Equation Editor/Math Type

[drnurre]

I would like to be able to type in equations/expressions that have square roots etc. Right now I have to do it in a word document and then cut and paste it into my flipcahrt. It is sooooo time consuming.
Could something like Equation Editor or Math type be added???
Is there a way ot do it other than what I am doing now???????

[markrobinson]

Do a search in the forums on these terms - there are lots of threads and ideas.

[montgomeryheath]

At present these objects can be put into flipcharts, but if changes need to be made, the user has to go back to Office or MathType to make changes and then copy/paste the object as a static image. It just seems that there are extra steps there that could be avoided.

If Activstudio could support Equation Editor/Math Type as some type of plugin, that would be a great benefit for math and science teachers.

Is there a way that Activstudio could add support for the Equation Editor/Math Type objects?

[rexboggs5]

have MathType on my toolbar (in the 3rd column). I click on it to open MathType.

Now if I am working on a flipchart page and need an equation, I use Alt-Tab to select MathType. I type the equation in MathType, select it (Ctrl-A), and drag it onto the flipchart page. So it is quite easy.

This is an image of the equation and not the equation itself, so if you want to make a change, you have to re-do it in MathType.

If you want 5 equations that are all similar, after you drag the equation onto the flipchart, press Ctrl-V to paste the equation back into MathType, make the changes and drag it, etc

Overall, using MathType with ActivStudio is reasonably easy.

Cheers

Rex

[Mandy]

While the request for a Mathtype type function is very fair - There is perhaps an opportunity to look at the whole way maths is presented with an Activboard... it can be done dynamically from writing using xThink's MathJournal:

http://www.xthink.com/MathJournal.html

I really like it and as well as its ability too neaten handwritten formula it can also solve them and graph/plot them too..

For serious Mathmaticians - this has to be on the try out list.

[Mandy]

TEST POST 1

[markrobinson]

http://www.texify.com/img/%5CLARGE%5C%21%5Cdisplaystyle%5Csum_%7Bi%3D1%7D%5E n%20i%20%3D%20%5Cfrac%7Bn%28n%2B1%29%7D2%20%20.gif


I have also been looking at other ways of doing this... It would be hard to satisfy all users with one approach.

As I see it there are two schools of practice - MathType users who want a visual editor like Word offers and LaTex users who want to add maths like that I have added below to anything.

i.e. writing this: x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}

to become:

http://www.texify.com/img/%5CLARGE%5C%21x%3D%5Cfrac%7B-b%5Cpm%5Csqrt%7Bb%5E2-4ac%7D%7D%7B2a%7D.gif

From the number of tutorials on the web aimed at teachers - MS Equation Editor (actually a cut down version of Mathtype) seems the most popular - but Office no longer ships with it - so that will likely change.

As Rex says - If you upgrade to the Full version of Mathtype it can be dragged to the Activstudio toolbar - and it also lets you save your favourite formulae. That way you can build up a library of formulas that are editable and just looking the way you want - and then with one click - Open Mathtype and Drag them to the flipchart. You can also link to the MathType save files from a flipchart.

You can also locate the MS version and drag that to the Activstudio toolbar - but its takes some finding.

If you do not want to pay you can do the same using Open Office Math: http://www.openoffice.org/product/math.html

If you are online and familiar with LaTex or Tex you could also use a tool like Texify: http://www.texify.com/

[sdabbs]

[clap]Thank you I totally agree, it is too time comsuming.

I would like to be able to type in equations/expressions that have square roots etc. Right now I have to do it in a word document and then cut and paste it into my flipcahrt. It is sooooo time consuming.
Could something like Equation Editor or Math type be added???
Is there a way ot do it other than what I am doing now???????

[killiak]

:eek:This is me trying to find the math symbols when I create a flip chart. Isn't there an easier way?

I did read that someone suggested using Mathtype. That is exactly what I want to do. I want to have somewhere where I can find all the symbols I need for HS Math and Science and put the ones I use often in my toolbar. Great that I can build up a library and edit them/resize them....Where do I get Math type? Is there a cost??

I would expect that kind of program to already be installed in a board that is being used so heavily by High School Math and Science teachers. It would make hundreds of teachers feel relieved if there was a more extensive listing of math and science symbols already in the toolbar.

When I do cut and past the symbols, I can't use them when I create a document using Question Master. It doesn't past the symbols.

Please make this easier for all of us!!????

[terfre]

I agree 100%!!!....we need better ways to write math and science symbols--especially superscript and subscript.

My math and science teachers are struggling with this.

[jreck]

HELP US MATH TEACHERS!!????

[sdabbs]

I totally agree. [clap]
Easier ways to enter equations would make flipcharts a much more useful tool for math and science teachers.

[mackrellr]

Better math editor please???

[markrobinson]

Maths teachers may also want to help us evaluate a new Promethean Concept.

See this thread...

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/common/html/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=5100

[rgallagher]

Please help us make typing math and science easier. Thanks[clap]

[crougeau]

MathType is put out by Design Science. It is easy to use. Go to www.dessci.com . A free trial version used to be available for 30 days, I'm not sure if it still is.

[crougeau]

How did you get MathType in your toolbar?

[rexboggs5]

If you don't have an unused user-defined button on the third column of your main toolbar, open the Toolstore (Menu, Customise, Toolstore, PowerTools) and drag one there (and a few extras for later ...). Close the ToolStore.

Right-click on the new button, choose Program, click on the 3 dots, and find mathtype.exe (on my compiter at C:/Program Files/MathType. Click on OK and there it is.

To use the MathType button, I click on it to open it, then open my flipchart page, and then use Alt-Tab to select MathType. The MathType window opens above the flipchart. After I have typed stuff into MathType I use Ctrl-A to select it all, then either
a) drag it into the page (if I only want to use it once) or
b) press Ctrl-C to copy it first and then drag it into the page. Then press Ctrl-V to paste it back into MathType for editing. Repeat as many times as is necessary.

Hope this is clear. After a wee bit of practice, it is easy and quick to do.
On the downside, you can't click on the equation in the flipchart to launch MathType, as it is an image and not a MathType object. On the upside, it is easy to resize the equation.

Cheers

Rex

[jepatton]

Rex's method works great, but this is even quicker:

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to Mathtype.exe. On my computer it is in C:\\ProgramFiles\Mathtype
2. Open ActivStudio, and open the shortcut bar on the main toolbox.
3, Drag the Mathtype.exr icon from Windows Explorer to the shortcut bar.
4, All done!

You can do this with any application or file.

I hope this helps.

[crougeau]

Thank you so much! That worked. Do you have any way to place mathemathical symbols and/or images into QuestionMaster?

[rexboggs5]

Rex's method works great, but this is even quicker:
1. Open Windows Explorer ....

Noice, very noice.[clap]

Cheers

Rex

[jepatton]

Noice, very noice.[clap]




Thank you! :-/

[jepatton]

HI Carol --

I don't use Question Master, so I'm not sure. You can write the questions in ActivStudio itself, including setting the correct answer by using Question Settings. This is in the Activ menu at the top of the page. There you can set the type of question, the time allowed for the question, and the correct answer.

Since you're in ActivStudio, you can put anything on the page that you want. This is one of the reasons that I don't use Question Master.

I hope this helps.

[crougeau]

Thank you! I think that will be my best option.

[mbackus]

Just reaffirming that this is something the next version of active studio should have. I find it time consuming and annoying as well.

[norbert10]

I edited the already posted equation flipchart with more characters.

It can now be used for Physics, Chemistry and Economics and ofcourse Mathematics.

Make the equation you want and copy it to your flipchart.
Or place the equation in your Library, so you can drag the equation as a textbox to another flipchart.

I find it very useful.


greetz
Norbert

[killiak]

The flipchart is great! I saved it to my flipcharts and will share it with the science and math teachers here. If you haven't done so already, there is a great Math Collections Resource Pack that you can download from the Resources on Promethean Planet. There are similar pages to this there and lots more great stuff for HS Math. Thanks for the flipchart![clap]

[rexboggs5]

there is a great Math Collections Resource Pack that you can download from the Resources on Promethean Planet....

Is there any chance you can give us the URL so we don't all have to go searching for this? It would be a great time-saver if we could be pointed directly to the Pack.

Cheers

Rex

[BenPosner]

Rex,

Here is the URL from the US Planet: http://www.prometheanplanet.com/us/server/show/ConResource.13242 (http://www.prometheanplanet.com/us/server/show/ConResource.13242)

Enjoy!

~B

[rexboggs5]

Thanks, Ben

That has saved me lots of time - for a start I was looking on the UK site!

Cheeers

Rex

[LisaD]

What do you think about this as an equation editor:

http://www.sitmo.com/latex/

Lisa

[killiak]

I like it a lot...can it be incorporated into our toolstips somehow? Possible to have a link on the toolstrip that will take us to this "secondary" toolstrip that we can just click and drag to our flipcharts?

[LisaD]

That's exactly what I've been trying to do! Haven't figured it out yet though. Let me know if you do!

Lisa

[dhaynes]

What are you trying to add to your toolstrip? The program or the equation? Maybe I'm not understanding your question.

[LisaD]

I think the link to the website where the application resides, no?

