The Module Equation...

Overview

The main purpose of the module Equation is to insert image of the equations generated by LaTeX into the document. The macro support currently two image formats: png and emf. The first one has the advantage that no truetype fonts have to be installed on the system but the images are pixelized. Notice that with recent Ghostscript distributions, the png images are created with the alpha channel allowing to insert them in colored background. The emf format has the disadvantage that the Bakoma truetype fonts have to be installed on the system where a document is open. It is not yet possible to embed fonts into OpenOffice documents. On the other hand the images are antialiased as any text character since the images are treated as vectorial objects; the result is thus far more nicer.

In Writer, the images are inserted with anchor type "as Character". The inline ones are inserted in the current paragraph at the position of the cursor while the display and text ones, in a new paragraph after a tabulation character. It is thus possible to configure the tabulations to center the equations or to put them at fixed distance from the border. The base line of the display equation is correctly set allowing the insertion of an equation number.

On the other hand, in Impress the images are inserted as floating images since it is impossible to attach them to the text layout.

The Main Window

On the top of the main window you can specify the image format, emf or png, as well as the resolution in dpi for the last one. The cropping check box, when selected, forces the macro to use the heigh resolution bonding box to delimit the horizontal size of the equations.
Notice that when one of these controls is modified, the new state remains active for the current session.

On the right side, the size in character points can be specified for the current equation as well as the equation type. The inline type is used to compile the latex code entered in the window between $...$ (inline math mode), the display type, to compile between \[...\] (display math mode) and the last one, the text type to compile as regular latex code. It can be used to insert latex code in specific environment as eqnarray, align and so on...

When pressed, the button Latex calls a script to generate the equation and insert it into the document. The two other buttons open the preamble and configuration window while the Embed check box saves the current configuration and preamble into the document properties (see bellow). It is thus possible to work simultaneously on different documents with different settings!

To modify an equation, simply selected it and call the macro. The window is then shown with the LaTeX code, the equation character size and type to allow modifications.

Configuration and Preamble Windows

The preamble window permits to define specific preamble used for the LaTeX compilation. On the configuration window, the default equation size and type can be defined for Impress and Writer documents. The base line field is only used for the Writer documents to adjust the height of the equation relative to the base line. Notice that the cropping option is not available with Impress. The transparent option can be used with the emf format to remove the background color. Nevertheless, when the background color is not specified in the preamble, the images are transparent by default with png as well as with emf image format.

When the button Apply is pressed, the preamble or the configuration is applied for the current session. On the other hand, the Save button stores the setting into configuration files, respectively OOoLatex.prb and OOoLatex.rc located at OOo_user_config_path/user/OOoLatex/.
The Default and Load buttons allow to retrieve the default, and respectively, the previously saved preamble and configuration settings.

Using colors

Last update : 28/03/2008 [gpiroux]