For Immediate Release

Word 2007, Equations, and Scientific Journal Submissions

Design Science clarifies recent statements by Science and Nature regarding authoring guidelines for Microsoft Word 2007 with respect to its MathType and Equation Editor products.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — June 22, 2007 — The respected scientific journals, Science and Nature, have both recently amended their guidelines for author submissions. In separate statements, they disallow author submissions in Microsoft Office 2007's new .docx XML format, citing problems with their production workflows regarding equations and symbols. The Science statement is available here: http://www.sciencemag.org/about/authors/prep/docx.dtl and Nature here: http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/submissions/template/index.html. Design Science, Inc., today clarified these issues with respect to its equation editing products, MathType and Equation Editor.

Microsoft Word 2007 (part of Microsoft Office 2007) ships with a new Equation Tools ribbon. This is in addition to Design Science's Equation Editor (called Microsoft Equation 3.0 within Office), that has been included with all versions of Office on both Windows and Macintosh platforms since 1991, and is a simplified version of Design Science's MathType product. Publishers' workflows are designed to handle documents containing equations created with Equation Editor and MathType, but not equations created with Microsoft's new Equation Tools ribbon. Consequently, Science and Nature are not accepting documents containing these equations. Other publishers are likely to share the same problem and restrict author submissions in the same way.

Authors are encouraged to continue using Equation Editor (Microsoft Equation 3.0) or MathType with earlier versions of Microsoft Word. Design Science has also published a technical support note (http://www.dessci.com/mt/tsn124) that explains how to make Equation Editor easier to use in Microsoft Word 2007.

In related news, Design Science is preparing to release MathType 6.0 for Windows, a major new version addressing the needs of Word/PowerPoint 2007 users. Currently in beta, with release expected within a month, this new version will allow authors to prepare submissions compatible with scientific journals' workflows. For Word 2007 users, it will contain new equation numbering and browsing features that work with Equation Editor, MathType, and equations created with the new Equation Tools ribbon. It will also support input of equations using the TeX/LaTeX math typesetting language from the keyboard, as well as the Windows clipboard. Finally, it will allow equations to be copied from the thousands of Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) articles that contain equations.

About Design Science

Founded in 1986 and headquartered in Long Beach, California, Design Science develops software used by educators, scientists and publishing professionals, including MathType, Equation Editor in Microsoft Office, WebEQ, MathFlow, MathPlayer and TeXaide, to communicate on the web and in print. For more information please visit www.dessci.com

###

Contact: