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The equation editor that comes with Word 2013 has two different formatting styles, "display" and "inline". The formatting style is automatically changed depending on wether there is other text in the same paragraph or not.

But there are many cases (at least in the German language) in that one wants the equation to have display style and be on its own line, but one needs an additional punctuation mark (comma, period, etc.) after the equation. For typographic reasons this punctuation mark must be on the same line as the equation. Hence the structure should look like this:

<begin of the sentence>
<centered equation in display style><punctuation mark>
<end of the sentence>

This problem is related to question "How to insert display equations in a Word document without breaking a paragraph?".

Not working first approach: One can enter the text and equation all in one line. Then the equation has "inline" mode. If one right clicks on the equation and chooses "Change to display style" from the context menu, Word puts two line breaks (not paragraph breaks) directly before and after the equation. The problem is, that the punctuation mark is placed at the beginning of the new line and not after the equation.

Second approach, an ugly hack: One can put the punctutation mark within the equation box. But this is an ugly hack, because semantically the punctutation mark ist not part of the equation and the spacing becomes wrong. The spacing around a punctuation mark is different in "math mode" and "normal mode".

Third approach, even more ugly: The same way as one can getequations numbers to work, one could use a invisible table and place the punctuation mark there. See http://insight.trueinsight.za.com/archives/190 or http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-word/archive/2006/10/20/equation-numbering.aspx. But this is even a more ugly hack.

What is the "correct" solution intended by Microsoft?

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2 Answers 2

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Microsoft simply hasn't implemented a nice solution to this problem (just like equation numbering, which requires a 1-by-3 invisible table!). The only reasonable solution is your "second approach", that is, putting the punctuation mark inside the formula. I always do that.

[Besides, Microsoft Word and semantics -- you simply cannot be this pedantic in Microsoft Word. Personally, I am seriously considering abandoning Microsoft Word in favour of HTML5+CSS3, which is superior in most ways. Unfortunately, there is no convenient and standardised way of entering math in HTML.]

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You can insert the punctuation mark at the end of the equation in Normal Text, e.g. "e" ^iπ+1=0"." .

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  • Please read the question again carefully. Your answer does not answer the original question. OP has already tried that and it is not working for him.
    – DavidPostill
    Aug 28, 2016 at 19:00

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