I am trying to write chemical symbols, with numbers to left (and sometimes right), one directly atop the other. Is there a way to do this in-text, without using a formula object? I would like to look like the image attached.
Please can anyone help? Thank you.
I’m afraid you can’t. The reason is your chemical designation is “serialized” and Writer will use the width in the font to advance the display position of the next glyph. And even if you try to adjust kerning in Position tab of Format>Character, this won’t work because superscript and subscript have not the same baseline. They are then considered as independent, ever.
As you’ve assumed, you must use a Math formula you insert As character (which is the default).
Thank you so much for your reply, that is good to know. I’m not sure if I am allowed to ask a follow-up question that is connected?
When entering as a formula, as you suggest, is there a way to make it appear in the same size and font as would be seen if you were able to use subscript and superscript as I had hoped?
For example, is there any way to make the formula object appear in arial font, size 11? I ask because I have tried to change the font of an object but cannot work it out (I have tried to find the answer by searching). By default it appears in a different font and bold, and I’m not sure how to change it.
Any further help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
That’s really a different topic, but okay. You can set the font face, size and more in the Format menu. Math has a much simpler interface for modifying font face, size, etc. (one dialog box for each), and on top of that, it doesn’t have styles. That means that when you want to change the font in your formulas in a document, you will have to modify each and every formula. So, writing a document with many formulas requires some careful planning in advance. But that also holds for MathType, I believe.
You do that in Math before adding the item you want to customise.
Format>Fonts allows you to choose font and some variations in various contexts. Format>Font Size does the same for font size.
Format>Spacing, Category Indexes controls vertical position of super- and subscripts.
And if you still need to tweak a bit more your items, you can replace 12 by {size 6 12}. I chose 6pt but you can opt for any other size.
@ajlittoz
Thank you so much, that is so helpful. Really appreciate you taking the time to explain so clearly.
By accident I just found an example in NeoLatin probably showing the means you may need to use. However, afaik also Math doesn’t provide a general way to precisely stack a superscript and a subscript. There only are supported specialised cases (ranges for sum, product, integral…) not actually helping you. Otherwise you may need to define the CharHeights explicitly.
See example:
disask88994juliunium.odt (21.0 KB)
Well, Math isn’t designed for chemistry.
Thank you!
Since the old days, I do it in Math simply like "C" lsub 6 lsup 12. Neat and simple. Note the quotes around the element, which makes it be displayed, as it should, in upright font.
