This page addresses issues commonly faced by students who are writing papers or giving presentations with substantial mathematical content. The following topics are discussed.
Mathematical papers
Mathematical presentations
Any questions or suggestions for improving this page may be directed to Dr. Hill.
A choice of two programs: Word and TeX
Microsoft Word is the document-preparation program that most students use. Word is a point-and-click, WYSIWYG* editor. The equation editor in Word 2007 allows the user to create a wide variety of mathematical expressions. While the equation editor generally does not produce professional-quality output, the quality is good and suffices for most student projects. For more information, see Typing a mathematical paper using Word 2007.
TeX (pronounced "tek") is the document-preparation program of choice among mathematicians, scientists, engineers, economists, and other scholars. In terms of mathematical typesetting, TeX sets the world's standard with its professional-quality output. Although TeX is not a WYSIWYG editor, its commands are logical and quickly learned. TeX may be downloaded for free. Anyone planning on graduate school or a career in a mathematically-oriented field is well-advised to learn TeX. For more information, see Typing a mathematical paper using TeX.
*Computer science lingo for "what you see is what you get".
Typing a mathematical paper using Word 2007
We assume familiarity with the basic text-editing features of Word, so we focus here on typing mathematics. To achieve the best results, all mathematics should be typed using Word's equation editor. To use the equation editor, follow these steps.
Using the equation editor in Word 2007
|
Position the cursor where you want the mathematical expression to go.
To engage the equation editor, go to the Insert tab and click on "Equation". (If you click on the arrow to the right of "Equation", you'll get a short menu of famous formulas. If you click on "Symbol", located below "Equation", you'll get a selection of special symbols, which is occasionally useful but a poor substitute for the equation editor.)
You should now see an empty equation "box" at the desired location in your document. Also, the top of the window should now be filled with several menus of mathematical items, as seen in the screenshot below.
Word's equation editor is of the point-and-click, WYSIWYG variety. A special format (like a fraction, a subscript, or an exponent) or a special symbol (like the infinity symbol) is inserted into an equation box by locating it in one of the menus and then clicking on it.
When you are done creating a mathematical expression, click outside of the equation box to disengage the equation editor.
To edit a previously-created mathematical expression, click on its equation box. This action engages the equation editor.
|
Typing a mathematical paper using TeX
TeX was developed by Donald Knuth in the 1970s and '80s to allow anyone to create professional-looking documents, particularly documents that contain mathematics. Knuth designated TeX as freeware.
A friendlier version of TeX, called LaTeX (pronounced "lah-tek" or "lay-tek"), was subsequently developed by Leslie Lamport and has largely replaced the original "plain" TeX. Like its predecessor, LaTeX is freeware. The current version of LaTeX is LaTeX2e. These days, when someone speaks of "TeX", they are probably referring to LaTeX.
LaTeX for Windows may be downloaded for free from the site below. The download includes TeXnicCenter, which is a well-designed interface for working with LaTeX documents.
Unlike Microsoft Word, LaTeX is not a WYSIWYG editor. To create a document using LaTeX, the user creates a LaTeX file consisting of the raw content and LaTeX commands; the commands inform LaTeX how to format the content. Once the LaTeX file is compiled (using, say, TeXnicCenter), a PDF or DVI file is produced with the content formatted as desired. The result can be as professional-looking as pages in a textbook.
As an example, here is a sequence of LaTeX commands alongside the mathematical expression it produces.
| \displaystyle{ \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}ar^n } |
|
 |
Here are some helpful resources to aid in learning and using LaTeX. Many others are available.
- Online resources
- The Not-So-Short Introduction to LaTeX2e
- LaTeX Tips Created by A.J. Hildebrand of UIUC, this well-organized, superbly-written resource addresses issues of interest to novices and professionals alike. These tips are part of Hildebrand's TeX Resources.
- User's Guide for the amsmath Package The amsmath package is the LaTeX package created by the American Mathematical Society to facilitate the writing of mathematical articles. Up-to-date versions of LaTeX usually include the amsmath package. To access this package from a particular LaTeX file, put the command \usepackage{amsmath} in the preamble of your file, right after the \documentclass command.
- Summary of LaTeX commands A comprehensive 14-page reference of LaTeX commands, organized alphabetically.
- LaTeX mathematical symbols An indispensable four-page reference of the LaTeX commands that produce mathematical symbols, organized by category. Includes some commands from the amsmath package.
- Books
- George Gratzer, More Math into LaTeX, 4th ed., Springer, 2007. Highly recommended.
- Leslie Lamport, LaTeX: A document preparation system, 2nd revised ed., Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1994.
