Equation Editor Tips

Equation Editor
• Equation Editor is a watered down version
of the full MathType program (
www.mathtype.com) developed by Design
Science
• Used in Access, Excel, Outlook (using MS
Word as email editor), PowerPoint and
Word
1
1
 1
2 t 1
 Review of Equation Editor
• There are 19 palettes in equation editor
• The top row contain symbols

• The bottom row contains templates

 Commonly used Keyboard Shortcuts
Command Shortcut
Zooming to 400% Ctrl+4
Inserting Greek letters Ctrl+G, followed by a letter key
Fraction Ctrl+F
Superscript Ctrl+H ("high")
Subscript Ctrl+L ("low")
Square root Ctrl+R ("root" or "radical")
Integral Ctrl+I
Thin space (e.g. before "dx" in an
Ctrl+space
integral)
Adding plain text Ctrl+Shift+E
Going back to math after adding text Ctrl+Shift+=
Add overbar to character ( ex. 2) Ctrl+_
 Tip 1:
Help Menu
• In Equation Editor go to the Help menu
and select Equation Editor Help
 Tip 2:
Creating a Toolbar button in MS Word that
Inserts and Equation
1. To add the icon, choose the Customize command on
the Tools menu to display the Customize dialog.
2. Click on the Commands tab to display the list of
commands.
3. You will see a list of Categories on the left and a list of
Commands on the right. On the left, click on "Insert."
On the right, scroll down and near the bottom of the list
will be this button . Click on this button and drag it to
the toolbar, placing it wherever you want it. Click
"Close" on the "Customize" dialog.
 Tip 3:
Putting a Box Around an Equation
• Create a 1-by-1 matrix. In the matrix dialog
box, click in the preview pane outside the
matrix on all four sides. This will insert
solid lines around the matrix. If you want
the lines to be dashed, click twice. If you
want them dotted, click three times. Click
once more to remove a line.
1 1
 1 
2 t1 3
 Tip 4:
Placing an Arc over More than
One Character
1. Insert the "small-over-large" template (it's on the 3rd template palette
from the left).
2. Type the material to go under the arc into the lower slot. In this case, "ABC".
3. Click into the smaller slot to place the insertion point there.
4. Use the Other command on the Style menu to select the MT Extra font.
5. Type a ")". This will insert the arc.
6. Select the arc.
7. Use the Other command on the Size menu to increase the size of the arc
until it covers the characters. You may not be able to cover them completely
before the arc starts to look ugly but do the best you can. If the characters
under the arc are 12 points, you may need to make the arc around 40 points
in size.

ABC
 Tip 5:
Word is Partially Italicized
• When you type a word like “variation” or
“single”, it will show up in the equation
editor as “variation” or “sin gle” because
“var” or “sin” is a recognized function
name.
– Press Ctrl+Shift+E (or go to Style and select
Text) to place equation editor into text mode
– To change back into math model press
Ctrl+Plus (or go to Style and select Math)
varation ( x  x) 2
 Tip 6:
Enter Text in Equation
• Using Text Style Mode will allow you to
use the space bar to add space between
words
– Place insertion point and go to Style, select
Text, type using space bar
– To return to Math style, choose Math from
Style menu
 Tip 7:
Template Replacement

1. Select the template and its contents

2. Hold the Alt key down while choosing the
replacement template in the palette
menus.

1 1
 1 
2 t1 3
 Tip 8:
Template Wrapping

• Just select the part of the equation to be

wrapped (ex. a parenthesis template),
then insert the wrapping template in the
normal way. An inserted template will wrap
itself around anything that is selected.

1  1
 1   
2 t1  3
 Tip 9:
Change Display Size
• To Change Display Size of an Equation in
MS Word
– Go to Edit or right click, Equation Object,
Open
– Under View select Zoom between 25% -
400%

1 1
 1 
2 t1 3
 Tip 10:
Kerning Headlines
1. Insert an equation where you want the headline to be.
2. Set the font and size you want the headline to be using
Equation Editor's Other Style and Other Size
commands.
3. Type the headline.
4. Find the first pair of characters from the left whose
spacing you want to adjust.
5. Select the text from the rightmost character of the pair
to the right end of the text.
6. While holding the Ctrl key down, use the right and left
arrow keys to adjust the spacing to your liking.

Before After

The Cat Was Here! The Cat Was Here!

 Tip 11:
Change Color of Equation in PowerPoint
1. Create the equation the usual way using Insert Object.
2. Select the equation by clicking on it.
3. Right-click the equation object to bring up a menu of commands.
4. Click on "Format Object", the last item on the menu. This will bring
up a dialog.
5. Click the tab titled "Picture". Under the Picture tab, click "Recolor".
When the "Recolor Picture" dialog appears, you can change the
color. There should be black and white rectangles in the "Original"
section; you don’t need to change the white background, just the
black text color. Click the dropdown box next to the black color in
the "New" column, you can select any color shown there. You can
preview your selection to see if the color is what you had in mind. If
it looks fine, click OK on both dialogs.

1 1
 1 
2 t1 3
 Tip 12:
Animated Equations in PowerPoint
1. Insert your equation into PowerPoint.
2. Right-click on the equation, and from the menu
select Grouping, then Ungroup.
3. A dialog will appear with a warning about the
action you’re about to do. Click Yes.
4. Your equation will then appear as individual
characters and templates, which you can
animate using SlideShow/ CustomAnimation.

1 1
 1 
2 t 1 3
 Tip 13:
Printing Equations Black and White
without Changing the Color
• With your equation colored to white, select
Grayscale, right click on equation and select
Grayscale Setting, select Black with White Fill

1 1
 1 
2 t1 3
 Tip 14:
Automatically Number Equations in MS Word
• Inserting a sequenced equation number
1. Place the insertion point where the equation number should go,
use the Insert Field command to insert a SEQ (sequence) field.
2. In the Field dialog, choose SEQ from the Field Names list. SEQ
will also appear in the field command area at the bottom of the
dialog.
3. In the field command area, add " EqnNum" after SEQ so it reads
"SEQ EqnNum". EqnNum is an arbitrary variable name that
Word will increment each time you insert a new equation
number using this same variable name.
4. Close the dialog. The new field will show up in your document as
"1". The next one you insert will show up as "2".
 Tip 14: (con’t.)
Renumbering the Equations
• Renumbering the equations after
changes to the document
1. Go to Tools, Options, Print tab and select
Update Fields
2. Print Preview (numbers automatically
update)
(note: instead of the above you can also
do Edit, Select All, press F9)
 Tip 15:
Equation Autotext
1. Insert equation/symbol
2. Highlight and go to Insert, Autotext
3. Assign name to equation/symbol
4. As you type the name in the document, a
dialog box will come up with the name of
the equation/symbol, just press enter to
insert
 Tip 16:
Equation Not Displaying
• MT Extra font not installed
• Not using TrueType fonts
• Printer doesn’t support TrueType fonts
• When you see {EMBED Equation.3} instead of
the equation, that is because MS Word is
displaying field codes.
• Go to Tools menu
• Click Options
• Click the View tab, and then clear the Field codes check box.
 Tip 17:
More Tips

• http://
www.mathtype.com/en/products/ee/ee_tip
s.htm