OpenOffice 3.2 Math Guide
Math Guide
The OpenOffice.org Equation Editor
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This document is Copyright © 2005–2010 by its contributors as listed
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Authors
Daniel Carrera
Agnes Belzunce
Peter Kupfer
Ian Laurenson
Janet M. Swisher
Jean Hollis Weber
Michele Zarri
Feedback
Please direct any comments or suggestions about this document to:
authors@documentation.openoffice.org
Publication date and software version
Published 5 October 2010. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.2.1.
You can download
an editable version of this document from
http://oooauthors.org/english/userguide3/published/
Contents
What is Math?..............................................................................4
Getting started....................................................................................4
Entering a formula.......................................................................5
The Elements window.........................................................................5
Right-click (context) menu..................................................................7
Markup...............................................................................................8
Greek characters................................................................................9
Customizations...........................................................................11
Formula editor as a floating window.................................................11
How can I make a formula bigger?...................................................12
Formula layout...........................................................................13
Brackets are your friends..................................................................13
Equations over more than one line...................................................13
How do I add limits to my sum/integral?..........................................13
Brackets with matrices look ugly!.....................................................14
How do I make a derivative?............................................................. 15
How do I align my equations at the equals sign?..............................15
Numbering equations.................................................................16
Math commands - Reference......................................................18
Unary / binary operators...................................................................18
Relational operators.......................................................................... 19
Set operations................................................................................... 20
Functions.......................................................................................... 21
Operators.......................................................................................... 22
Attributes.......................................................................................... 23
Miscellaneous...................................................................................25
Brackets............................................................................................ 26
Formats............................................................................................. 27
Characters – Greek...........................................................................28
Characters – Special.........................................................................28
OpenOffice.org 3 Math Guide 3
What is Math?
Math is OpenOffice.org (OOo)’s component for writing mathematical
equations. It is most commonly used as an equation editor for text
documents, but it can also be used with other types of documents or
stand-alone. When used inside Writer, the equation is treated as an
object inside the text document.
Note
The equation editor is for writing equations in symbolic form, as
in equation 1. If you want to evaluate a numeric value, see the
Calc Guide.
df x
dx
=ln x tan−1x2
(1)
Getting started
To insert an equation, go to Insert > Object > Formula.
The equation editor opens at the bottom of the screen, and the floating
Elements window (called “Selection” before Math 3.2) may appear. You
will also see a small box with a gray border in your document, where
the formula will be displayed, as shown in Figure 1.
4 OpenOffice.org 3 Math Guide
Figure 1: Equation Editor, Elements window, and location of
resulting equation
Entering a formula
The equation editor uses a markup language to represent formulas. For
example, %beta creates the Greek character beta (). This markup is
designed to read similar to English whenever possible. For example, a
over b produces a fraction:
a
b
.
You can enter a formula in three ways:
• Select a symbol from the Elements window.
• Right-click on the equation editor and select the symbol from the
context menu.
• Type markup in the equation editor.
The context menu and the Elements window insert the markup
corresponding to a symbol. This provides a convenient way to learn the
OOo Math markup.
Note
Click on the document body to exit the formula editor.
Double-click on a formula to enter the formula editor again.
The Elements window
The simplest method for entering a formula is the Elements window,
shown in Figure 1.
Note
In OOo Math before V3.2.0, the Elements window was called the
Selection window.
Entering a formula 5
Figure 2: Symbols are divided into categories
The Elements window is divided into two main parts.
• The top shows the symbol categories. Click on these to change
the list of symbols.
• The bottom shows the symbols available in the current category.
Tip
You can hide or show the Elements window with View >
Elements.
Example 1:
5×4
For this example we will enter a simple formula:
5×4
. On the Elements
window (Figure 3):
1) Select the top-left button of the categories (top) section.
2) Click on the multiplication symbol.
When you select the multiplication symbol on the Elements window,
two things happen:
• The equation editor shows the markup:
<?> times <?>
• The body of the document shows a gray box like this:
×
6 OpenOffice.org 3 Math Guide
Figure 3: Selecting the multiplication symbol
Figure 4: Result of selecting the multiplication symbol
The <?> symbols shown in Figure 4 are placeholders that you can
replace by other text, for example 5 and 4. The equation will update
automatically, and the result should resemble Figure 5.
Tip
To keep the equation from updating automatically, select View
>AutoUpdate display. To update a formula manually, press F9
or select View > Update.
Right-click (context) menu
Another way to access mathematical symbols is to right-click on the
equation editor. This pops up the menu shown in Figure 6. The items in
this menu correspond exactly to those in the Elements window.
Entering a formula 7
Figure 5: Result of entering 5 and 4 next to the times operator
Figure 6: Right-click (context) menu
Markup
You can type the markup directly in the equation editor. For example,
you can type 5 times 4 to obtain
5×4
. If you know the markup, this
can be the fastest way to enter a formula.
Tip
The formula markup resembles the way the formula reads in
English.
Below is a short list of common equations and their corresponding
markup.
Display Command Display Command
a=b
a = b
a
sqrt {a}
a
2
a^2
a
n
a_n
∫
f x dx
int f(x) dx
∑
a
n
sum a_n
a≤b
a <= b
∞
infinity
a×b
a times b
x⋅y
x cdot y
8 OpenOffice.org 3 Math Guide
Greek characters
Greek characters (
, , ,
, etc) are common in mathematical
formulas. These characters are not available in the Elements window
or the right-click menu. Fortunately, the markup for Greek characters
is simple: Type a % sign followed the name of the character, in English.
• To write a lowercase character, type the name of the character in
lowercase.
• To write an uppercase character, type the name of the character
in uppercase.
A complete table of Greek characters is provided on page 28. See the
table below for some examples.
Lowercase Uppercase
%alpha
%ALPHA
A
%beta
%BETA
B
%gamma
%GAMMA
%psi
%PSI
%phi
%PHI
%theta
%THETA
Another way to enter Greek characters is by using the Symbols catalog
window. Choose Tools > Catalog. This window is shown in Figure 7.
Under Symbol set, select Greek and double-click on a Greek letter
from the list. The markup name of the character is shown below the list
window.
Entering a formula 9
Figure 7: Symbols catalog, used for entering Greek characters
and some special symbols
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