How to create a custom symbol for quick inserts

Question

Level 1

8 points

How to create a custom symbol for quick inserts

I have found it extremely tedious to recreate statistical symbols over and over when it appears to be an unnecessarily lengthly process, when many stats students are in need of these characters and we have such a huge database of other less-used symbols in the database.

Isn't there some easy way to simply add symbols (e.g., D-bar, Null Hypothesis, t obtained, etc) that don't already exist in the special characters list?

OR is there just a way that we can create the symbols we need and add them to our favorites for quick insertion? This seems rather unwise, since so many users are looking for the same symbols, but it's a start...

Thanks for your help!

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Yosemite (10.10), Pages 5.5.1 for Yosemite

Posted on Nov 17, 2014 2:24 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

121,890 points

Nov 17, 2014 4:45 PM in response to AngOsborn

It sounds like you should be using an equation editor like MathType. Normally it would have the stuff you need ready-made.

You can't add custom symbols to Character Viewer, you have to find the ones you want in the unicode lists and add them to Favorites. Or otherwise put them in a document that you can copy/paste from. Or make a keyboard shortcut for them in system prefs/keyboard/text.

d̅ H₀

(not sure what "t obtained" looks like)

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Answer 2

Nov 18, 2014 3:24 PM in response to AngOsborn

I agree with Tom about h-naught and I too don't know about "t obtained". Isn't it simply written t_obtained? As to d-bar, I also agree that an equation editor such as MathType is the way to do it:

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Answer 3

AngOsborn Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 19, 2014 9:18 AM in response to Mr.MathType

I appreciate both of your responses. From what I can tell, MathType would be awesome, but I'd rather not have to pay for additional software when it seems to be a feature built in to Pages, as it is for Word. I've always experienced superior software from Apple when compared to Microsoft, but in this case I have to say I'm disappointed.

However, I did read on a different discussion board that there is the Equation Editor Application built into the Apple Suite, and I was able to use it, albeit it is definitely not as user friendly as Word's insert function for equations, right on the toolbar.

I have tried creating a pages document where I actually spent the time creating these symbols, hoping I'd be able to copy/paste and that isn't as simple as I had hoped, either. Especially because items from Equation Editor can't be copied from one pages to another...why this is so is beyond me.

I will try the keyboard shortcut option, though! Great idea!

t obtained is simply "t" with "obt" in subscript.

The formulas you've both posted here are awesome!

Does anyone know how to get MathType for free?

Thanks, again!

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Answer 4

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

121,890 points

Nov 19, 2014 10:02 AM in response to AngOsborn

AngOsborn wrote:

there is the Equation Editor Application built into the Apple Suite

Are you referring to Grapher.app?

If by chance you are producing work to be graded by people using Word, I'd recommend you use Word for Mac yourself, or at least a clone like LibreOffice, as it will spare you having to mess with various incompatibilities that can arise between Word and Pages' export to that format. I'm afraid that Pages does not really compare very favorably to Word, especially after the loss of features coming with the new version 5.

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Answer 5

VikingOSX

Level 10

122,874 points

Nov 19, 2014 9:39 AM in response to AngOsborn

Let the 30 day trial expire. It then becomes MathType light, and the associated Math fonts remain installed.

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