Formulae

xja · Operator Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 40

Hello, I'm a new user,
I think Neooffice is a good program, but I use MSOffice for my laboratory reports because I think it is difficult to write a clean equation in Neoofice writer.
I think developers should improve the equation editing interface, with clean toolbars, a self resizing box to write the equation, a better handling of subscripts and superscripts and a better handling of fractions without brackets shown in the final eq.
I think a better equation editing will help Neooffice spread.

Cheers!

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 12:58 pm Post subject:

Unfortunately this is beyond the current scope of the NeoOffice project, which is limited by resources to developing a functional native port of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X. The equation editor interface is cross-platform. You may want to file your request for interface enhancements with the OpenOffice.org project. You can find more information about this at:

http://qa.openoffice.org

ed

valterb · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:13 pm Post subject:

Excuse me xia, I don't want to convince you about the power of the math module in NeoOffice (or OpenOffice.org), but tell me what's wrong with subscript, superscript and fraction...
Insert an equation in a writer document and write this:
x = sum from{i=1} to{i=32}left lbrace {c_i^2 csup{o} over size 6 {z + w times v ^{{a+b}over c_i} over j} } right rbrace

I know, it doesn't make any sense, but it's just to show that math is a powerfull tool. At least it is for me.

Valter

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 1:24 pm Post subject:

I also don't have any problem with writing formulas in Neo/OOo and do so all the time...I believe the feature enhancement request was more driven from an Office standpoint. On the Mac, Office uses a third-party product called MathType to do its equation editing (Microsoft Mac BU does not write this tool). Unlike OOo which has a formula language, the MathType editor is fully WYSIWYG editing that is primarily mouse driven. AFAIK there is no way to type in any type of formula language.

The benefit of MathType is that you see the equation right away in its final layout. That makes the barrier of entry really low, has better ease of use, and makes it easy to tell which layout elements you want to use. The problem is (well, for me at least) is that being very mouse driven it can get troublesome when entering large equations. Even OOo's equation language can sometimes be a pain.

OOo's equation editor not great, but thus far from my years of using OOo (and a former MathType user from both Word and FullWrite) I've found little that I can't do in the OOo equation language. You may need to dig into the online help, however, as not all of the operators and other symbols are on the Selection palette.

There are a couple of OOo & Neo LaTeX integrations that allow equation input in TeX and then embedding of the resulting image export into the document. For serious equation work that is probably the best way to go. It's hard to beat LaTeX for good looking equation formatting, but again, you have to learn a language Smile

ed

valterb · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:52 pm Post subject:

jgd · Posted: Fri Dec 29, 2006 2:55 am Post subject:

Maybe Dmaths can help a lot to edit maths. You can find it here

http://www.dmaths.org/index.php

The version 3.0 is free. You can download the version 3.1, after joining the Dmaths club, it's a sort of Early Access Program.
There is an English version (but we need an English native speaker for translating the user-guide Wink

)

Jacqueline

xja · Operator Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 40

Thanks a lot!
valterb, I know that, if you know how to use a language, it is easy to do anything you want, but I don't have the tool palette in the equation editor and it is difficult to view the final result of what you're writing.

Unfortunately dmaths is not for neooffice2 and there's no math type for neooffice.
I'll wait for updates.
Bye!

jgd · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 1:54 pm Post subject:

sardisson · Town Crier Joined: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 4574

xja · Operator Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 40

Thanks, I installed dmaths, I have an "informazioni su dmaths" in the ? menu, but how I use it now?
Is in uncompatible with some international language package? I have the italian one.
Happy new year!

xja · Operator Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 40

Sorry,
I didn't executed the install macro, now it's OK!
Cheers!

xja · Operator Joined: Dec 27, 2006 Posts: 40

Hi
Which paths should I insert in the dia software1 and 2 fields?
Cheers!

jgd · Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 8:17 am Post subject:

Nice

If you have any problem with Dmaths, you may want to post on the Dmaths forum. (I'm the jgd on that forum and the only Mac user among the admins).
You can post in French, English and German.
Dmaths is incompatible with no language AFAIK, but unfortunately we have no translator Sad

Only two versions are complete, the French (of course !) and the German.

Enjoy Dmaths in Neo.

Jacqueline

Edit : I just see your last post. The answer is none. That functionality is for Win/Lin users. But "WE" have the Dock, also no need of insert paths here. You can put in the Dock the apps you wish to use with Dmaths. And I'm not sure that Dia works on Mac ?

OPENSTEP · Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 1:05 pm Post subject:

Off topic...

Do you think we should set up a page either on our site or on the wiki listing macros, expansion packages, extensions, templates, and other what have you that are known to work with Neo?

I myself used to use dmaths a lot until I got the swing of the function language and just started typing in it naturally Smile

ed

jgd · Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2007 7:15 am Post subject: