How do I center a formula, and the number at the end of the line?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Maja
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M

Maja

I am writing my thesis and have two struggles.
First, I have to center my formulas, but the numbering of my formulas has to
be at the end of the line. However, I don't know how to do that. Either
everything is centered within one line or everything is aligned on the right.
Is there a way to set this up?

Also, my formulas are always written in font 10 and I'd like to adjust the
settings so that all formulas are always written in font 14. How can I do
that?

Thanks for the help
 
Create your own new style calle e.g. "Formula" with the following features:
font size 14
tabs: one centered at 7.5 cm (assuming A4 page size and 2.5 cm lateral
margins), and one right aligned at 15 cm
Use this style for all your paragraphs using formulas.

I strongly advise your NOT to use Equation editor, but the Word's "Fields"
feature - it's failproof.
 
One solution is to make a 3 column table of one row where the first and
last row have the same width. Put your equation in the middle cell and
center it. Put your equation number in the right cell and right align it.
See also
http://blogs.msdn.com/microsoft_office_word/archive/2006/10/20/equation-numbering.aspx

Change the format in your normal template to be 14 (which is huge) instead
of 10. To do so, open a blank document, right click on the normal style in
the Home ribbon and choose 'Modify'. Then change the font size and make sure
"New documents based on this template" rather than "Only in this document"
is selected.

Yves
 
Disregard the second part of my answer as I misread your question.

You can create a style specific for equations, but you will still have to
assign it to every equation by hand (or macro) as far as I know.

Yves
 
hey
I have two questions.
How do I create a new style?
and I have never heard of the 'fields' feature, where do I find this feature
 
hey,
I put the two tabs in, and it automatically centers my equation, but then
how do I make it go to my second tab? I put the equation in and then I hit
tab, which moves my formula as well though and doesn't keep it centered.

Maja
 
Format a paragraph the way you like, then right-click and choose | Styles |
Save Selection as a New Quick Style and give it a name. For this
application, however, a table can be better. If you're using the References
| Insert Caption feature, then you need to have the caption in a separate
paragraph from the equation itself (which it will be if it's in a separate
table cell); otherwise, when you cross-reference the caption, the entire
equation will be included.

You'll find fields at Insert | Text | Quick Parts | Fields, but I wouldn't
advise trying to create a complex equation with EQ fields; use one of the
Equation Editors instead.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
There are several types of tabs; you can set them
* selecting by clicking on an icon on the top left of the editing window (at
crossing of the H&V rulers), and then insert them by clicking on the ruler
* using the Format/Tabs command

For fields search "Field codes: Eq (Equation) field" in Help.
 
You've gotten some good advise toward answering your questions
already, but you can also see it's a lot of work to follow the
instructions you've been given here. MathType could have saved you a
lot of time and trouble, and you can get back to writing your thesis.

When you install MathType, it adds a MathType tab to Word's Ribbon. On
the MathType tab is a command to insert a numbered display (i.e.,
centered) equation. The equation is automatically centered, and the
number is automatically at the right margin, in whatever format you
want -- (1), {1}, 1.1, 1-1.1, etc. You can insert chapter and section
breaks, and MathType recognizes that. You can include references to
the equations in the text of your document. The references and
equation numbers are linked, such that if you add or delete one, all
the ones beneath it are re-numbered. You can have your equations 14pt
and your document 10pt if you want.

There's a 30-day trial of MathType if you want to try it out.

--
Bob Mathews
Director of Training
Design Science, Inc.
bobm at dessci.com
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType
MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, Equation Editor
 
hey
thank you for the response. I'm surprised how many people have responded
This is great.
And I agree, following instructions really is not always that simple.
Math Type sounds exactly like what I need. My thesis won't be done in 30
days though... so maybe I'll just wait wit inserting my formulas and do it
when I'm closer to the end :)
 
I am an university educator and I spent a lot of time editing scientific
works for myself and together with the students.
During a (long) number of years I noticed that "implants" from Eq Editor,
MathType and other such programs - compared to Eq fields (Word native eq
editor) - have the following disadvantages:
* increase the file size and are proned to fail (I saw a lot of big red "X"
instead of eq's in my colleagues papers)
* are computer dependent (used styles are different from computer to
computer) - if you merge to files with eq written on 2 computers, eq's may
look different.
* chapters of a large paper/thesis - edited on different computers - are
easier to put together when using fields (i.e. numbering of eq such as {EQ
SEQ})
* if you decide to change a variable name from "a" to "b", you have to open
EACH and every MathType eq and change EACH instance of the variable; with
fields, a "find and replace" command will do the job in an instance.

