[Solved+Issue] Notation for angle measurements

[Prosper]

How do I get a nice notation for, e.g. 25 degrees, 13 minutes and 51 seconds ?
For degrees we have ° , for minutes an accent ' and for seconds a double accent ".
But the latter is a reserved symbol... meaning that after it, text will appear in the formula...

[keme]

I believe you'll have to define it as a named symbol.

• Tools - Symbol
• Edit button
• In the second input field below the character grid, select a suitable symbol set, or type a name to create a new set (e.g. "Angles")
• Add your symbol:
  • In the first input field below the grid, type a name for the symbol (e.g. "seconds")
  • Select the " character in the grid
  • Click the Add button
• Optionally, add degrees and minutes symbols to the Angles set, so you have a consistent set of symbols.

Named symbols are referenced by "%name", so your angle can now be typed as 12 %degrees 5 %minutes 32 %seconds

[RGB]

A quick work-around is to insert two single quotes between two double quotes: the single quotes will be considered as "plain text" and will look as a double quote:

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10º20'20"''"

[keme]

A quick work-around is to insert two single quotes between two double quotes: the single quotes will be considered as "plain text" and will look as a double quote:

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10º20'20"''"

Certainly simpler than my proposed symbol naming, and more portable too, I guess. Nice catch!

If you're picky, you may need to adjust the font style to make it look good. With default setup, characters given unquoted are rendered slanted (in italics), but quoted strings are rendered with straight characters. That means the quick workaround will have a different slant for minute and second apostrophes. The easiest would be to quote both.

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10º20"'"20"''"

Another possibility is to use the ital or nital keywords.

[Horus]

Even though "''" does the trick, it is still nice to be able to escape the " character.

Hence, the enhancement request at http://openoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=118164

[acknak]

A couple of alternatives...

[Horus]

Thank you.

Someone told me so in the bug as well.

A curious question: how did you enter those Unicode characters? Did you use Windows' Character Map and do a copy-paste? Or do you have some trick to enter Unicode value within OOO Math?

[acknak]

I used cut/paste from the character map tool that comes with Gnome on Linux; it's similar to the Windows tool.

Once you have them in the formula editing window, you can just copy/paste from there.

You could use keme's suggestion for defining symbols, of course, but I can't think of any approach that's as easy as using the plain ascii characters.

[Horus]

I see. Exactly what I thought, thanks.

The double-prime Unicode character (U+2033) (as well as other "prime" characters) doesn't seem to be inside OpenSymbol font. However, in my XP, I could find it in "Arial Unicode MS" font. But if I define it like this as a symbol, it's pretty sure the symbol can't be displayed in Linux. Hmm ... --> file a request to include it in OpenSymbol font?

There's this STIX fonts package (at http://www.stixfonts.org/) where "prime" characters can be found in "STIX General" font. Could OpenOffice include it in the official package? Or maybe at least points users to download it when users open Math for the first time?

PS: The "symbol editor" isn't very intuitive or user-friendly.

[acknak]

PS: The "symbol editor" isn't very intuitive or user-friendly.

If I have anything challenging to work on, I just use a good text editor and copy/paste into Math.

The PRIME and DOUBLE PRIME characters seem to be coming from the Times New Roman font on my system. The "Liberation" font family installed with OOo also seems to have them.

The STIX fonts are excellent of course, but I wonder if they're needed by most users.

[Horus]

For the record:
* It's already reported in http://openoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=52620 that "prime" characters are not in OpenSymbol
* The same person had also filed a request at http://openoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=115481 to have STIX incorportated into OOO

STIX fonts are small: 1.4MB uncompressed which is small compared to the setup file size of OOO. And since OOO has already installed other fonts like "Liberation" and "DejeVu" for math, one more or one less doesn't seem to change any difference.

But in a simple user's viewpoint, I really don't want to care about what font is used for what part of a mathematical expression. I don't like fancy thing in an expression anyway. It would be nice if they can stop the font war (if there's any) amongst OpenSymbol, STIX or DejaVu; and instead combine all the necessary symbols into a font or a font family or a package. All I want is to have a math expression shown correctly.

[acknak]

I really don't want to care about what font is used for what part of a mathematical expression.

And you don't: OOo will display the symbol using whatever font provides the glyph, but you must have at least one font that provides it.

The prime symbols are included in at least one font that's included with OOo, so it shouldn't be a problem if you want to use them.

[Horus]

I really don't want to care about what font is used for what part of a mathematical expression.

And you don't: OOo will display the symbol using whatever font provides the glyph, but you must have at least one font that provides it.

The prime symbols are included in at least one font that's included with OOo, so it shouldn't be a problem if you want to use them.

I'm not sure why you said "I don't". I mean, when we define a new symbol, we have to choose the font first, no? And we have to go through all those small characters displayed inside the "grid" one by one to get the good one. That's why I said the Symbol Editor is very user-unfriendly. On top of that, the Font field drop-down menu only provides four lines for a list of at least twenty, thirty or even more available fonts in most modern computers nowadays

It would be nice if there's either one of the following possibilities for advanced users:
1. a field showing the Unicode value of the character currently selected inside the "grid" (of course, for "Unicode" fonts). So we could jump quickly through the grid if we know more or less the value we are looking for
2. a field to enter the Unicode value and the Editor figures out the first font to use.

[Horus]

On top of that, the Font field drop-down menu only provides four lines for a list of at least twenty, thirty or even more available fonts in most modern computers nowadays

And hence a wish filed at http://openoffice.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=118179

[acknak]

Sorry, I misunderstood. You said "symbol editor" and I thought "formula editor".

Yes, you're right, the symbol editor depends on the user selecting the right font. It's is almost a waste of time: the usefulness of that feature is questionable, and the way it works is awkward, to say the least.

I prefer to enter the Unicode character directly in the formula editor. I either use the system character map (a far better tool than OOo's character map or the symbol editor), or I've memorized the code points for a few common symbols and I can insert a character by it's code.

That way, the formula isn't cluttered up with oddball symbol names and OOo can choose the font; I don't need to worry about what font provides the character.

If you do need to know what fonts provide a certain character, you can try this web site: fileformat.info They provide font coverage information for any character. I don't know how up to date their information is, but it's a start.

[Horus]

Sorry, I misunderstood. You said "symbol editor" and I thought "formula editor".

Oh...
The other guy from the "bug report" and you suggested me to use the symbol but I think I'll just do like you -- use "raw" Unicode and say "bye bye" to keme's suggestion
... until next better solution.