Getting Started Guide

9Chapter
Getting Started withMath
OpenOffice.org’s Equation Editor
This PDF is designed to be read onscreen, two pages at atime. If you want to print a copy, your PDF viewer shouldhave an option for printing two pages on one sheet ofpaper, but you may need to start with page 2 to get it toprint facing pages correctly. (Print this cover page
separately.)CopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2005–2010 by its contributors as listedin the section titled Authors. You may distribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of either the GNU General Public License, version 3 orlater, or the Creative Commons Attribution License, version 3.0 orlater.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Authors
Daniel Carrera
Agnes BelzuncePeter Kupfer
Ian Laurenson
Janet M. Swisher
Jean Hollis Weber

Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:authors@user-faq.openoffice.org

Acknowledgments
This chapter is extracted from Chapter 16, “Math Objects: The
OpenOffice.org Equation Editor” in the Writer Guide.

Publication date and software version
Published 3 January 2010. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.2.

You can download
an editable version of this document fromhttp://oooauthors.org/english/userguide3/published/

Contents
Copyright............................................................................................... 2
What is Math?........................................................................................ 4
Getting started.................................................................................... 4Entering a formula................................................................................. 5
The Formula Elements window...........................................................5
Right-click menu................................................................................. 7Markup............................................................................................... 8Greek characters................................................................................8Customizations..................................................................................... 10Formula editor as a floating window.................................................10How can I make a formula bigger?...................................................11Formula layout..................................................................................... 12Brackets are your friends.................................................................. 12Equations over more than one line...................................................13How do I add limits to my sum/integral?..........................................13
Brackets with matrices look ugly!.....................................................14
How do I make a derivative?.............................................................14
How do I align my equations at the equals sign?..............................15
Numbering equations........................................................................... 16

Getting Started with Math3

What is Math?
Math is OpenOffice.org (OOo)’s component for writing mathematicalequations. It is most commonly used as an equation editor for text
documents, but it can also be used with other types of documents or
stand-alone. When used inside Writer, the equation is treated as anobject inside the text document.
NoteThe equation editor is for writing equations in symbolic form, asin equation 1. If you want to evaluate a numeric value, see theCalc Guide.

df  x−12=ln  x tan  x dx(1)

Getting started
To insert an equation, choose Insert > Object > Formula.
The equation editor opens at the bottom of the screen, and the floating
Formula Elements window (called “Selection” before Math 3.2) may
appear. You will also see a small box with a gray border in yourdocument, where the formula will be displayed, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Equation Editor, Formula Elements window, andlocation of resulting equation.
4

Getting Started with Math

Entering a formula
The equation editor uses a markup language to represent formulas. For
example, %beta creates the Greek character beta (  ). This markup isdesigned to read similar to English whenever possible. For example, aaover b produces a fraction: b .
You can enter a formula in three ways:• Select a symbol from the Formula Elements window.
• Right-click on the equation editor and select the symbol from thecontext menu.
• Type markup in the equation editor.
The context menu and the Formula Elements window insert themarkup corresponding to a symbol. This provides a convenient way tolearn the OOo Math markup.
Note

Click on the document body to exit the formula editor.
Double-click on a formula to enter the formula editor again.

The Formula Elements window
The simplest method for entering a formula is to use the Formula
Elements window, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 2. Symbols are divided into categories
NoteIn OOo Math before V3.2.0, the Formula Elements window wascalled the Selection window.

Entering a formula

5The Formula Elements window is divided into two main parts.
• The top shows the symbol categories. Click on these to change
the list of symbols.
• The bottom shows the symbols available in the current category.
Tip

You can hide or show the Formula Elements window with View
> Formula Elements.

Example 1: 5×4
For this example we will enter a simple formula: 5×4 . On the Formula
Elements window (Figure 3):
1) Select the top-left button of the categories (top) section.
2) Click on the multiplication symbol.

Figure 3. Selecting the multiplication symbol
When you select the multiplication symbol on the Formula Elements
window, two things happen:• The equation editor shows the markup: <?> times <?>• The body of the document shows a gray box like this: ×

Figure 4. Result of selecting the multiplication symbol
6Getting Started with MathThe <?> symbols shown in Figure 4 are placeholders that you canreplace by other text, for example 5 and 4. The equation will update
automatically, and the result should resemble Figure 5.

