I got all the way to number 12 out of 15 on Maria Anderson's Mathtype/Latex challenge before I ran out of my 5 minute Jing time. Fun! Like Typeracer! But math! I used to hate Mathtype/Equation Editor until I learned some shortcuts. Now I'm a keyboard ninja. Here's my video.
Update, if you're curious about shortcuts: If you hover your mouse over any button in MathType, it will tell you the keyboard shortcut in the lower left corner of the window. The most time-saving ones for me are Ctrl-f (fraction), Ctrl-h (superscript), Ctrl-r (radical), Ctrl-g p (pi), Ctrl-g q (theta), Ctrl-e (plain text), Ctrl-+ (back to math), and Ctrl-F4 (save and go back to document.) To invoke MT from Word, I can type Ctrl-Alt-q, but that might not work for everybody.
I was successfully resisting the urge to accept this challenge until you posted this, Kate.
ReplyDeleteNow I'll _have_ to do it. The only question now is: will I be compelled to repeat it until I can get all 15?
I hope some more people do it because about now I feel like a grade A megadork.
ReplyDeleteYou probably could get all 15 in 5 minutes if you did it a bunch of times, but, really, I'm sure you have better things to do. :)
What are the shortcuts you're using for Math Type?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah!? My math teacher can type math faster than YOUR math teacher!
ReplyDelete@Mrs A If you hover your mouse over any command in MT, it tells you the shortcut in the lower left corner of the window. The biggest timesavers for me are Ctrl-f (fraction), Ctrl-h ("high" for exponent), Ctrl-g-p (pi), Ctrl-g-q (theta), and Ctrl-r (radical). Also, don't click on the blank space where you want to type, just Tab to it.
ReplyDeleteMathType is integrated into the ribbon in Word 2007 for Windows (only the windows version) so I can do "Alt =" for an equation, and not have to leave Word to do it. Then, I can type (x+4)/(x^2-16) and it will auto-format as I type. Things like "\alpha" or "\Delta ABC" are useful. Same with "~=" and "\bullet"
ReplyDeleteMore about Equation Editor in Word 2007 for windows: http://www.chem.mtu.edu/~tbco/cm416/EquationEditor_main.pdf
ReplyDeletehttp://unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v2.pdf
Ok here's my screencast of doing things inline with a mix of TeX commands and GUI input.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.screencast.com/t/MTIxNmYz
Also showing some love to Geogebra in #5!
Sorry for spamming your blog, Kate!