Doing Equations, Formulas, Pi, Etc. in OpenOffice Writer and Calc -- And Impress, Updated February 2007

Updated February 2007 for Impress -- see end of post.

Sooner or later, no matter who you are, you're going to have to talk about pi. Or you're going to need to talk about squaring lambda. (Mmm....squaring lambda.....) Or you'll need to have a+b+c divided by 2.

How do you do that in OpenOffice?

The first step is to just go to the old reliable Insert menu. Anything out of the realm of plain text, just go to the Insert menu.

Just Using the Special Characters Window

Now, if you just want a Special Character, pi or lambda or something, you can choose Insert > Special Character.

Find the one you want. If you select several you'll see them all displayed at the right side of the window and they'll all be inserted.

Then just click Insert. The character will show up.

It's a pain to scroll through all that again and again so make an AutoText entry for it. See

http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/03/automatic_text_.html

Using the Formulas Features

If you need something more complex, then instead, choose Insert > Object > Formula.

You get an editing window at the bottom, a box for the equation in the document, and a little shortcut window floating off to the side.

Now,  you can use the little shorcut window. Click an item above the line, then click an item below the line and that inserts some placeholder stuff for you in the editing window.

   

But frankly I find it not that helpful since just writing the formulas is reasonably easy once you memorize a few tips.

• Use the Formula Reference Tables online help list to see how to enter formulas. Basically, do it how you think it would work. Use the OpenOffice.org Math Examples online  help list to see examples. These are really good. Just press F1 while you're in the editing window; you can type the titles of these topics into the Find or Index window.

• Use ^ for exponents, as in 3^2  which would be three, squared.
• Use sqrt for square root
• Use % in front of the written version of a symbol, as in %pi

So here are a few formulas. They're pretty easy to figure out. Click each image to see a slightly larger version, if you like.

a + b / $pi

a + b over $pi

(a + b) over $pi

If You Don't Know How to Write Out a Character Like %pi or %rho

Click the Sigma icon at the top to add a special character.

You can just scroll  through and select something from the list, and insert it.

Or you can add something yourself if you don't see what you need.

Optional: Add your own symbol   

To add something you don't see, click Edit.

Find what you want, by scrolling and manipulating all the dropdowns. Then name it, and click Add, not Edit.

The new symbol will show up in the symbol list.

Click in the document to stop editing the formula.

If you want to get back into the formula to change it, double-click the box the formula is in.

Formatting the Formula

All right. You've got a great formula. But it's really small. Or you'd like a different font. You change these by selecting the formula in the editing window and click on the Format menu.

Choosing Fonts gives you this window. You get to choose the font by the type: variables, etc. Click and hold down on the Modify button to change any font.

Select the font in this window, then click OK all the way back out of the windows.

That's About It

Insert > Object > Formula. Type what you want and use the online help and the brief tips I gave you.

Click in the document when you're done, and double-click the equation box to start editing again.

To format, select the text in the editing box and find the Format menu.

To add a symbol you don't know, click the Epsilon icon at the top of the window and select one--or click Edit to create your own.

Doing All This in Impress

I'm using 2.1 in February 2007 and it works just fine.

Click in a bulleted item and choose Insert > Object > Formula.

You can also paste the formula object from Writer to Impress. Don't paste it into a bullet in this case; just paste it into a layout with no bullets.

Double-click to edit, as usual.

Double-click the formula object to get into edit mode. Use the Format menu or make other changes.

---

Comments

[James R. Phillips]

I agree that everything works with equations in Impress in OO.o 2.1 up to the point where your instructions stop.

However, on my linux install (I used the 2.1 linux version from openoffice), I find that after the equation is inserted on the page, it is a separate graphic, having to be placed manually in the right location. It won't anchor to a particular spot in the text. Naturally this is inconvenient if the equation should be part of a sentence rather than a separate graphic.

[Bill Harris]

I've used this, and it's indeed quite helpful. I wish, though, that they had picked up the LaTeX equations format instead (or as an alternative).

Thanks for continuing to make these tasks simple, Solveig.

[Solveig Haugland]

>> It won't anchor to a particular spot in the text.

True -- you have to drag it around and type spaces in order to make a place for it in your text.

[Catherine Carey]

Wonderful.

I created my first formulas for an instrution manual. They look fantastic.

Your instructions are accurate and easy to follow. Thank you!

Catherine

[Solveig]

Catherine,

Glad to hear it! I'm glad your manual is turning out well.

Solveig

[Velin Andonov]

Everything works fine with the equations and set operations. But it sets bounds to the defining of new relations or operators over more complicated classes of objects. For example I have been trying for over a week, with no success, to take out a rectangle with missing left( or right) face.

[Georg Doblhoff]

Everything works fine with writing equations. However I was having difficulties with numbering the equations the way it is done in books and scientific publications i.e. having the equation in the center and numbering to the right (or the left) - including chapter -number dot equation-number. If Possible I would like to include Equ: in front of that. What I managed up to now was:1.Equ.:(+text)
If you have a solution I would be thankful.Georg

[Solveig]

Hi Georg,

Under Tools > Options, click the left tab, and for level 1, choose to have some numbering, like the 1 2 3 format. For more info on outline numbering see http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/10/in_praise_of_ou.html

Click on the equation (the box around it) and choose Insert > Caption. Click Options and choose the "level", which should be 1 and correspond to the chapter number. click OK and set any other caption settings.

Now when you insert the caption the chapter number should appear.

Solveig

[high school physics teacher]

I am mostly impressed with this environment, and it seems a great improvement over mathtype, except for one "fatal flaw." When writing equations with variables as numerator and denominator such as

G m1 m2 over r squared

the program puts in unsightly and non-standard parentheses. It puts parentheses individually around each of the three variables in the numerator, and a second set of parentheses around the entire numerator.

I was hoping to switch over to this system, but this parentheses problem is a potential deal-breaker. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

[pclausen]

@Solveig
Try:
left ( G m_1 m_2 over r right ) ^2

Was that what you wanted ?

I was still missing a way to get numbered format in brackets, right justified (like Latex):
f(x)=cos(x) (1)

I found my solution in:
http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=4840

/Peter

[karry]

the program puts in unsightly and non-standard parentheses. It puts parentheses individually around each of the three variables in http://www.batterygoshop.co.uk/toshiba/satellite-l100-battery.htm toshiba satellite l100 battery the numerator, and a second set of parentheses around the entire numerator.

[John]

I'm trying to get this date formula to work in Writer

=EOMONTH(;1)

[bblackmoor]

The post by pclausen on October 29, 2008 is spam.

[Padmanabh]

How to write the equation involving the integration sign???

[abrown]

When I go to Insert>Object the Formula option is not available (there but grey). What do I need to do? Why can't I access this option?