Spacing around MathType equations in Pages

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Level 1

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Spacing around MathType equations in Pages

Is it possible to control the spacing around MathType equations in Pages without resorting to the floating object hack? The picture at http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/2032/spacing.jpg demonstrates the extra spacing prior to the punctuation mark as well as between the line containing the equation and the subsequent line. The extra space between the line containing the equation and the subsequent line persists when line spacing is increased. The pictured equation is an “Inline Equation” in MathType.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Mar 31, 2009 8:41 AM

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Answer 1

Brie Fly

Level 5

7,925 points

Mar 31, 2009 8:56 AM in response to nccraig

Not a fix, but a work-around is to increase your line spacing a little for the entire document (or at least the paragraph) containing your equation.

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Answer 2

nccraig Author

Level 1

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Mar 31, 2009 9:26 AM in response to Brie Fly

Increasing the line spacing for the paragraph doesn't fix the problem - see the second paragraph in the image referenced above.

On a side note, look at the spacing between the equation and the period. It's astounding that Apple advertises MathType integration as a feature when the quality is so poor compared to LaTeX and Word.

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Answer 3

fruhulda

Level 6

15,167 points

Mar 31, 2009 10:12 AM in response to nccraig

Have you tried to decrease the line spacing for just that on line? I hope it is possible to do.

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Answer 4

nccraig Author

Level 1

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Mar 31, 2009 10:43 AM in response to fruhulda

It is not possible to change the line spacing of just one line within a paragraph.

Nevertheless, it is possible to divide the line before the equation, the line containing the equation, and the line after the equation into three paragraphs (each separate from the text above and below) and to mess around with the line spacing settings. This requires turning a paragraph containing a single equation into five paragraphs with four distinct line spacings. Further, the appropriate line spacings differ depending on the contents of the equation: subscripts, parentheses, summations, etc. Once you've done this throughout an entire document, you'll prefer LaTeX, Word, or even crayon to Pages and MathType.

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Answer 5

nccraig Author

Level 1

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Mar 31, 2009 1:55 PM in response to nccraig

The MathType support folks offered a partial remedy:

1) Close MathType
2) Open /Users/~home/Library/Preferences/MathType 6 Preferences with a text editor
3) In the {Windows} section, change the PicturePadding setting from 2 to 0.

Equations created after this fix will look substantially better. See the grab at http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6681/spacing2.jpg.

Unfortunately, the line spacing problem persists. In the second paragraph from the above image, line spacing is increased to 1.3. The presence of the equation unnecessarily alters the distance between the third and fourth lines. The problem remains no matter how high the line spacing is. In a document containing a number of inline equations, the net effect is awkward, "jagged" line spacing.

For comparison purposes, here's an example of the same text in LaTeX with line spacing set to 1.3: http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/286/spacing3.jpg. The irregular line spacing is far less pronounced.

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Answer 6

nccraig Author

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Apr 1, 2009 1:56 PM in response to nccraig

Here's the final answer from the MathType folks (verbatim): "There is no solution for that issue."

I've submitted the issue to Apple via the Pages feedback mechanism. For now, Pages with MathType is utterly worthless unless you only use displayed equations.

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Answer 7

Apr 1, 2009 5:03 PM in response to nccraig

Well, then use Latex. That's the only professional solution for writing Math. By the way, the result from MS Word is not good either. The problem with both Pages and Word is that math is something added as an afterthought, not an integral part of the software.

Message was edited by: ahostmadsen

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Answer 8

nccraig Author

Level 1

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Apr 1, 2009 6:25 PM in response to ahostmadsen

Here's the same text in Word: http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/7563/spacing4.jpg. As you can see, the line spacing is as regular as that in LaTeX. Contrary to your assertion, the result is "good."

If the math support is truly an afterthought, perhaps Apple and the MathType folks shouldn't advertise the feature so prominently: http://www.apple.com/iwork/pages/.

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Answer 9

Apr 28, 2009 7:42 PM in response to nccraig

Having looked at the picture you cite, I wonder if you have tried setting "Exact" linespacing (leading for the typographers) in the text inspector. In my documents, this enforces the linespacing around the in-line equation. Of course, you will need to set the linespacing large enough that the equation will not be overlapped with the adjacent lines.

A different approach is to handle the short, in-line equations by directly typing special characters from using the Character Palette. This approach is better, in my opinion, because it avoids loading the Pages document with an imbedded MathType equation every time you need to insert a Greek letter or a short math term.

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