‘text direction’ (Word97SR2)

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I found (to me) surprisingly few references to “text direction” in the lounge. I thought I was the last person on the planet to discover it (through a Wilson Jones folder,http://www.wilsonjones.com[/url%5D)

Now, of course, i want sidebars in “text direction” on so many documents … but as far as I can see we can’t (Word97) incorporate text direction in a paragraph style.

So, I’ll have a small macro that applies a user style “Sideways” and sets the text direction.

Unless someone tells me there’s a better way …..

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As far as I know, text direction can’t be a style attribute. You can put the sidebars in a text box & change the text direction in the text box. You could save it as an autotext entry to insert it easily, but I doubt that this is any faster than using a macro.

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> I doubt that this is any faster than using a macro

Thanks, Phil. It’s going to be a macro (the word “versa-tile seems appropraite!).

I often worry that I’ve missed something that’s tucked away some place. Having someone confirm that I’ve NOT misunderstood is a great help.

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> the word “versa-tile” seems appropriate

(very off topic)
The word already has been used for shapes that can tile the plane in both periodic and non-periodic ways.
There are such beasts, though I haven’t found a picture on the web that shows both periodic and non-periodic tilings using the same tile.

Klaus

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He has a definition of the Ackerman function there. He writes that it was introduced by John Conway, but I was introduced to it as The Ackerman Function back in 1970. We used it to classify machines (hardware and software).

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J., you’re sure? Conway’s one-dimensional function seems to grow rather slowly — a(1000)=510 — whereas Ackerman’s two-dimensional function is said to grow faster than an exponential function (… didn’t test it).
The definitions look pretty similar, though, and they may both not be primitively recursive … I’m just an amateur at mathematics, and both seem pretty strange compared to what I learned in school!

Klaus

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You are correct. I didn’t look closely eanough. Conway’s function is more linear than Ackerman’s.

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You are correct. I didn’t look closely eanough. Conway’s function is more linear than Ackerman’s.

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J., you’re sure? Conway’s one-dimensional function seems to grow rather slowly — a(1000)=510 — whereas Ackerman’s two-dimensional function is said to grow faster than an exponential function (… didn’t test it).
The definitions look pretty similar, though, and they may both not be primitively recursive … I’m just an amateur at mathematics, and both seem pretty strange compared to what I learned in school!

Klaus

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He has a definition of the Ackerman function there. He writes that it was introduced by John Conway, but I was introduced to it as The Ackerman Function back in 1970. We used it to classify machines (hardware and software).

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> the word “versa-tile” seems appropriate

(very off topic)
The word already has been used for shapes that can tile the plane in both periodic and non-periodic ways.
There are such beasts, though I haven’t found a picture on the web that shows both periodic and non-periodic tilings using the same tile.

Klaus

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> I doubt that this is any faster than using a macro

Thanks, Phil. It’s going to be a macro (the word “versa-tile seems appropraite!).

I often worry that I’ve missed something that’s tucked away some place. Having someone confirm that I’ve NOT misunderstood is a great help.

Reply | Quote

As far as I know, text direction can’t be a style attribute. You can put the sidebars in a text box & change the text direction in the text box. You could save it as an autotext entry to insert it easily, but I doubt that this is any faster than using a macro.

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I’m a little bit behind the curve with regard to the subject of this post. (And I was unable to find the appropriate folder at the WilsonJones link.) Are we talking about text direction in a text box? Could someone give me a little basic info about “text direction” as it seems like it might be very useful if I actually knew what was going on.
Thank You, J. Till

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It’s my fault for allowing Phil to distract me (grin!).

Background: I purchased a three-ring binder for course notes. Turns out it was a “Wilson Jones” binder, and as I travelled by train to the teaching appointment I read the toss-away bumph inside the folder. One sheet was a step-by-step procedure for creating cover sheets, tab sheets etc for the folder. (I wished I had read it BEFORE leaving my office!)

The various procedures seemed to lend themselves to an exercise in designing a set of useful utility procedures to produce cover sheets etc, so on my return I sketched out how I’d break the tasks down into utility fucntions.

Working through the steps I came to the bit about “Select Tex Direction”, and I’d not played with “Text Direction” before. Bear with me. The web site undoubtedly has templates for the cover page; I am/was reading from the throw-away bumph sheet inside the package.

