Q: I was wondering if there is any way in DPlot to put a square root in axis labels? What i am looking for is...say like..."sqrt(t)" but with the "real" square root symbol.
A: Yes there is, if you are willing to experiment just a bit. Select the Title/Axes command on the Text menu. (This also works with the legend and with point labels and text notations). Click within the text box where you want the square root symbol, then click the α button at the bottom of the dialog box:
Now select the left portion of the square root symbol in the next-to-last row, towards the right:
click the Select button, then OK.
For the horizontal bar, the best you can do is an overbar code. This draws a horizontal line above the character(s) that have this attribute. But there is no button on the Title/Axes (or any other) dialog for the overbar code, so you'll need to type it yourself:
Where this all becomes a trial-and-error process is that the overbar is not specifically designed to line up perfectly with the left end of the square root symbol. With some font sizes and weights it appears to be perfect, but with others... it isn't all that good. And the results will vary by output device. Generally if it looks good on the screen it will look good in saved bitmap images or printed out, but may or may not be aligned properly in metafiles. The alignment will vary with font face (Arial tends to work well), and smaller fonts (12-16 pt) tend to do better than larger fonts. Bold fonts definitely do better. But as mentioned at the outset, you'll have to experiment. Here's a 14-pt bold Arial stab at the problem:
Unfortunately this feature does not work at all with subscripts, superscripts, etc., as the overbar will be at varying heights above the baseline. Perhaps a future release will address this problem with a sqrt formatting code.
For a list of all formatting codes see the online Help topic for the Title/Axes command, or within DPlot click the Help button on the Title/Axes dialog box.
