MathType5 - The Mathematical Equation Editor for Windows

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This math equation editor allows you to create complex equations through simple point-and-click techniques (any of MathType's symbols and templates, and most of its other commands and operations can also be accessed via the keyboard, rather than the mouse) and then use them in documents, web pages, or markup-based systems like LaTeX, TeX and Math ML. Equations can be saved in a variety of file formats, e.g. WMF, EPS or GIF.

Creating an equation

When you get to the point in your document which you are typing (say in Word) where you wish to add an equation, from the MathType dropdown menu, choose what kind of equation layout you'd like (inline, displayed, numbered etc). The following window will then be displayed:

Type within the dotted box containing the blinking insertion point, using the dropdown Symbol Palettes as required. Just click the desired symbol and it will be automatically inserted to the right of the insertion point. If you click on a template, e.g. a fraction symbol, a dotted square becomes available where you will need to insert as appropriate. Either click using the mouse, use the cursor keys or the tab to move the blinking insertion point around the equation.

NB: the space key usually has no effect since MathType automatically performs spacing. If you are not happy with the automatic spacing, you can make fine adjustments. You can select any item or group of items, and nudge them either horizontally or vertically in steps of one pixel (screen dot). If you view your equation at 800% scale you can make adjustments as small as an eighth of a point. To nudge items, use the following keystrokes:

CTRL+ nudges the selected items to the left by one pixel

CTRL+ nudges the selected items upward by one pixel

CTRL+ nudges the selected items to the right by one pixel

CTRL+ nudges the selected items downward by one pixel

  • Pressing the backspace key will erase the character or symbol to the left of the insertion point.

  • Pressing the delete key erases the character or symbol to the right of the insertion point. When items are selected in the equation, either key can be used.

  • Pressing enter will start a new line below the original line.

  • Pressing CTRL+TAB inserts a tab character (click choice of tab alignment from icons above the ruler and then click on ruler to set tab).

  • To modify a matrix, go to the Format menu and then the submenu Matrix and choose as appropriate.

  • Before typing normal words and phrases, choose Text from the Style menu. Remember to change back to Math if required.

  • You can customise the Color menu using the Edit Color Menu command in the Color submenu of the Format dropdown option.

  • You can customise the list of functions that MathType automatically recognises by editing the Functions recognised option from the Preferences menu.

  • You can add any symbol from any font on your computer to the toolbar. Enter it into the equation area, select it and drag it to the toolbar. Use the Insert Symbol dialogue (on the Edit menu) to locate the symbol, hold down the ALT key and drag the symbol to the toolbar. As a result, MathType has access to a virtually limitless supply of symbols.

  • For bold symbols, click on Edit, Insert Symbol, view by font and Symbol, and click bold. Choose which character(s) you wish to have in your equation and click Insert, then Close. There is a search facility which can be used to find which symbol you require - view by description for this option.

Close the MathType window to insert the equation into your document.

Editing old equations

Open the document containing the equation you wish to edit, and double-click on the equation. This will open the equation for editing in a new MathType Window. Edit as appropriate, then close the window, saving your changes.

Spacing and alignment

The second button on the top row of the palette provides a set of five icons representing commonly used spaces , as shown in the following table.

ICON KEYSTROKE ALT. KEYSTROKE DESCRIPTION
[1st row, 2nd column] shift+space ctrl+k,0 zero space
[1st row, 3rd column] ctrl+alt+space ctrl+k,1 one point space
[2nd row, 1st column] ctrl+space ctrl+k,2 thin space (6th of an em)
[2nd row, 2nd column] ctrl+shift+space ctrl+k,3 thick space (3rd of an em)
[2nd row, 3rd column] none ctrl+k,4 em space (quad)

To align more than one equation, select an option from the Format dropdown menu (align left, align center, align right, align at = (which also aligns other symbols such as ) and align at . ) or by using the alignment symbol (first icon on top left) from the option palette . Line spacing can also be adjusted from the Format menu.

Rearranging the toolbar

You can create your own tabs, rename or delete the existing tabs, as well as rearrange or remove any of the symbols or expressions that are in the default toolbar. You can also modify any of the expressions too.

  • To move a symbol or expression within the toolbar, hold down the ALT key and drag the item to its new location. You can insert an item between two others by dropping it between them.

  • To delete an expression, right click on it and select Delete.

  • To rename a tab, double-click on it and edit as appropriate.

Equation Numbering

  • For example: choose Insert Right-Numbered Display equation on the MathType menu.

  • When you wish to insert the equation number in the body of the text, choose Insert Equation Reference from the MathType menu and double click on the reference.

  • You can jump to an equation in your document by double-clicking on any of its references. Then press SHIFT+F5 to jump back to the reference.

  • Whenever you insert an equation number or an equation reference, all numbers in the documents are updated. However, if you move or delete an equation number, you must use the Update Equation Numbers command on the MathType menu to regenerate the number sequence. NB: Deleting an equation number does not automatically delete any of its references. You can find them by using the Update Equation Numbers command, which will cause Word to display an error message in place of each reference. You can then delete them.

  • Formatting the equation numbers are also found under the MathType menu (roman numerals, alphabetical, enclosure/bracket style etc). Remember to check the "whole document" checkbox so that the changes made will be applied to all existing equation numbers too, if required.

Keyboard shortcuts

  • You can create a superscript slot by typing CTRL+H.

  • You can create a subscript slot by typing CTRL+L.

  • You can enter a Greek character using CTRL+G and its equivalent, e.g. m for m, P for p.

  • See MathType's online help for a complete list of the built-in shortcuts.

Working with TeX, LaTeX & MathML

As an example, to create the following in your LaTeX document:

  • Open your text editor, e.g. Emacs and set up the document, e.g.

    \documentclass[a4paper]{article}

    \begin{document}

    \end{document}

    (You'll be running LaTeX at the same time as running MathType)

  • Type "In the quadratic formula" in your text editor.

  • Open/run MathType by choosing it from your Start menu (under Programs).

  • From MathType's Preference menu, choose Translators. In the dialog that appears, set the options as shown below, and then choose OK.

  • Create the quadratic formula in MathType.

  • From MathType's Edit menu, choose Select All and then Copy.

  • Switch back to your text editor, and choose Paste. This will insert the LaTeX source code for the quadratic formula:

    • \[

    x = \frac{{ - b \pm \sqrt {b^2 - 4ac} }}{{2a}}

    \]

  • Continue typing "the discriminant" and then switch back to MathType and create the term b²-4ac.

  • In MathType's Format menu, choose Inline Equation. This makes MathType generate the appropriate LaTeX code for an inline equation.

  • Select all and Copy the equation and paste it into your text document, and then type "is the most important term". Your document should now look something like this:

    • \documentclass[a4paper]{article}

    \begin{document}

    In the quadratic formula

    \[

    x = \frac{{ - b \pm \sqrt {b^2 - 4ac} }}{{2a}}

    \]

    the discriminant $b^2 - 4ac$ is the most important term.

  • LaTeX can then be run as usual to obtain the output.

Converting Equations

If you want MathType's Convert Equations command in Word to work with your equations, you must turn on the "include MathType data in translation" and "include translator name in translation" options.

Translators

MathType includes translators for several dialects of TeX (Plain TeX, AMS-TeX, LaTeX, and AMS-LaTeX). These dialects correspond to various packages of TeX macros, which you must load before you typeset your document. For example, to typeset AMS-LaTeX code, you must include the commands \documentclass{amsart} or \usepackage{amsmath}, or something equivalent.

Exporting equations in MS Word

To export all the equations in a Word document to individual graphics files (e.g. GIF, WMF, EPS) which can be useful when importing Word documents into desktop publishing programs, e.g. PowerPoint:

  • Launch Word and create a document containing a couple of equations

  • Choose Export Equations on the MathType menu. The Export Equations dialog will appear:

  • Enter a location in the Folder field. You can either type the name of a folder or click the Browse button and select a folder. If you enter the name of a folder that doesn't exist you'll be asked if you want to create it. Check the "Delete all files of same type in folder" checkbox if you want all files with the same extension deleted from this folder before exporting. Be careful if you select this option; if you export as GIF files to the folder C:\My Documents then every .gif file in this folder will be deleted. Safer to create a new folder for each set of exported equation files.

  • Select the format of the exported equation files (.eps, .gif). You can also set the filename pattern and the starting number. The above example will create the files Eqn001.eps, Eqn002.eps etc.

  • Check the "Replace equation with file name" checkbox if you want to replace each exported equation with the corresponding file name, e.g. the above settings would insert the text <> in place of the first exported equation. Clear this checkbox if you want to leave the equations in the document unmodified.

  • Choose the "Whole document" option if you want to export all equations in the document. The "Current selection" option is enabled only when you select a portion of the document before running the Export Equations command.

  • Click OK to start the exporting process. When the process has finished a dialog appear indicating how many equations were exported.

  • The equations are now ready to be included into the desktop publishing document.