Overstrike problem

I tried to create an overstrike using the EQ field:

EQ \o(.,°) but to no avail: whatever characters I use, I always get the
first character followed by a comma and then the second character (in this
case: .,°) ...

I'm using the Dutch version of Word 2002.

Any idea how to solve this?

Many thanks in advance!

Björn,
Belgium

Klaus
Sat Sep 06 09:51:26 CDT 2003

"Björn Isebaert" <Bjrn.Isebaert@skynet.be> wrote:
> I tried to create an overstrike using the EQ field:
>
> EQ \o(.,°) but to no avail: whatever characters I use, I always get the
> first character followed by a comma and then the second character (in
this
> case: .,°) ...
>
> I'm using the Dutch version of Word 2002.
>
> Any idea how to solve this?
>
> Many thanks in advance!
>
> Björn,
> Belgium


Hi Björn,

In your Windows installation, the field separator is probably set as a
semi-colon instead of a comma.
(It's a setting in "Control Panel > Regional settings > Numbers" for me --
Win98)
Try {EQ \o(.;°)}

The setting influences Find/Replace wildcard searches, too ({n;m} instead
of {n,m}).

Often, the help files aren't translated properly and use the English field
separator.

Regards,
Klaus

Björn
Sat Sep 06 10:05:43 CDT 2003

Thanks Klaus, for the immediate answer!

That does the job!

Suzanne
Sat Sep 06 10:48:34 CDT 2003

FWIW, Word's Help file regarding the EQ field has a Note that says:

Some switches require a list of elements separated by commas or semicolons.
Use commas as the separators if the decimal symbol for your system is a
period (specified as part of the regional settings in Microsoft Windows
Control Panel). If the decimal symbol for your system is a comma, use
semicolons.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://www.mvps.org/word
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Björn Isebaert" <Bjrn.Isebaert@skynet.be> wrote in message
news:#BisVhIdDHA.3216@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Thanks Klaus, for the immediate answer!
>
> That does the job!
>
>

Klaus
Sat Sep 06 12:15:13 CDT 2003

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" <sbarnhill@mvps.org> wrote:
> FWIW, Word's Help file regarding the EQ field has a Note that says:
>
> Some switches require a list of elements separated by commas or
semicolons.
> Use commas as the separators if the decimal symbol for your system is a
> period (specified as part of the regional settings in Microsoft Windows
> Control Panel). If the decimal symbol for your system is a comma, use
> semicolons.


That help text isn't true, or at least, it isn't the whole story.

Maybe by default, most English machines have set the decimal symbol = "."
and field delimiters as ",", while other languages have the decimal symbol
set to "," and the field delimiter = ";".

But they can be set quite independently. On my machine, both delimiters are
set to ",", for example, because I got tired to translate every field and
wildcard search to "English", and back.

Making fields and wildcard searches dependent of this Windows setting
(which any user can change anytime) was a terrible idea anyway. Thankfully,
Microsoft did away with language-specific field names and "Find/Replace"
placeholders (such as ^p, ^l, ^c ...). It seems MS simply forgot the field
delimiter.

Regards,
Klaus