Word2003 gripe #3,612

[ChrisGreaves]

Because I bought 3 tubes of rubber sealant and used half a tube in an experiment, I have 2½ tubes left over, but to get that half to load as a fraction I must:
(1) Type the digit for two (“2”)
(2) Type a space symbol (“ ”)
(3) Type the three symbols for one, slash, and two (“1/2”)
(4) Type another space symbol (“ ”) to trigger the autoformat
(5) Then (and here comes the gripe), I must left-arrow twice and backspace once and then right-arrow twice before I can resume typing.

Of course, If I upgraded to MSWord2035 I could probably intercept the autoformat event and program around this.

(signed) “MSWord is only ½ complete” of Bonavista

P.S I just noticed that smart quotes is 2½ keystrokes short of a string: the closing quote after those space symbols shows up as an opening quote with a following close-parentheses, but I will lodge that as gripe #3,612½.
C.

[HansV]

You could type Alt+0189 (with Num Lock on) to produce ½

[Leif]

Why don't you include:
2.5f
to be auto-corrected to
2½
or would that be too easy?

[Charles Kenyon]

I type 2-1/2 and it gives me the fraction with the hyphen which I can then delete.
Mostly, I do not use the built-in ones but my own AutoCorrect entries. It helps make fractions uniform.
http://wordfaqs.ssbarnhill.com/CreateFraction.htm

00 deleteme 1.png

00 deleteme 2.png

[ChrisGreaves]

You could type Alt+0189 (with Num Lock on) to produce ½

Thanks hans, and that's what a Word2003 help file suggests, but (a) I have no Numlock on this laptop and (b) when I use the numeric digit keys (across the top of the keyboard) I get an stoked letter D.
In the meantime I see that Leif has come up with one of those "Why didn't I think of that?" suggestions ...
Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

Why don't you include:...

As usual you force me to reply "Brilliant".
And yes, it works.
All I need do now is to make sure I don't get carried away and reduce it to a single character, such as "2" for the shortcut!
Cheers
Chris

[ChrisGreaves]

I type 2-1/2 and it gives me the fraction with the hyphen which I can then delete.

Huh?
I get a space character between the integer and the fraction:-

Untitled.png

I am too lazy to write Autocorrect entries:-

Untitle2d.png

Cheers
Chris