University of Southampton
School of Mathematics
MATHEMATICS COMPUTER LABS
Using the WORD Equations Editor and the WORD Drawing Tool
WORD has a special module devoted to mathematical equations. You can use it to set
mathematical expressions, either as displayed formulae, or in-line. When you want to
type a mathematical expression at a particular point in a document, select the Insert
menu, and then Object, and then Microsoft Equation 3.0
It will take a short while to load, but after a while you will see a rectangular region
with a shaded boundary on the screen, with a small box inside containing a blinking
cursor. This is where things appear which you type. You will also see a rectangular
area with a blue bar at the top and a set of symbol template boxes below. If this is in
the way you can drag it to some another part of the screen with the mouse on the blue
bar. To insert mathematical symbols, Greek letters, subscripts etc. you select them
from the template boxes. When you click on one of the boxes you will see a menu of
items from which you can select the one you want. The template boxes contain the
following:
Top row
Inequality symbols etc.
Spaces and dots
Accents and over arrows etc.
Sums and products
Arrows and implications
Logical symbols
Set theoretic symbols
Miscellaneous, e.g. infinity
Lower case Greek
Upper case Greek
Bottom row
Brackets, modulus
Fractions and roots
Subscripts and superscripts
Infinite sums
Integrals
underbar and overbar
Limit arrows
Infinite products, unions, intersections
Vectors and matrices

1 2
To practice, you can type set the equation 2 6 as follows:
n
1n
1. Invoke the equations editor.
2. Click on the template box with the summation signs and select the one with the
small boxes above and below. Your equation edit box should now exhibit the
Sigma sign with three empty boxes.
3. Select the empty box under the Sigma sign by clicking the mouse with the
arrowhead inside that box.
4. Now type “n=1”
5. Now click in the box above the Sigma sign and choose the infinity sign from the
appropriate template box (in this case  is actually displayed on the “box cover”).
6. Now click in the third empty box.
7. Here you want to put a fraction, so click the fraction template box.
8. Choose the larger fraction shape and click it.
9. You should now see two empty boxes in the editor.
10.
In the top one simply type “1”
11.
In the bottom one type “n” and then click on the subscripts and superscripts
template box.
12.
You will see a variety of possible positions exhibited for subscripts and/or
superscripts. In this case it is the top left one we want. Select it and a superscripts
box should appear in the editor. Type “2” in this box.
13.
Now click within the edit box to the right of the formula you have just
produced, and the position bar should extend the whole height of the formula. Type
“=”
14.
To set the right hand side of the equation you need to use a fraction, a Greek
letter and a superscript, so try it.
15.
Finally place the position bar to the right of the formula and type a full stop.
When you are satisfied click outside the edit box. The templates disappear, you will
return to the regular WORD editing screen, and the equation will appear in a different
kind of box. When you see and equation (or a picture or some other object) inside
such a box it is “selected”. You can then cut it to the clipboard and paste it, or copy
and paste it, or delete it. If you want to edit it further you must select it and then
double click with the left mouse button inside the box.
If you want some more practice simply choose some formulae or equations and try to
set them in the equations editor. It can be time-consuming, so do not spend too much
time on it now. In some of your coursework you may be expected to use the equations
editor from time to time.
Printing equations takes quite a long time and a fair amount of memory, because they
are set as graphics and not as text. So before you print make sure that you proof-read
carefully on the screen, since you have to pay for printing!
When you have completed this have a look at some of the things you can do with the
Word Drawing Tool, on the next page of this document.The Word Drawing Tool
On the normal Word toolbar at the top of the screen you should see the word drawing
icon, which looks like this:
You may also see the drawing toolbar at the bottom of the screen. It looks like this:
If you can’t see it then click on the drawing icon. It acts as a toggle which reveals and
hides the drawing toolbar. With this tool you can draw straightforward diagrams,
including effects such as colour, line thickness and style, and various standard shapes.
Let’s look at standard shapes first. If you click on AutoShapes you will see a menu.
If you run your mouse over the menu list you will see various sub-menus with a wide
variety of shapes. Find the hexagon shape and click over it. When you move the
mouse you will see that the cursor has become a hairline cross. This enables you to
choose where the hexagon goes. Move it somewhere and click, and a hexagon will be
inserted.
Now find the four arrow symbol
and click on it. This time when you move your
mouse, instead of clicking, drag the mouse while the cursor is still in the hairline cross
mode. You will see that you can change the shape and size. If you want to change the
size but not the shape you should hold down the Shift key while you drag the mouse
around. So you can produce a selection of sizes and side ratios.
Two shapes are so common that they are on the toolbar: the rectangle/square and the
ellipse/circle.
Find the rectangle on the toolbar, click it and drag out a rectangle.
When you have drawn it you will see little squares at each corner. While these are
showing you can manipulate the figure, dragging it around or changing its shape.
Click outside the rectangle and they disappear. Click inside and they reappear, and
you will also see a green dot. This can be used to rotate the shape. This is how the
fourth figure in the row above was produced. (On older versions of Word you have to
click on the rotation icon just to the left of AutoShapes. The little squares will turn
into dots and you can use these to rotate the rectangle.)
You will see that there is a line icon, and a line with an arrowhead. Again you click on
these and then drag the cursor to create a basic line. With the arrowhead it could
produce axes for a graph for example. Once you have drawn a basic line you can
change its direction and length by moving one of the little squares when it is active.
You can change the style through the pop-up menus towards the right of the toolbar.
Try some of these to produce lines such as the following for examples.
Finally we will sometimes want to label a diagram. It is very awkward to try to type a
letter in a precise position on the page, and so we use a Text Box, whose icon is just to
the right of the ellipse. If you click on this and drag the cursor it gives you a box in
which you can type text, or even insert an equation using the Equations Editor. The
text produced is a graphics object and can be dragged around the page to wherever
you want. Try it, to produce something like: This is my text
You can use the normal Word toolbar to change the font, size and style of text as with
ordinary typed text. If you want to get rid of the box surrounding the text you need to
use the line menu, selecting More Lines, Colour, No Fill. You can colour in a shape,
including a Text Box, using the Paintpot icon near the centre of the toolbar, and the
two adjacent icons enable you to change the colour of a line and of text in a Text Box.
OK, so now we are ready for you to draw a more complicated diagram by putting
several of these elements together. Have a go at something like this
y
y x
x
When you have done this and are satisfied, click on the white arrow just to the right of
Draw at the left hand end of the toolbar. The use the mouse to drag out a rectangle
completely surrounding the diagram. You will then see each element with its
associated little squares. Now Click on Draw and then click on Group in the pop-up
menu. This puts all the bits together as a single graphic which you can drag around
and re-size. Notice all the other things you can do on the Draw menu and try some of
them.
Finally pick a hexagon shape and explore the 3D menu at the extreme right of the
toolbar.