Putting a harpoon symbol over variables

[steve-o]

Following some advice from another thread I've gotten to the point that I can use the Compose Special Characters extension to put arrow and harpoon symbols over characters in my Writer documents.

When making a formula object with Math, however, it seems that only the arrow symbol is available -- by using the "vec" attribute. I prefer the harpoon for denoting vectors because when writing vectors by hand (on paper or on the board in class) most people use a harpoon shape instead of a full arrow. I'd like to be consistent.

Following the tips in this thread I've added both a regular harpoon (U+21c0) and the combining diacritical harpoon (U+20d1) to Math as new symbols. I'm able to get them to appear in my formulas as their own characters. I hoped to find a way to fudge one of them on top of a variable, but I'm having trouble.

If I use a vertical stack ("binom") the variable is offset below the baseline of the formula. If I use a centered superscript ("csup") with the regular harpoon, the harpoon appears way too far above the variable. If I use "csup" with the combining version of the harpoon, the harpoon does not appear at all, even though I can make it appear on its own, as a regular superscript ("^"), and as a left superscript ("lsup"). Regardless, in left and right superscript positions the combining harpoon is too small anyway, so even if I could get it centered I suspect I wouldn't like the result.

Any advice for me on this one? Is there any other way in Math to position characters on top of each other, or a way of combining characters in Math? Or a way to adjust the "binom" alignment? I saw in another old thread that as of 2007 there was no way to add or modify attributes in Math, but maybe that has changed? Could I define a "harpoonvec" attribute that would use the character I want instead of the arrow from "vec"?

Or do I just need to suck it up and either use arrows or go learn LaTeX instead of using OpenOffice?

--Steve-o

[RGB]

No simple solution, sorry. Using combining characters on Math can be confusing depending on the font selected.

On LaTeX it is not easy either: you need to install and configure the "harpoon" package: it is not available by default.

[steve-o]

Ah, too bad. Thanks for the answer, RGB!