Figure 5. Result of entering 5 and 4 next to the times operator

Tip

To keep the equation from updating automatically, choose View
>AutoUpdate display from the menu bar. To update a formulamanually, press F9 or choose View > Update.

Right-click menu
Another way to access mathematical symbols is to right-click on theequation editor. This pops up the menu shown in Figure 6. The items inthis menu correspond exactly to those in the Formula Elements
window.

Figure 6. Right-click menuEntering a formula7

MarkupYou can type the markup directly in the equation editor. For example,
you can type 5 times 4 to obtain 5×4 . If you know the markup, thiscan be the fastest way to enter a formula.
Tip

The formula markup resembles the way the formula reads inEnglish.

Below is a short list of common equations and their corresponding
markup.
Display

Command

Display

Commanda=ba=basqrt {a}

a2

a^2

ana_n

∫ f  x dx

int f(x) dx∑ ansum a_na≤ba <= b∞infinity

a×ba times bx⋅yx cdot yGreek characters
Greek characters (  ,  ,  ,  , etc) are common in mathematicalformulas. These characters are not available in the Formula Elements
window or on the right-click menu. Fortunately, the markup for Greekcharacters is simple: Type a % sign followed the name of the character,in English.
• To write a lowercase character, type the name of the character inlowercase.
• To write an uppercase character, type the name of the characterin uppercase.
See the table below for some examples.
Lowercase%alpha %ALPHA A%beta%BETA

B%gamma %GAMMA 

%psi %PSI %phi %PHI %theta 

8Uppercase

%THETA 
Getting Started with Math

NoteA complete table of Greek characters is provided in the Math
Objects chapter in the Writer Guide.

Another way to enter Greek characters is by using the Symbols catalog
window. Choose Tools > Catalog. This window is shown in Figure 7.
Under Symbol set, select Greek and double-click on a Greek letterfrom the list.

Figure 7. Symbols catalog - used for entering Greek characters

Example 2:  ≃ 3.14159
For this example we will suppose that:• We want to enter the above formula (the value of pi rounded to 5
decimal places).
• We know the name of the Greek character (pi).
• But we do not know the markup associated with the ≃ symbol.
Step 1: Type % followed by the text pi. This displays the Greekcharacter  .
Step 2: Open the Formula Elements window (View > FormulaElements).
Step 3: The ≃ symbol is a relation, so we click on the Relations
button. If you hover the mouse over this button you see the tooltip
Relations (Figure 8).
Figure 9 shows the Formula Elements window after clicking theRelations button. The symbol we want is circled.

Entering a formula9

Figure 8. Tooltip indicates
the Relations button.

Figure 9. After selecting Relations.

Step 4: Click on the a ≃ b symbol. The equation editor now shows themarkup %pi<?> simeq <?>.
Step 5: Delete the <?> text and add 3.14159 at the end of theequation. We end up with the markup %pi simeq 3.14159. The resultis shown in Figure 10.

Figure 10. Final result

Customizations
Formula editor as a floating window
The formula editor can cover a large part of the Writer window. To turnthe formula editor into a floating window, do this:1) Hover the mouse over the editor frame, as shown in Figure 11.
2) Hold down the Control key and double-click.
10Getting Started with MathFigure 11. Hold down the Control key anddouble-click on the border of the formula
editor to turn it into a floating window.
Figure 12 shows the result. You can dock the floating window again byusing the same steps. Hold down the Control key and double-click thewindow frame.

Figure 12. Formula editor as a floating window.

How can I make a formula bigger?
This is one of the most common questions people ask about OOo Math.
The answer is simple, but not intuitive:1) Start the formula editor and choose Format > Font size.

Figure 13. Changing the font size for a formula.

Customizations

112) Select a larger font size under Base size (top-most entry).

Figure 14. Edit Base size (top) to make a formula bigger.
The result of this change is illustrated in Figure 14.

Figure 15. Result of changing the base font size.

