"MathType Requires a Newer Version of MTExtra" Warning Message

The information in this document applies to:

Issue

When launching MathType, either by itself or from within another application, users sometimes receive the following error message:

...despite having successfully installed MathType and even used it previously without receiving an error. Pressing the OK button will allow MathType to run, but a number of important characters will be replaced by empty boxes in equations.

Reason

The original version of MTExtra, which is still distributed with many word processing, publishing, and test generation programs, contains only 43 characters:

The enhanced version of the MTExtra font included with MathType contains 145 characters.

When MathType is launched, it checks the version of the then installed MTExtra font. If an older version is installed, the expected characters will be replaced by empty boxes.

To understand this problem, it is important to understand how Windows and Macintosh handle fonts in their Fonts folders. In Windows, if multiple files exist for the same font, only one will be displayed in the Fonts Control Panel. Windows may be using an older version of MTExtra, even though the newer version has been properly installed. On the Macintosh, for example, if Word installs all of its fonts into the per-user fonts folder for some reason (maybe an Office reinstallation, etc.), MathType may not find the newer/correct version of MTExtra and the above warning will appear. MathType for Macintosh does list the path to the older MTExtra file, which is helpful as it could be in any of several places.

If you reinstall or upgrade your word processor, manually install the equation editor that comes with your word processor, install a new program that contains an equation editor, apply a service release or patch or update to your word processor, or use the "Detect and Repair" feature that comes with later versions of Microsoft Office, very often these installers will overwrite the version of MTExtra that comes with MathType, resulting in an error message when launching MathType because the newer, enhanced version of MTExtra has been replaced with an older version.

Solution

The simplest way to address this problem is to reinstall MathType. If you downloaded MathType and no longer have the installer, you can download another copy from our Download Page.

If you are familiar with the Fonts Control Panel and the use of Windows Explorer, or the various font locations in OS 9 and X, you could manually install the MathType version of MTExtra after removing extra copies of MTExtra from your system per the instructions below.

Manually installing the MathType version of MTExtra

You can manually install MTExtra, but you should first remove all the copies already installed on your computer.

Windows versions up to Windows 7, 32-bit

Note: Because only one copy of MTExtra will be shown in the Fonts Control Panel at a time, you must refresh your fonts list after deleting each copy of it so that if another copy of MTExtra is in your fonts folder, it will appear. It may be necessary to delete and refresh your list a number of times to delete all copies of MTExtra. If another copy of MTExtra appears in your fonts list, the actual file name for the font will be different.

1. Choose Control Panel from the Start menu .
2. Open Fonts.
3. Look for the MTExtra font and delete it.
4. Press F5 to refresh your list of fonts.
5. Look for the MTExtra font again. If it appears, delete it again.
6. Continue steps 3-5 until MTExtra no longer appears in your list of fonts.
7. From the File menu of the Fonts Control Panel, choose "Install new font". There is a copy of the enhanced version of MTExtra in \MathType\Fonts\TrueType.
8. Single-click on MTExtra and click OK.

MTExtra should be installed into your Fonts folder and you should no longer receive an error message when launching MathType.

Windows 7 64-bit

1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\MathType\Fonts\TrueType
2. Locate the font MTExtra
3. 3. Right-click it and from the context menu choose Install New font.

MTExtra should be installed into your Fonts folder and you should no longer receive an error message when launching MathType.

Macintosh

1. From the Applications folder open FontBook
2. Look through the list of fonts for MTExtra. If it exists, delete it.
3. From the File menu choose Add new font
4. Navigate to Applications\MathType\Fonts\Tryetype and double click MTExtra

Since the enhanced MTExtra is now in your OS X Fonts folder you should no longer receive an error message when launching MathType.

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