What's the use of overstrike?

Chan Nicodemus

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Dec 29, 1994, 7:11:18 AM12/29/94

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I have noticed that there is always provided the overstrike formatting
to characters in almost all the word processors I've used. But does
anybody ever use it in the first place? Why did they want to have it
in the first place?

Curious.
--
********************************************************************************
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* Tel: 65-779-7824 * Lower Kent Ridge Road, *
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"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law"

Rich Greenberg

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Dec 29, 1994, 7:02:13 PM12/29/94

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In article <3du916$n...@nuscc.nus.sg> chan...@iscs.nus.sg (Chan Nicodemus) writes:
>I have noticed that there is always provided the overstrike formatting
>to characters in almost all the word processors I've used. But does
>anybody ever use it in the first place? Why did they want to have it
>in the first place?

In older word processing programs, overstrike ability was used in
several places:

1) To boldface the printout by overstrikeing the letters with
themselves.
2) To Underscore the printout by overstrikeing with an underscore
character.
3) In some cases, to create custom characters.
--
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lanam_jeff

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Dec 29, 1994, 7:50:26 PM12/29/94

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Chan Nicodemus (chan...@iscs.nus.sg) wrote:
: I have noticed that there is always provided the overstrike formatting

: to characters in almost all the word processors I've used. But does
: anybody ever use it in the first place? Why did they want to have it
: in the first place?

It is often used to show deletions, particularly in legal documents.
When California sends out its voter information "pamphlet" (usually
a 100 page magazine!), the sections of the law to be changed by
propositions are shown with the deletions overstriken and the
additions in italics.

--
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jeff Lanam lanam...@tandem.com
Tandem Computers, Inc.
Of course, these are my views. I'm not paid enough to express those
of my employer!

Ian Young

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Dec 30, 1994, 12:39:49 AM12/30/94

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Perhaps the original poster was actually speaking of
that typographical oddity,
Strikethrough
which I have yet to understand...
--
Ian G. Bull Young |"sometimes, even music cannot
iyo...@alpha.wright.edu |substitute for tears" -Paul Simon
"The guy who tries to be funny, |"The Way is empty, yet
but everbody laughs at" |use will not drain it. -Lao Tzu

Yeechang Lee

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Dec 30, 1994, 1:19:44 AM12/30/94

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According to Ian Young <iyo...@alpha.wright.edu>:

|Perhaps the original poster was actually speaking of
|that typographical oddity,
|Strikethrough
|which I have yet to understand...

The law firm I work for uses the strikethrough feature in WordPerfect to
'mark up' revisions of legal documents to show where the changes have
been made.
-- _____________________________________________________________________
Yeechang Lee (yc...@columbia.edu)|Nevada Las Vegas Mission Jul'92-'94
Columbia University/New York City|Celestial Kingdom through Taco Bell
Still working on my juggling-while-I-play-the-harmonica routine . . .

William E. Newkirk

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Dec 30, 1994, 11:40:37 AM12/30/94

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because a lot of printers couldn't produce all the characters needed
for the average user -- use Y and = to make a yen sign, c and / or | for
a cent sign (although $ was on all i've seen...)

and there's the accented characters languages other than american english
use...
--

Bill Newkirk WB9IVR The Space Coast Amateur Technical Group
Melbourne, FL duty now for the future of amateur radio

Chris Sonnack

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Dec 30, 1994, 11:19:13 AM12/30/94

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<<on 30 Dec 1994 06:19:44 GMT, Yeechang Lee wrote...>>

> The law firm I work for uses the strikethrough feature in WordPerfect to
> 'mark up' revisions of legal documents to show where the changes have
> been made.

I heard of a congressional document of some 5000 pages in which EVERY
SINGLE BIT OF TEXT WAS OVERSTRIKED (overstriken?). You can even order
this massive and useless thing. Our tax dollars at work. Wheeee!
--
Chris Sonnack | 3M/Information Technology/Engineering Info Svcs
cjso...@mmm.com | 3M Center, Bld 42-6E-01, St.Paul, MN, 55144-1000
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Tris Orendorff

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Dec 30, 1994, 4:11:54 PM12/30/94

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In a previous posting, Rich Greenberg (ric...@netcom.com) writes:
> In article <3du916$n...@nuscc.nus.sg> chan...@iscs.nus.sg (Chan Nicodemus) writes:

>>I have noticed that there is always provided the overstrike formatting
>>to characters in almost all the word processors I've used. But does
>>anybody ever use it in the first place? Why did they want to have it
>>in the first place?
>

> In older word processing programs, overstrike ability was used in
> several places:
>
> 1) To boldface the printout by overstrikeing the letters with
> themselves.
> 2) To Underscore the printout by overstrikeing with an underscore
> character.

I think you are overestimating the underuse of overloading the
underdog concept of overstrikeing.

--
Sincerely Yours: Tris Orendorff aa...@freenet.carleton.ca
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-po+ Y+ t+ !5 j+ R- G? !tv b++ D+ B? e++ u+ h f+ r++ n+ y+

mfinley

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Dec 30, 1994, 7:25:46 PM12/30/94

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>Perhaps the original poster was actually speaking of
>that typographical oddity,
>Strikethrough
>which I have yet to understand...

Before redlining, law and labor negotiation entities used strikeout to evidence changes made in a contract.
Each time they changed it, the secretaries had to retype the document,
going back over language that had been deleted and crossing it out, and typing in the
new matter fresh.

Mike Finley
St. Paul, Minnesota

Michael D Shapiro

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Dec 31, 1994, 7:02:57 PM12/31/94

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In article <D1Lzq...@mercury.wright.edu>,

Ian Young <iyo...@alpha.wright.edu> wrote:
>
>Perhaps the original poster was actually speaking of
>that typographical oddity,
>Strikethrough
>which I have yet to understand...

The strikethrough is used to show deleted text. The place I see it
published most often is in California voter booklets for propositions
changing the law. Old deleted text is set with a strikethrough.

The Microsoft Word Revision feature uses the strikethrough for this
purpose. You can follow revisions of documents if you use this
feature.
--
Michael D. Shapiro, Ph.D. Internet: msha...@nosc.mil
Code 4123, NCCOSC RDT&E Division (NRaD) San Diego CA 92152
Voice: (619) 553-4080 FAX: (619) 553-4808 DSN: 553-4080

Thomas Honore Nielsen

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Jan 1, 1995, 12:18:34 PM1/1/95

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In article <D1Lzq...@mercury.wright.edu>,

iyo...@alpha.wright.edu (Ian Young) wrote:
>Perhaps the original poster was actually speaking of
>that typographical oddity,
>Strikethrough
>which I have yet to understand...

I was editing a yearbook when attending high school. A girl had
discovered that something about her practically hunting for the
prince on the white horse was to be printed. As she had just
found herself _the_ prince, she wanted to have the paragraph in
question deleted. So we did. Strikethrough. (She was really
pissed off) :-)