4.3.6.5 Strings and Special Characters

The ms macros provide the following predefined strings. You can change the string definitions to help in creating documents in languages other than English.

String: \*[REFERENCES]

Contains the string printed at the beginning of the references (bibliography) page. The default is ‘References’.

String: \*[ABSTRACT]

Contains the string printed at the beginning of the abstract. The default is ‘ABSTRACT’.

String: \*[TOC]

Contains the string printed at the beginning of the table of contents.

String: \*[MONTH1]

String: \*[MONTH2]

String: \*[MONTH3]

String: \*[MONTH4]

String: \*[MONTH5]

String: \*[MONTH6]

String: \*[MONTH7]

String: \*[MONTH8]

String: \*[MONTH9]

String: \*[MONTH10]

String: \*[MONTH11]

String: \*[MONTH12]

Prints the full name of the month in dates. The default is ‘January’, ‘February’, etc.

The following special characters are available⁸:

String: \*[-]

Prints an em dash.

String: \*[Q]

String: \*[U]

Prints typographer’s quotes in troff, and plain quotes in nroff. \*Q is the left quote and \*U is the right quote.

Improved accent marks are available in the ms macros.

Macro: .AM

Specify this macro at the beginning of your document to enable extended accent marks and special characters. This is a Berkeley extension.

To use the accent marks, place them after the character being accented.

Note that groff’s native support for accents is superior to the following definitions.

The following accent marks are available after invoking the AM macro:

String: \*[']

Acute accent.

String: \*[`]

Grave accent.

String: \*[^]

Circumflex.

String: \*[,]

Cedilla.

String: \*[~]

Tilde.

String: \*[:]

Umlaut.

String: \*[v]

Hacek.

String: \*[_]

Macron (overbar).

String: \*[.]

Underdot.

String: \*[o]

Ring above.

The following are standalone characters available after invoking the AM macro:

String: \*[?]

Upside-down question mark.

String: \*[!]

Upside-down exclamation point.

String: \*[8]

German ß ligature.

String: \*[3]

Yogh.

String: \*[Th]

Uppercase thorn.

String: \*[th]

Lowercase thorn.

String: \*[D-]

Uppercase eth.

String: \*[d-]

Lowercase eth.

String: \*[q]

Hooked o.

String: \*[ae]

Lowercase æ ligature.

String: \*[Ae]

Uppercase Æ ligature.