Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:37 am Post subject: MathType or Equation Editor
Hello,
We have already discussed about the importation of equations in Neooffice, but i want to be sure. We use Neooffice in our schools, trying to convince teachers to leave Microsoft Office. No problem with majority of teachers, but there is a big problem with math teachers. They want to open theirs .doc files with equations (done with Equation Editor or with MathType) and continue to work with them. Or that's not possible. Sometimes it works when the equations were done by the Equation Editor of microsoft, but sometimes not. And it doesn't work with equations done with MathType. On PC, when you double-click on a equationin OpenOffice done by MathType, it launches MathType, but that doesn't work on Mac.
I know that i can say to math teachers that they can use the equation editor of NeoOffice or Latex, but i know that the big problem is that they want to continue using and modifying their old equations of .doc files.
So just one question : is this possible, is there a way to circumvent the problem ?
I'm afraid it's not possible to edit math formulas imported from MsWord. They are imported as images and are readable but not editable.
You might consider using Dmaths to write maths formulas easily. It's a French app, but there are English and German versions.
Joined: May 25, 2003 Posts: 4752 Location: Santa Barbara, CA
Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2006 10:52 pm Post subject:
The real problem is that the formula import/export for Microsoft documents is really ***ppy right now. I can do it...kind of...
Formula exchange with Office is disabled by default (IIRC). Make sure you've done the following first:
Open the dialog: Tools > Options > Load/Save/Microsoft Office
Check both colums for "MathType"
Equations are embedded OLE objects (correct me if I'm wrong) and that's the preference panel that's specifying the automatic translation feature of load/save for OLE embedded compenents in Office documents.
Each time I open an Office document containing equations, formula rendering in Neo/OOo is wrong. I must double click the equation first and then dismiss the StarMath equivalent to fix the rendering (OOo bug?). Some of the symbology will then translate properly, but not all. I suspect that this may be due to differences in the symbol fonts that are used by the two applications. That problem is already present in bullets and the like and with equations I'm sure it just gets worse.
I have problems even exchanging equations from Mac Office with Windows office. The Microsoft Equation Editor application for Mac Office isn't actually developed by Microsoft at all (I believe) but is just a Carbonized bundled version of MathType from Design Sciences. I used to have the same editing application with FullWrite. It was the identical UI from two separate word processing apps that tipped me off (and frankly, I love that UI).
Offtopic, but I don't know if anyone's thought of a way to integrate MathType into Neo.
Formula exchange with Office is disabled by default (IIRC).
I had enabled it.
Quote:
Equations are embedded OLE objects (correct me if I'm wrong)
It's right, but it seems that link with OLE objects isn't correct. When i open an .doc which contains equations done with MathType and double-clic on the equations, i have this message : Error when activating the object. General error OLE. I can't do nothing more.
Quote:
Each time I open an Office document containing equations, formula rendering in Neo/OOo is wrong. I must double click the equation first and then dismiss the StarMath equivalent to fix the rendering (OOo bug?)
Sometimes i have also this problem, it seems to be linked to Symbol font. When i discussed about this problem with PC guys, they said that the problem was the same on OpenOffice for PC, but it's ok now with last versions.
Quote:
The Microsoft Equation Editor application for Mac Office isn't actually developed by Microsoft at all (I believe) but is just a Carbonized bundled version of MathType from Design Sciences.
Ok, i didn't know this. But when i open an .doc which contains equations done with Editor Equation and double-clic on the equations, it opens the formula editor of NeoOffice, but mostly in read only, and so i can't edt the formulas.
Quote:
Offtopic, but I don't know if anyone's thought of a way to integrate MathType into Neo.
If only, because it's a real brake for the adoption of NeoOffice on Mac in schools, in science. But perhaps the problem comes from OLE objects.
Joined: Apr 25, 2006 Posts: 2315 Location: Montpellier, France
Posted: Wed Dec 13, 2006 12:29 pm Post subject:
OPENSTEP wrote:
Each time I open an Office document containing equations, formula rendering in Neo/OOo is wrong. I must double click the equation first and then dismiss the StarMath equivalent to fix the rendering (OOo bug?)
oihenart wrote:
Sometimes i have also this problem, it seems to be linked to Symbol font. When i discussed about this problem with PC guys, they said that the problem was the same on OpenOffice for PC, but it's ok now with last versions.
What do they mean by "last versions" ? I think OpenOffice.org 2.0.4 can now export equations to LaTex format (but not import), so maybe they also improved some of the equation import code (NeoOffice is still based on OOo 2.0.3) ?
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