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Re: Re: Re: typesetting fractions

One can affect page breaks by adjusting the spacing between cells. This 
is incredibly tedious to do with the Options Inspector, but there is a 
palette named "Glue" (find it at MathSource) that lets you select a 
whole page of heterogeneous cells and shrink or expand the between-cell 
spacings. I've used it extensively, and it cuts the time needed to 
page-break a 50 page document from several hours down to about an hour 
(for me anyway---I'm rather picky).

-----
Selwyn Hollis
http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/hollis
(edit reply-to to reply)


On Jan 26, 2004, at 1:53 AM, Murray Eisenberg wrote:

> The trouble with controlling page breaks may be due, in part, to a
> central paradigm of the Front End, namely, as a medium primarily for
> display on computer screens and secondairly for printout from a 
> computer
> screen.
>
> A "real" typesetting functionality would facilitate page-breaking
> (automatically) within cells.  Mathematica does not like to break 
> within
> cells.  Of course one CAN apply the Option Inspector setting to change
> PageBreakWithin to True from its default Automatic and hope for the 
> best.
>
> Bobby R. Treat wrote:
>
>> I couldn't agree more. I haven't even learned to control page breaks
>> -- and that needs to be COMPLETELY transparent.
>>
>> Bobby
>>
>> Garry Helzer <gah at math.umd.edu> wrote in message 
>> news:<buqmch$raa$1 at smc.vnet.net>...
>>
>>> Since Selwyn has fallen down in the venting department I will offer a
>>> few remarks.
>>>
>>> For the last few years I have used Mathematica exclusively for
>>> technical writing, mostly because it gives me better control over
>>> figure placement and keeps everything in a single file. That said, it
>>> is nonetheless an aggravating experience in many ways. The
>>> subscript/quotient font size problem is a daily irritation. Here's my
>>> question. TeX does an excellent job in this regard. TeX has been 
>>> around
>>> since the '60s and is open source. Why doesn't someone at WRI just 
>>> look
>>> at how TeX does it and incorporate the rules? Why reinvent the
>>> wheel especially if the wheels you produce in house always seem to 
>>> have
>>> corners on the rim?
>>>
>>> A personal bugaboo of mine is the spelling checker. I don't have
>>> problems with the spelling checker in any other software, just
>>> Mathematica. Ever since 3.0 I have been trying to teach it that
>>> bivector is a word. No luck. It just keeps telling me to try bevatron
>>> instead. I tell it to learn the word, it puts it in some user defined
>>> dictionary, and then ignores it.
>>>
>>> I keep a copy of the Summer-Fall 1999 issue of Mathematica in 
>>> Education
>>> and Research in a file  cabinet just so I can look up how to change 
>>> an
>>> unmatched bracket from pink to black whenever I want to define a
>>> multiline function (p. 87).
>>>
>>> Indications are that someone at WRI wants to develop Mathematica 
>>> into a
>>> first rate technical publishing tool. It should be explained to them
>>> that this is just a waste of time and talent if the use of the tool
>>> is to be such a jealously guarded secret.
>>>
>>> If Mathematica is to have more than marginal use as a technical
>>> publication system WRI needs to produce, in house or outhouse, a
>>> Mathematica equivalent of The Joy of TeX. Cursory documentation and
>>> scattered hints in journals will not do it.
>>>
>>> On Jan 22, 2004, at 3:37 AM, Selwyn Hollis wote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Jan 20, 2004, at 5:08 AM, John Fultz wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> I didn't reply to this thread earlier because I figured one of the
>>>>> usual
>>>>> experts would pick it up and run with it, but it appears not.  By
>>>>> reading
>>>>> Selwyn's answer, I think he knows how to do this but decided to 
>>>>> vent
>>>>> about
>>>>> the method rather than explain it.
>>>>
>>>> What, me vent? I could show you venting, but I won't.
>>>>
>>>> The real issue here is why this design flaw has persisted from 
>>>> version
>>>> 3.0 to version 5.0. It is clearly an example of sheer 
>>>> corner-cutting.
>>>> There is no typographical rationale whatsoever for treating 
>>>> numerators
>>>> and denominators of fractions the same way as subscripts and
>>>> superscripts.
>>>>
>>>> For example, what if I want to have ScriptSizeMultipliers->1 in a
>>>> fraction that contains subexpressions with superscripts? Then the
>>>> superscripts are the same size as the bases to which they are 
>>>> attached,
>>>> and the whole thing looks silly -- thus I have go in and do a lot of
>>>> meticulous tweaking.
>>>>
>>>> Again, I could be missing something and have wasted countless hours 
>>>> in
>>>> trying to make many hundreds of pages worthy of publication. But 
>>>> maybe
