# MATH/PHYSICS symbols in MS Word



## clc2112 (Jan 9, 2003)

I am in need of ways to put special characters in word.  Specifically math & physics symbols.  I have found a few symbols using the alt key and the symbol font.   but I need to keep the main functionality of word as I insert these special characters, equations etc...  Im using word to take notes in a physics class 'cause my writing SUCKS.  

Any tips or advice?

thanks
calvin


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## brianleahy (Jan 9, 2003)

Office does include an 'equation editor' program, which should come up as a plug -in for Word.  Check it out.

If you just want the symbols, nothing else, you could use the Quartz character pallette to find the specific symbols you want, copy them, then create a Word macro to generate them (pasting the symbol in when editing the macro) and assign the macro to a key combination.

Or- one more idea - set the symbols up in Word's "auto-correct" library - that is, come up with a sequence of ordinary characters to stand for each symbol, and create an autocorrect entry to do the substitution.  (You know, like if you type (c) it becomes the copyright symbol?)


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## clc2112 (Jan 9, 2003)

paragraph one, probably not what I need.  paragraph two sounds intersting but not sure how to access the "quartz pallete".  Paragrpah three is good too and I can use that after I figure out para 2.

Thanks..

cc


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## brianleahy (Jan 9, 2003)

You can activate the Quartz Character Pallette as follows:

Apple Menu/System Preferences/International/Input Menu/Character Palette  (checkbox)

Then quit System Preferences.

After this, the icon for the Quartz palette will appear in your menu bar.  The menu's only choice will be "Show Palette".  With the palette showing, you can double click any symbol to simulate typing it.

Please do let me know if this works out for you.


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## clc2112 (Jan 10, 2003)

Ok.. the quartz pallete didn't do much for me that I didn't already find using the alt key with a variety of keys to get some symbols.

But the equation editor sounds interesting.  I did not have it as an option on my object list.  Some research revealed it wasnt installed by default.  The fix, install from the custom install option after putting in the original Office CD under the Office Tools  section.  ....Wasn't there either.  

However I did find it as a single file under:

Office CD >>ValuePack>>Shared Applications>>Equation Editor.  But it wont install..

Ahh ..update...found the value pack installer.. succes!!!  If i could just find a way to make a short cut to the equation editor,  along with the autocorrection method you mentioned .. I should be set!

Thanks
calvin


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## brianleahy (Jan 10, 2003)

Actually, I think in OSX Equation Editor spawns as a seperate app.  So after it launched the first time, you could presumably just leave it running and jump to it with the dock or Cmd-tab (or is it opt-tab?  One of those...)


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## Frennemo (Jan 11, 2003)

I write a lot of articles in my physics studies and I use the LaTeX-format! Try it out, it's a bit difficult to grasp in the beginning but it's worth it. Defenitely the best way of writing math-symbols!

http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/


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## chabig (Jan 11, 2003)

Go to VersionTracker and search for a utility called "Popchar X". It's a little bit quicker to get to the special characters than OS X's palette.

Another one is called "Pickchar"

Try them and see if they're for you.

Chris


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