OpenOffice 3.3 Math Guide
Math Guide
The OpenOffice.org Equation Editor
Copyright
This document is Copyright © 2005–2011 by its contributors as listed below. You may
distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General Public License
(http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative Commons
Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), version 3.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.
Contributors
Daniel Carrera
Agnes Belzunce
TJ Frazier
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 28 April 2011. Based on OpenOffice.org 3.3.
Note for Mac users
Some keystrokes and menu items are different on a Mac from those used in Windows
and Linux. The table below gives some common substitutions for the instructions in
this chapter. For a more detailed list, see the application Help.
Windows/Linux Mac equivalent Effect
Tools > Options
menu selection
OpenOffice.org >
Preferences
Access setup options
Right-click Control+click Open context menu
Ctrl (Control) z (Command) Used with other keys
F5 Shift+z+F5 Open the Navigator
F11 z+T Open Styles & Formatting window
You can download
an editable version of this document from
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/
Contents
Note for Mac users........................................................................................................ 2
What is Math?................................................................................................................ 4
Getting started........................................................................................................... 4
Entering a formula.........................................................................................................5
The Elements window................................................................................................ 5
Right-click (context) menu......................................................................................... 7
Markup....................................................................................................................... 7
Greek characters....................................................................................................... 8
Customizations.............................................................................................................10
Formula editor as a floating window....................................................................... 10
How can I make a formula bigger?..........................................................................11
Formula layout............................................................................................................. 12
Brackets are your friends........................................................................................ 12
Equations over more than one line.......................................................................... 12
How do I add limits to my sum/integral?.................................................................12
Brackets with matrices look ugly!........................................................................... 13
How do I make a derivative?.................................................................................... 14
How do I align my equations at the equals sign?....................................................14
Numbering equations.................................................................................................. 15
Math commands - Reference....................................................................................... 17
Unary / binary operators.......................................................................................... 17
Relational operators................................................................................................. 18
Set operations.......................................................................................................... 19
Functions................................................................................................................. 20
Operators................................................................................................................. 21
Attributes................................................................................................................. 22
Miscellaneous.......................................................................................................... 23
Brackets................................................................................................................... 24
Formats.................................................................................................................... 25
Characters – Greek.................................................................................................. 26
Characters – Special................................................................................................ 26
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−1( x2)
(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 and “Formula Elements” in 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.
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.
Entering a formula 5
Figure 2: Symbols are divided into categories
Example 1:
5×4
For this example we will enter a simple formula:
5×4
. On the Elements window:
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:
×
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.
6 OpenOffice.org 3 Math Guide
Figure 3: Selecting the multiplication symbol
Figure 4: Result of selecting the multiplication symbol
Figure 5: Result of entering 5 and 4 next to the times operator
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.
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.
Entering a formula 7
Figure 6: Right-click (context) menu
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
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 by 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 26. 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.
8 OpenOffice.org 3 Math Guide
Figure 7: Symbols catalog, used for entering Greek characters and some
Example 2:
≃ 3.14159
For this example we will suppose that:
• We want to enter the above formula (the value of pi rounded to 5 decimal
places).
• We know the name of the Greek character (pi).
• But we do not know the markup associated with the
≃
symbol.
Step 1: Type % followed by the text pi. This displays the Greek character .
Step 2: Open the Elements window (View > Elements).
Step 3: The ≃ symbol is a relation, so we click on the Relations button. If you hover
the mouse over this button you see the tooltip Relations (Figure 8).
Figure 9 shows the Selection window after clicking the Relations button. The symbol
we want is circled.
Figure 8: Tooltip indicates the
Relations button
Figure 9: After selecting Relations
Entering a formula 9
special symbols
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