A macron is a diacritic ¯ placed over a vowel. It is usually used in pronunciation guides as an indication that the vowel has a long sound. A vinculum is a bar ¯ placed over any letter or number. It is used in mathematical notation, most commonly to indicate a repeating decimal. Some fonts support macrons, but others do not. Strictly speaking, none support vinculums.
In Word, perhaps the simplest method for upper-case macrons is to type the character requiring the macron (eg X), then type 0305, so you end up with X0305, then select the 0305 and press Alt-X. With that, you should get a bar over the X. For lower-case characters (eg i), you can use 0304, and get With that, you should get a bar over the i. For double bars over a character, you can use 033F (the gap between the double lines may be indistinct over some letters).
Word fields can also be used to place a diacritic over any letter, and can thus be used for macrons and vinculums alike:
• use a field coded as {EQ \x\to(a)}. This solution increases the vertical spacing for the affected line (which you could get around by reducing the field’s point size).
• use a field coded as {EQ \o (-,a)}. To achieve the desired result, superscript the first character in the field and subscript the second character, which leads to small characters for both (which you could counter by increasing the point size), but this too increases the vertical spacing for the affected line … Note: if you have more than one subscripted character, you’ll need to compensate by increasing the # of superscripted characters and there’ll invariably be gaps between them.
• use a field coded as {EQ \s\up6(\f(,a))}. Compared to the other solutions, this one has the advantage of retaining the character sizes without increasing the line height. The ‘6’ in the formula controls the bar height.
In each example, replace the ‘a’ in the field with the desired character(s).
Note: The field brace pairs (i.e. '{ }') for the above example are all created in the document itself, via Ctrl-F9 (Cmd-F9 on a Mac or, if you’re using a laptop, you might need to use Ctrl-Fn-F9); you can't simply type them or copy & paste them from this message. Nor is it practical to add them via any of the standard Word dialogues. Likewise, the chevrons (i.e. '« »') are part of the actual mergefields - which you can insert from the 'Insert Merge Field' dropdown (i.e. you can't type or copy & paste them from this message, either). The spaces represented in the field constructions are all required.
The following macro implements the last of the above examples for a selected string:
Code:
Sub Overline()
Dim StrTxt As String
ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
With Selection
StrTxt = .Text
.Fields.Add Range:=Selection.Range, Type:=wdFieldEmpty, _
PreserveFormatting:=False, Text:="EQ \s\up6(\f(," & StrTxt & "))"
.MoveLeft wdCharacter, 2
.Delete
.Fields.Update
End With
ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = False
End Sub
Note: The field contents must fit on one line. If there's a word-wrap in the selected range, the field will force all of it onto the one line and, if the string spans more than one line, the field will display 'Error!'.
Cheers
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]
