Top and bottom of equations are cut off in Word

TechNote 151

Applicability

Issue

When you insert inline MathType equations into a Word document, the top & bottom of some of the equations are cut off.

Reason

If the paragraph line spacing in Word is set to "Exactly" some value, and if that value is too small to enclose the equation, this causes Word to place the equation behind lines of text, thus obscuring parts of the equation.

Solution

To illustrate the solution, let's look at an example with two equations, neither of which is what we'd call "tall":

The problem is that while we've set our paragraph to have proper line spacing for 11pt text, it doesn't account for larger items placed within the text. The example above has a line spacing of exactly 13.2pt ("standard" spacing is 20% more than the font size); let's switch it to "Single":

Whether Windows or Mac, in the Spacing section of the ensuing dialogue, Line spacing is what we need to adjust.

That's an improvement since now the full equations show. If you like this appearance, keep the spacing set to Single and be done with it. (What's "good" and "bad" in a document, and what "looks right" is in the end up to you anyway. As the author, you decide. Whatever you decide, it's the right decision.) Many people object to the appearance of "Single" because the spacing of the four lines is not uniform from one line to the next. That's the way Microsoft Word handles a case like this, though; it adjusts spacing so that the objects "just fit", adding a bit of padding, and as a result, the spacing is uneven from one line to the next.

If we want our paragraph spacing to be the same from one line to the next, we'll have to set it to "exactly" some value. Finding out the proper weight is somewhat trial & error, but MathType helps you find a starting point. First, consider the tallest equation in the paragraph. In this case, that's the second one. Open it in MathType Select it and copy it. Notice the value in the status bar: B=6. This means the equation's "baseline" shift is 6 points. That's the distance from the "baseline" of the text to the bottom-most part of the equation.

So our starting point is 17 in this case since we're using 11pt text and adding 6pt to that. Here's how our block of text looks with line spacing of "Exactly 17pt":

Pretty close and better (at least our line spacing is uniform), but we need to increase it a bit to account for the bottom of the second equation. "Exactly 20pt" nails it:

We hope this has been helpful. As always, please let us know if you have questions about this or if you have additional techniques that work. We'd love to hear from you.