>>>> it's my own fault for dreaming that I could approach TeX-like 
>>>> quality
>>>> with Mathematica.
>>>>
>>>> -----
>>>> Selwyn Hollis
>>>> http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/hollis
>>>> (edit reply-to to reply)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> In the Option Inspector is an option called ScriptSizeMultipliers.
>>>>> This,
>>>>> combined with the ScriptMinSize, determines sizing for fractions 
>>>>> and
>>>>> scripts (sorry, Selwyn).  The easiest way to do what Murray and 
>>>>> Sabit
>>>>> want
>>>>> is to set the ScriptSizeMultipliers option to 1.  This could be set
>>>
>>> at
>>>
>>>>> the
>>>>> notebook or global level, as you feel appropriate, or wrapped
>>>>> individually
>>>>> around fractions if you don't want sub/superscripts to pick up the
>>>>> option
>>>>> value.
>>>>>
>>>>> To answer Sabit's second question, select the bracket of the cell
>>>>> you'd
>>>>> like to change, and use the Option Inspector to set the
>>>>> SingleLetterItalics
>>>>> option to False at the selection scope.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>
>>>>> John Fultz
>>>>> jfultz at wolfram.com
>>>>> User Interface Group
>>>>> Wolfram Research, Inc.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, 16 Jan 2004 19:58:02 -0500 (EST), Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> I quite agree that this is an annoyance with Mahematica's 
>>>>>> typsetting
>>>>>> of
>>>>>> mathematics.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> An underlying difficulty is that there is no separate notion of
>>>>>> "display
>>>>>> math" -- mathematical expressions displayed on separate lines -- 
>>>>>> as
>>>>>> opposed to math within normal paragraphs of text.  This may be an
>>>>>> unfortunate front-end design limitation.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The problem is reminiscent of the same problem in LaTeX, where
>>>>>> in-line,
>>>>>> built-up fractions (and other constructs) have their components 
>>>>>> >>> small.
>>>>>> But in LaTeX, there is an option (which one needs to apply to each
>>>>>> instance) to make such in-line math "displaystyle", which 
>>>>>> enlarges the
>>>>>> components to the same large size as if they were in a display.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I devoutly wish there were such a capability in Mathematica --
>>>>>> whether a
>>>>>> per-instance option as with LaTeX, or a global option for a 
>>>>>> notebook.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Selwyn Hollis wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My understanding is that the size of fractions is determined by 
>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>> same option that determines the size of subscripts and 
>>>>>>> superscripts,
>>>>>>> which is highly unfortunate. I could be wrong about this; if so 
>>>>>>> I'd
>>>>>>> love to find out. I find it a major pain in the neck always to 
>>>>>>> have
>>>>>>> to
>>>>>>> increase the size of fractions manually. Maybe this is an
>>>>>>> improvement
>>>>>>> we can hope for in version 6.0.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -----
>>>>>>> Selwyn Hollis
>>>>>>> http://www.math.armstrong.edu/faculty/hollis
>>>>>>> (edit reply-to to reply)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Jan 14, 2004, at 1:26 AM, sabit wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I am trying to do some typesetting with mathematica. I noticed 
>>>>>>>> that
>>>>>>>> in
>>>>>>>> some styles fractions are set in reduced point size. What is the
>>>>>>>> option that would fix this? I want both denominator and the
>>>>>>>> numerator
>>>>>>>> set in the same size as the text.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Also I have the single letter italic enabled for cells where I
>>>
>>> have
>>>
>>>>>>>> the equations but in the cells where there is a lot of text I
>>>
>>> don't
>>>
>>>>>>>> want this option. Now I copy and paste a previous cell and use 
>>>>>>>> it
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>>>> as
>>>>>>>> new cell but I am sure there is a better way, probably with
>>>
>>> styles.
>>>
>>>>>>>> Wolfram site lists two documents about typesetting but they are
>>>
>>> not
>>>
>>>>>>>> available to download. Does anyone know a good reference for
>>>>>>>> tpesetting with mathematica?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>> Garry Helzer
>>> Department of Mathematics
>>> University of Maryland
>>> College Park, MD 20742
>>> 301-405-5176
>>> gah at math.umd.edu
>>
>>
>>
>
> -- 
> Murray Eisenberg                     murray at math.umass.edu
> Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
> Lederle Graduate Research Tower      phone 413 549-1020 (H)
> University of Massachusetts                413 545-2859 (W)
> 710 North Pleasant Street            fax   413 545-1801
> Amherst, MA 01003-9305
>
>
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