Putting math into a PowerPoint 2007 presentation using Word
How do we put mathematics onto a PowerPoint slide? PowerPoint 2007 does not make it easy. While PPT 2007 does have an equation editor, it's quite crude compared to the equation editor in Microsoft Word. PowerPoint's equation editor can handle little beyond basic arithmetic. (To see for yourself, the equation editor can be accessed from the Insert tab. Click on "Object"; in the new window, select "Microsoft Equation 3.0".)
One solution is to create the mathematical expression in a Word document, copy the expression, and then paste it onto a PowerPoint slide. Unfortunately, the usual "Paste" feature in PowerPoint renders the mathematical expression as an image. The problem arises when you enlarge this image, which you'd almost always want to do to make it easier to read on the slide. When enlarged, the expression quickly loses its sharpness.
We can avoid the loss of sharpness by being a little more careful when pasting, as follows.
Copying math from Word to PowerPoint
|
Type the mathematical expression in a Word document using the equation editor. (If you're basing your presentation on a paper that you typed in Word, then this step is already done!)
Highlight the equation box; right-click on it and select "Copy".
In the PowerPoint window, click on the arrow at the bottom of the Paste icon and select "Paste Special...".
In the resulting window, select "Microsoft Office Word Document Object" and then click "OK".
|
The pasted equation can now be enlarged without losing its sharpness. Note: when enlarging an equation box by dragging the border, always drag a corner to maintain the aspect ratio. Otherwise, you'll end up with a weird-looking, distorted expression.
When you follow the steps above to copy a mathematical expression from Word into PowerPoint, you'll notice that the equation box on the PowerPoint slide is really wide. This isn't a serious problem—just annoying. To correct the excessive width, some finesse is needed. If you simply drag the left side or the right side of the box toward the other side, the width of the box will decrease, but the expression inside the box will be correspondingly squashed. The reason is that PowerPoint thinks you want to compress the box and its contents, when all you want to do is compress the box. Here is one solution.
Adjusting the width of an equation box copied from Word
|
On the PowerPoint slide, right-click on the border of the equation box.
Choose "Document Object", and then "Edit".
The border of the equation box has turned a dark gray. You can now drag the left side or the right side toward the other side to give the box a reasonable width without compressing the contents of the box.
When you're done resizing the box, click outside of the box to disengange the equation editor.
|
By the way, the first two steps can be used not only to adjust the width of the equation box, but also to edit the mathematical expression within the box.
Putting math into a PowerPoint 2007 presentation using TeX
As mentioned in the previous section, the equation editor in PowerPoint 2007 is quite rudimentary and can handle little beyond basic arithmetic. If you're familiar with LaTeX (which would certainly be the case if you're basing your presentation on a paper that you typed with LaTeX), then consider downloading a program that allows you to insert LaTeX expressions into a PowerPoint presentation. There are several programs available—some free and some not. Here are three.
-
MyTeXPoint A free simplified version of TeXPoint (see the next program).
TeXPoint A formerly-free program that now has a modest cost.
For the sake of completeness, I'll point out that there is a low-tech alternative to these programs. To get a LaTeX expression onto a PowerPoint slide, you could take a screen shot of the LaTeX output, copy the image onto a PowerPoint slide, and crop the image until only the pertinent piece of mathematics remains. This process would need to be repeated for every expression you wanted in your presentation. There are serious drawbacks to this approach. First, when the cropped image is enlarged, the math within will lose its sharpness. By planning ahead and enlarging the original output just so, the cropped image could be arranged to be about the desired size, but this seems like a pain. Second, the math in the image cannot be edited.
An alternative to PowerPoint: Beamer
 |
|
As we've discussed in the previous two sections, special steps must be taken to put mathematics into a PowerPoint 2007 presentation. One way to avoid these hassles is to use a completely different program. Beamer is a program for creating presentations that makes putting math onto slides as easy as inserting text. Beamer is a version of LaTeX, so you'll need to know LaTeX to use it. (For basic information about LaTeX, see Typing a mathematical paper using TeX on this page.) If you already know LaTeX (perhaps you're basing your presentation on a paper that you typed with LaTeX), then you might consider choosing Beamer over PowerPoint. Be aware that some of Beamer's commands are specific to Beamer, so even if you're quite familiar with LaTeX, you'll still need to invest one or two hours learning to use Beamer. Beamer may be downloaded for free from its homepage, below. |
|
Beamer was created by Till Tantau, Joseph Wright, and Vedran Miletićin in 2003. Its name is taken from the German word Beamer, which is a pseudo-anglicism for video projector.
|