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Nothing happens when trying to insert or edit an equation in Word

Applicability

The information on this page applies to:

MathType for Mac

Word 2016 and later (Mac)

Issue

MathType has always worked fine for you, but now you've upgraded to Mojave and it doesn't work anymore. You click Inline on the MathType tab in Word and nothing happens. You double-click an equation in an existing document and nothing happens.

equation_in_word.png

Reason

With macOS 10.14 Mojave, applications require direct access to control other applications. Therefore, for Word and MathType to "talk" to each other, you must grant access. The first time you tried to control MathType from Word, whether by clicking one of the insert equation buttons or by double-clicking an existing equation, you would have been presented with this dialogue:

word_wants_access.png

Sometimes users are simply cautious and don't want to control something unnecessarily. In this case, though, it's necessary.

If that's what happened to you, don't worry; not all is lost. Recovery is simple.

Solution

To give access to MathType and Word so they can control each other, follow these steps:

  1. Close both Word and MathType if running.

  2. Open System Preferences and click Security & Privacy, then in the Privacy tab, click Automation.

  3. You should see something like this (maybe you have more entries, but you'll have at least these 2):

    no_access_word.png
  4. Click in each of the two boxes shown, placing a checkmark in both boxes. (This is one time when you can make changes without clicking the padlock in the lower-left corner of the dialogue.)

  5. Open Word and insert an equation with one of the 4 Insert Equations buttons on the MathType tab in Word. MathType should open normally. Create an equation and close MathType (i.e., click the red button in the upper left).

  6. When you close MathType, you will see this dialogue:

    mathtype_control_word.png

    Click OK to proceed. The equation should be inserted into Word. If it's not, insert another equation. All should be normal with this one.

  7. Now in the System Preferences dialogue you should see at least these three boxes checked:

    access_word.png
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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.