Typing Maths

Typing mathematics is always troublesome. I have recently found a html script that could help us type Mathematics at websites easily. To let the script work properly, you need Mozilla Firefox. If you use IE, you need to install a plugin (which you can find at the webpage). When you are typing, you have to make sure what you are typing is the html code not text.

Firstly, you have to add “<script type="text/javascript" src="http://mathcs.chapman.edu/~jipsen/mathml/ASCIIMathML.js"></script>” at the html code. Then you have to type your equation (according to the guidelines which teach you how to type it) and quote the equation with ` (not ‘). You use _ for subscript and ^ for superscript, “sum” for summation, “oo” (2 “o”s) for infinity etc.

This webpage shows the commonly used symbols for the equations, while this shows all the symbols (put the mouse over the equation to see how to write the equation).

It works well with the school imail too. To do so, you MUST use non-IE browsers in order to type html code. Simply add the code mentioned above and type your equation (in IE, you can only input text). It’s a pity that the forum doesn’t allow html coding (a good alternative is to use OpenOffice, which is also very convenient).

Here is an imail example:
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px" ></BLOCKQUOTE><br><script type="text/javascript" src="http://mathcs.chapman.edu/~jipsen/mathml/ASCIIMathML.js"></script>`int_(-oo)^oo 1/(sqrt(2 pi sigma^2))e^(-frac{(x-mu)^2}{2sigma^2}) = 1`<br><br><br><br><br>

The part in italics are already at the message box when you compose the mail and you don't need to add them when you write your own code. At other situations, you should not have those.

To try, replace ALL the code at the message box with the above code. Note that the last "enter"s (<br> in html language) are necessary as the equation takes more than one row, but the browser only treats it as one row.

死啦, 唔明!! WHY not using the software called equation editor in words?

You may, but I think it is very inconvenient. Even if you want to do so, I think OpenOffice is better that Microsoft Office.