[OS X TeX] Cancelling columns?

[Martin Costabel]

David Derbes wrote:
> I apologize for what is probably a simple thing, but it's defeated me  
> for a while now.
> 
> I am writing a small note about calculation of determinants using  
> minors. I would like to draw explicitly a line through the numbers of  a 
> row (which I think I can do with the ``soul'' package.) But how to  do 
> it with a column? If worse comes to worse, I can use LaTeXiT to  export 
> the matrix to Illustrator, draw the lines in Illustrator, and  then use 
> it as a graphic. But if LaTeX will do the job, I'd prefer that.

You can write something quick and dirty after the first number in your 
column, like the following:

\hbox to 0pt{\hskip-1.5ex\raisebox{-2ex}[1ex][0ex]{
   \vrule height 4ex width 0.5pt depth 4ex}}

Adapt the dimensions to the size of your matrix.

-- 
Martin