Documentation / MathType

  • Demos
  • Visit our website
  • Downloads
  • Contact us
  • MathType

    • Wiris Quizzes

      • Learning Lemur

        • CalcMe

          • MathPlayer

            • Store FAQ

              • VPAT for the electronic documentation

                • MathFlow

                  • BF FAQ

                    • Miscellaneous

                      • Home
                      • MathType
                      • MathType Office Tools
                      • Support
                      • MathType Support Notices
                      • Support notices
                      • Support notices

                      Equations have become non-editable pictures in Microsoft Word

                      Reading time: 2min

                      TechNote 103

                      Applicability

                      The information on this page applies to:
                      MathType for Windows
                      MathType for Mac
                      All supported versions of Word for Windows and Mac

                       

                       

                       

                      Issue

                      After opening a previously saved Word file containing MathType 7 equations, you discover all or some of the MathType 7 objects have become non-editable "pictures." This is associated with the Auto-recovery function in Word. We know this is a Word bug because the issue is not limited to MathType 7 and happens with other "embedded objects", such as Excel charts. Further, there is usually no way to return the equations to editable conditions.

                      Symptoms

                      1. Attempting to edit an equation by double-clicking it will bring up the Picture Format tab instead of opening MathType 7
                      2. Copying and pasting the equation into a MathType 7 window results in the error "The Clipboard contains no equation data".
                      3. The 8 resizing handles around the equation have a different appearance:

                      Equation has become a picture, Windows.

                      Equation has not become a picture, Windows.

                      Equation has become a picture, Mac.

                      Equation has not become a picture, Mac.

                      Prevention

                      Microsoft recommends turning off Auto-recovery in Word. However, this is a prevention step and will not repair equations that have already become non-editable pictures. The steps to disable Auto-recovery are different for each version of Word, whether on the Macintosh or the Windows platforms. Look for the "Save" preferences for your version of Word and remove the checkmark from "Save Auto-recovery data every x minutes."

                      Solutions

                      In many cases, the equations will display and print correctly. If you don't need to edit the equations, it is possible to leave them as they are. If you only need to edit a small number of equations, it may be more expedient to delete those equations and recreate them in MathType 7

                      It's rare, but in some cases, it may be possible to recover the equations by running the Convert Equations command within Word:

                      1. Open the document in Word and save it as an RTF (Rich text format) document.
                      2. From the MathType 7 menu (or Tab), choose to Convert Equations.
                      3. Choose the following settings in the Convert Equations dialogue: under "Equation Types to Convert", select (as a minimum) MathType 7 or Equation Editor Equations" and "Microsoft Word EQ Fields". Set the Range to "Whole Document".
                      4. Under "Convert equations to" select MathType 7 equations (OLE objects)".
                      5. Click the "Convert" button to start the conversion process.
                      6. A dialogue will appear when the conversion is complete, confirming the number of equations converted.
                      7. Save the document from Word as either a .doc or .docx file. (As it pertains to this issue, .doc seems to be more stable than .docx.)
                      8. Hopefully, the document and all equations might be editable now using any version of Word along with MathType 7 Note that sometimes this conversion method cannot recover all equations in a document. If this is the case, equations will have to be re-created, and there is nothing MathType 7 can do to auto-recover them.

                      Getting This Problem Addressed by Microsoft

                      Microsoft's customers need to report their experience of this problem so Microsoft can appreciate how widespread it is and appreciate the need to devote their programming resources toward resolving it. We've notified the details of this issue, including sample documents, to Microsoft, and we encourage all users who experience this problem to do the same.

                      You can report this to Microsoft by...

                      • Sending feedback to Microsoft
                      • Contacting Technical Support at Microsoft
                      • Contact by online chat

                      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.

                      Was this article helpful?

                      Yes
                      No
                      Give feedback about this article

                      Related Articles

                      • Math accessibility
                      • Structure Editor application
                      • Expand
                      • Nothing happens when trying to insert or edit an equation in Word

                      Equations have become non-editable pictures in Microsoft Word

                      TechNote 103 Applicability Issue Symptoms Prevention Solutions Getting This Problem Addressed by Microsoft

                      Making people’s STEM work more meaningful

                      MathType

                      • MathType for Office Tools
                      • MathType for Mac
                      • MathType for Microsoft 365
                      • MathType for Google Workspace
                      • MathType for LMS
                      • MathType for XML Editors
                      • Arabic notation
                      • Our products accessibility
                      • MathType is online

                      WirisQuizzes

                      Learning Lemur

                      Solutions for Education

                      • Blackboard Learn
                      • Brightspace by D2L
                      • Canvas
                      • Google Classroom
                      • Moodle
                      • Schoology

                      Solutions for Publishing Houses

                      Solutions for Technical Writers

                      Solutions for Chemistry

                      Integrations

                      • HTML Editors
                      • MathType in WordPress

                      Pricing

                      Company

                      Careers

                      Blog

                      Contact Us

                      Buy Now

                      Plugin Downloads

                      © Wiris 2025

                      • Cookie Settings
                      • Cookie Policy
                      • Terms of Use
                      • Privacy Policy / GDPR
                      • Student Data Privacy
                      • Compliance
                      • Powered by Helpjuice
                      Expand