MathType Tip: Creating transportable Word documents and PowerPoint
presentations
Applies to:
| |
MathType 4 and later (Windows) |
Microsoft Office 2000, XP, and 2003
(Windows only) |
Situation 1:
You and a colleague are co-authoring a paper to submit to
a scientific journal. Your colleague doesn't have MathType. She won't be writing
very many (if any) equations in her part of the paper, but you will, and she
will need to be able to read your equations.
Situation 2:
You've created a PowerPoint lesson to help teach matrix
multiplication to your Algebra II class. During lunch the air conditioner in
your room malfunctions, so administration temporarily moves you to a classroom
that's vacant this period. You know the computer in that classroom doesn't have
MathType installed, but your lesson depends on it heavily. Using your laptop is
not an option, since it's at home.
Solution:
The solution to both of these situations is the same -- embed the MathType
fonts into your document or presentation. This will allow others to read your
document or view your presentation, even if they don't have MathType.
NOTE: It's not important which Windows version of
Office you use to create the documents or presentations as described below --
Office 2000 through 2010 will work. But, the Word document must be
opened with Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003 or the equations will have some
missing or substituted characters, and the equations will not be correct. For
PowerPoint presentations, you must use PowerPoint 2000 through 2003 to present
the slide show.
- First, it's necessary to know which fonts you used in MathType. This is
normally no problem, for several reasons:
- At least one of the fonts will be the same as what you've used for the text of your
document.
- One of the fonts MathType uses, often without you knowing, is Symbol
font. This font is used for, well, symbols. Things like +, ≠, and ≥ all come from Symbol font.
- "Special" equation elements, such as some expanding brackets, the
fraction bar, the "set intersection" symbol, and many others all come from a font called MT
Extra. Also, most embellishments and "accents" come from MT Extra, such as
the curve that you can place over alphabet characters to denote an arc,
cross-outs (strikethroughs), and other such items.
- If you've used other special symbols that aren't in a "normal" font, you'll
most likely know which font it came from since you probably chose it yourself. For
example, the "not parallel to" symbol is in the Euclid Math One font. Since
you likely chose this symbol directly from the font (via the Edit > Insert
Symbol dialog), you probably know which
font it came from. An exception might be if you're re-using an equation from
another document (perhaps prepared by someone else) or if you've added a
particular symbol to your MathType toolbar. In these cases, you might not
know (or might not remember) which font it came from. There's still an easy
way to discover which font was used. If it's in an equation, open the
equation in MathType and place the insertion point to the immediate left or
right of the symbol you're curious about. In the MathType Status Bar (i.e.,
the bottom of the MathType window), the Style will tell you which font was
used (see screen shot below). If it's on your toolbar, simply point to it
with your mouse, and the Status Bar will tell you which font it came from.

Sometimes, as in the case shown here, there's not enough room on the Status Bar to
completely identify the font. At this point, you're not sure if it's Euclid
Math One or Euclid Math Two. To find out, simply right-click the Style
section of the Status Bar and select Other. The Other Style
dialog will then identify the font.
- Word and PowerPoint both have options to "Embed TrueType fonts" or
"Embed fonts in the file". When you select this option, the
fonts used for MathType equations are overlooked, but you can force the
fonts to be embedded by putting them into the text of the document or
presentation. Here's
how:
- In Word, add them to a header or a footer, whichever is least likely to
change. Wherever you put it, you want to be sure it's a safe place where you
won't be likely to delete it or change it in the future. We'll add it to a
footer.
- In the View menu, choose Header and Footer.
- Change the font to MT Extra. Press the spacebar. Repeat this step for
each equation font you need to embed. You don't need to embed any font
you've used in the text of your document nor any "standard" font
you've used in your equations (like Symbol).
- Click Close.
- In PowerPoint, click View > Master > Slide Master.
- On the Title Master, click inside the Footer.
- Perform step 2.a.ii. above.
- On the Slide Master View toolbar, click Close Master
View.
- Now the fonts are part of your document or presentation, and you're
ready for step 3…
- To embed the fonts, follow these steps:
- Save the document. If you've saved it previously, use the "Save As"
command.
- In the Save As dialog, click Tools. This will be at the
upper right of the dialog.
- Select Save Options. Click the box labeled Embed TrueType fonts. Leave other
default options set. Specifically, do not click the box labeled Embed characters in use only, because this will result in embedding only the space
character from the math fonts. Click OK, then click Save (naming the
document first, if you haven't already done that).
- Now your document or presentation can be read, projected, or printed on
other computers with compatible versions of Office installed, regardless of
the presence of MathType.
If you have a tip
that you'd like to pass along to us for possible inclusion in our Tips &
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