Word character overtyping

[Guest]

An Internet site generates (via a 'print' link)a text string that has
overlayed characters. I copied the text field to Word, where it also displays
in overlayed form. If pasted as unformated text it does not appear in
overlayed form. The string is "DCRAOFVPIIPEDEL", but appears in normal mode
as five characters, where three characters overlay themselves, as (1) DCR,
(2) AOF, (3) VPI, (4) IPE, (5) DEL. I have been unable to "unformat" the text
string, or create a new one that has the same characteristics. Word
faithfully displays in overlay mode if copy/pasted, font type/mode/size is
changed. How is this formatted? How can I do the same thing?

 

[Tony Jollans]

There may be other ways but you can achieve this effect by condensing
character spacing under Format > Font > Character Spacing (tab). Condensing
12 point text, say, by 12 points will overlay the next character, although
why you would want this, I can't imagine.

Enjoy,
Tony

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply. I agree with you that the ability to do this type of
character overlay is of dubious value, but I think I have a pretty good
mastery of Word, and am challenged to replicate the text string I
encountered. I played around quite a bit with condensed text formatting
before I posted the question, and was unable to get similar results. If the
overlay, either as the full five-character "word" or as a single "letter" is
expanded by 12 points (to undo a possible 12-point compression), all you get
is extra space to the right of the composite character(s). The interesting
thing is that each character of the overlay string functions as a single
valid Word character, in that cursor movement advances one three-character
overlay "letter" at a time, copy, paste, etc. all function normally. The find
operation does not locate any part of the overlay string, further
illustrating that Word treats each three-character overlay "letter" as a
single, unique entity (Find can't be used to search for an overlay 'letter'
because pasting a copied overlay 'letter' into find's search string results
in the three-letter string making up the overlay). Also, the spell checker
does not flag the overlay string as improper.

 

[Tony Jollans]

Any chance of the URL for the web page?

 

[Tony Jollans]

Whilst looking at something else, I found out how to create something
exactly as you describe with an Equation Field: { EQ \O(D,C,R) }

If you press Alt+F9 to reveal field codes do you see anything?

 

[Guest]

The equation field you describe was exactly what was used in the original
document (the example in your message is exactly what appears for the first
of the five composite 'characters') . I'm a bit familiar with Word's
'fields', and familiar with Alt+F9 to show/edit/create them but, among all
the things I tried to analyze the overlay string I never thought about field
codes. Sorry for the delay in responding: I'm new to this message board and
apparently did not properly energize the 'Notify me of replies' checkbox.