I examined Text Direction (more below!) and realised that I’d like to implement this as part of a style – it made sense to me – but I couldn’t find a way to drag it into a style definition. Hence my original post “Am I going crazy or is it truly not possible to incorporate Text Direction” into a paragraph style.

OK. Text Direction: In MS(Word97/SR2) create a table, say 5 columns and 5 rows. Into each cell type a word (“Here is some text for you to read” would occupy 8 cells). Select a cell with text and choose from the menu Format, Text Direction, and one of the vertical orientations.
On your return to your document you should see text displayed vertically – just as you would want it to be displayed on the spine of a three-ring binder.

Now, if you are using paragraph Styles, you’d have to start thinking that it would be nice to define a paragraph style “Spine”, being Arial, 36 point, bold, and “Text Direction = Vertical”, but there’s no way to install the text direction as a facet of a paragraph style.

So now I have a macro which applies the paragraph style ‘Spine” and applies Format, Text Direction, Vertical.

I hope this makes sense.

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It’s my fault for allowing Phil to distract me (grin!).

Background: I purchased a three-ring binder for course notes. Turns out it was a “Wilson Jones” binder, and as I travelled by train to the teaching appointment I read the toss-away bumph inside the folder. One sheet was a step-by-step procedure for creating cover sheets, tab sheets etc for the folder. (I wished I had read it BEFORE leaving my office!)

The various procedures seemed to lend themselves to an exercise in designing a set of useful utility procedures to produce cover sheets etc, so on my return I sketched out how I’d break the tasks down into utility fucntions.

Working through the steps I came to the bit about “Select Tex Direction”, and I’d not played with “Text Direction” before. Bear with me. The web site undoubtedly has templates for the cover page; I am/was reading from the throw-away bumph sheet inside the package.

I examined Text Direction (more below!) and realised that I’d like to implement this as part of a style – it made sense to me – but I couldn’t find a way to drag it into a style definition. Hence my original post “Am I going crazy or is it truly not possible to incorporate Text Direction” into a paragraph style.

OK. Text Direction: In MS(Word97/SR2) create a table, say 5 columns and 5 rows. Into each cell type a word (“Here is some text for you to read” would occupy 8 cells). Select a cell with text and choose from the menu Format, Text Direction, and one of the vertical orientations.
On your return to your document you should see text displayed vertically – just as you would want it to be displayed on the spine of a three-ring binder.

Now, if you are using paragraph Styles, you’d have to start thinking that it would be nice to define a paragraph style “Spine”, being Arial, 36 point, bold, and “Text Direction = Vertical”, but there’s no way to install the text direction as a facet of a paragraph style.

So now I have a macro which applies the paragraph style ‘Spine” and applies Format, Text Direction, Vertical.

I hope this makes sense.

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> it seems like it might be very useful

I should add that Text Direction is becoming part of my repertoire. I am now using it to provide sidebars on each page of an annotated book.

The text for each page of he book is held in a large cell of a table. To the right of the large cell is a slim, vertical cell, with the text formatted as vertical. In this slim box I place my comments as to where-we-are-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things. Very handy.

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Thanks for the detailed explanation. I feel like I’m up-to-date now with text direction.
Time will tell as to whether I share your enthusiasm.
Let the experiments begin. J. Till

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> Let the experiments begin.

There’s a use of vertical text here:
printing Tickets

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> Let the experiments begin.

There’s a use of vertical text here:
printing Tickets

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Thanks for the detailed explanation. I feel like I’m up-to-date now with text direction.
Time will tell as to whether I share your enthusiasm.
Let the experiments begin. J. Till

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> it seems like it might be very useful

I should add that Text Direction is becoming part of my repertoire. I am now using it to provide sidebars on each page of an annotated book.

The text for each page of he book is held in a large cell of a table. To the right of the large cell is a slim, vertical cell, with the text formatted as vertical. In this slim box I place my comments as to where-we-are-in-the-grand-scheme-of-things. Very handy.

Reply | Quote

I’m a little bit behind the curve with regard to the subject of this post. (And I was unable to find the appropriate folder at the WilsonJones link.) Are we talking about text direction in a text box? Could someone give me a little basic info about “text direction” as it seems like it might be very useful if I actually knew what was going on.
Thank You, J. Till

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