Lisa

[Peter Lambert]

If you download this flipchart, then (turn off actions) drag the icon on to your third row of the toolbox, you will have the website link always available.
Did you know you can copy and paste the equation into your flipchart?
Right-click on the equation and choose copy. Then go to the flipchart, right-click and choose paste.

[aobell]

This is my first post on the forum, but I definitely would like to see a simple way of entering mathematical symbols in ActivStudio. I've just followed the instructions above to get the LaTex equation editor, which I'd never even heard of before! Thanks!

I don't mind preparing more complicated equations in another program and pasting them in, but basic symbols *need* to be in ActivStudio. I've got the first interactive whiteboard in my school and I'm tasked with convincing the others that its a good idea. Please, please, please can the next upgrade have a way to typing just the basics: multiplication, division, squared and square root?

[LisaD]

Not sure if this thread already mentions this but there is a Math Collections Resource Pack that has math symbols in it. You can drag them from your resource library onto a flipchart page and from there onto the third row of the Activstudio toolbar for quick access.

Here it its location in the US resources:

http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=ConResource.13242

Lisa

[sheelagh]

...a way to typing just the basics: multiplication, division, squared and square root?
Have you seen the maths part of the Text Edit Toolbox? If you click the down arrow, one of the options is maths. The 'Other' option has a powers 2 and 3. (The attached pic shows the Greek letters option). :)

[jenkinsr@midlandstech.edu]

I agree that an equation editor is needed for math and science courses. I've worked with MathType, but without being able to edit the images once you get them to the flipchart, it really is a pain. I would also like to see the equation editor have a property similar to set to deconstruct. Maybe it could copy expressions within parentheses or the top/bottom of a fraction or a single term. That would be a dream. Until then, I'll play with the "drag and copy" that was demonstrated here earlier. That's useful, but you would have to breakup each little piece into it's own image to get the "mobility" that you want.

[phil at dchs]

Dear Promethean,
On behalf of all Maths and Science teachers
PLEASE PLEASE ???? and find a way on integrating *MathsType with Activ software in the same way that it integrates with Microsoft WORD.
There are so many posts across the forums requesting this highly desirable feature.

* http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype / (http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/)

[royjenni]

We would love this as well! Equation Editor does not appear to work with Inspire and Math Type is fussy! (It comes in as a transparent object.

[gmcguire]

I am just starting out with activstudio and am having the same difficulty as everyone else with maths equations and symbols. I cannot even get my computer to allow me to cut and paste from word! can somewone tell me if there is a certain way I have to cut and paste for this to work!
thanks

[azartmann]

I'm sorry if I am missing something in later posts - this is a huge issue. I've spent the past several years exploring the issues of expressing math on line. First and foremost, a solution that requires you to work with images is no solution - if you can't edit a formula, forget it. There are a couple of elegant solutions for use in creating web pages without having to learn MathML. asdiimathml.js is one of the easiest to learn and use. There are excellent implimentations in Moodle for using LaTeX and other similar markup languages. There is also a great GUI, DragMath - MathType or Sitmo will all do the same thing, allowing you to build formulae in the GUI and giving you LaTeX - but the software has to have some kind of filter to interpret the markup language. Is Promethean Planet really no further evolved math-wise than the primordial ooze? I was really hoping for something more hospitable and less Martian...

[RealTester]

Hehe...first post over two years ago and still the same problems.

Since I look for something similar I came to the conclusion that there is no way of typing math in flipcharts or any other program then there was two years ago. If you want to do it on the fly with existing methods it is totally inconvenient for teaching imo. You can of course create of lot of buttons with symbols but then you struggle with resizing and it just looks terrible or you get a button overload.

The only thing to do is to wait until some genius writes a peace of software that can translate handwritten math into printed math, preferably latex style as background that you can export this stuff properly.

Another thing I'd like to see is, that you should be able to start windows prgs like geogebra or Descartes3d as objects in a flipchart and that these objects stay just on the slide were you created them. For that purpuse AI has to take over the window mangement so that the prgs dont fall in the background when you start writing on the flipchart. This should be possible since some guys managed to run a perfectly nice linux in a Windows window environment...just to give Promethean a clue....

Thx!

[rexboggs5]

Getting MathType to work with ActivInspire in the same way that it works with Word is obviously a difficult problem - from email conversations I have had, Promethean and Design Science (MathType creators) started working on this over a year ago, but it hasn't yet happened. The problem isn't confined to Promethean - as I understand it, Smart is having the same problems.

I must say that for the teaching that I do ( from Year 8 Maths to teaching calculus to Year 12s in a secondary school), I haven't been particularly disadvantaged by this. I open MathType from my toolbar, type in the maths that I want, <ctrl><c> to copy, drag the maths to the flipchart, then <ctrl><v> to paste it back into MathType.

