Hidden Math Features in Word 2007
Alex Ioffe emailed me
Hi Murray,
I realize you probably get this often by why can't someone (pleeease!) publish some official documentation of Word2007 Equation editor features? I have seen all of the MSN videos regarding it features and they barely scratch the surface. People like Dataninja (https://dataninja.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/word07shortcuts.pdf) spent a great deal of time finding some very powerful features that seem to be entirely undocumented. LaTeX provides some help but some of the *most* interesting features of Equation Editor are not standard LaTeX (e.g. the stuff Dataninga has found). A slightly related example is the fact that Equation Editor for some reason does not contain the logical-not (¬ which is \lnot in LaTeX), fortunately this is an ascii character so I was able to add it myself.
Chiefly I have three questions about equation editor:
1) Is it possible to delete placeholders and how?
This is probably my most frequent annoyance, to delete an exponent I have to delete the base as well!
2) Is it possible to insert columns into a matrix in professional format via shortcut key.
I discovered that Enter will add a row, can you add a column?
3) Are there any plans for better HCI when it comes to shortcuts in Equation Editor. My dream is to be able to set some checkbox in the Options menu and see the shortcut keys for symbols appear their in the respective popup windows (e.g. ∀ - For All (Shortcut: \forall) when I mouseover them in the equation editor menus.
Yes, Word 2007’s new math editing and display are sort of a secret feature J Hopefully someday they’ll be better documented. Most of your wishes are already included in Word 2007, but they’re not immediately obvious as your email reveals.
To add an AutoCorrect entry for any Unicode character, go to the AutoCorrect dialog (the math AutoCorrect dialog for entries into math zones), and in the Replace text box type the AutoCorrect name you want to use and in the With text box type the Unicode hex code of the desired character followed by Alt+x. The Alt+x converts the code to the character. Say Ok and you’ve added the entry. Or you can copy/paste the desired character into the With text box.
The linear format math input method used in Word 2007 is similar to TeX, but differs in significant ways. Thorough documentation for it is given in Unicode Technical Note #28, including the default AutoCorrect keywords for symbols.
To delete placeholders and insert/delete matrix columns, use the context menus available with a right mouse click on the math object of interest. These context menus enable you to perform many other operations as well, all in built-up form.
It wouldn’t be hard to add the shortcut values to the tooltips you see when mousing over the symbol displays. We’ve thought about this. The only trick is that they should correspond to the user’s math AutoCorrect choices which may differ from the default set. The latter are essentially the same as TeX’s.
Comments
Anonymous
February 17, 2008
PingBack from http://www.biosensorab.org/2008/02/17/hidden-math-features-in-word-2007/Anonymous
February 17, 2008
Two very useful links. The stuff about equation arrays in the second PDF was a complete surprise. And I never realised there was a zero width space character until I read that doc. Potentially very useful with big expressions. Thanks, TomAnonymous
February 29, 2008
I use a highly customised keyboard layout to speed up math entry in Word 07. This works great for most things (lc greek especially), but Word gets confused by other things, which is frustrating (as I have to drop back to the TeX macros). Notable examples include uppercase Greek and the nabla ∇. Any chance this behaviour could be changed? Cheers, EdAnonymous
March 07, 2008
That unicode technical note mentioned you could number equations by ending them in #(number). This doesn't seem to work in practice. Is it an unimplemented feature?Anonymous
March 26, 2008
The comment has been removedAnonymous
April 14, 2008
Hello, Just in case it helps others in the blog, I wrote a short tutorial to help my students. The link can be found in: http://www.chem.mtu.edu/~tbco/cm416/EquationEditor_main.pdf (probably still contains some errors but I think it's a start) I also wish the equation numbering feature can be fixed.Anonymous
February 24, 2009
Looking at that Unicode document, I've discovered that you can create a matrix pretty easily. For a 2x3 matrix like the following: [3 4 5 6 7 8] just type: [matrix(3&4&5@6&7&8)] Hooray! This will save me a lot of time.Anonymous
March 22, 2009
The comment has been removedAnonymous
March 22, 2009
The comment has been removedAnonymous
June 07, 2009
Tom Co that document is really really really useful thanks alot. I had learned most of the commands by myself by playing about with the equation editor but still there are a good few things in your pdf that I hadn't yet learned. You have it very well documented.Anonymous
November 12, 2009
This document is great but did someone find how to put a circle above a letter (as a foreign accent, for example, or as an open set). I tried to use "above circ" and "above °" and both are very ugly. Any help will be welcome. Also, if someone knows how to have a "displaystyle" when using inline equations - so that indexes of a sum operator are written above and below it and not in front of it - that would be appreciated too.Anonymous
November 12, 2009
The comment has been removedAnonymous
January 29, 2010
I have to type mathematical documents oftenly. this helped me great to speed-up my typing. Thanks, Paresh SavaniAnonymous
July 29, 2010
I'm having trouble with augmented matrices. As far as I can see the only way to enter an augmented matrix is by using a bracket template ( | ) and then inserting a matrix on each placeholder. Does anyone know how to vertically align the left and right hand entries of an augmented matrix using equation tools, or another solution to this problem? Mostly this is not an issue, but when you have large entries in some of your elements The shortcuts listed are great, thanks - I've been using the few I've found, but this will increase my repertoire! Thanks, AdelleAnonymous
July 29, 2010
Your approach using the bracket template works well. I'd enter it with the linear format, e.g., [matrix(1&2@3&4)|matrix(5@6)]Anonymous
August 01, 2010
One thing that I've found useful is to make custom commands through the math auto correct menu. If there's a mathematical expression you use frequently it really speeds up the typing process. I also think it's very helpful to rename some of the commands that are already a part of the AutoCorrect list (e.g. instead of Rightarrow, I use implies, which makes sense for the way I use it). Furthermore if you've noticed a typing lag when working in a document with several equations, switch from "Print Layout" view to "Draft" view. In this view you can type as fast as you want with no lag. Hope this helpsAnonymous
August 23, 2010
Thanks for your feedback (I've been offline for a bit). My problem still remains when the entries in the different halves have different vertical sizes. For example [matrix(1&2@3&4)|matrix(5@(6/mu))] Any thoughts? Thanks, AdelleAnonymous
August 23, 2010
The comment has been removedAnonymous
September 09, 2010
Hi, Messy, but just right. Thanks - exactly what I need! Regards, AdelleAnonymous
February 25, 2011
I had the "Fraction" icon working on Word 2007, while typing a report i typed the wrong fraction ie 4/5 and pressed backspace to change this, and it will now not come up in fraction from. I cannot see where i can change it back, ive tried codes, help!Anonymous
February 25, 2011
The comment has been removedAnonymous
October 13, 2011
Hi, Just had cause to use the vphantom again to align some augmented matrices. Problem is, the vphantom causes the entry to be put in hidden text mode. That's fine if you want to simply print the non-hidden text, but unfortunately the equation is in a "lecturer's version" with some parts in hidden text, which can be printed for the lecturer but not for the public copy. Any ideas of a work around? The "print hidden text" version is not looking so good.... Any thoughts would be appreciated.