Empty Math Zone Place Holders

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Empty Math Zone Place Holders | ASP NET Hosting — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 20:31:32 GMT

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re: Empty Math Zone Place Holders

KodefuGuru — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:39:50 GMT

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re: Empty Math Zone Place Holders

Koby Kahane — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:06:11 GMT

There is a very frustrating bug related to math zones and RTL (right-to-left) text in Word 2007 that was disappointingly not fixed in the recently released Office 2007 SP2.

If a Display equation is inserted when in an Hebrew (and presumably other RTL languages) paragraph, everything seems fine, and the equation even appears as entered in Print Preview. However, when exporting a PDF or simply printing the document, the left edge of the equation is visible at right margin of the page, and the rest of the equation is chopped off and not visible at all. Switching to an English LTR paragraph before pressing Alt-= is a workaround for this issue.

Math zones in general have poor interaction with RTL. When entering an equation inline inside RTL text, Word really ought to switch the input language to English, since in all likelihood English characters and linear format Math are going to typed within the zone. Presently, typing an inline equation requires the tricky sequence of Alt-= followed by Alt-Shift to switch the input to English. The fact input reverts to Hebrew as soon as you leave the math zone provides a slight mitigation, but if that's the behavior, it makes even more sense for the math zone insertion to switch the input language to one suitable for math.

Another, more acute issue is that RTL text is poorly supported in math zones. For example, if one tries to insert two words in Hebrew under a = sign with \below, the second word will appear to right of the first word, which is clearly wrong for RTL.

Looks like it is too late for Office 2007 but I hope to see Word 2010 address RTL and math interaction better.

I also think integrating math zone support and the linear format input facility into OneNote would be a killer feature. OneNote is essentially useless for math and science classes as long as it lacks support for editable equations. Indeed, OneNote doesn't even support inserting OLE objects. An Office application, no less!

re: Empty Math Zone Place Holders

Marie Achim — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:44:20 GMT

I have a problem using a specific type of bracket, <>, when I write an equation. With the others kinds of brackets like (), [], {}, their height changes depending on the content we put in (small for a number, bigger for a fraction). But not the set <>. However, the same set plus a separator < | > changes height.

Is it a known problem for Word 2007 or am I doing something wrong?

I'm not sure if this blog is the correct place to ask this question. If not, could you tell me where I could find some help on that subject.

Thanks.

PS. I'm using the french version of Word 2007! Could this be the cause of the problem?

re: Empty Math Zone Place Holders

MurrayS — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 01:35:31 GMT

The characters < and > are not considered to be brackets in Office math. They are the relational operators less than and greater than. For angle brackets, use \bra and \ket (U+27E8 and U+27E9). These brackets expand as you desire. The names \bra and \ket come from Dirac notation used in quantum mechanics. You can also use TeX's \langle and \rangle, respectively.

re: Empty Math Zone Place Holders

Marie Achim — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:24:22 GMT

Sorry, may be I wasn't clear. English is not my first language.

I'm taking about writing an equation in Word 2007 (part of Office 2007) with the tool "Equation", represented by the greek letter pi, found in the menu "Insertion". The <> is in fact a set of brackets in Word 2003 AND in Word 2007, just like () and {}.

It worked perfectly in Word 2003 but not in Word 2007.

You get access to the set <> at the same place you find the others sets of brackets.

You are talking about Office Math. I guess it is different than Word 2007.

With this new info, can you help?

Thanks in advance.

re: Empty Math Zone Place Holders

MurrayS — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 02:40:30 GMT

Office math includes Word 2007 and RichEdit 6.0. Word 2007 uses \bra and \ket for the angle brackets you want. Or, equivalently, \langle and \rangle. The ASCII characters < and > are reserved for the less-than and greater-than operators. Office math is based on Unicode and Unicode does not consider the ASCII < and > to be brackets.