Application Note
Using MathType with Adobe InDesign CS3
MathType works well with Adobe InDesign using the Place command and
the Links palette. You may also use copy and paste from
MathType into InDesign. You cannot use Publish and Subscribe (Mac) and OLE
(Win) to import equations, as these methods do not reliably preserve file
format, color, or resolution information. The
methods described in this application note may not be the only way to perform a
particular task, but these are the methods we recommend. This article is not
intended to be a comprehensive manual on using InDesign, so if you are not
familiar with the menus and commands mentioned here, please refer to the Adobe
documentation for further instruction.
Note: In this AppNote, menu commands and icon names will be indicated with
bold text.
In this document, we use two terms that are common in mathematics publishing.
The two terms are inline equation and display equation (or
displayed equation). There is a simple difference between the two. If the
equation is part of the text of the paragraph and is intended to "flow" with
the paragraph, it is called an inline equation. If the equation is set apart
from the rest of the paragraph by isolating and centering the equation on its
own line, it is called a display equation.
For example, we could be discussing limits and could write:
"We start by finding a series
expansion of
 . Taking the natural logarithm of
, we
have
provided
 ."
In this example, the equation on its own line is a display
equation and the other 3 equations are inline equations. If it is necessary to
refer to an equation in the text of a document, it is convenient to number the
equation. This situation will require a display equation, as inline equations
are not normally numbered. (Note that in this article we will use the term
"equation" to represent anything created by MathType, whether it's a
complete
mathematical equation or not.)
Tradeoffs: Deciding between Place and Copy & Paste
In this AppNote we will be saving each MathType equation as an EPS file and
using InDesign's Place command to incorporate the equation into our document,
but as we mentioned above you can also use copy and paste. So why would you
choose one method over the other? To help you decide which is better for you,
here are some advantages and disadvantages to the copy and paste method:
Advantages of Copy and Paste
- It's easy and quick. This is the number 1 advantage and it's huge.
- Provides the same resolution as Placing an EPS; they both print great.
- Transportability is enhanced, since to send the document to someone else
all you need is the InDesign file. If you've Placed EPS equations, you also
need to send the linked equation files as well as any fonts used to create
the equations.
Disadvantages of Copy and Paste
- Results in a larger file. How much larger depends on the
document. Factors weighing in on this are how many pasted equations are in
the document, as well as the physical size and complexity of the pasted
equations.
- The pasted equation will almost always need to be resized after you
paste it into the document. You can do this precisely with a Transform/Scale
command or you can probably get "close enough" by Shift+dragging a corner.
A Placed EPS equation, by contrast, will retain whatever size you set in
MathType.
- Difficult to edit. If you need to make changes to the equation, you'll
need to create the equation again in MathType, then copy, paste, resize, and
re-position
it again.
- If you have several instances of the exact same equation, the size and
editing issues become magnified (but is easier if you copy & paste from one
place in the document to the other, rather than copying from MathType each
time). By Placing an EPS, you still have only one
copy of the equation to maintain, no matter how many instances of it are in
your document. To edit a Placed equation, simply edit the original EPS file
in MathType, save, and re-link it and all instances will be updated.
As you can see, there are more disadvantages than
advantages. Don't let this discourage you though; if you don't have very many
equations in your document and if you don't have to edit them very often, copy &
paste is undoubtedly the way to go. Remember, in the discussion below we'll be
using the "Place EPS" method, but if you choose to use copy & paste, the rest of
the procedures still apply.
Inserting MathType Display Equations Into an
InDesign Document
- Create the text of your document as you normally would. Begin a new
paragraph at the point where the display equation will be inserted, making
sure the text frame is large enough to include your equation as well. (This is
a situation where there are certainly other ways to perform this procedure,
but including the equation in your text frame makes it easier to position the
equation in relation to the text.)
Tip: You will probably want more space above and below your display
equation paragraphs than you need above and below your text paragraphs. It's a
good idea to create a separate paragraph style for this. Six points above and
below the display equation paragraph is normally sufficient, but adjust it
according to your needs. Another advantage to using a separate paragraph style
is that you can create the style so that the line below the display equation
will revert back to your normal paragraph style. Otherwise, you'll have to
change the justification, indentation, tabs, etc. each time.
- Create the equation in MathType, then save it as an EPS.
- To save an equation as an EPS, go to the MathType File menu, and
select Save, Save Copy As, or Save As.
- Choose the folder to which you will save your equation.
- MathType offers two options to save your equations as EPS files – with
or without a preview graphic. The option you choose affects only the display
of the equation on your monitor; it does not affect the printing.
- Saving as "Encapsulated PostScript/PICT" (Mac), "Encapsulated
PostScript/WMF" (Win), or "Encapsulated PostScript/TIFF" (Win) displays a
screen preview image of the equation that will be printed.
- Saving as "Encapsulated PostScript/none" (Mac or Win) does not save a
preview image with the equation. InDesign will still display the equation
using its own rasterization engine.
