The answer to your question is no: there are many characters that Word
X cannot display or print. However, for this character, there is a
workaround. Use a Central European font: Times CE, Helvetica CE etc.
that should automatically be in your system for System 10.2 and later.
To assign a keystroke: Open the Insert Symbols chart and type "Times
CE" as the font and look for your character (it will take a minute to
find the right character, but it's there). Then highlight the
character and push the Shortcut Key button and assign whatever
keystroke you want to the macron symbols (I use control o for this
one).
The best part is, when you transfer a file to windows, this character
will show up, but only in Times, because there is no Times CE in
windows. If you bring a file back to Mac, you have to change the font
back to Times CE again, because it will retain the Times formatting
saved under Windows.
Note: To make room for these and other symbols, Times CE had to take
out a few characters that they don't use in Central European
Languages, such as à. So keep in mind, you'll have to use Times for
these.
Microsoft is expected to fix all of this in the next version, I'm
praying.
Apple has already solved this problem and is waiting for developers to
catch up. You can make macrons in Cocoa programs (such as
TextEdit--and in find and replace boxes in Word X, believe it or not)
by using the U.S. extended input method (go to the International
System prefs and check it as an imput method) and typing option-a plus
whatever vowel (including caps) that you want.
Hope this helps
David Averbach
UC Berkeley
