Retired Teacher looking for better ways to post my math equations

[Chris Patterson]

How did you find PF?: A friend, @chwala, has been on the site for many years and recommended it to me.

I write occasionally about high school maths in Geogebra https://www.geogebra.org/search/chris patterson . I write in Word and convert the files to PDFs. Feeling Tense is an example.
I would like to write a blog about teaching math and science, but none of the sites I know are 'maths friendly.' If I upload a MS Word document with maths, all the maths disappears. One reason for joining Physics Forum is to try to find a solution to this problem. Perhaps learning Latex would help? I would regret having to rewrite everything I have done in Word, but perhaps starting over would be good, in a way.

 

[berkeman]

Welcome to PF, Chris. It's good to have you here.

I'll move your Intro thread to the LaTeX forum in case others have some suggestions for doing the conversions...

 

[Wrichik Basu]

If I upload a MS Word document with maths, all the maths disappears. One reason for joining Physics Forum is to try to find a solution to this problem. Perhaps learning Latex would help?

Mostly we do not use MS Word for writing Maths. LaTeX is the way to go. If you want to avoid installing LaTeX on your system, you can start with Overleaf. We have an introduction to LaTeX available here.

 

[Office_Shredder]

Latex is very lightweight and easy to use. I highly recommend just using it instead of trying half baked solutions.

 

[robphy]

$\LaTeX$ is more math-friendly than other attempts (like MathType or Microsoft's new Equation editor) .

The following page features a video that might be helpful in converting Microsoft's equations to $\LaTeX$.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-formula-1d01cabc-ceb1-458d-bc70-7f9737722702

 

[Dr.D]

If you want to use LaTeX but do not want to spend the time to learn it, I suggest either Scientific WorkPlace or Scientific Notebook, both available through Mackichan.com. I have used SWP for about 35 years and would not be without it for any sort of technical writing.

 

[hutchphd]

If you want to use LaTeX but do not want to spend the time to learn it, I suggest either Scientific WorkPlace or Scientific Notebook, both available through Mackichan.com. I have used SWP for about 35 years and would not be without it for any sort of technical writing.

fyi​

​

MacKichan Software, Inc. has gone out of business​

Sales have ceased for Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, and Scientific Notebook​

MacKichan Software, Inc., after providing word processing software for those who speak the language of mathematics for forty years (under several names), closed its doors on June 30, 2021. This marks the end of sales and support for the MacKichan Software products.

All owners of Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, or Scientific Notebook should have a serial number that was included in their purchase. This number is also included in the license file for your installation as the last line in the file. If you need to install your software on a new or different computer, you will need to re-activate the software on that computer using that serial number. The software can be activated as before, using the Help/Activate menu item. This contacts the MacKichan Software licensing server, which we will keep running for at least two years.

Sites with permanent site licenses will, of course, be free to use Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, and/or Scientific Notebook as long as they like. Those sites that have paid for maintenance with home-use satellite licenses can continue, but will be unable to create new satellite licenses after their maintenance agreement expires.

We expect to make Scientific Word an open source product eventually. Since both Scientific WorkPlace and Scientific Notebook contain the proprietary computer algebra system MuPAD, they cannot be made open source. When the open source project for Scientific Word is established, an announcement will be made here.

We hope to make version 5.5 of Scientific Word available in the future. It currently contains several components that are licensed and not owned by MacKichan Software. These components need to be removed, and our intention is then to make Scientific Word version 5.5 open source.

Barry MacKichan
President
MacKichan Software, Inc.

July 1, 2021

 

[sysprog]

@Chris Patterson You may find this helpful: https://wiki.geogebra.org/en/LaTeX $\dots$

 

[Vanadium 50]

MacKichan Software, Inc. has gone out of business

How sad. I wrote my BS thesis using T3.

 

[Dr.D]

I'm really dismayed to learn about the demise of Mackichan. I've used Scientific Word long before Scientific WorkPlace existed, and I've always been very pleased with the results. It has also helped me professionally.

Some years ago, I took a position as the "in-house consultant" at a small aerospace manufacturer. I was writing all sorts of tech memos on a daily basis, always using SWP. It was not long before word got back to me that many of the engineers were simply in awe: "Have you seen his work? Wow!" They were accustomed to hand-written calculations with very little verbiage, but easily able to provide a much better communication.

Mackichan always provided really good support which I greatly appreciated.

 

[pbuk]

I would like to write a blog

In this case none of the suggestions above will work - you need blogging software or a service that incorporates a $\LaTeX$ math renderer, however you will have to rewrite everything: a certain amount of rewriting would be needed anyway because the way the WWW works means that Word documents don't transfer well without manual reformatting.

Fortunately the most popular blogging service, wordpress.com, and the open source software that runs it, wordpress.org, support a number of different $\LaTeX$ math renderers.