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MathType Preferences Problem when inserting equations into Microsoft Word
Reading time: 2minApplicability
| The information on this page applies to: |
| MathType 7.0 and later (Windows) |
| MathType 7.0 and later (Mac) |
| Windows 7 and later |
| Microsoft Word 2007 and later |
| macOS 10.11 El Capitan and later except macOS 10.15 Catalina |
| Microsoft Word 2016 and later |
Issue
When inserting an equation into Microsoft Word, you get one or more "MathType Preferences Problem" error messages:
Dismissing this error message sometimes prompts the next one:
Reason
The reason for this depends on whether you're running macOS or Windows.
- Mac: The connection between MathType and Word has either corrupted or was never adequately established. In most cases, you won't use MathType until this is resolved.
- Windows: This is annoying but not a fatal error. After dismissing the error, you may continue to use MathType normally.
Solution
If you're using Windows, skip to the next section.
Mac
This first section isn't for you if you're using macOS 10.11-10.13. Skip to the section after the screenshot.
macOS 10.14 Mojave introduced a feature called automation that can, in some cases, cause this error when trying to use one of the commands from the MathType tab in Word. We recommend checking the automation settings:
- Microsoft Word may not be granting MathType access. Configure the automation settings in
System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Automation > Privacy. - Check for "Microsoft Word" and ensure MathType is beneath with a checkmark in the box on the left. If MathType is listed, but there is no checkmark, click a check mark inside the box and enable the automation.
- While you are in the Automation settings, also ensure MathType is there, with both "Microsoft Word" and "System Events" below (and checked). This allows MathType to communicate with Word. Both applications need to communicate back and forth with each other.
- After doing this, exit Word and MathType, then test it again.
Please proceed to the next section if this doesn't solve your issue.
macOS earlier than Mojave or above didn't resolve the issue: If you're using an OS earlier than Mojave or using Mojave. The above does not resolve the issue. It would be best if you reinstalled MathType Before doing this, make sure to exit MathType and all Office applications. Download the MathType installer file from our downloads page.
Once you have downloaded the installer file, run it to reinstall MathType Note that it is unnecessary to uninstall MathType before reinstalling. Please test it again after successfully reinstalling MathType. Let us know if you still experience the issue.
Windows
Note
There is more than one possible cause for this error. If you have assigned a keyboard shortcut to launch MathType from Word, see our other article that addresses this error.
If you have not assigned a keyboard shortcut to launch MathType from Word, as we mentioned above, this error is annoying, but it is not fatal. It will not prevent you from usually using MathType . Click OK to dismiss the dialogue, and the error message should not appear until you utterly close MathType and Word and relaunch them. We're hoping to address this bug in a future release of MathType.
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.