g556871349ea@deneb.ucdavis.edu (G556871349ea) (12/14/89)
Does anyone know how to format a TE selection so that super- and subscript codes are within? I want to write a DA which automatically makes super- and subscript of certain characters and then be able to paste the string into Word and MacWrite. There's an article in MacTutor about it but I'm pretty sure it won't work with Word or MacWrite from within a DA. Any tips or especially code fragments is greatly appreciated. Colin Ong UC Davis cgong@ucdavis.bitnet
campbell@brahms.berkeley.edu (Robert I. Campbell) (12/14/89)
In article <6264@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> g556871349ea@deneb.ucdavis.edu (G556871349ea) writes: >Does anyone know how to format a TE selection so that super- and subscript >codes are within? I want to write a DA which automatically makes super- and >subscript of certain characters and then be able to paste the string into >Word and MacWrite. There's an article in MacTutor about it but I'm pretty sure >it won't work with Word or MacWrite from within a DA. Any tips or especially >code fragments is greatly appreciated. > >Colin Ong >UC Davis >cgong@ucdavis.bitnet You have several problems. The first problem is that MSWord and MacWrite use different clipboard formats for formatted text. MSWord4.0 uses the RTF format (MSWord3.0 is incapable of reading formatted text from the clipboard in any format). A description of the RTF format is available from MS for the asking, and I posted a short description of it to the BMUG BBS several months ago. Old (up to MW5.0) MacWrite uses the MWRT clipboard format to read and write formatted text from the clip. This format is documented in either TechNote 11 or 13 (I think). Your second problem is that new MacWriteII cannot read sub or super scripted text from the clipboard. MacWriteII uses the new brain-dead (personal opinion, mind you) standard clipboard format for formatted text - format strings. These are documented in the sections of Inside Mac vol5 which deals with the Scrap Manager and Text Edit. While it is nice to have a standard, this standard has no knowledge of sub or superscripting. There was an article in MacTutor about how to patch the TE ROM calls to provide some sub and superscripting, but you would need to rewrite MSWord and MacWrite to make use of it. While it looks interesting, it looks like something that will break with the next system update. - Robert Campbell - campbell@math.berkeley.edu