Fraction bar problems (trailing space)

[Jay Smith <jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

[Cross posted to both frame groups.]

[Sent to Dov re font issue.]

[Sent to B. Mark Hilton as an ENHANCEMENT SUGGESTION: How about a "fraction
maker" as a product feature?]


Greetings,

(Platform: PC Win95, FM 556, ATM4.0)

I am having a heck of a time with the fraction bar character (ctrl-q,
shift-z).  There is a trailing "space" (as part of the fraction bar character)
that is about the width of the letter "m".

At one point I was advised by Framers list members that to make oddball
fractions (such as 11/64), use the fraction bar character and make the
numerator super and denominator sub and then use the Alt-cursors to fine tune
the character locations.

Well, I THOUGHT THAT IT WORKED.  Now, I am questioning myself.  I thought that
this had worked.  However, when we tried to do it today, the fraction bar has
the described trailing "space".  

I have tried many different fonts, both PS-Type 1 and TT.  I have tried on
different PCs, etc.  I even tried on one PC that has FM 553 still on it and it
also had the problem, though less pronounced.

To make it all worse, in an attempt to close up the trailing space, I tried
selecting the text following the space (that would be the denominator of the
fraction) and moving it to the left with Alt-Cursor.  However ONLY the
selected text moves, thus there is a big "hole" following that text.  It had
been my (fuzzy) recollection that the whole trailing contents of the line
moved when you did that.

Am I going nuts? 

My (temporary?) solution is the following:

1) Make three character tags (which is about what Dan E. suggested a long time
ago): numerator, denominator, and fraction_bar.  

   Set numerator and denominator to 2 points less than your body text size
(probably greater difference the larger the point size).  

   Set numerator and denominator to super- and sub-script respectively.  

   Set fraction_bar to same point size as body text; SET SPREAD TO -65% (that
is MINUS).

2) Tag the three components of the fraction.

3) (In the font that I am using) Shift the numerator DOWN 2 pts and the
denominator UP 4 points.  [Highlight the characters and ALT-cursorkey in
desired direction once for each point.]

TIP:  Make a fraction, in a reference/master document for the current
project.  Then just copy/paste that fraction where you need one and change the
content of it.  BUT, paste it INTO text -- i.e. make sure that there is
pre-existing text AFTER the cursor location where you are pasting in the
fraction; even if you need to temporarily add a bogus character.

This method works for me, but is a pain in the .....  


-- 
Jay Smith

e-mail: jay@jaysmith.com

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