I believe the equation editor (not the new Word 2007 editor) is a cut down
version of MathType
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/. If you need
the extra functionality of that application I'm afraid you will have to put
your hand in your pocket.
--
Graham Mayor - Word MVP
My web site
www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site
http://word.mvps.org
Hunky Chunky Funk Dunky wrote:
The last time I was on here about the EqEd it was a bit of a rant
about functionality that nearly worked and had got worse since W2k
Firstly an old complaint, yet again MS has ignored the Professional
market of engineers, scientists and mathematicians. There is a huge
market for powerful applications and O/Ss that don't have all of the
bells and whistles that Windows and Office always seem to overburden
themselves with.
I said in my last post that MS developers should look at MathCad's
UI, this still stands true, but there is still room for improvement.
The MathCad UI consists of multiple toolbars with various symbols and
signs etc grouped easily. At least with this UI you can find the
symbols you need quickly. Unfortunately with Mathcad you're flitting
backward and forward between keyboard and mouse, this is neither
productive nor helpful for RSI etc.
EqEd's Symbols tool is even worse, you click in the bottom right hand
corner to expand the tool and then go diagonally to the top left hand
corner to change the symbol type. This is unsatisfactory.
We need to be able to undock the Symbols and the Structures tools so
they can be stacked either side of the page. We then need keyboard
shortcuts, for example Alt and left arrow for Symbols, Alt and right
arrow for Structures, Alt and down arrow to expand relevant tool, Alt
and up arrow to collapse, Page Up and Page Down to page through the
sections in each tool. And then have keyboard shortcuts for each
symbol and structure sign, so 'ro' would be Alt+p and uppercase 'ro'
would be Alt+Shift+p. Equivalence would be Alt+= and not equals would
be Alt+Ctrl+=. These keyboard tooltip need to be displayed as
tooltips.
Inputting structure, such as the integral sign needs improving, for
example, if I enter "0 1 x" and then the integral sign I would get
the integral, from 0 to 1, of x. If I entered the integral sign first
the EqEd would highlight the lower limit first, then the upper limit
and finally the integrand. This would save you from having to use the
mouse to select the relevant area or from using additional key
strokes to position the cursor.
Now is the chance for MS to vastly improve the EqEd and make a
commitment to the professional market of science, maths and
engineering.
HTH