I need a way to insert a bar sign over a number

[redkcir]

I am typing my math problems in Word and need to put a bar symbol over a
number to indicate it is a repeating number in the problems answer. I can
find a bar, but not how to get it over the number. I know it can be done,
because I see it in my text books. Any suggestions?
Thanks, RKB

 

[Jay Freedman]

See http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/Overbar.htm.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all
may benefit.

 

[grammatim]

Missing from that article is the simplest way of all: use the
Combining Diacritic Overline character that you'll find in Insert
Symbol, Unicode no. 0305. (To get it just once, type 0305 Alt+x, and
it goes over the preceding letter.) There's a Double Overline at 033F.
But if you go to them in the Insert Symbol panel, you can assign a
keyboard shortcut to them, of your own choosing.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

First of all, 0305 does not exist in Times New Roman or Arial, so it can't
be inserted from Insert | Symbol without choosing something other than
"(normal text)" in a default Word 2003 Blank Document.

Second, if I insert it using 0305, Alt+X, it is not centered over my
character, so I would not consider it satisfactory. Moreover, dealing with
characters combined in this way can be very awkward (can't edit the
character without deleting the overline).

I do mention combining diacritics in
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/CombineCharacters.htm; some of them work
better than the overline.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

Missing from that article is the simplest way of all: use the
Combining Diacritic Overline character that you'll find in Insert
Symbol, Unicode no. 0305. (To get it just once, type 0305 Alt+x, and
it goes over the preceding letter.) There's a Double Overline at 033F.
But if you go to them in the Insert Symbol panel, you can assign a
keyboard shortcut to them, of your own choosing.

 

[grammatim]

It's in both those fonts, in Vista/2007, between the macron U0304 and
the breve U0306. (OP didn't specify his version.)

The way Word2007 and Vista interact with OpenType has been improved
since previous versions, and I get properly centered overbars using
that character (over both capitals and lowercase). Word treats the
letter as a unit character for editing -- italics, deleting, etc.

As you can see in the two examples you commented on today, when The
Others address this question, they send people to your Overbar article
rather than your Combine Characters article.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

CombineCharacters is a newer article that hasn't made it over the awareness
threshold of a lot of those who answer questions. <g>

I was assuming from your post that probably the new Office 2007 fonts do
include these characters, but of course even a lot of Word 2007 users are
still stubbornly using TNR and Arial (with some justification). I would
imagine that the alignment of the diacritics must be improved in Calibri and
Cambria, but it is definitely not acceptable in TNR.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

It's in both those fonts, in Vista/2007, between the macron U0304 and
the breve U0306. (OP didn't specify his version.)

The way Word2007 and Vista interact with OpenType has been improved
since previous versions, and I get properly centered overbars using
that character (over both capitals and lowercase). Word treats the
letter as a unit character for editing -- italics, deleting, etc.

As you can see in the two examples you commented on today, when The
Others address this question, they send people to your Overbar article
rather than your Combine Characters article.

 

[grammatim]

I haven't used the C-fonts (except for the unavoidable CambriaMath
when I needed some symbolic logic signs); I use TNR because it's the
only serif font that reliably contains all the phonetic and diacritic
characters (even Gentium, made for linguists, doesn't handle all the
combining diacritics correctly), and it really does combine the
diacritics properly.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In that case, I guess the reason you're seeing a different TNR is that there
is a new version in Vista (since I have Office 2007 installed [on XP] but
still have the old version of TNR), and it is almost as risky to assume a
user is running Vista as to assume he is using Word 2007.

In any event, the version of TNR I have does *not* include those overlines
as combining diacritics, and the ones it does use (presumably from Arial
Unicode MS or the like) do not align correctly with TNR.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org

I haven't used the C-fonts (except for the unavoidable CambriaMath
when I needed some symbolic logic signs); I use TNR because it's the
only serif font that reliably contains all the phonetic and diacritic
characters (even Gentium, made for linguists, doesn't handle all the
combining diacritics correctly), and it really does combine the
diacritics properly.