Author Topic: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?  (Read 3741 times)

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Online IanB

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #25 on: January 16, 2023, 08:24:24 pm »
When you are lying down and using a notebook/pencil is not easy, I could draw eqn's in a paint program, but I'm not good at that, especially lying down with a mouse on my chest.

So I was wondering is there some program, meant for people writing eqn's , to put as a picture in a presentation, or on a form. So in the program, there would be toolbars, and instead of placing circles, or resistors, you choose some math symbol or number/letter, and place it on the work space.

And I don't care if the program actually does math, I just want something else besides trying to draw eqn's in paint, when lying down. Maybe it would be really slow and not worth it. But I would put a circuit together in a sim, rather than draw it on paper or in paint, so I'd try a symbolic math editor/notepad

I just noticed, as per my post above, that the "Ink to Math" feature in MS Office (e.g. Word, or PowerPoint) lets you write equations with a pen on a touchscreen, and it converts them to properly formatted equations as you go. This seems to be the kind of thing you are looking for?

It obviously works also with a mouse, but it is very painful trying to write or draw with a mouse cursor. A pen and touchscreen is much easier.
 

Offline alm

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #26 on: January 16, 2023, 10:05:58 pm »
Is Word usable for complex technical documents these days? Let's say a hundred pages, dozens of large figures, tables across multiple pages, equations, cross references everywhere and all that jazz? My experiences in the 2003 days were that Word would completely choke, references would break at random, scrolling would be at glacial speed, and the only way around it would be to give up on automated cross references and split the document in pieces.
 
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Online IanB

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #27 on: January 16, 2023, 11:43:18 pm »
Is Word usable for complex technical documents these days? Let's say a hundred pages, dozens of large figures, tables across multiple pages, equations, cross references everywhere and all that jazz? My experiences in the 2003 days were that Word would completely choke, references would break at random, scrolling would be at glacial speed, and the only way around it would be to give up on automated cross references and split the document in pieces.

I certainly use Word for technical documents with figures, tables and equations. Is it better for large documents than it used to be? I couldn't say, since large documents have always been Word's Achilles' heel. I don't hit too many bugs with the Office 365 version, but I do hit some, especially with the drawing tools. Most of the time if something misbehaves I can undo the change with Ctrl-Z and try it a different way, or close and reopen. What bugs I come across are mostly with mishandling of user inputs rather than corrupting the document. It's been a while since I have seen a corrupted docx file.

One thing I have learned is to work with the low level LaTex-like features of Word, such as proper use of paragraph styles, field codes and so on. Many of the "ease of use" features such as ad-hoc formatting controls tend to create a mess behind the scenes. For figures, one should always insert a drawing canvas, and never put graphical shapes directly on the page. The new equation editor has been improved in recent versions and now accepts a subset of LaTex equation macros.

I can't tell you it is bulletproof, but it does satisfy my working requirements for very technical engineering documents.
 
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Online SiliconWizard

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #28 on: January 17, 2023, 03:25:07 am »
Is Word usable for complex technical documents these days? Let's say a hundred pages, dozens of large figures, tables across multiple pages, equations, cross references everywhere and all that jazz?

Probably, but I personally use LaTeX for that kind of documents. This invariably leads to less frustration and much better looking documents.
 

Online IanB

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #29 on: January 17, 2023, 03:31:13 am »
Probably, but I personally use LaTeX for that kind of documents. This invariably leads to less frustration and much better looking documents.

On the other hand, such documents generally end up looking like "LaTeX", which gets boring after a while. Few people bother to change the default font and style options.
 

Offline berke

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #30 on: January 17, 2023, 11:33:09 am »
Is Word usable for complex technical documents these days? Let's say a hundred pages, dozens of large figures, tables across multiple pages, equations, cross references everywhere and all that jazz?

Probably, but I personally use LaTeX for that kind of documents. This invariably leads to less frustration and much better looking documents.
For writing equations in Word you need to run Windows though.  The on-line version does not support equations.  The few times where a client insisted on a document being written in Word I usually Pandoc'd it from a sane format to Word then told them to figure out the formatting.

You can always tell when a technical document has been written using Word by the awkward look of the math.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #31 on: January 18, 2023, 06:42:16 pm »
I prefer LaTeX and frontends like LyX, because I feel they integrate much better in a larger document than Word where you have to keep opening the equation editor modal for every small inline equation that you want to change and last time I looked had more advanced features like equation numbering or units, but if you want a more advanced version of the Word Equation Editor, then MathType might be worth a look. It wouldn't surprise me if earlier versions of the Word Equation Editor were licensed versions of MathType.
https://www.adeptscience.co.uk/products/mathsim/mathtype/mathtype-windows-vs-equation-editor.html says:
Quote
There have been no significant changes to Equation Editor since we licensed it to Microsoft in 1991. MathType, on the other hand, has been continually upgraded and improved.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #32 on: January 18, 2023, 06:54:25 pm »
For writing equations in Word you need to run Windows though.  The on-line version does not support equations.  The few times where a client insisted on a document being written in Word I usually Pandoc'd it from a sane format to Word then told them to figure out the formatting.
Or Mac (or, with some entry limitations, iOS).
 

Offline tooki

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #33 on: January 18, 2023, 06:59:26 pm »
Is Word usable for complex technical documents these days? Let's say a hundred pages, dozens of large figures, tables across multiple pages, equations, cross references everywhere and all that jazz? My experiences in the 2003 days were that Word would completely choke, references would break at random, scrolling would be at glacial speed, and the only way around it would be to give up on automated cross references and split the document in pieces.
IMHO it’s gotten a lot better.

FYI, it’s actually possible to break up a document into smaller pieces and have references work: use subdocuments (an obscure Word feature).
 

Online IanB

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #34 on: January 18, 2023, 08:39:05 pm »
It wouldn't surprise me if earlier versions of the Word Equation Editor were licensed versions of MathType.
Earlier versions, yes, evidently.

Quote
https://www.adeptscience.co.uk/products/mathsim/mathtype/mathtype-windows-vs-equation-editor.html says:
Quote
There have been no significant changes to Equation Editor since we licensed it to Microsoft in 1991. MathType, on the other hand, has been continually upgraded and improved.

This is a bit misleading, since Word does not use Equation Editor anymore, and has not done so for over a decade. The current equation feature in Word is a replacement that uses inline equation markup using Unicode characters, somewhat similar to LaTex.

The current equation markup feature in Word is described here:

https://unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v3.pdf
« Last Edit: January 18, 2023, 08:46:34 pm by IanB »
 
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Online IanB

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #35 on: January 18, 2023, 08:44:35 pm »
Or Mac (or, with some entry limitations, iOS).

Or possibly with fewer limitations, with the latest version of iPadOS. I have been trying to find out how full featured is Microsoft 365 for iPad. It does rather seem like the full program.
 

Offline tooki

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #36 on: January 19, 2023, 09:40:11 am »
I only looked at it quickly, but I couldn’t find any of the gallery menus of equation elements like on the desktop version. Maybe it’s there and I didn’t see it?
 

Offline tooki

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #37 on: January 19, 2023, 09:40:49 am »
It wouldn't surprise me if earlier versions of the Word Equation Editor were licensed versions of MathType.
Earlier versions, yes, evidently.

Quote
https://www.adeptscience.co.uk/products/mathsim/mathtype/mathtype-windows-vs-equation-editor.html says:
Quote
There have been no significant changes to Equation Editor since we licensed it to Microsoft in 1991. MathType, on the other hand, has been continually upgraded and improved.

This is a bit misleading, since Word does not use Equation Editor anymore, and has not done so for over a decade. The current equation feature in Word is a replacement that uses inline equation markup using Unicode characters, somewhat similar to LaTex.

The current equation markup feature in Word is described here:

https://unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v3.pdf
Is the old one still there for compatibility with old documents?
 

Offline pardo-bsso

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #38 on: January 19, 2023, 01:23:26 pm »
I also suggest trying Mathics ( https://mathics.org/ ) and GeoGebra ( https://www.geogebra.org/ )
 

Online IanB

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Re: Is there a math/equation GUI program like this ?
« Reply #39 on: January 19, 2023, 05:49:48 pm »
Is the old one still there for compatibility with old documents?

Apparently not for creating new equations. It seems Microsoft removed the old equation editor from Office 2007 onwards. See here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/editing-equations-created-using-microsoft-equation-editor-08a44b8c-ae15-41a7-bc15-7239890c0cec

What happens instead is that if you try to edit old equations they will be automatically converted to the new format.

If you simply open the document without trying to edit the equations then the equations retain their original display formatting so you can continue to read the document as it was.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2023, 05:53:18 pm by IanB »
 
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