how do you type 'half' in figures

2 1/2" 1 3/4"

There is a way in the keyboard preference panel (sys pref) to change how the fractions appear, so they can be stacked with one number above the slash / and the other below; back in earlier Mac OS (pre-X) it was also possible with a keyboard command. And there's the keyboard viewer & character palette to help do it.

Now you'd have to change Text settings in the Keyboard panel, as shown in the following ASC discussions reply... With illustrations, too. Far better than a long, slow, & imprecise 'how to' youtube someone made.

•Proper Fractions? - apple support communities:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5766563?tstart=11

•Mac OS X: How to type Unicode characters, including Symbol, Zapf Dingbat fonts:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1518

•OS X Mountain Lion: Enter special characters and symbols:

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10758?viewlocale=en_US

•Mac 101: Inserting or typing uncommon characters -TUAW:

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/10/11/mac-101-inserting-or-typing-uncommon-characters/

I'd almost stopped using real ½ fractions after OS X.

Hopefully this helps...

Good luck & happy computing! 🙂

edited 3x.