User Guide

Chapter 8: Advanced Formatting

hold down the ALT key and enter the numbers one at a time from the numeric

keypad, then release the A

LT key.

Changing the Size of Individual Characters

You can change the size of most of the characters in an equation to any size you

want. The Other, Smaller, and Larger commands on the Size menu can be

applied to selected characters or to characters you type subsequently. The Other

command displays a dialog box which allows you to enter any point size. The

Smaller and Larger commands change the size of selected or subsequently-typed

characters by one Smaller/Larger Increment (this increment is specified in the

Define Sizes dialog box). If you want to resize a summation sign, embellishment,

or some other symbol that is part of a template, remember that there is a special

method for selecting these characters: hold down the C

TRL key and click on the

symbol with the vertical pointer, as shown below. Keyboard shortcuts for the

Smaller and Larger commands are C

TRL+< (Smaller) and CTRL+> (Larger).

Remember that these are shifted characters, so you’ll actually need to type

TRL+SHIFT+> and CTRL+SHIFT+< respectively.

You cannot assign a specific typesize to expanding brackets and braces or

expanding integrals; the sizes of these characters can only be changed using the

Smaller and Larger commands.

If you have changed the size of a character with the Other, Smaller or Larger

commands, you can revert to the character’s default size by using the Reset

command on the Size menu. This disables the explicit size and makes the

character’s size controlled by the settings in the Define Sizes dialog.

Choosing Fonts for Math Documents

Choosing which fonts to use in your documents is largely a matter of personal

taste, but there are some general guidelines that you might want to follow.

Serifs vs. Sans Serif

For writing technical documents, fonts having serifs (small horizontal strokes at

the tops and bottoms of characters) are usually preferred to those that do not.

Among the well-known fonts, Times, Bookman, and New Century Schoolbook

all have serifs. The Arial and Helvetica fonts do not have serifs, so they’re

referred to as sans serif fonts (“sans serif” is just French for “without serifs”).

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