Word 2004 and tools like the equation editor in notebook view

[Ben G.]

Hi,

It strikes me as somewhat strange that I cannot access tools like equation
editor in notebook view. For notebook view to be useful, I need to be able
to get audio and take notes, and also insert equations at the same time.

What seems ridiculous, is that if I switch out of notebook view, insert the
equation, and switch back in, the equation appears fine... so what could
possibly be the reason for not allowing it to be inserted in notebook view
directly?

It's hard to believe I paid this upgrade money so that I can take my notes on
a lined page instead of a blank one, and that I can't even do that in my
computer science or math classes.

Is there some backdoor way to get the functionality back?

Thanks!

 

[JE McGimpsey]

It strikes me as somewhat strange that I cannot access tools like equation
editor in notebook view. For notebook view to be useful, I need to be able
to get audio and take notes, and also insert equations at the same time.

That certainly seems like a natural thing to do, especially for
students. Please make sure you send feedback to MS via Help/Feedback on
Word.

What seems ridiculous, is that if I switch out of notebook view, insert the
equation, and switch back in, the equation appears fine... so what could
possibly be the reason for not allowing it to be inserted in notebook view
directly?

My best guess is that there simply wasn't time to implement it. Word is
an incredibly complex, huge, convoluted code base, and Notebook view is
an entirely new functionality that has been grafted on. It's rather
amazing that the functions that are supported work.

Equation editor is hardly unique. For instance, you can't insert other
objects like XL files either. I'm hopeful that will be included in
future versions.

It's hard to believe I paid this upgrade money so that I can take my notes on
a lined page instead of a blank one, and that I can't even do that in my
computer science or math classes.

Is there some backdoor way to get the functionality back?

AFAIK, there's no backdoor, and the functionality can't be "gotten back"
since it was never implemented in the first place. Switching to a mode
that will interact with other applications (e.g., Normal) is a quick
workaround, and you can use the keyboard shortcuts for each view for
quick switching (CMD-OPT-N for Normal, CMD-OPT-B for notebook).