line segment

OD,,

I don't know of a font or setting in Pages directly that will give you the overbar. It can be created in an Equation Editor and placed into a Pages document as an Object, like this one created in Daum Equation Editor:

It's a bit tedious, especially if you have to adjust the vertical position, as I needed to do here.

Jerry

Another approach is to create the line segment notation entirely within Pages. A resized text box is used with a line above paragraph selection and appropriate offset. Keep completed line segment notations in another Pages document so you can just copy and paste into future documents.

Steps:

1. Create new text box
   1. Enter line segment (e.g. AB)
   2. Inspector
      1. Metrics

         For 12 pt Helvetica, box is 17pt h x 15 pt w

      2. Text

         More - Border & Rules

         1. Line segment, 1 pt
         2. Select left box, line above paragraph with -7 pt offset
      3. Wrap

         Object Placement

         1. Floating or In Background
         2. Background objects are selectable
         3. Deselect Object causes wrap
2. Type sentence text and allow space for line segment notation insertion
3. Select and drag, or use arrow buttons for finer control to position line segment notation
4. Backspace trailing text or again, use arrow buttons to tweak placement.

As much as one would like to keep the creativity within Pages, it does not have an integrated equation editor.

Have you looked at the latest MathType by Design Science? It installs fonts/symbols specific to mathematics, and integrates into the Pages '09 Insert menu. Then you can do in-line math symbols and equations in the body of your text. A trimmed version of MathType has been included by Microsoft as their Office equation editor since 2002.

MathType is $97 and discounted for the education community. You can use it for 30-days as a full-function trial. After 30-days, it continues to work as the free MathType lite. All mathematical fonts and symbols remain functional after the trial, though more advanced application features are disabled.

It works on Lion and Mountain Lion, with this support link that shows the workaround for OS X gatekeeper.

Correction: 2.1.1: Dimensions are reversed. Should be 17 pt w x 15 pt h.

Gave error on original editing attempt.

It might be easier to just use the Character Viewer to enter a combining overline after typing each letter: A̅B̅