[dissident]

I noticed that the Macos X version of word doesn't have microsoft equation, which is built in Word for windows.

Is it sold seperately for mac or is it just not available? If not, there must be a substitute mac version, right?

thanks!

[solbo]

Last I checked it was an add on for Word for windows and not installed by default. I believe the mac version is on the office CD, if you use the installer you can select it.

[Earth Mk. II]

Yeah, in Office v.X and 2001 you need to select it from the value pack installer on the CD.

It's not installed by default though.

[dissident]

ok, found it thanks!

[milhouse]

Even with the equation editor installed there will be some equations that are viewable on the Windows version that are not available for Mac users of Word X.

There was a previous thread on this. For those times, Open Office works.

cheers

[Angus_D]

Real men use TeX.

[pdot]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Real men use TeX.

You mean real older men use Tex. I don't think most of the younger generation have the patience to learn it. It's nice for math intensive work, but the learning curve is so much steeper. It would be nice if MS Word utilized some kind of type-able code for inputting equations.

[skipjack]

Originally posted by pdot:
It would be nice if MS Word utilized some kind of type-able code for inputting equations.

I use a program called Math+Magic (www.mathmagic.com). It's not free, but it is less expensive than the upgrade of the equation editor available in Word.

Math+Magic has lots of keyboard shortcuts and much of the time I don't have to use a mouse or touchpad. (I used to type my Physics homework after the TA complained about tiny handwriting.)

Unfortunately, when I use it, my lab partners can't see my equations ('cause, of course, they don't use Macs).

It's strange that equations can't be exchanged between Word on PCs and Macs. Isn't the program written by the same company, DesignScience (and, in fact, the same as the one in AppleWorks)?

[calumr]

Originally posted by pdot:
You mean real older men use Tex. I don't think most of the younger generation have the patience to learn it. It's nice for math intensive work, but the learning curve is so much steeper.

I didn't find the learning curve for TeX to be any higher than that if HTML, and there are plenty of "the younger generation" who can handle that.

[pdot]

Originally posted by calumr:
I didn't find the learning curve for TeX to be any higher than that if HTML, and there are plenty of "the younger generation" who can handle that.

That may be true, but now you're talking about a different group of people; you're talking about people who can write up their own websites. These people are most likely more programming inclined than most of the population. For the students who have to take just a few physics or chemistry courses or even economics (ick), there are not enough equations in a paper to motivate the commitment.

[MartiNZ]

I have used Microsoft Equation Editor a lot in the last couple of years, doing statistics at uni. During this same time, I did a paper where we were taught to use LaTeX on the linux machines. I really found the benefits in terms of the 'look' of the maths that comes from TeX, to be far too insignificant to make me abandon the quicker WYSIWYG style of Equation Editor. And I really hated having to open the preview of the document to see what I had typed incorrectly in the code!

Once you learn the keyboard shortcuts, Equation Editor is a really nice program to use . Unfortunately, it has real compatibility issues between the OS X and Windows versions. In my experience, going from Word v.X to Word XP messes with the spacing in the equations and loses lots of the special characters like ^s and the like. Then you have to open the equations in Windows and close them again to fix most things, but the spacing is still not quite right.

But that's not the worst thing. I've found that then trying to go back to looking at it on Word v.X makes the equations appear as big red Xs!