I can then edit the equation in MathType, and repeat <ctrl><c>, drag, <ctrl><v> as many times as needed.

Cheers

Rex

[jepatton]

Hi Rex --


I must say that for the teaching that I do ( from Year 8 Maths to teaching calculus to Year 12s in a secondary school), I haven't been particularly disadvantaged by this. I open MathType from my toolbar, type in the maths that I want, <ctrl><c> to copy, drag the maths to the flipchart, then <ctrl><v> to paste it back into MathType.

I can then edit the equation in MathType, and repeat <ctrl><c>, drag, <ctrl><v> as many times as needed.


If I understand you correctly, you are able to copy an equation from Inspire back into MathType for editing. Is that right? I just tried this on my Mac and it didn't work. I got the message that there was no equation data on the clipboard. I'm using the latest versions of Inspire and MathType and OX 10.5.8.

Thanks!

[afwings]

I realize this thread is over a year old, but I wanted to update the Mac folks on the status of using MathType with ActivInspire.

...I open MathType from my toolbar, type in the maths that I want, <ctrl><c> to copy, drag the maths to the flipchart, then <ctrl><v> to paste it back into MathType.

I can then edit the equation in MathType, and repeat <ctrl><c>, drag, <ctrl><v> as many times as needed.

Yes, that should work out great -- create the equation in MathType, then use copy & paste to get it into the flipchart. I'm thinking Rex was probably not on a Mac, but it works fine with Command+C and Command+V shortcuts. Drag & drop, not so well, especially if the text color for the equation is other than black.

Hi Rex --
If I understand you correctly, you are able to copy an equation from Inspire back into MathType for editing. Is that right? I just tried this on my Mac and it didn't work. I got the message that there was no equation data on the clipboard. I'm using the latest versions of Inspire and MathType and OX 10.5.8.

June, that's still the case, with current versions of MathType (6.0b) and OS X (Snow Leopard). The "no equation data on the clipboard" is because once the equation is in the flipchart, it's an image. Trying to take it back to MathType won't be successful. We expect this to be the case for a while -- at least until Microsoft Office 2011 is released.

Bob Mathews
Design Science
Twitter @MathType

[jepatton]

Hi Bob --

June, that's still the case, with current versions of MathType (6.0b) and OS X (Snow Leopard). The "no equation data on the clipboard" is because once the equation is in the flipchart, it's an image. Trying to take it back to MathType won't be successful. We expect this to be the case for a while -- at least until Microsoft Office 2011 is released.

Thanks for the update. I guess I'm a little confused about what Office 2011 has to do with this. :confused:

I'm still hoping to be able to double click on an equation in Inspire and have it open in MathType! :) :D :p

[afwings]

Thanks for the update. I guess I'm a little confused about what Office 2011 has to do with this. :confused:
Because we'll need a new version of MathType with Office 2011 compatibility -- but that won't be the only change. Will the additional features cover ActivInspire? No one knows yet.

I'm still hoping to be able to double click on an equation in Inspire and have it open in MathType! :) :D :pYeah, that would be nice, for sure.

Bob

[rexboggs5]

In ActivStudio, I could drag and drop equations from MathType onto a flipchart page (as an image). If I had copied it first, I could paste it back into MathType, edit it, and drag and drop the edited equation into the flipchart, and so on. Not perfect, but a reasonable workaround.

In ActivInspire, dragging and dropping doesn't work, and copying and pasting doesn't work. To get an image of an equation into a flipchart, I have to use the camera tool to take a picture of it. So it is much more of a hassle to use MathType now than previously.

Here's hoping that we can at least get back to the functionality we had in Studio.

Cheers

Rex

[afwings]

Thanks for filling in the gaps, Rex. Yes, hopefully that functionality will be returning, but I have no inside information that would indicate one way or the other.

Bob

[GeoKBehnke]

We have a student teacher for Geometry - she only has a PC at home, and we use only Macs at school. But, no problem because she can use the personal edition at home and transfer (via flash drive) to the school's Mac - .flipcharts are .flipcharts - RIGHT?

Consider the attached .flipchart. The flipchart was made on XP and then moved to Mac, viewed & edited on the Mac and then moved back to Windows XP and viewed & edited.

You will notice the Greek symbols inserted from the Text Editing Taskbar Symbol, produces characters which do not look the same on PCs and Macs - we now have to go in and edit ALL the symbols in her flipchart in an attempt to have something which will work on both PCs and Macs.

Bottom line: we REALLY need a good MathType implementation in ActivInspire which works the SAME on both PCs and Macs.

sigh,
george

[jepatton]

HI George --

I've noticed that I also have to edit the Greek symbols for any flipchart that I made in Studio, once I transfer that flipchart to Inspire.

Also sighing.