symbols
I want to have a function name (like g(.)) and I do this in this ways:
$g \left( . \right)$$g(.)$But in either way, the dot "." seems a little lower than it is better to be. I am wondering if there is another way to have this output? (this may seem so basic but when I saw that writing three consecutive dots has its own command, I doubted may be I am doing it wrong)
You don't need to load the mathabx package just to use one symbol: just load the necessary font and consult the package to know the slot corresponding to \lll; it turns out that the font is matha and the slot is "CE.
\usepackage{graphicx}
\DeclareFontFamily{U}{matha}{\hyphenchar\font45}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{matha}{m}{n}{
<5> <6> <7> <8> <9> <10> gen * matha
<10.95> matha10 <12> <14.4> <17.28> <20.74> <24.88> matha12
}{}
\newcommand{\bland}{\mathbin{
\raisebox{.1ex}{%
\rotatebox[origin=c]{-90}{\usefont{U}{matha}{m}{n}\symbol{\string"CE}}}}}
\newcommand{\blor}{\mathbin{
\raisebox{.1ex}{%
\rotatebox[origin=c]{90}{\usefont{U}{matha}{m}{n}\symbol{\string"CE}}}}}
If you need those symbols also in subscripts and superscripts, some more work is needed. A possible definition is
\usepackage{graphicx}
\DeclareFontFamily{U}{matha}{\hyphenchar\font45}
\DeclareFontShape{U}{matha}{m}{n}{
<5> <6> <7> <8> <9> <10> gen * matha
<10.95> matha10 <12> <14.4> <17.28> <20.74> <24.88> matha12
}{}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\blandor}[1]{\mathbin{\@blandor{#1}}}
\newcommand{\@blandor}[1]{\mathchoice
{\@@blandor{#1}{\tf@size}}
{\@@blandor{#1}{\tf@size}}
{\@@blandor{#1}{\sf@size}}
{\@@blandor{#1}{\ssf@size}}
}
\newcommand{\@@blandor}[2]{%
\raisebox{.1ex}{\rotatebox[origin=c]{#1}{%
\fontsize{#2}{#2}\usefont{U}{matha}{m}{n}\symbol{\string"CE}}}%
}
\makeatother
\newcommand{\bland}{\blandor{-90}}
\newcommand{\blor}{\blandor{90}}
Notwithstanding, that this is not the type of paragraph formatting that one would recommend for modern typesetting, the approach you can take is what you suggested; that is to manually insert pilcrows into the text rather than using newlines.
As you seem to require the quick changing between various different formats, I would suggest you create a macro to switch on-off the effects of the Pilcrow macro:
\let\cacheP\P
\def\Poff{\def\P{\leavevmode\par}}
\def\Pon{\let\P\cacheP}
In the mark-up, you can use \Pon and \Poff, as required. Here is the MWE:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\let\cacheP\P
\def\Poff{\def\P{\leavevmode\par}}
\def\Pon{\let\P\cacheP}
\begin{document}
This is a short paragraph. \P This is another and this is another.
\P And another.
And this is a normal one.\lipsum*[1]
This is how you negate the effect.
\Poff
This is a short paragraph.
\P This is another and this is another.
\P and another.
\Pon
This is a short paragraph.
\P This is another and this is another.
\P and another.
\end{document}
Best Answer
Use
\cdotfor a single vertically centred dot.