Tip: Saving the equation without a preview image is a better
option in most cases, as this will produce a smaller file. The EPS without
a preview also looks better in InDesign for Macintosh, as shown below:
This is with View > Display Performance set to Typical
Display. With High Quality Display selected, the two EPSs look
identical.
At this point, you have a choice of how to proceed. If your display equation
does not need an equation number associated with it, continue to step 3. If you
need to number your equation so you can reference it in the text of the
document, proceed to the next section.
- In the Paragraph Formatting Controls palette, click the Align
center icon. (Note the insertion point remains at the left margin of your
text box until the centered paragraph contains something – either text or an
object.)
- Use the Place command on the File menu to insert the
equation. Choose the equation you just created, then click Open. (You
may leave the Show Import Options box unchecked, as the default options
will work nicely.)
- If you chose not to use a display equation paragraph style for the
equation, be sure to re-format the line or paragraph following the equation.
Creating a numbered display equation
If you need an equation to be numbered so you can refer to it in the text of
your document (such as in the example below), follow steps 1-2 above, then
continue with step 3 below.
It is not difficult
to show, following the same steps, that for
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(1-3) |
There are two problems with this
formula. The larger N is, the more work is required to evaluate
the expression and the more difficult it is for the computer to
distinguish between hN
and 0 in the left-hand side of Equation (1-3). |
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Example of a numbered display
equation with a reference |
- From the Table menu, choose Insert Table. In the Insert
Table dialog, set the Table Dimensions to Body Rows: 1 and
Columns: 3. Leave Header Rows and Footer Rows set to zero.
- Open the Table Setup dialog by choosing Table > Table Options >
Table Setup. In the Table Border section, choose a Weight of
0 pt. We also recommend Table Spacing of 0p6 before and -0p6
after. Click OK.
- Position the mouse pointer over the border between the first and second
columns. A double-arrow icon (
 ) will appear. Hold down the Shift key and drag the cell border
to the left until the first cell is approximately 10% of the page width.
Repeat this procedure to re-size the third cell so that you have cell widths
of approximately 10%, 80%, and 10%, left-to-right.Tip: If your page
is standard U.S. letter-size paper, the margins are at the default settings,
and the InDesign Ruler Units are set to Picas (also the default setting), a
convenient stop-point when dragging the cell borders is 8p0, and 43p0 for the
left and right cells, respectively. For A4 paper, convenient stop-points are
7p6 (halfway between the 6 and 9 marking on the ruler) and 42p0,
respectively. The reason for holding down the Shift key when dragging the
cell border is that doing so keeps the table width constant.
- Click to place the insertion point in the middle cell of the table, and click the
Align center icon on the Paragraph Formatting Controls palette.
Likewise, place the insertion point in the third cell, click the Align right
icon on the Paragraph Formatting Controls palette.
- If desired, change the vertical justification of the third cell, either
by clicking the appropriate icon in the Table palette, or
by selecting Table > Cell Options and setting Vertical Justification
accordingly. A vertical justification of Align bottom works nicely for
most equations.
Tip: Why not create a snippet out of this table? That way for
subsequent numbered display equations (or simply for display equations with
no number), you can insert the snippet and the table will already be
formatted. If you're unfamiliar with creating snippets in InDesign, refer to
the InDesign documentation. (In order to Export as an InDesign Snippet, the
table must be in its own frame.)
- Use the Place command on the File menu to insert the
equation. Choose the equation you just created, then click Open. (You
may leave the Show Import Options box unchecked, as the default options
will work nicely.)
- Type the
equation number into the third cell.
Tip: For subsequent numbered display equations, it's
convenient to either Place the snippet you created above, or copy the entire table and paste it into the location for your
next numbered display equation. Then just replace the equation and change the
number. If you created a separate "Display Equation" paragraph style (see Tip
after step 1 above), this style can be used for both
numbered and unnumbered display equations.
Inserting MathType Inline Equations Into an InDesign
Document
Inserting inline equations into an InDesign document presents several
challenges. For this reason, most users opt for display equations whenever
possible. There are times when a display equation just will not do, so
following
the suggestions below might make it easier to insert inline equations.
Note: If you have an existing Word document with MathType equations
and you're re-using those equations in your InDesign document, skip this section
and see the introductory remarks in Batch conversion of
MathType equations to EPS files below.
- Create the text of your document as you normally would.
- Create the equation in MathType and save as an EPS as described in
step 2 above (or use copy & paste).
- With the insertion point at the spot where you want to place your inline
equation, use the Place command on the File menu to insert the
equation. Choose the equation you just created, then click Open. (You
may leave the Show Import Options box unchecked, as the default options
will work nicely.)
- There will most likely be a need for some "baseline shift" of the
equation. In other words, you will need to adjust the vertical position of the
equation so that the baseline of the equation aligns with the baseline of the
surrounding text. How you go about doing this depends on whether the equation
is about the same vertical size as a line of text, or whether it is larger.
