# Getting vertical bar of equal length for | a || b | in a notebook

How can I make |a|*|b| show well in a notebook?

I typed | from keyboard to denote absolute value. General cleanupIt will auto adjust by matching in my notebook so that sometimes it will not show as expected.

Maybe I can close the auto-matching feature?

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Why not to type a space between them? –  Alexei Boulbitch Jul 12 '13 at 7:21
@AlexeiBoulbitch I do not know your meaning, my problem is about the vertical bar's length, as you see |a|'s | is longer than |b|'s | –  HyperGroups Jul 12 '13 at 8:33
I mean the following: Bring up the Writing Assistant menue. At its Typsetting panel open the tab marked by the multiplication sign "X". 1. Press the LeftBracketBar button (1st column, 5th line). 2. Press a. 3. Press the RightBracketBar button (2nd column, 5th line). 4. Press space. 5. Press again the LeftBracketBar button (1st column, 5th line). 6. Press b. 7. Press the RightBracketBar button (2nd column, 5th line). Done. In my case (that is Mma 9.01, PC, XP) the heights of all bars are equal. –  Alexei Boulbitch Jul 29 '13 at 7:19

Why don't you use

Times[BracketingBar[a],BracketingBar[b]]


which can be inserted with the Writing Assistant under Typesetting?

If you like typing |a| directly, you can use

Esc l | Esc a Esc r | Esc

You find the keyboard shortcuts in the documentation to BracketingBar und Details.

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insert with writing assistant is not so convenient, can be developed faster than Esc l| Esc and Esc r|? As fast as type | | something like a shortcut for () –  HyperGroups Jul 11 '13 at 15:58
@HyperGroups For an even faster way, you could create your own shortcut. Search this site. One starting point is maybe this post here. –  halirutan Jul 11 '13 at 16:11
fine, thanks, InputAlias is one good way. Curious to know a little about the auto-matching behavior of | –  HyperGroups Jul 11 '13 at 16:15