to find square brackets. Click on the opening bracket, and then on the "Keyboard Shortcut" button. After that, a new dialog box will open. Place the cursor in the "New shortcut key" field and press simultaneously, for example, Ctrl and X (ie [) - "Assign". The same thing needs to be done for the closing parenthesis.
Now, during operation, it will be enough for you to simultaneously press the Ctrl key and X or b, and the square brackets will be printed without changing the keyboard layout.
By the way, in this way you can also assign keys to other special characters that you constantly use. For example, it can be signs of a dash, a long dash, copyright, dollar, "dog", etc.
Using the search and replace function
Despite the fact that assigning a keyboard shortcut seems to be the most convenient way, the square bracket on the keyboard seems to many to be somewhat redundant. For printing speed and in order not to be distracted by technical nuances during work, many invent “tricky” ways to print square brackets and other characters. For example, often during work, instead of square brackets, a conditional and convenient combination of characters is printed, which is then transformed into square brackets after completing work by searching and replacing.
Say, the opening brace sign can be replaced with three round ones (((, and the closing sign with three oblique ///. These conditional signs can be selected so that it does not interfere with work and is convenient for you.
Then, when work on the document is completed, you need to press the keys Ctrl + F, in the window that opens - the tab "Replace". In the “Find” field, type the conditional key combination for the opening square bracket, and in the “Replace” field, type the character itself. "Replace everything." The same needs to be repeated for the closing bracket.
In general, when working with large documents and the constant need for square brackets, the method of assigning a keyboard shortcut is usually used.