kelvin@cs.utexas.edu (Kelvin Thompson) (10/01/89)
About a week ago I posted a query asking about vertically centering Expressionist-generated equations (and other PICTs) in Word 4.0. The problem is that it is a royal pain to vertically move an in-line PICT via super- and sub-script attributes. I asked for suggestions. The most important response I got was: > From: lindahl@violet.berkeley.edu (Ken Lindahl 642-0866) > > WATCH OUT FOR WORD 4.0!!! It has a bug in the way it deals with > PICTS that can make your life very unpleasant. Here's how it goes: you > create your equation using Expressionist (DA or application, whichever > you like), then you paste it into Word. Later you decide to modify it. > You select the graphic, cut or copy it, and when you try to paste it > into Expressionist, Expressionist complains about garbled data. It can > even crash the system. A newsletter from Prescience (was ABA) > described this problem. The existence of the bug has been confirmed > informally by a Microsoft employee, in a conversation with me. The bug > affects the 128th byte of the PICT data, so only moderately large > equations will be affected. Nevertheless, this could cause you some > real problems. I know Microsoft is working on a fix, but I have no idea > when/what the distribution will be. I think a letter or phone call to > Microsoft is not out of order here. Probably the most useful solution I got was: } From: lindahl@violet.berkeley.edu (Ken Lindahl 642-0866) } } I did my dissertation using Word 3.02 and Expressionist 2.xx. I had the } same difficulty with adjusting the vertical position of my in-line } equations. I don't believe the problem is any better in Word 4.0. For } the record, what I ultimately arrived at as reasonably workable was to } put a variety of subscripting commands into the "Format" menu, using } the Word "customizable menus" feature. I had commands to subscript 1pt, } 2pts, 3pts, 4pts, 5pts, 6pts, 8pts, 10pts, 12pts, and 16pts. This } covered all but a few cases and for those, going to the character } format dialog box wasn't too painful. [Jim Meiss had the same idea. He said he'd also tried MacroMaker, but without much success.] Some other people said I could use the paragraph-positioning capabilities: } From: pwp@shamash.cdc.com (Pete Poorman - HOUFAC) } Just a thought -- you could make the graphic be a pargraph by itself, then } use Word's ability to force the position of a paragraph on a page to position } it like you want. } From: jh0576@leah.Albany.EDU (Joe Houghtaling) } I believe you can just select the graphic and choose the Position command. } (Yes, you can, I just tried it!) The centering won't be visible in Galley } View, but you will see it in Page View. [I'll give this a try, but I don't like being forced to isolate equations into paragraphs; even with equations that won't fit inline, I like to put equation numbers and punctutation after the PICT.] Another correspondent said I should get out of Word as fast as possible: | From: Ben Lian <munnari!tasis.utas.oz.au!ben@uunet.UU.NET> | Organization: Elec Eng & Comp Sci, Uni of Tasmania, Australia | | Stop! Before you get an ulcer.... If your thesis contains anything more | than Word's formula feature can handle, then DO NOT use word for your | thesis. Apart from the fact that there is no way to get around the | brain-damaged way Expressionist and Word talk to one another, there are | other problems with Word that I think you should know about. | | Last summer (umm, your winter) I too started writing bits and pieces of my | dissertation with Word 3.01. After I getting a rather significant amount | in, I began to notice real BUGS. These bugs, though not fatal by any means, | really stuff up the quality of the printed output (if that matters to you). | Microsoft has attempted to fix these bugs in 4.0, but have only been | partially successful. (But the Expressionist problem remains.) I assume | that you are working in full-justification mode, and fractional widths is | `on' to presumably take advantage of the LaserWriters resolution. | | (1) Footnote references embedded in a line cause that line to protrude | into the right-hand margin. | | (2) Text at the right margin is justified very poorly (by any decent | standard). And this is for normal run-of -the mill use. The problem | is most obvious when a paragraph contains many font changes between | say, Times and Symbol. | | The cause of both of the above is the fact that Word's justification | algorithm is completely up the creek. I suspect rounding error. In 4.0, | problem #1 is sort of fixed---embedded footnote references now sometimes | cause a hole to appear at the right margin! Problem #2 is as bad as ever. | | After a lot of frustration caused by the above (and the formula problem), | I switched to using TeX. In particular, I use OzTeX, a oublic domain | version written in Australia. TeX has a steepish sort of learning curve, | but well worth it in the end. I still use Word, but strictly for | non-technical writing. [Luckily, I'll be using "ragged-right" justification, so the alignment bugs shouldn't be visible for me. Also, I'm willing to live with the cut-and-paste interface.] Thanks to all who replied. -- -- Kelvin Thompson, Lone Rider of the Apocalypse kelvin@cs.utexas.edu {...,uunet}!cs.utexas.edu!kelvin