How to Make Equations with MS Equation 3.0

Appendix C

How to Make Equations with MS Equation 3.0

C.1 Inserting an Equation

To insert an equation, choose Insert from the pull-down menus, then Object, then MS Equation Editor. A window should appear as below. Alternatively, a blank box may open with the equation toolbar.

Note: If you can’t find MS Equation Editor among the list of objects to be inserted, it probably wasn’t installed on your machine. MS Equation Editor comes with MS Word, but often the standard installation doesn’t include it. You can install Equation Editor after the fact by running the install software that comes with MS Word.

C.2 Entering Characters

All keyboard characters can be entered directly. Parentheses, brackets and braces can be entered from the keyboard, but these are fixed in size. Brackets that will "grow" must be selected from the appropriate template.

C.3 Entering Symbols

The symbols printed on the menu buttons provide information as to the characters available under each button. The symbol palettes are shown below:

/ Relationship symbols; equality; inequality; equivalence / / Logic symbols
/ Alignment symbols; spacers; ellipsis / / Set theory symbols; union; intersection; containment
/ Accents; primes; hats; dots / / Miscellaneous symbols; gradient; degree; Planck’s constant
/ Operators; multiplication; division; dot product / / Lowercase Greek
/ Arrows / / Uppercase Greek

C.4 Entering Templates

The second row of palette buttons contains template palettes to provide placeholders for entering information. For example:

/ Brackets, braces and parentheses (that expand with their contents) / / Overbars and underbars
/ Fractions; radicals; long division / / Labeled arrows
/ Subscript; superscript; other over/under positioning / / Products and set theory
/ Summations / / Matrices
/ Integrals

C.5 Example: Entering an Equation

This example will demonstrate how to insert the following common mathematical equation:

1. Type "x=" from the keyboard

2. Choose a fraction from the template.

3. Select parentheses from the template (NOT the keyboard).

4. Type "-b" from the keyboard.

5. Select "plus or minus" from the palette.

6. Select a radical from the palette.

7. Type "b" from the keyboard.

8. Select the superscript from the palette.

9. Type a "2".

10. Tab (or cursor) to come down a level, and type "-4ac".

11. Tab (or cursor) to move to the denominator, and type "2a".

C.6 Stacking and Aligning Equations

Equations can be stacked in a pile. To do this, simply press the Return key to begin a new line. To align this pile at a character, such as an equal sign, choose "align at" from the Format menu.

C.7 Positioning of Equations

Equations can appear in-line (for example, like this: ) in a line of text. The line spacing will adjust automatically. If you wish to have equations appear in a paragraph by themselves, simply press Return before and after the equation. The best way to position an equation when on a separate line is to center the equation using tabs. You can also add a caption, e.g. (2.3), to the equation using tabs. This is demonstrated below:

. (C.1)

C-1