A user on the Entourage newsgroup recently asked about using superscripts in an Entourage message. I thought it was a topic that may interest a wider audience, and this article is the result.
Normally (in Word, at least) superscript (or subscript) is a formatting applied to an ordinary character to make it smaller and shift the baseline. This can't be done in an entourage message, even using HTML - the formatting tools are just not available. However, there is a way - and a way that will work with plain text messages as well as HTML!
There are a series of characters in the Unicode character set that include superscript and subscript digits from zero to nine. These can be inserted directly into an Entourage message to produce a result that looks like this: 2πr².
Now, typing Unicode characters is not the easiest of tasks, bu Entourage has a useful feature that makes this easy, even though it may take a minute or two to set things up first.
To get started, you need to be able to access the Character Palette to get at the Unicode Character set. First, open the System Preferences, and select the 'International' preferences. Select the 'Input Menu' tab and make sure that the checkbox next to 'Character Palette' is checked, and also the checkbox against 'Show Input Menu in menu Bar'. It should look like this (click on the thumbnail to view a full size image):
Now, in your menu bar, on the right hand side there should be a little flag icon that represents the country settings for the keyboard you are using. Under that menu there will be an entry for the Keyboard Palette:
This will open the Character Palette. What you see in this window will deppend on the settings of the various optons in the window. to find the superscript characters, type 'superscript' in the search box at the bottom and hit 'Enter'. Scroll the window to find the 'Superscript 2' character, select it and hit 'Enter' again:
You should now have the character selected, and could enter the character into an Entourage message window by using the 'Insert' button in this palette window. That, however, is not a particularly easy or convenient way to type a character whenever you want it. To make it easier, we can leverage the 'Autocorrect' feature in Entourage. You will probably have come across this when you accidentally type 'teh' instead of 'the'. Autocorrect will automatically correct this and many other common mispellings. Autocorrect can also be used to make other substitutions. Try typing '(c)' in a message window, followed by a space or return, and you should get a 'copyright' symbol replacing the text you typed. this is the functionality we will use to make entering these subscripts easy as pi ;-)
First, open the 'autocorrect' window in Entourage (under the Tools menu). Select the 'autocorrect pane and make sure that 'Replace Text as You Type' is checked.
Now, put '^2' in the 'Replace:' box and move the cursor to the 'With:' box. Select the 'superscript 2' character in the Character Palette and click 'Insert' - this character will be typed into the 'With:' box in the Autocorrect dialog in Entourage:
Click the 'Add' button in the Autocorrect dialog and this shortcut is now in place. Repeat with ^3, ^4 etc for all the other superscript digits (and some suitable characters for subscripts, if you want them).
Close the AutoCorrect dialog.
Now, in an Entourage message window, type "42^2" and a space (or return). The '^2' will be replaced with a superscript 2.
If you want something raised to the power of 64 (for example), you would have to type "2^6^4 " - after the ^6' the superscript 6 would appear and after the ^4 the superscript 4 would follow.
