how to get a bracket to cover 3 lines of text

M

Mary

I am using office word 2007 and want to type 3 lines of text that are linked
by a long bracket i.e { how do i enlarge this to encase the 3 lines please?
 
S

Stefan Blom

One way is to use an AutoShape (there is one in the shape of a "{") and a
text box (without a border). For easier positioning, you can put them inside
a drawing canvas.
 
P

Peter T. Daniels

Another way is to use an Equation Field. One way to insert them is
with Insert > Quick Parts > Field, Categories "Equations ...," Field
Names "Eq," click Field Codes (bottom left), then Options, \B (for
brackets), Click Add to Field, click OK. A Field will be inserted into
your text. Fill it in with the following switches:

( EQ \B \bc \{ (\a \al (x,y.z) ) }

The \bc switch says to put braces on Both sides of your list. Make it
\lc or \rc to have a brace just on the left or right side.

The \{ switch says to use the brace character. If you make it a left
brace, bracket, parenthesis, or less-than, Word will pair it with the
opposite one on the other side of your list. If you make it some other
character, Word will use that same character; with \bc, you get the
same character on both sides (even if you chose right brace, bracket,
etc.).

The \a switch says to make a stack of whatever follows, separated by
the commas.

The \al or \ar switch says to align sthe stack left or right. (If you
omit this switch, the array is centered; also if you use \ac.)

Type your list (of however many items) where I have x,y,z. There can
be spaces within items. To type a comma within the array, you have to
use \ followed (not by comma, but) by the "lower single open quote"
found at Unicode 201A. (This is a bug introduced in Word2007. In
Word2003 and earlier, \ followed by comma worked.)

Be sure you have as many close-parentheses as you have open-
parentheses. (For this simple layout, there are just two of each, but
these things can be nested indefinitely.)

If you don't delete the space before the closing field bracket, you'll
see a space in your text that you can't do anything with.

It sounds really complicated, but the whole equations code thing is
wonderfully flexible. Long ago, the manual that came with(!!) Word had
an Appendix listing all the codes and all their switches, but some of
this information doesn't seem to be found anywhere in the Help system,
and none of the aftermarket books go into it.

You can get the same results using Equation Editor, but it's very
finicky.
 

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