1

I am using the inbuilt equation editor in word and powerpoint 2013. My question is: where is there documentation of the features? There is nothing substantial in the inbuilt help, nor on Microsoft's website that I can find.

For instance, I've worked out by trial and error and browsing answers on this site that certain latex style operations will work. For example \sum + space gives the sumation sign. But is there an equivalent for matrices? (i.e something equivalent to \begin{pmatrix}... ? How would I know if there was? Has anyone compiled a list of latex operations which are recognised?

Improve this question
2
  • The Word 2007/2010 Equation Editor PDF
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 14:17
  • @DavidPostill Thanks, that's definitely the best I've come across. Still I'm surprised microsoft themselves haven't produced something as extensive - seems ridiculous to me that they charge you lots of money then expect you to figure out everything yourself!
    – MDJ
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 14:35

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

There is no proper documentation for this equations feature (which first appeared in Word 2007). I learned how to use it from Unicode Technical Note #28: Unicode Nearly Plain-Text Encoding of Mathematics by Murray Sargent. This is a discussion paper, not documentation for Word, but it gives a lot of useful information.

The Word 2007/2010 Equation Editor, mentioned by DavidPostill, might be better. But it is about Word's native equations feature, not Equation Editor. As Microsoft puts it, "Equation Editor is no longer used in Word. Support for writing and changing equations is built-in."

Improve this answer
2
  • Sorry only just seen this - thank you that's actually very helpful
    – MDJ
    Commented Jun 19, 2017 at 16:15
  • That second link is very good but there are some important omissions: First, it is possible to number equations without resorting to a table, for example type e=mc^2 #1 to label the equation as 1. Second, there are a several more special scripts, including blackboard bold and Fraktur for all letters (including lowercase) by typing \doubleA or \frakturA etc. respectively.
    – dbmag9
    Commented Apr 4, 2018 at 5:41
0

Microsoft has ceased providing documentations for its products. In the latest version of Office, pressing the Help button simply invokes the web browser to search for your topic via Bing.

The best I could find for you is this: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Write-insert-or-change-an-equation-1D01CABC-CEB1-458D-BC70-7F9737722702

Improve this answer
1
  • Thanks for the answer. It's surprising to me though that that there is no mention there of the best part (imho) of the editor - its ability to mimic latex. I can't quite believe that isn't documented anywhere.
    – MDJ
    Commented Mar 8, 2017 at 14:38

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .