Microsoft equation editor syntax

Question

Does anyone know where to find the syntax specification for entering equations into the 2007/2010 equation editors using only the keyboard? Searching just gives many links to people talking about how great the editor is, not instructions on how to use it. I have seen this shown in multiple demos of the product, but there are no documentation for it anywhere, even in the MS help.

Answer 1

Formula input is very natural. Here are a few general rules:

• "a^b" is automatically transformed to a^b. If your exponential contains several terms, write "a^(b + c)" which will be transformed to a^{b + c}. If you really do want a^{(b + c)}, write "a^((b + c))".

• The same things apply to subscript: \epsilon_0, e.g.

• The same things apply to fractions, e.g. 1/(a+b) will be transformed to what you expect.

• To insert "a sin x", make sure to insert the space between "a" and "sin". Otherwise the "sin" function will not be recognized, and thus it will be in italic (which is incorrect).

• Special characters are inserted using the \chr syntax. Try e.g. \alpha, \Delta, \cdot, \oplus, etc.

• To write a n-ary sum, simply write "\sum_(k=1)^\infty" followed be a space to automatically get the sum symbol with "k=1" below and the infinity sign above. This also works with \prod, \int, \oint, \bigotimes, etc.

• To write a square root, write \sqrt followed by a space, or a paranthesized expression.

• Brackets of different kinds are automatically regocnized. For instance, you can write "[a, b]" and get a true bracket. You can also try \bra \phi_1 | \phi_2 \ket etc.

• To modify a character, try v\bar, f\hat, or x\dot.

• To toggle bold/italic on/off, use Ctrl+B/Ctrl+I (this is Microsoft Word, remember? :) )

Finally, do not forget the context (right-click) menu. This is highly context sensitive, and has a lot of convenient commands (remove accent, add lower/upper limit, remove exponent, add argument, remove brackets, etc.).