Consider the MWE below. In the first notation the superindex is higher than necessary since the lower end of the brackets is taken as reference point for the box in which the superindex is set. This is UGLY! Solution: use \smash.
Is there any method how I can tell LaTeX (by some code in the preamble) that $^{(N)}$ should be globally changed to $^{\smash{(N)}}$?
Unfortunatelly, I discovered smash too late and the doc is too long now to do this manually.
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
$X^{(N)}_t$ vs $X^N_t$ vs $X^{\smash{(N)}}_t$
\end{document}
PS: Or is it bad LaTeX style to use smash too often? i suppose one had better interfere with LaTeX as little as possible: so is my aesthetic criticism of the notation without smash exaggerated?
\smash, e.g.: $X^{\smash{(N)}}_d$ – Danie Els Aug 12 '12 at 3:56