TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Overlines continued From:Dave Neufeld <Dave_Neufeld -at- SPECTRUMSIGNAL -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 10 Mar 1999 16:04:23 -0800
I'll assume that we're writing for the electronics industry here.
I've wrestled with overlines in Word, Frame, and Macromedia Freehand (which
I do my graphics in ). Word is the toughest. I've sort of given up and use
other mechanisms to indicate a negated signal, such as a preceding forward
slash "/" (i.e., /SIGNAL_NAME). As I recall, use of the EQ field to apply
overlines in MSWord made it hurt this way:
* Line spacing was altered so that the line containing the EQ'd
overline was increased
* Character formatting became a hopeless cause as text in EQ fields
behave more like the text in MSWord graphics. Therefore, the font changed
and changing it back was an ugly chore because styles couldn't be assigned
to the text.
I'm using MSWord for Win95; EQ'd overlines may perform better on later
mutations of MSWord.
It hasn't become an issue here, because the reviewers are comfortable with
the preceding forward slash. (Mainly because they suffer the same dilemma
when writing their design docs in MSWord or have to indicate a negated
signal in ASCII text or code.) I think another standard for negated signals
is an trailing asterisk "*" (i.e., SIGNAL_NAME*).
BTW. Frame implements overlines as a character attribute, which makes it
easy. To implement overlines in Freehand is a bit trickier. It has a
configurable strikethrough -- or is it underline? -- attribute which is
configurable for vertical line position (relative to the baseline) and line
width. You just set the underline to be the font size + some above the base
line, set an appropriately size line width, and voila. Overlines are in your
graphic. You just have to decide whether you can use overlines in the
graphics when you can't use them in the MSWord document OR in any ASCII text
files or code that comes with the product.
Have fun, people...
David Neufeld
=======================================================================
Technical Publications
Spectrum Signal Processing, Inc.
dave_neufeld -at- spectrumsignal -dot- com
http:\\www.spectrumsignal.com
"no matter where you go..... there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
