How can I create custom keyboard shortcuts in Google Docs?

Question

When studying biology and mechanisms, it's very useful to take notes with arrows that illustrate a stepwise process: A --> B --> C and up/down arrows to denote increase/decrease. This is very straightforward in MS Word, as I just assign a key to the arrow symbols I need, but I would like to be able to do this in Google Docs so I can continue collaborating on my work.

I've come across Google's keyboard shortcuts for Docs, but I'm specifically looking for a custom keyboard shortcut, which I can't seem to find anywhere.

If this feature isn't available in Google Docs, is there a clipboard-type program that would give me the same result? I'm on OS X Mountain Lion.

Answer 1

nhinkle gives the germ of the answer.

Automatic Corrections

Automatic corrections for → and ← are included as defaults. You just need to add your own for ↑ and ↓. (Maybe |^ and |v?)

While editing a document,

1. Select Preferences from the Tools drop-down menu.
2. Either deselect the checkbox next to the word for which you'd like to disable text substitution, or press the "x" to the right of the word to delete the row.

Answer 2

In Google Docs, just typing --> and <-- will yield → and ← without requiring any shortcuts.