Re: Formatting - bold characters as variables?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg111939] Re: Formatting - bold characters as variables?
- From: Alexei Boulbitch <alexei.boulbitch at iee.lu>
- Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:06:27 -0400 (EDT)
If I understand you correctly, you need a StyleSheet, that would enable you to demonstrate on the screen some your lecture notebooks containing Input fields and to distinguish between bold and plain fonts in the input in these notebooks, right? One way would be to modify a StyleSheet for these purposes. In this modified StyleSheet the Input font may be made plain by default. You can then introduce bold letters in a usual way (e.g. Ctrl+B+letter_key). You can check that the bold and the plain variables are treated by Mathematica on the equal basis. (In fact by applying Ctrl+B+letter_key you also may introduce plain letters into the Input field of the Default StyleSheet and check this). If this would be sufficient for your purposes, have in mind a nice and simple explanation of David Park of how to modify StyleSheets that you may find here: http://home.comcast.net/~djmpark/Mathematica.html* *Have fun, Alexei* * Group: What follows is a suggestion. Maybe someone can explain a way to implement it in v7. Otherwise, consider it an idea for future versions of Mathematica. In economics, we commonly use subscripted variables to refer to, say, the ith individual or jth firm, etc. (BTW, wish it was easier to use subscripted variables, but thats not the main issue I want to address.) To minimize notational clutter, it's common to then use *bold* fonts to indicate vectors of these variables---this is what I'd like to be able to do in Mathematica. Based on my current understanding, this may NOT be very straightforward to implement... As we all know, the front end displays code in bold by default. But (of course) these bolded characters aren't represented as fundamentally different raw characters, which means a bold variable is the same to Mathematica as its unbolded counterpart. Would it be feasible to define a new, expanded character set that includes bolded character codes? Assuming the default display options are in effect, the front end would then need to double-bold their appearance. (don't know if there is such a term as 'double bold', but you get the idea) -RG PS -- I know I'll get suggestions to use the double-struck or fancy scripted characters. While useful at times, I find that referring to different characters makes lecture notes, etc., more of a pain to write-up and less clear (when trying to explain results from a textbook). IMO, *bold* is just easier. -- Alexei Boulbitch, Dr. habil. Senior Scientist Material Development IEE S.A. ZAE Weiergewan 11, rue Edmond Reuter L-5326 CONTERN Luxembourg Tel: +352 2454 2566 Fax: +352 2454 3566 Mobile: +49 (0) 151 52 40 66 44 e-mail: alexei.boulbitch at iee.lu www.iee.lu -- This e-mail may contain trade secrets or privileged, undisclosed or otherwise confidential information. If you are not the intended recipient and have received this e-mail in error, you are hereby notified that any review, copying or distribution of it is strictly prohibited. Please inform us immediately and destroy the original transmittal from your system. Thank you for your co-operation.