from herbert gintis, re a tilde in text: I often use something like this: 200\lower3pt\hbox{\~\ }\kern-2pt300. The tilde is a little too narrow, but it'll do. If you don't mind going into math mode (why should you?), this is fine: $200\kern-2pt\sim\kern-2pt300$. this is equivelent to the latter, removing the space placed around a relation: $200{\sim}300$ -- bb