Formula layout
The most difficult part of using OOo Math comes when writing
complicated formulas. This section provides some advice.

Brackets are your friends
OOo Math knows nothing about order of operation. You must use
brackets to state the order of operations explicitly. Consider thefollowing example.
Markupx + 12
1x

2 over {x + 1}

2x1

2 over12

ResultGetting Started with Math

Equations over more than one line
Suppose you want to type an equation covering more than one line. For
x=3
example:y=1
Your first reaction would be to simply press the Enter key. However, ifyou press the Enter key, though the markup goes to a new line, theresulting equation does not. You must type the newline commandexplicitly. This is illustrated in the table below.
MarkupResultx = 3y = 1x =3 y=1

x = 3 newline
y = 1

x=3
y=1

How do I add limits to my sum/integral?
The sum and int commands can (optionally) take the parameters fromand to. These are used for lower and upper limits respectively. Theseparameters can be used singly or together. Limits for integrals areusually treated as subscripts and superscripts.
MarkupResultnsum from k = 1 to n a_k∑ akk =1

int from 0 to x f(t) dt
orint_0^x f(t) dt∫ f t dt or ∫0 f t dt

int from Re f

∫fsum to infinity 2^{-n}Notexx0ℜ∞∑ 2−n

For more details on integrals and sums, see the Math Objects
chapter in the Writer Guide.

Formula layout

13Brackets with matrices look ugly!
For background, we start with an overview of the matrix command.
MarkupResultmatrix { a # b ## c # d }a bc dNoteRows are separated by two #’s and entries within each row areseparated by one #.

The first problem people have with matrices is that brackets do notscale with the matrix.
Markup(matrix { a # b ## c # d }Result)

a b
c dOOo Math provides scalable brackets. That is, the brackets grow insize to match the size of their contents. Use the commands left( andright) to make scalable brackets.
MarkupResultright) a bc dleft(matrix { a # b ## c # d }TipUse left[ and right] to obtain square brackets.

How do I make a derivative?
Making derivatives essentially comes down to one trick: Tell OOo it’s afraction.
In other words, you have to use the over command. Combine this witheither the letter d (for a total derivative) or the partial command (for apartial derivative) to achieve the effect of a derivative.
Note14

Notice that we have to use braces (squiggly brackets) to makethe derivative.

Getting Started with MathMarkup

Result{df} over {dx}dfdx

{partial f} over {partial y}∂f∂y{partial^2 f} over {partial t^2}

∂2 f∂ t2

How do I align my equations at the equals sign?
OOo Math does not have a command for aligning equations on aparticular character, but you can use a matrix to do this, as shownbelow.
Markupmatrix{alignr x+y # {}={} # alignl 2 ##alignr x# {}={} # alignl 2-y}Resultx y = 2x = 2− yThe empty braces around = are necessary because = is a binary
operator and thus needs an expression on each side.
You can reduce the spacing around = if you change the inter-column
spacing of the matrix:1) With the equation editor open, choose Format > Spacing fromthe menu bar.

Figure 16: Changing spacing in a matrix formula

Formula layout152) In the Spacing dialog (Figure 16), click the Category button andselect Matrices in the drop-down menu.
3) Enter 0% for Column spacing and click OK.

Numbering equations
Equation numbering is one of OOo Math’s best hidden features. The
steps are simple, but obscure:1) Start a new line.
2) Type fn and then press F3.
The fn is replaced by a numbered formula:

E=mc2

(2)

Now you can double-click on the formula to edit it. For example, hereis the Riemann Zeta function:∞1zn=1 n z = ∑(3)You can reference an equation (“as shown in Equation (2)”) with thesesteps:
1) Choose Insert > Cross-reference from the menu bar.
2) On the Cross-references tab (Figure 17), under Type, select Text.
3) Under Selection, select the equation number.
4) Under Format, select Reference.
5) Click Insert.
Done! If you later add more equations to the paper before thereferenced equation, all the equations will automatically renumber andthe cross-references will update.
Tip

16

To insert the equation number without parenthesis around it,choose Numbering instead of Reference under Format.

Getting Started with MathFigure 17. Inserting a cross-reference to an equation number

Numbering equations

17