How can I set the font size of subscripts and superscripts?

[MCBScreen]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I am hoping that with Word 2008 (for Mac) I can somehow set the font size, either in absolute units (points) or, even, better, as a percentage of full size. But if there is a way to do this, I've not been able to find it. Any help would be very much appreciated.

 

[CyberTaz]

I'm afraid you're hoping in vain - Word's typography features are not in
competition with the likes of InDesign or QuarkXPress.

The most control you can attain is to set the font size of the character to
what you want & use the Raised option in Format> Font> Character Spacing to
approximate the elevation above the baseline.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Yes and No. You can't change what happens with the built-in
sub/superscript commands (as far as I know).

But, you can create a custom character style for superscript, that for
instance, is 10points raised by 4pts. Once you've created the style,
you'll select text and apply the style, instead of using the
sub/superscript buttons. You can use a keyboard shortcut to apply a
style, or put your custom style on a toolbar for easy access.

To create the style, Format | Style, click New, check "add to template",
set type to Character style, give it a name, pick a size. See the little
Format menu in the dialog? Select Font from that, and use the options in
the Character Spacing panel to raise or lower your style.

Sadly, I don't think you can set a percentage--you have to hardcode it
as 10pts raised by 4points. However, let's say that you are printing a
poster. In the poster document, having copied your basic paper into the
poster, you can use Format | Style and Modify the styles to be 18pts
raised by 8points to match a basic font of 24points. Or whatever, I made
up those numbers. In that case, do not check "add to template", so that
the change will only apply to that document, not to all documents
(unless you already use a separate template for posters).

If you are concerned with endnote/footnote superscripts, then instead of
applying your own custom style you can Modify the Footnote Reference or
Endnote Reference styles to match your custom superscript appearance.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I hadn't seen CyberTaz's answer when I posted mine, but I'd just like to
point out these apparently opposed answers are both correct--in fact,
they are close to being the same answer. But CyberTaz is "glass
half-empty", I'm "glass half-full". It's actually pretty funny.

Daiya

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello again Daiya -

Yeah, we're both saying pretty much the same thing except that you're going
to all the trouble of turning it into a Style or AutoCorrect item. My main
problem with the whole thing is that modifying the elevation also alters the
line spacing which opens yet another can of worms.

I guess my [understated] point is that if the default specs as designed into
the font aren't adequate for one's requirements I doubt that jerry-rigging
something using Word's limited, semi-accurate capabilities in that regard
most likely will not provide sufficient precision... After all, if you don't
care how it measures up to typeset why bother to change it in the first
place? Surely I'm not the only one who hasn't got the time to fiddle with
superscript "just because I can"

Not a knock on Word, mind you, just a statement of the ol' MHO

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Hmm.... I don't disagree with you but I don't see it as being that much
trouble to set it up and handle the basic line-spacing issue. Once
styles are set up, it doesn't take much more time to execute. And if
this particular desire forces people to learn a bit more about using
styles to control Word in general, well, that's a good end result.
Whether the typographic results are worth it will be eye of the beholder.

But the last person who asked this question had been using a macro to do
this for a long time, and thus was happy with it and wanted to re-create
it in Word 2008. You're right that it's probably not worth developing
the habit in the first place.

Hello again Daiya -

Yeah, we're both saying pretty much the same thing except that you're going
to all the trouble of turning it into a Style or AutoCorrect item. My main
problem with the whole thing is that modifying the elevation also alters the
line spacing which opens yet another can of worms.

I guess my [understated] point is that if the default specs as designed into
the font aren't adequate for one's requirements I doubt that jerry-rigging
something using Word's limited, semi-accurate capabilities in that regard
most likely will not provide sufficient precision... After all, if you don't
care how it measures up to typeset why bother to change it in the first
place? Surely I'm not the only one who hasn't got the time to fiddle with
superscript "just because I can"

Not a knock on Word, mind you, just a statement of the ol' MHO

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

I hadn't seen CyberTaz's answer when I posted mine, but I'd just like to
point out these apparently opposed answers are both correct--in fact,
they are close to being the same answer. But CyberTaz is "glass
half-empty", I'm "glass half-full". It's actually pretty funny.

Daiya

 

[CyberTaz]

I love the discourse Your points are well taken... But what happens when
you need to use a different font size?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Hmm.... I don't disagree with you but I don't see it as being that much
trouble to set it up and handle the basic line-spacing issue. Once
styles are set up, it doesn't take much more time to execute. And if
this particular desire forces people to learn a bit more about using
styles to control Word in general, well, that's a good end result.
Whether the typographic results are worth it will be eye of the beholder.

But the last person who asked this question had been using a macro to do
this for a long time, and thus was happy with it and wanted to re-create
it in Word 2008. You're right that it's probably not worth developing
the habit in the first place.

Hello again Daiya -

Yeah, we're both saying pretty much the same thing except that you're going
to all the trouble of turning it into a Style or AutoCorrect item. My main
problem with the whole thing is that modifying the elevation also alters the
line spacing which opens yet another can of worms.

I guess my [understated] point is that if the default specs as designed into
the font aren't adequate for one's requirements I doubt that jerry-rigging
something using Word's limited, semi-accurate capabilities in that regard
most likely will not provide sufficient precision... After all, if you don't
care how it measures up to typeset why bother to change it in the first
place? Surely I'm not the only one who hasn't got the time to fiddle with
superscript "just because I can"

Not a knock on Word, mind you, just a statement of the ol' MHO

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

I hadn't seen CyberTaz's answer when I posted mine, but I'd just like to
point out these apparently opposed answers are both correct--in fact,
they are close to being the same answer. But CyberTaz is "glass
half-empty", I'm "glass half-full". It's actually pretty funny.

