Text edit special character

paldo · 02-15-2010, 04:27 AM

Dear forum members
I need to have the following arrow ⟷ on top of two numbers, like 34. How can I do that?

benwiggy · 02-15-2010, 04:41 AM

I presume this is related to your other thread about diacritics on numbers?
http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=109430

Can I ask what these symbols are for? Maths? I doubt you can do this in TextEdit, and you may need to use something like an Equation Editor, or InDesign, (or even Latex) to achieve what you want.

macosnoob · 02-15-2010, 07:37 AM

The symbols paldo seeks are lower in the Code Tables under Combining Marks for Symbols (000020D0): left arrow (20D6) and right arrow (20D7). Insert an arrow over each character to build the desired result.

paldo · 02-16-2010, 07:11 AM

Dear benwiggy, I need it for music notation. 34 are the holes of the harmonica, the arrows means do the trill on those holes.

paldo · 02-16-2010, 07:27 AM

Thanks again, macosnoob. You gave me the solution.
I can also use 20E1 but the arrow is to small if placed on top of two numbers (34).
Is it possible to customize my arrow, I mean make my arrow bigger without changing the size of the numbers that I placed below it, and save it as favorites?

Thank you

macosnoob · 02-16-2010, 09:04 AM

I don't know how to do it cleanly. TextEdit ties the diacritic to the character space and character font. You can't put a 36 point diacritic over a 24 point character and you can't put a single diacritic over two character spaces.

So I thought that perhaps one could patch together a solution with a string containing leading and trailing blanks -- " 34 " -- and four combining diacritics (20D5, 0305, 0305, 20D6), then adjust size and font for each of the four character spaces independently. But quick experiments produced unpleasant results: lines that don't join perfectly and varying font weights along the line connecting one arrow point to the other; further, even if you were able to get it just right, the fine-tuned results to produce a perfect arrow would explode if you ever changed the document font.

benwiggy's right, I think: this task will require more horsepower than TextEdit can offer.

02-15-2010, 04:27 AM	#1
paldo Triple-A Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Switzerland Posts: 174	Text edit special character Dear forum members I need to have the following arrow ⟷ on top of two numbers, like 34. How can I do that?

02-15-2010, 07:37 AM	#3
macosnoob MVP Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,751	The symbols paldo seeks are lower in the Code Tables under Combining Marks for Symbols (000020D0): left arrow (20D6) and right arrow (20D7). Insert an arrow over each character to build the desired result. Last edited by macosnoob; 02-15-2010 at 07:45 AM. Reason: typo

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes	Rate This Thread
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode	Rate This Thread:

02-15-2010, 04:41 AM	#2
benwiggy League Commissioner Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 5,039	I presume this is related to your other thread about diacritics on numbers? http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?t=109430 Can I ask what these symbols are for? Maths? I doubt you can do this in TextEdit, and you may need to use something like an Equation Editor, or InDesign, (or even Latex) to achieve what you want.

02-16-2010, 07:11 AM	#4
paldo Triple-A Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Switzerland Posts: 174	Dear benwiggy, I need it for music notation. 34 are the holes of the harmonica, the arrows means do the trill on those holes.

02-16-2010, 07:27 AM	#5
paldo Triple-A Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Switzerland Posts: 174	Thanks again, macosnoob. You gave me the solution. I can also use 20E1 but the arrow is to small if placed on top of two numbers (34). Is it possible to customize my arrow, I mean make my arrow bigger without changing the size of the numbers that I placed below it, and save it as favorites? Thank you

02-16-2010, 09:04 AM	#6
macosnoob MVP Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 1,751	I don't know how to do it cleanly. TextEdit ties the diacritic to the character space and character font. You can't put a 36 point diacritic over a 24 point character and you can't put a single diacritic over two character spaces. So I thought that perhaps one could patch together a solution with a string containing leading and trailing blanks -- " 34 " -- and four combining diacritics (20D5, 0305, 0305, 20D6), then adjust size and font for each of the four character spaces independently. But quick experiments produced unpleasant results: lines that don't join perfectly and varying font weights along the line connecting one arrow point to the other; further, even if you were able to get it just right, the fine-tuned results to produce a perfect arrow would explode if you ever changed the document font. benwiggy's right, I think: this task will require more horsepower than TextEdit can offer.