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Style Editor

Overview, MathFlow Style Editor

The editor is based on the idea of an equation template. There are templates for fractions, subscripts, superscripts, matrices, etc. To build an equation, you insert templates and fill in the blanks.

mathflow_oxygen_style_editor_templates.png

To fill in the blanks, enter letters and numbers from the keyboard, select symbols from a palette, or replace a blank with another template. If you select something before inserting a template from the toolbar, the symbol or expression you've selected will automatically be inserted into the first blank in the template. Some people describe this as "wrapping" a template around a selection.

By nesting equation templates inside one another, you can build up almost any equation. Navigate around an equation using the mouse and arrow keys. You can also copy and paste sub-expressions to build up more complex expressions.

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The editor templates and symbols are directly based on MathML. It's not necessary to know much, about MathML in order to use the MathFlow editor effectively, but it does help to understand how equations are structured.

Example: MathML source code for a very simple expression x + 4.

<math><mi>x</mi><mo>+</mo><mn>4</mn></math>

The MathFlow Editor allows you to customize many typesetting and style properties to fine-tune visual appearances. You edit properties by selecting an expression and opening a property dialog box from the editor menu bar. Typesetting and style properties mostly correspond directly to MathML concepts. That is, changing properties corresponds to setting MathML attributes. In most cases, MathFlow can process the full range of valid MathML attribute values.

MathML Ancestry

The MathML Ancestry is the status area displayed just below the Tabbed Toolbar, adjacent to the Mini Toolbar. The Ancestry is there to show you at a glance the nesting of the MathML structure at the cursor location, and to give you an easy way to select parts of the equation containing the cursor.

MathML Ancestry … <mrow> : <mrow> : <mfrac> : <mrow> : <mi>

Since all MathML equations consist of templates nested inside a ‹math› element, the Ancestry always shows the ‹math› element on the left. Intermediate MathML templates are listed in order of nesting, with the innermost MathML template at the cursor location indicated on the far right.

When there are too many levels of nesting to display all at once, the Ancestry shows dots on the right and/or left edge of the display. Clicking the dots scrolls the display in the corresponding direction.

As you move the mouse, the Ancestry automatically updates to reflect the nesting at the current cursor position. Also, when you select part of an equation in the editing area, the corresponding template label in the Ancestry will be highlighted.

Ancestry selections

When you mouse over one of the MathML templates labels in the Ancestry, it will become highlighted in red. Clicking a label in the Ancestry selects the corresponding part of the equation in the editor window.

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By double-clicking an Ancestry label, you can highlight the corresponding area of the current equation and simultaneously open the default Properties panel for that selection. Each kind of MathML template has a default Properties panel, depending on what MathML properties it supports. Changes to a Properties panel only affect the current selection. Sometimes a selection applies to several Properties. When this occurs, only the default panel is opened by double-clicking.