General techniques for using MathType with other applications and websites

This dialogue allows you to specify what kind of information will be placed on the clipboard whenever you use the Cut or Copy commands on the Edit menu or when you drag & drop an equation from the MathType editing window. (For the remainder of this topic, when we use the terms cut, copy, and/or paste, the same behaviour applies to drag & drop, but we will not explicitly state such.) Usually, Cut or Copy will place a graphic image of the selected part of the equation onto the clipboard, ready to be pasted into a document. However, using the options in this dialogue, you can have the selected equation or fragment translated into text in one of the computer languages or for one of the applications or websites for which a translator is available.

MathType provides output translators for MathML, a recommendation from the World Wide Web Consortium for encoding mathematics for the Web. MathML is a worldwide standard, but its implementation is not standard, so there are differences in the support for MathML in other software. Therefore, MathType includes translators to generate MathML 2.0. These translators are packaged in slightly different ways for the various browsers, browser plug-ins, and software applications that support MathML.

The MathML translators provided with MathType are:

This translator generates plain MathML tags with no namespace information.

These are special considerations that need additional care. Consider these examples:

In the first case, MathType will convert the number one thousand into three elements: <mn>1</mn><mo>,</mo><mn>000</mn>

This is almost certainly what you don't want. Still, MathType translating process isn't sophisticated enough to scan the expressions on both sides of the comma (or whatever separator your region uses). As another example, MathType won't be able to discern whether 10,205 is the number ten thousand, two hundred and five or the ordered pair representing x/y coordinates of 10 on the x-axis and 205 on the y-axis.

What MathType does with miles is the same way it handles the quantities in the second example, so let's deal with them both by considering a more general example.

When MathType sees abc, should it interpret that as the 3-letter variable abc, or is it implied multiplication: a times b times c? MathType doesn't know and isn't equipped to decide, so the resulting MathML is this: <mi>a</mi><mi>b</mi><mi>c</mi>

Unfortunately, these are cases where you'll need to manually edit the MathML for it to be correct if you choose to do so. In many cases, the result will look the same either way, so if correct visual appearance is the overriding concern (and if it is, it's neither right nor wrong; it's just what your situation dictates), then there's no need to correct the MathML. (Probably a better way to create these expressions in MathType is to type miles, Pressure, and Volume in MathType Text style rather than Math style, but you may be converting to MathML some equations someone else wrote. If hundreds of them are in the document, it may not be worth "correcting" them.

TeX is a typesetting language invented in the late 1970s by Donald Knuth, a Stanford computer science professor. Although it is a powerful document processor, especially for documents containing equations, it also has a steep learning curve. You can think of TeX as a sort of programming language for documents. If you don't get the syntax right, you get "syntax error" instead of a document.

Here is an example of the TeX language for the quotient rule of differentiation:

\frac{d\left(\frac fg\right)}{dx}(x)=\frac{g(x)\frac{df}{dx}(x)-f(x)\frac{dg}{dx}(x)}{g^2(x)}

Here is how the same equation would appear in MathType

If you work with TeX, MathType 7 TeX translators can help you. There are several 'flavours' of TeX, LaTeX being one of the most well-known. MathType includes translators for several of these different versions. Check the Cut and Copy Preferences dialogue for the complete list.

When an equation appears in a document, it can be displayed in line with surrounding text, or it may be centred in a paragraph by itself. Users of MathType in Microsoft Word will already be familiar with this concept since MathType 7 commands for Word use different commands to insert inline and display equations.

TeX also has a notation for inline and display equations, but it works differently. Since TeX is a programming language, the positioning of the equation in the document must be specified in the TeX code for the equation. TeX uses special delimiter characters at the beginning and end of an equation to indicate whether it should be an inline or display equation. Different TeX uses different delimiter characters, but the most common are $...$ for an inline equation and \[...\] for a display equation.

You can control which kind of TeX delimiter to translate a MathType 7 equation. Checking the "Inline Equation" property from MathType Format menu will cause inline delimiters to be used for translation. Otherwise, display delimiters will be used.

When using MathType with Microsoft Word, the Inline Equation property is automatically set when inserting equations via MathType 7 commands for Word. However, suppose you later move an equation within your document. In that case, you may need to update the Inline Equation property for TeX export manually or for MathType 7 Toggle TeX feature in Word.

While MathType TeX translators provide an easy way to export an equation as TeX code, MathType 7 also offers several ways to import a TeX equation.

MathType imports Texvc, a subset of TeX supported by Wikipedia. See the MediaWiki handbook for an explanation of this language.

You can import and export Texvc from Wikipedia and other websites using copy and paste.

The best way to tell how the website displays its math is to point to the math expression and click the right mouse button. On a Mac, you may have to ctrl+click.

MathML

Most of the web pages using MathML are read either with Firefox or with MathJax. When you click the right mouse button, look for an option to view or copy the MathML. If it's not there, you may have to consider the page source. If so, look for something beginning with <math…:

Firefox for Windows	Safari for Mac

If you're using Firefox, choose the View MathML Source command, copy the code & paste the MathML into MathType If you're using another browser that supports MathML. There's no View MathML or Copy MathML command; go to the source and copy everything between <math> and </math>. There is likely to be more than one such block, though, so be sure to get only one block of MathML.

MathJax

All browsers have a common contextual (right-click/ctrl+click) menu for MathJax equations:

MathJax equations may be in LaTeX format, or they may be in MathML format. Either way, by clicking Show Math As, you can copy the code and paste it into MathType to use the equation in your work. Choose the Original MathML option for MathML, not the MathML Code one.

Images

If you are using Chrome or Safari browsers, the contextual menu will be similar to Firefox's.

Firefox for Windows	Internet Explorer

To use equations from the web, there are a couple of techniques to try:

• The image may have "alt text" that MathType 7 can use. Most of the usable equation images on the web fall into this category. To use these equations, click and drag it over to MathType or select it and copy it, then paste it into MathType (It's better to use the Ctrl+C / Command+C shortcut to copy, rather than to use the right-click menu at this point.)

• If that doesn't work and you're using Internet Explorer, right-click the equation and choose Copy from the menu. If you're using any other browser, select Copy Image Location, Copy image URL, Copy Image Address, or a similar command. Paste into MathType

If these techniques don't work, the equation isn't usable by MathType 7 If this capability is essential, it may be worthwhile to contact the editor of the website and mention how important it is to you that the equations be in one of the formats mentioned above.