Daiya

CyberTaz wrote:

I'm afraid you're hoping in vain - Word's typography features are not in
competition with the likes of InDesign or QuarkXPress.

The most control you can attain is to set the font size of the character to
what you want & use the Raised option in Format> Font> Character Spacing to
approximate the elevation above the baseline.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac



On 3/19/08 10:44 AM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,



Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I am hoping that with Word 2008 (for Mac) I can somehow set the font size,
either in absolute units (points) or, even, better, as a percentage of
full
size. But if there is a way to do this, I've not been able to find it. Any
help would be very much appreciated.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

You have to redefine the styles, of course, because the numbers are
hardcoded, no percentages. But, either you have a Display Poster
template with the redefined styles already in it, or you use an
AppleScript to redefine the styles in a single click. Again, easy enough
once set up. It's not very on-the-fly flexible, but it can be fitted for
several situations as long as you know concretely what you will need and
are willing to take the time to set them up.

Admittedly, I wouldn't bother with all this setup, even though when I
tested it for the last question, it was certainly more attractive than
Word's default. I turn off the automatic formatting of 19th to 19^th in
part because I think Word's default superscript is pretty ugly.

(For some reason I'm picturing a scientist, although I don't know why.
But my imaginary scenario isn't even logical--MS Word doesn't even do
the large format posters I am picturing. Hey, MCBScreen, it would really
complete our debate if you explained why a more attractive
sub/superscript matters to you and how you use it.)

I love the discourse Your points are well taken... But what happens when
you need to use a different font size?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

Hmm.... I don't disagree with you but I don't see it as being that much
trouble to set it up and handle the basic line-spacing issue. Once
styles are set up, it doesn't take much more time to execute. And if
this particular desire forces people to learn a bit more about using
styles to control Word in general, well, that's a good end result.
Whether the typographic results are worth it will be eye of the beholder.

But the last person who asked this question had been using a macro to do
this for a long time, and thus was happy with it and wanted to re-create
it in Word 2008. You're right that it's probably not worth developing
the habit in the first place.

Hello again Daiya -

Yeah, we're both saying pretty much the same thing except that you're going
to all the trouble of turning it into a Style or AutoCorrect item. My main
problem with the whole thing is that modifying the elevation also alters the
line spacing which opens yet another can of worms.

I guess my [understated] point is that if the default specs as designed into
the font aren't adequate for one's requirements I doubt that jerry-rigging
something using Word's limited, semi-accurate capabilities in that regard
most likely will not provide sufficient precision... After all, if you don't
care how it measures up to typeset why bother to change it in the first
place? Surely I'm not the only one who hasn't got the time to fiddle with
superscript "just because I can"

Not a knock on Word, mind you, just a statement of the ol' MHO

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac


On 3/19/08 4:06 PM, in article (e-mail address removed), "Daiya



I hadn't seen CyberTaz's answer when I posted mine, but I'd just like to
point out these apparently opposed answers are both correct--in fact,
they are close to being the same answer. But CyberTaz is "glass
half-empty", I'm "glass half-full". It's actually pretty funny.

Daiya

CyberTaz wrote:


I'm afraid you're hoping in vain - Word's typography features are not in
competition with the likes of InDesign or QuarkXPress.

The most control you can attain is to set the font size of the character to
what you want & use the Raised option in Format> Font> Character Spacing to
approximate the elevation above the baseline.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac



On 3/19/08 10:44 AM, in article (e-mail address removed)9absDaxw,




Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel

I am hoping that with Word 2008 (for Mac) I can somehow set the font size,
either in absolute units (points) or, even, better, as a percentage of
full
size. But if there is a way to do this, I've not been able to find it. Any
help would be very much appreciated.

 

[CyberTaz]

<snip>

(For some reason I'm picturing a scientist, although I don't know why.

<snip>

Enter: MathType, stage right

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

<snip>

Enter: MathType, stage right

Most definitely.

Daiya

 

[Clive Huggan]

Yes and No. You can't change what happens with the built-in
sub/superscript commands (as far as I know).

But, you can create a custom character style for superscript, that for
instance, is 10points raised by 4pts. Once you've created the style,
you'll select text and apply the style, instead of using the
sub/superscript buttons. You can use a keyboard shortcut to apply a
style, or put your custom style on a toolbar for easy access.

<snip>

I'd like to mention something here that makes life easier, albeit when the
font sizes are already known/defined:

I apply these character styles via a keyboard shortcut that takes advantage
of the fact that Word will let you apply styles via Command-Shift-s followed
by the name of a suffix that you can add to a style name.

For example, I have a style for superscripting 2 points in a certain font
size. I have named that style "superscript 2pts,sup2". The suffix is
",sup3" -- note there is no space after the comma. So the keyboard shortcut
use on the selected text is Command-Shift-s followed by sup2 followed by the
Return key. Very quick to apply in simple superscript situations (and
reduces the line spacing problem with Word's default, by the way).

And of course, as Daiya/Bob mentions elsewhere in this thread, you can
create an AutoCorrect item to cover commonly used terms. For example I have
several for terms such as CO2, so that the subscript is applied
automatically immediately I have typed "CO2" (i.e., without my having to
stop to select the "2").

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from North America and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
====================================================

 

[DrJ]

Sorry if this was already posted, but I just highlight the super-, or subscripted character and increase the size with the "Grow Font" button added to my customized toolbar.