How to Create statistical Characters

[Hurst]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel I was wondering if anyone knew how to create custom Characters in word 2008 or 2007, since i use both, but i primarily use 2008.

The ones i need the most are N with a ^ (hat) on top of the capital N it used as a symbol for population estimate, and P with the ^(hat) on top of the capital P.
I've found ways of playing with fonts to get the P or N under the ^ but i've never been able to find a simple way of putting one into a document, I also don't wish to use objects since they mess with formatting, i would like to make a character which acts as any other letter would in the program.

 

[John McGhie]

Well... I guess lots of people know "how" to create font characters, but it
is a non-trivial exercise, and tools that do it well tend to be expensive.

Some are listed here:
http://www.pure-mac.com/font.html

I suggest that you read up on AutoText and Autocorrect in the Word Help.
These offer simple ways to get the characters you have already produced into
a document with a single click.

Assuming that the styles you are using for formatting are customised
correctly for your needs, inserting these characters should have zero impact
on your formatting. If you are not using styles, of course, formatting will
always be "entertaining" (for people watching...)

If you care to elaborate on what you mean by "mess with the formatting"
maybe we can suggest a cheaper and easier way to accomplish what you need.

Hope this helps

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel
I was wondering if anyone knew how to create custom Characters in word 2008 or
2007, since i use both, but i primarily use 2008.

The ones i need the most are N with a ^ (hat) on top of the capital N it used
as a symbol for population estimate, and P with the ^(hat) on top of the
capital P.
I've found ways of playing with fonts to get the P or N under the ^ but i've
never been able to find a simple way of putting one into a document, I also
don't wish to use objects since they mess with formatting, i would like to
make a character which acts as any other letter would in the program.

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

 

[CyberTaz]

Perhaps this is the sort of thing you've already done: { EQ \O(N,^) } ?

It isn't clear what you mean by "playing with fonts", but if you are already
able to generate the characters you need the best options are saving them
each as either AutoText items or AutoCorrect entries. Without the actual
details about what you're working with it's hard to say what approach may
best or which will even work.

Alternatively, something like this can also be added to the Scrapbook &
dragged or pasted into a document when needed.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[thg]

The ones i need the most are N with a ^ (hat) on top of the capital N it used as a symbol for population estimate, and P with the ^(hat) on top of the capital P.

The usual way to make these would be to activate the US Extended keyboard layout. For the N you type Alt + 6, then N. For the P you type first P then Alt + Shift + 6. You may need to try different fonts to get the best appearance.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Just out of interest I tried the old { EQ \O(N,^)} approach and tried to
set it up as an Autocorrect item - works fine on Word 2007 and Word
2004, but on Word 2008, I can set it up, but when the autocorrect
replaces my text (I called the entry "nhat") it inserts something else
altogether, with a page break etc. It doesn't matter whether I select
the field is displaying its codes or its results when I'm setting up the
autotext.

I just wondered if that happened on your installation as well and/or
whether it's a known problem on 2008 (Word 2008 12.2.3, Snow Leopard
10..2), or whether the Scrapbook would be a more typical way to do it on
Mac anyway.

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Peter;

I'm not sure whether it's an OS X thing or an Office 2008 thing, but I've
had problems using AutoCorrect for most any sort of special characters. When
you copy the field code or the character you cna't paste once in the
AutoCorrect dialog. If you select it before going into AutoCorrect you
automatically get some sort of weird entry so I didn't go beyond that to see
what the result would be.

I actually set it up here as an AutoText item rather than using AutoCorrect,
which works without any problem at all... That's part of the reason I asked
the OP for clarification.

Thanks for the insight. I'll look into it a bit more when I can.

 

[CyberTaz]

The usual way to make these would be to activate the US Extended keyboard
layout. For the N you type Alt + 6, then N. For the P you type first P
then Alt + Shift + 6. You may need to try different fonts to get the best
appearance.

Did you try this before posting?

What I found here is that the Alt+^ works only for certain characters.
Attempting to use the upper case N or P failed every time, typically
resulting in an x-ed box following the letter.

 

[thg]

What I found here is that the Alt+^ works only for certain characters.

> Attempting to use the upper case N or P failed every time, typically
> resulting in an x-ed box following the letter.

Oops! For P you would definitely always need to type the combining diacritic after the P. The deadkey typed before should work for N in the US Extended layout, but I see now that I was testing in TextEdit. I think it works in Word for very few if any fonts. I didn't realize combining diacritics were still such a problem even in Word 2008.

 

[Peter Jamieson]

Thanks - not just my system or your system, anyway!

Peter Jamieson

http://tips.pjmsn.me.uk