compose characters

users
#1

Good afternoon
I have to enter into a technical text a capital "M" with a short bar on top of it.
Some sort of mathematical expression indicating a vector.

I know there is something like "composing characters", but I cannot get it right.
All I ever get is a diacritical mark either left or right from the M.
I would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

While googling about this, I also found some talk a "autocorrect options" using : :
Yet, I cannot make this work either.
I suppose, there is a trick for this one too.

Thank you
Thomas

#2

I have to enter into a technical text a capital "M" with a short bar on top of it. Some sort of mathematical expression indicating a vector.

Aren't vectors normally indicated by a bar *under* the letter?

I know there is something like "composing characters", but I cannot get it right. All I ever get is a diacritical mark either left or right from the M. I would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.

You need a "combining" character. Suggestions are Unicode U+0304 "Combining Macron" or U+0305 "Combining Overline". Enter your letter (M) and, with the cursor immediately after it, enter the combining character - probably using Insert | Special Character... . You will need to use a font that includes the combining character and handles it properly: not all fonts do.

While googling about this, I also found some talk a "autocorrect options" using : : Yet, I cannot make this work either. I suppose, there is a trick for this one too.

I don't think AutoCorrect helps you create such characters, but it may be useful if you need the combined character often. Instead of inserting the special character each time you need it, you could set up a replacement so that typing a code - perhaps "M#" or "M:" or even "M-" - would autocorrect to what you need. An alternative is simply to type such a code and then perform a global Find & Replace after you have prepared your text, of course.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#3

Thomas, perform a search for «Adding Buttons to Toolbars» in LO Help and
follow the instructions. The button you want to add - and use when typing
in your « M» - looks like a lower-case «a» with a bar over it (ā)....

Hope this helps !

Henri

#4

Thomas Blasejewicz-3 wrote

...
All I ever get is a diacritical mark either left or right from the M.
I would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction.
...

It is not you, each font sets metrics for positioning the combining
diacritics--many get it wrong.

For example type "u+004du+0305", leaving the cursor after the 5. Then enter
an <alt>+x to toggle--that will combine the glyphs, but position of the
overbar will vary by font.

Liberation Serif is just wrong. Dejavu Serif and Dejavu Sans are correct, as
is Linux Libertine G--but coverage is spotty.

Noto Sans and Noto Serif are about the most consistent.

For above marks -- U+0305, or U+035e
For below marks -- U+0332, or U+035f

=-ref-=
Wikipedia article Combining character
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combining_character>

#5

Dear Thomas,

The easiest way to do this is to use the "System Settings" program.

This will enable you to use the compose character key with literally everything on your system.

For instructions go to

keyboard layout - How can I enable Compose key? - Ask Ubuntu

https://askubuntu.com/questions/70784/how-can-i-enable-compose-key

Once you've set it up, you can see all the characters that are available to you at

https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/lib/libX11/plain/nls/en_US.UTF-8/Compose.pre

#6

Dear Thomas,

OOPS! My bad. I could not find the character you want in the "freedesktop.org" list.

However, I did find 2 versions of the character (one with a short bar the other with a long bar) in the "Character Map" program. You'll find them in the "STIXSizeOneSym" font.

#7

Udvarius, as you've discovered, most fonts do not support creating an « M»
via a compose key ; generally speaking it's easier to use such a key to
place a bar over a vowel than a consonant. But there's no need for the OP
to restrict himnself to a certain font ; rather than using the compose key, *in
LibreOffice* one can use the «bar over» button to produce such characters,
as per the instructions in my first reply above to the OP. Moreover, one
can easily copy such a character and paste it into, e g, an epost message ;
that is how I am able to write «M» in this reply....

Henri

#8

Has anybody ever used the command "join tables"? (don't know exact English menu name, "unisci tabella" in Italian).
I have never succeeded in using it.
Once a table has been split in two parts, no way to re-join them in a single one.
The “join tables” command is always “greyed” (not available) independently by cursor position (inside – outside table1, table2).

Federico Quadri
la10497@iperbole.bologna.it

#9

Has anybody ever used the command "join tables"?

Yes.

(don't know exact English menu name, "unisci tabella" in Italian).

It's "Merge Tables" in English, but no matter.

I have never succeeded in using it. Once a table has been split in two parts, no way to re-join them in a single one. The "join tables" command is always "greyed" (not available) independently by cursor position (inside ­ outside table1, table2).

If you split a table, I think you will find that an empty paragraph is inserted between the parts. You can see this by toggling on the display of non-printing characters. You can only join tables that are immediately adjacent, of course, so you will need to delete this empty paragraph before you can do so.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#10

Has anybody ever used the command "join tables"?

Yes.

(don't know exact English menu name, "unisci tabella" in Italian).

It's "Merge Tables" in English, but no matter.

I have never succeeded in using it. Once a table
has been split in two parts, no way to re-join
them in a single one. The "join tables" command
is always "greyed" (not available) independently
by cursor position (inside ­ outside table1, table2).

If you split a table, I think you will find that
an empty paragraph is inserted between the parts.
You can see this by toggling on the display of
non-printing characters. You can only join tables
that are immediately adjacent, of course, so you
will need to delete this empty paragraph before you can do so.

I have read about this empty paragraph in the help guide but, in fact, no way to delete it.
If I put the cursor just before (or after) the end-of-paragraph symbol, and press the "delete" key on the keyboard,
nothing happens.....

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker