# Equations in Word 2007

My name is Jennifer Michelstein, and I'm a Program Manager on the Word team. I mainly work on academic features, like bibliographies and citations (see Joe Friend's blog) and equations.

In Word 2007, we took a ground-up approach to creating a new set of tools for editing and displaying equations. Here's a brief highlight of what's cool about the new Equation Builder:

• Equations are regular Word text (not objects), so they're integrated with regular Word formatting.
• High-quality display and typography: we're using TeX standards and a brand-new Math Font to produce great-looking equations
• Two input methods: UI and Linear Format (keyboard syntax)
• MathML support: now you can write an equation in Word, paste it into a calculating or graphing application, and get results!

Writing the equation feature was a huge undertaking. We had a highly talented group of individuals contributing, including Murray Sargent, who has written about the inner workings of the feature here.

In this blog entry, I'll introduce you to our two methods of equation input (three, if you include the Equations gallery). In future entries, I'll talk about other components of the feature, including typography, layout, breaking, alignment, and MathML.

# UI-Based Entry

We've divided into two categories the types of elements that can be inserted in equations: symbols and structures. Symbols are sorted into categories by subject area, and within each category by frequency of use. (fun fact: in a recent presentation to equation writers, categorization by subject area instead of Unicode value was one of the most heavily applauded items)

Each category of structures is a dropdown gallery containing variants of that type. For example, the integral gallery contains different types of integrals (regular, surface, contour, and volume) with limits positioned in different locations.

# Typing Equations via Linear Format

Linear Format, a keyboard-based syntax, is a new method of entering equations in Word. Linear Format uses a TeX-like notation for some mathematical objects and symbols, and the same mathematical syntax you'd see in a linear text entry field in simple cases (for example, a^2 for the superscript , or (a+b)/(b+c) for the fraction ).

It's important to note that there are two separate processes involved in converting strings to Professional format. The first, Math AutoCorrect, converts strings to symbols or groups of characters. Here's a quick demo of Math AutoCorrect.

The second is Formula AutoBuildup. Formula AutoBuildup takes linear strings such as a^2 or _0^1 and converts them to Professional form. Rather than explain how Linear Format works, I'll show you some quick examples of how to write equations in Linear Format, and how it compares in speed to UI-based entry: first, with exponents and fractions, and then with an integral.

I encourage the equation writers out there to play with Linear Format. Since our Help topics on equations have not been posted yet, you may want some assistance learning fluency in Linear Format. Let me know what equations or structures about which you have questions, and I'll post video demos. You can read more about Linear Format and Formula AutoBuildup here.

# Inserting a Saved Equation

When we watched users on site visits writing equations, we saw many people open old documents, copy equations, and paste them into their new document. Even if the equations were slightly different, finding these equations and repurposing them often saved time and effort. With that in mind, we used the Building Blocks framework to create a gallery of saved equations. Jon talked about Building Blocks for Cover Pages, Headers, and Footers in this post, and we'll write more about the Building Blocks framework in future posts. Here's a quick demo on inserting a saved equation from the gallery. You can easily save your own equations to the gallery, as is true for all Building Blocks.

• Re linear fractions, \/ isn't a hack; it's a very useful way to get just the regular ASCII fraction slash for use in things like exponents where a built-up fraction would be ugly. It displays the way one wants for the vast majority of linear fractions. Admittedly for interoperating with math calculation engines, it would be handy to have the built-up linear fraction. Sadly it's not possible to do everything at once. I've already fixed the \ldiv as you recommend (don't delete the enclosing parens), but the fix won't get into Word until the next version. Since the standard way to save files is in the built-up (Professional) format, hopefully changing the linear format in this way won't generate much backward incompatibility.

Note that the backslash quote is a general mechanism for treating operators literally and it can be quite useful. We don't regard it as a hack. It can be exported to MathML using the tag instead of the tag. I haven't found a way to express the built-up linear fraction in MathML. The tag can take the bevelled attribute, but there isn't any linear attribute listed in www.w3.org/.../chapter3.html Murray Sargent

• I have been playing with the new Equation Editor since Beta 2 and I love it. There is just one thing missing: How do I insert equation numbers (like in LaTeX)? Is it at all possible in Word 2007? In Word 2003 you would simply use a rightaligned tabstop and some fields, but in Word 2007 this is no longer possible...

• Ok, good to hear that this will be fixed, and I understand that this can't be in the RTM release. Will this go into SP1? And generally: The new equation editor rocks! I find it truely amazing, such a step forward!

• Any advice for using MathType or other MathML utilities in PowerPoint 2007? Thanks. Roger

• Just installed Office Beta 2 technical refresh and MathType appears to be working with PPT07. Thanks.

Roger

• PowerPoint 2007 doesn't support the same native editing of equations that Word introduced. You can write an equation in Word and paste it into PowerPoint, or use Equation Editor natively in PowerPoint.

• Hi Teis,

Great question. Rather than explain how to do equation numbering here, in my next post I'll include demos on numbering equations.

• First and foremost, let me say a big THANK YOU to the Word team for the revamp of the Equation Editor in Word. The bugs mentioned in this thread aside, this is a tremendous feature and as I am currently in a college algebra class, it has been a life-saver. One question, though...what about graphing? If I needed to graph an equation in Word, I don't see a way to insert the graph. I'm not suggesting that I simply type the equation and have Word automatically create a graph at the click of a button, (although that would cool) but if there were a way to insert a simple graph where I could plot the points and use the drawing tools to draw the lines? Thoughts?

• Kevin, try the Insert > Chart command. Use the XY (Scatter) With Smooth Lines chart type. Use the Excel sheet to create the data points. This is a vast improvement over the previous versions, where MS Chart was a very limited tool and you really needed to create the chart in Excel first. If you have one of the heavyweight math engines such as Mathematica, you can do even better there (multivariate surfaces, intersections, tangent planes, etc.).

• I'm having trouble with the angle bracket (as used for expressing e..g. an average). It doesn't adjust to the size of the bracketed expression, as the other brackets (), [], || do.  A single left or right angle bracket is formatted correctly, but the pair <> is not.  Is this a bug? Is there a workaround available?

• This weekend I lost about 8 hours to bugs in the Word 2007 equation editor.  At some point, MS Word keeps switching to draft view, and in print view only shows me half my document.  This is after adding equations, performing "align at character", and changing the font in some of the writing in "normal text" within the equation.

In another case, Word 2007 said "cannot save file" and crashed - losing work.  This is only after trying to write equations.

Has anyone else encountered these bugs?

The equation editor seems to be an un-reliable system.  I have found working with it to be more frustrating than the old way due to both the showstopping bugs and a lot of small things - like how the light blue box around an inline equation while in edit mode obscures the characters on the right outside of the equation.  Or how I cannot set a default font I want for "normal text."  Or how I cannot control the size of my fractions (in one non-inline equation the fraction has fonts too small; I copy/paste the equation to a different line and viola, they are large).

I hope they fixed it in Office 2010, but I have not found anything on the web that indicates it's more stable.

• First of all: great tool. Some remarks:

(1) think that Greek letter Lambda should be with "Basic Math";

(2) is it possible to make categories like "Basic Math" and "Arrows" floatable? Would save a lot of clicking.

(3) maybe a "Favourites" category is the best solutions for remark 1 and 2.

(4) if I use the "complex conjugation bar" (under "Accent") indexes like i and j lose their dot and become capital. Happens with both subscripts and superscripts.

• I encourage the equation writers out there to play with Linear Format.

THanks

cheers

http://smebs.blog.com/

• The new equations in Word 2007 are great.

I'm trying to write a scientific paper. Where do I find the reduced Planck's constant (i.e., "h bar," "Dirac constant")? I found something similar in one of the foreign alphabets, but it won't italicize properly. This is a commonly used constant, and it's amazing that it's not more obviously available, especially in such an (otherwise) apparently well-thought out equation editor.

JP

• Thank you very much for very interesting blog.

Q1.

In text (inline), we usually need to place limits after e.g. \sum or \int

operators but sometimes even in text we need to place the limits

ABOVE and BELOW operators such \sum, \int, \bigwedge

(like in the display style).

How to achieve such effect in MSWord 2007 (2010) equation?

Could you please suggest some solutions?

(I know I could use MicrosoftEquations3.0 where this is possible

but I need achieve that in MSWord 2007(2010) equation).

In TeX (LaTeX) system I can use in text e.g.:

$\sum\limits_{k=1}^n k^2=..$

to achieve (to „force”) the limits ABOVE and BELOW operator \sum.

Is there something equivalent in  2007 (2010) equation?

Q2.

In MicrosoftEquations3.0 I could use new function name:

e.g. Part1Ofname(small space)Part2Ofname just typing:

Part1Ofname(small space)Part2Ofname and then choose from

How this can be achieved in MSWord 2007(2010) equations?

I mean how to put the (small space)

When I tried to use

Insert/Tools/Equation Option/RecognizedFunction

we can put only letters a,...,z and no space.

In LaTeX system we can use the following

\DeclareMathOperator{\FunctionName}{Part1Ofname\,Part2Ofname}

where \, means tiny space.

Is there something equivalent in  2007 (2010) equation?