Tutorial
MathType works well with Adobe InDesign using the Place command and
the Links palette. 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. You may use cut and paste from
MathType into InDesign, but usually with less than satisfactory results. The
methods described in this tutorial may not be the only way to perform a
particular task, but these are the methods we recommend. This tutorial 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 tutorial, 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 tutorial, we will use the term
"equation" to represent anything created by MathType, whether it's an actual
mathematical equation or not.)
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 graphic.
- To save an equation as an EPS graphic, 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. 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 9p0, and 42p0 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.
- Place the insertion point in the middle cell of the table, and click the
Align center icon on the Paragraph Formatting Controls palette.
- 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.)
- Place the insertion point in the third cell, click the Align right
icon on the Paragraph Formatting Controls palette, and type the
equation number. 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.
Tip: For subsequent numbered display equations, it's
convenient to 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 when
possible. There are times when a display equation just will not do, so we offer
the following suggestions to make it easier to insert inline equations.
- Create the text of your document as you normally would.
- Create the equation in MathType and save as EPS as in
step 2 above.
- 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
- Select 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 enough experience, this may prove to be
the fastest way to align the inline equation, but 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.
- 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 a through d 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").
- Our document now looks like this:
Not the best-looking document in the world! Now we need to change the
leading.
- 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 equations
If you have a Microsoft Word document that you are typesetting with InDesign,
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, see Tutorial 18
in the MathType User Manual.
Editing MathType Equations in InDesign Object Boxes
As mentioned earlier, you will achieve excellent results by using the
Place command and the Links palette. There are at least three
reasons why it is best that you not use cut and paste to insert equations into
an InDesign document...
Disadvantages of using cut & paste to insert equations:
- The equation will be impossible to edit, requiring you to re-create the
equation and insert the changed equation into your document.
- By using cut and paste you are embedding the entire image into your
document, greatly increasing the size of the document.
- When you cut and paste an equation into the document, the image is changed
to a bitmap image (i.e., PICT for Mac or GIF for Windows) on the fly, with
consequent poor resolution.
Note: These disadvantages only
pertain to using cut & paste or copy & paste from MathType to
InDesign. If you need to include several instances of the same equation
in your document, it's a great time-saving shortcut to copy & paste the
equation from one place to another within the document. This maintains all
the advantages of Place mentioned below, and simply creates another
another link from the EPS to your document.
Advantages of using Place to insert equations:
- Equations are merely linked, rather than inserted. Besides resulting in a
smaller document file size because the equation files aren't inserted, if
there are multiple instances of the same equation, they can all be linked to
the same equation file, thereby decreasing the file size even farther,
compared to a document with inserted equations.
- Since equations are linked, it's easy to change the equation EPS file in
MathType, then update the link in InDesign. Details in the next section.
- Full resolution is maintained, allowing the equation to print at the same
resolution as the surrounding text.
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.
- 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. You will immediately
notice the updated equation(s) in your document.
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