Combining Diacritical Marks in FrameMaker 11

Question

Hey gang,I've got a document that requires me to place mathematical symbols in text.  Some of these symbols don't have a Unicode component, e.g., the letter "V" with a vector arrow (→) over it. In Word, for example, you would type a letter, add the four-character Unicode and press ALT+X, or use the "Insert Symbol" dialog box.  This doesn't seem to exist in Frame.  Am I overlooking something?TL;DR: Is there a way to combine diacritical marks in Frame to replicate this, or am I stuck using the Equation Editor?Regards,-terry-FrameMaker 11Windows 7 (64-bit)

Arnis Gubins · Accepted Answer

You can try using FM's micro-positioning with the two glyphs. Select the character, hold the Alt key and then press the arrow keys to move the glyph in the desired direction.

Note: the amount of movement is sensitive to your current zoom level. The higher the zoom level, the less movement (i.e. more finesse).

Tip: if you need to use these characters a lot, create a text frame on (one of) your Reference pages and then create the combined characters. You can then copy&paste as needed.

Mike-Hardy · Answer

You can also create a Character Format to position a diacritical, but you have to use MIF to do so, because no GUI is provided:

Open a new empty document.
Type the character that you want to combine with the diacritical, the diacritical, and a following character
Use micropositioning to adjust the position of the diacritical so it correctly combines:
- select the diacritical
- hold down the Alt key, and use the arrow keys to position the diacritical
Change the Spread to adjust the position of the following character:
- select the diacritical
- adjust the value of the Spread in the Character Designer, typically to a negative amount
Save the file as MIF.

Find the text. It will usually be near the end of the file, and look something like this:

<Para
  <Unique 999266>
  <PgfTag `Body'>
  <ParaLine
   <String `B'>
   <Font
    <FTag `'>
    <FDX  -41.66%>
    <FDY  -27.77%>
    <FDW  -20.0%>
    <FLocked No>
   > # end of Font
   <String `’'>
   <Font
    <FTag `'>
    <FLocked No>
   > # end of Font
   <String `C'>
  > # end of ParaLine
> # end of Para

Use a text editor to create a small MIF file. This MIF file defines a single character format that sets the same <FDX> and <FDY> micropositioning values and the <FDW> Spread value. Chaneg the FTag to an appropriate name. No other content is needed:
```
<MIFFile 12.0>
<FontCatalog
<Font
  <FTag `my_character_format_name'>
  <FDX  -41.66%>
  <FDY  -27.77%>
  <FDW  -20.0%>
  <FLocked No>
> # end of Font
> # end of FontCatalog
# End of MIFFile
```
Open the MIF file using FrameMaker.
Import the Character Format from the newly opened MIF file into your templates.

You can then use the Character Format to position the diacritical, and any others of similar size. Because the values are percentages, and so relative to the fnt size, you can use it in different contexts.

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