I agree that MathType is more intuitive, but I advice to use it on that your
paper is in a final form, you edit it from start to end and print it on the
same computer, and you won't use (part of) it's contents elsewhere.

Now, .... it's up to you.

Good luck !
 
Crios, while it is true that earlier versions of Word had problems
with large documents, these issues appear to have been resolved in the
latest versions of Word.

You speak of documents being computer-dependent, but it's not that so
much as it is being font-dependent. This is an issue regardless of
what software you're using. It's more difficult when moving between
operating systems, and when equations are involved, but we have
articles on our site that explain how to deal with that, as well as
how to embed the fonts in a document so that it's not a problem.
Specifically, TechNote #50
(http://www.dessci.com/en/support/mathtype/allnotes.htm) and our tip
titled "Creating transportable Word documents and PowerPoint
presentations"
(http://www.dessci.com/en/support/mathtype/tips/embed.htm) should be a
great help.

Your point about find & replace is a feature that's very often
requested by our customers. We like to hear from customers and to know
what features they'd like to see in future MathType, and in fact this
is a feature we're looking to implement in a future release.

--
Bob Mathews
Director of Training
Design Science, Inc.
bobm at dessci.com
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType
MathType, MathFlow, MathPlayer, MathDaisy, Equation Editor
 
hey

that all makes sense. However, I am still confused what Eq fields even is
and how I can implement it. I've tried to google it but cannot find out how
to really make this work. :-/
Could you give me a beginners intro in some words of how to even find this
eq fields button or option?

Maja
 
First of all read the Help for "Field codes: Eq (Equation) field" (Word
2003)

There are 2 ways for inserting fields:
* command based: Insert/Field/Categories:Eq &formulas/EQ/Field
codes/Options - Read description !
* keyboard based: Ctrl F9 - insert the field; afterwards you have to write
the field code and switches; for example, in order to create a fraction you
have to write between the 2 accolades: "EQ \F(a,b)" (without quotes) - what
U C is the "field code"; in order to switch to field result you have to
press Shift+F9

Hope this helps.

PS for Bob Mathews:
I am only an user and I express my personal opinion regarding writing
equations.
 
hey
I finally figured it out! :)
Thanks for the help!

It seems more complicated than the equation editor, but I will give it a try
and see how it works out! :)
 
hey
I have one last question :) I actually like this field equation editor now a
lot :)
But I can't find a multiply sign. Franctions whatever all has symbols but
how do I make a dot? Do I have to insert it with symbols now?
 
Here is a way I found to number and reference equations, using the Microsoft
caption tab, for my thesis. It takes a little work at the very end, but it
has worked well for me.

Insert your equation using Equation Editor 3.0, (I personally cannot use the
Equation option on the Insert Ribbon because the font isn't Times New Roman).

After the equation select "Insert Caption". Make the label "Equations",
select "Exclude Label from Caption", set your numbering preferences, then hit
OK.

Next setup your centered and left tabs and move the equation and reference
to the desired position on the line.

To the right of your equation number, type in the number as you would like
it to appear, I prefer having the number in (). Then highlight the caption
number and change the font color to white.

Now to reference the number in your text, write what text you want before,
then select "Cross-reference" and under the "Insert Reference To" select
"Only Caption Text". This will insert the number you typed after the caption
number but not the actual caption number itself.

Once you're done, if you need to renumber equations, just set go to each
equation label and check what the caption number is and change your text
number to match.
 
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