How to make a division symbol in a computer document

I’d written a piece about the names of the division symbol at the Math Mojo site. You can visit it at Names of the Division Sign.

Recently a reader wrote in with the following question:

Hi. I enjoyed discovering your website about math mojo.

Do you by chance know how to create the long division symbol in a word processing document or PowerPoint that allows someone to insert the dividend under a vinculum?

Right now, I’m just using an underline key, entering, and then typing the numbers on the line underneath. This solution is less than optimal. If you have a better solution, how happy you’d make me by sharing it.

Thanks,

- A. Reader

Professor Homunculus sez:

The symbol the reader is referring to is this one:

Great question. Lots of people have asked about it before, and it’s time I got to it. I’ve tried this so many ways, and have downloaded lots of math software trials, only to find that none of them have included that symbol. The rest of this post are instructions  and a video of how to do this.

I’ve used the following method to accomplish what you are trying to accomplish, on a Mac, using Keynote (it’s like PowerPoint). I just tried PowerPoint for the first time in my life, and it worked with that, as well. It will also work similarly with a Word Document.

(Don’t worry, you don’t have to do this part. I’m just including it for the sake of completeness.) First I created the image I wanted in Photoshop, using the text tool to make a right parenthesis and a series of underscores. Then I rasterized the layer, moved the underscores till they were touching the parenthesis. Then I flipped the image vertically, and cropped it. Next I saved it for the web as a .jpg file. Then I loaded it to this post. You don’t have to do any of that, obviously, but you can use the same technique to make all sorts of stuff to add to your other documents if you have Photoshop or something like it.

This is all you have to do to use that graphic for your own files:

If you’re on a Mac, click on the image and drag the above image to your desktop. (If you’re on a machine from CosmoDemonicSoft, do whatever you need to do to download that image to your computer.)

Now open a PowerPoint document. Type the numbers you want in the positions you want them. Then go up to the menu bar and click on “insert” > picture > from file” and navigate to the file you just downloaded (it’s entitled “division_sign_with_vinculum.jpg”). Click on it, and it will be inserted somewhere into your document. Drag it to the place you want, between the numbers you want.

You will notice that it is not transparent, and it will block out the numbers behind it. No problem. While the picture is selected, you will see the formatting palette for graphics, click on the section that says, “size, rotation and ordering,” then click on the “layering” button and chose “send to back.”

You’re done.

You can resize the graphic by dragging on its handles.

One thing to keep in mind, when you insert the graphic, do it from the menu bar, like I mentioned above. Do not insert it using the “insert graphics” button in the formatting palette. That will add the graphic, but in a square file, with extra room around the edges, and that can mess you up. Doing it from the menu bar will only insert the properly cropped file.

Remember, I’m using PowerPoint on a Mac, so if you’re using a computer from The Dark Side, your interface may look slightly different.Let me know how you do.