For equations that are similar in size to the surrounding text, such as
- Choose the Selection Tool
 .
(Do not
use the Direct Selection Tool
 for this.)
- Click on the newly-placed equation.
- From the Object menu, click Transform > Move.
- To move the equation the proper amount, you could use trial and error
and guess at the proper amount. (With the equation selected, simply move it
vertically with the arrow keys on the keyboard. If you do this, you don't
need to click Transform > Move.) With enough experience, this may prove to be
the fastest way to align the inline equation. If you need to move the
equation precisely though, there is a way to
determine the exact amount of vertical shift.
- In MathType, open the equation you just placed into your InDesign
document. MathType is probably still open with this equation in the
workspace anyway.
- Select the entire equation, then copy it.
- When you copy an equation to the clipboard, MathType shows the height,
width, and baseline of the equation in the MathType status bar (the bottom
of the MathType window). For the equation above, it would reveal this
information:
The height and width is information we don't need in this case, but "B=3"
means the baseline is 3 points, so that is our vertical shift.
Note: This information is also displayed in the status bar when
you first save the equation as EPS, but depending on the position of
your mouse pointer, the status bar may revert to standard display after
momentarily showing the height, width, and baseline information. If you
happen to notice the baseline information when you save the equation,
you don't need to perform the step of copying the equation to the
clipboard.
- Back to InDesign, in the Move dialog, change the value of Vertical to equal the baseline value you got from MathType, in this
case, 3 pts. In InDesign, if the default units are set to picas, this is a
value of 0p3, as shown below:
- Click OK.
For equations that are larger than the surrounding text, such as
- Perform steps 1 through 3 from the section above.
- The baseline for this equation is 15 pts. If you enter "15" in the
Move dialog (i.e., "0p15"), InDesign will convert it to picas
accordingly (i.e., "1p3"). (You can also use the arrow keys as
described in step 8 above.)
- Our document now looks like this:
Not the best-looking document in the world!
- Select the line of text immediately below the equation. The easiest way
to do this is to triple-click anywhere in the line with the Type Tool:
- Now we need to change the value in the Leading section of the Character Formatting Controls. The default value is 120% of the point
size of the font. In our case, the font is 12 pt, so the default leading is
14.4 pt. To that value, we need to add in a value equal to two-thirds of the
equation baseline. In our case, the baseline is 15 pts, so we need to add 10
pts to the leading, making it 24.4 pt. Press Tab or Return to accept
the value. Now our document looks like this:
- You may need to adjust the amount of leading for various equations, but
in general, adding two-thirds of the equation's baseline value works pretty
well.
Batch conversion of MathType equations to EPS files
If you have a Microsoft Word document that you are typesetting with InDesign,
by far the fastest way to do this is to copy and paste the equations one at a
time from Word. By doing this, the baseline of each equation is already
vertically aligned with the baseline of the surrounding text, and the leading is
adjusted to accommodate the equations. You may have to adjust the leading to
suit your own tastes or style guide, but you shouldn't have to adjust the
vertical position of the equations.
If you prefer to insert separate EPS equations with the Place command, these steps may save you some time when converting the equations:
- Save a copy of the source document so you don't accidentally overwrite it
with changes from these steps.
- In Word's MathType menu, click on Export Equations.
- In the File Format section, select the Encapsulated
PostScript/None option.
- Check the Replace equation with filename box.
- Click OK.
By following this procedure, MathType will save each equation as an EPS file,
and place the EPSs into the folder you specify. You may then place them into
your InDesign document as described above. For more information, refer to the
MathType documentation.
Editing MathType Equations in InDesign Object Boxes
We've already seen how to use the Place command, but how do you edit
an equation once it's created and inserted into the document? To edit an
equation after inserting it with the Place command, simply edit the
equation in MathType, and update the link in InDesign. Note that if you
inserted the equation into the document with copy & paste, you can't revise the
equation this way. To edit such an equation, you must re-create the equation,
then copy & paste the new equation into the document.
To change a Placed/linked equation, follow these steps:
- Choose File > Open from the MathType menu bar.
- Select the equation you need to edit, and click Open.
- Make the desired changes, then save the equation (File > Save).
- Update the link from the EPS file to the document. In InDesign, select
Window > Links to open the Links palette. The links representing
the file(s) you changed will have an exclamation point indicating they need
updating.
- Click the Update Link icon to update the link. Once the update
process completes, you will notice the updated equation(s) in your document.
Acknowledgement
We gratefully acknowledge the help of Ron Anderson,
Tampa InDesign User
Group,
whose input was critical for the accuracy of this application note.
Feedback
We hope this application note has been useful to you. If you would like to see
similar articles in the future, or have suggestions for improving this
article, please e-mail our Director of Training,
Bob Mathews.
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