Text editor workarounds

Using word processors that don't include some symbols and modes

When writing on the board or using a text editor like Microsoft Word that has a built-in mode for equations, it's easy to write Greek letters or special symbols associated with letters or superscripts or subscripts. Some word processors, like the one used here on the blog or most of the ones that are used to write e-mails, don't have ways to produce these symbols, so there are standard ways to work around these limitations.

Special additions to letters: The symbol for average of a sample is an x with a bar over it. It's pronounced x-bar, and that's the way it is typed if the word processor can't easily put a bar over a letter. We will have a similar situation with a symbol we can type as p-hat, which is the lowercase letter p with a symbol above it that looks like a roof or a hat.

Superscripts: If we need to write "x squared" but can't produce a superscript to make the 2 small and with its base above the line, the standard is to type is "x^2". The up arrow is called a caret, pronounced like carrot, and on your computer keyboard is the shift key and "6" typed together. The caret is also on most TI calculators, and it's the way to perform exponentiation.

Subscripts: We use subscripts to identify particular subjects and their associated values. In the text editor for this blog, it's possible to change font size, so x3 can be written to look like a subscript simply by making the 3 smaller. In text editors where that isn't possible, like most editors used to send e-mail, that would be written as "x_3", where the under bar is the dash "-" and shift typed together.

Greek letters: There are two important symbols in statistics that are lower case letters in the Greek alphabet. If your word processor cannot type these Greek letters, you can use the words "mu" and "sigma". Both of them often have subscripts, so they are typed "mu_x" or "sigma_p", depending on what statistic they are associated with.