equations editor in Word X for Mac

[Peter Beckmann]

I am using Word X on a 17" Macintosh PowerBook G4 running
OS X.2.

(1) I have the equations editor set to italicize Arabic
letters (variables). However, whenever the three letters
"inf" or "int" appear together, the italics is turned off.
How do I prevent this? (It was also a problem in Word 5
many years ago!)

(2) Often, when a document with equation is opened, some of
the equations do not appear. Sometimes, if the document
is viewed in "print preview" and then returned to "normal"
or "page layout," they will come back. Sometimes only some
of them will come back. Sometimes some of them will simply
not appear no matter what one does. These equations were
made with the equations editor that was installed with Word X.

(3) In the equations editor, most of the items in the third
column in the top row of pull-down menues don't work. For
example, drawing a tilde, a hat, an arrow (left, right and
both), and several others do not work. They draw other
letters or other symbols over the letter.

Thank you very much. A Guiness or two for the helper next
time I'm in your town!

Peter

 

[Bob Mathews]

I am using Word X on a 17" Macintosh PowerBook G4 running
OS X.2.

(1) I have the equations editor set to italicize Arabic
letters (variables). However, whenever the three letters
"inf" or "int" appear together, the italics is turned off.
How do I prevent this? (It was also a problem in Word 5
many years ago!)

Equation Editor recognizes mathematical functions, such as "log",
"sin", and "exp". In standard mathematical typesetting, function
names are not capitalized, so Equation Editor (EE) trys to follow
the rules. The two functions you list are both in the EE list of
functions. If you don't want them italicized, first switch the EE
style to "Text" (EE Style | Text).

There will soon be a version of MathType (the professional
version of EE) for OS X. MathType 5 for Mac will have an editable
list of recognized functions, so if you want to remove inf and
int from the list, you can do so. (This feature is currently
available in MathType for Windows, but not in MathType 3.7 for
Mac.)

(2) Often, when a document with equation is opened, some of
the equations do not appear. Sometimes, if the document
is viewed in "print preview" and then returned to "normal"
or "page layout," they will come back. Sometimes only some
of them will come back. Sometimes some of them will simply
not appear no matter what one does. These equations were
made with the equations editor that was installed with Word X.

We have an article on our web site that discusses this issue.
Perhaps the article will be of use to you:
http://www.dessci.com/en/support/TSN/TSN74.htm.

(3) In the equations editor, most of the items in the third
column in the top row of pull-down menues don't work. For
example, drawing a tilde, a hat, an arrow (left, right and
both), and several others do not work. They draw other
letters or other symbols over the letter.

What you're describing is the "Embellishments" palette.
Embellishments are designed to always apply to the LAST character
you typed. For example, if you want to type x-bar, you would
first type the variable x, then click on the overbar on the
embellishments palette. Embellishments never apply to more than
one character. If you want something like "ray AB", for example,
you first select the appropriate template from the "Underbar and
overbar templates palette" (sixth palette from the left on the
second row), then type AB inside the template. Not every
mathematical constuct has a template available in EE though. The
arc template, for example. If you want to type "arc AB", you
can't do this in EE. MathType does have this template, however,
and the arc expands to include whatever you put inside.

Thank you very much. A Guiness or two for the helper next
time I'm in your town!

No problem, but I'll let you find me. I'll be in Philly next
April for the NCTM conference. Come by the booth.

Regards,
Bob Mathews (e-mail address removed)
Director of Training 830-990-9699
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType 5
Design Science, Inc. -- "How Science Communicates"
MathType, WebEQ, MathPlayer, MathFlow, Equation Editor, TeXaide

 

[Bob Mathews]

Equation Editor recognizes mathematical functions, such as "log",
"sin", and "exp". In standard mathematical typesetting, function
names are not capitalized, so Equation Editor (EE) trys to follow
the rules. The two functions you list are both in the EE list of
functions. If you don't want them italicized, first switch the EE
style to "Text" (EE Style | Text).

I don't know why I said "function names are not capitalized". Of
*course* they're not capitalized! What I *meant* to say was "in
standard mathematical typesetting, function names are not
*italicized*...".

Sorry for any confusion.

Bob Mathews (e-mail address removed)
Director of Training 830-990-9699
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType 5
Design Science, Inc. -- "How Science Communicates"
MathType, WebEQ, MathPlayer, MathFlow, Equation Editor, TeXaide