The recent version of Open Office makes it very easy for philosophers to insert logical notation into their papers.
It’s done through by adding special commands into the AutoCorrect Feature. This post will show you how to do that.
Suppose you want the existential quantifier to automatically replace ‘/e’ – Here’s what you do.
First: Insert the Special Character You Want an Auto Correct Shortcut For. In our case, the existential quantifier.
Second: Highlight the Character in Your Document. Go to Tools > AutoCorrect
Third: In the “Replace” field type in the text that you want the symbol to Automatically Replace. Click “New”. Click “OK”
Now, everytime I type ‘/e’ – It will be AutoCorrected with the Existential Quantifier. Pretty awesome.
(NOTE: I got this working in Ubuntu 9.04 using Open Office 3.0. After talking with Allen Stairs, it looks like it’s a bit trickier to get this working in Windows.)
Many thanks, Andy, for posting this. Alas, as you noted, it seems not to work so well with Vista. Briefly, the font set is different, and in any case, highlighting an inserted symbol doesn’t put into into the ‘With’ box as it does with Ubuntu. If anyone knows a work-around (short of installing Ubuntu) it would be dandy to hear about it.
It works on a Mac – OS X 10.5.6, Oo 3.0.1.
[…] Logical Notation in OpenOffice 3.0 – Wide Scope, 4/20 Andrew Cullison writes that he has found a simple way for philosophers using […]
It is GREAT to see someone who can convey a concept with ACCURATE instructions – 1-2-3 to the point, no false untested paths. Your screen captures are gems. This really worked well, and not only that I learned things about autocorrect I never knew before. MANY thanks to you.
* I think technical documentation would be at least one of your occupations, if it isn’t already.
Best regards,
Jeremy
To Andy –
I just got on your web page (after typing your name into Google – as not too many people ask about inserting quantifiers in OO) and see that you are an Associate Professor in the philosophy department at State University of New York at Fredonia – a step way beyond being a writer. However, I used to teach logic but do technical writing as bread and butter. I mean, who is hiring philosophers these days, let alone logicians? If one of your AOC is logic, what is your speciality? Feel free to e-mail me.