You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Inserting Math equations in Pages 13

I've tried to insert math equations in Pages 13 (in macOS Ventura 13.3.1), but the way Pages is "doing" it with Latex is getting us back to Stone Ages! Apple MUST let much better apps, like MathType or MathMagic, work with them, so we, the writers, the teachers, the scientists that use Pages to write our books, papers or worksheets for our students do some real work. Latex is an awful way to write, but Apple gives no better option. MathType doesn't work anymore with Pages; we have to install Word for Mac - terrible option! MathMagic also can't work, because Apple is not letting them use their powerful app (it's like MathType, but looks better).


So, what are we supposed to do? MathType and MathMagic can make this work like a breeze, but we have to either go to Stone Ages with Latex or install Word for Mac (counts as going to Stone Ages too) in order to do some human work?


Has someone found a good alternative, a solution to this? Latex is awful; I wonder what is anything good at all in writing long mathematical formulas and solutions to excercises with Latex!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.3

Posted on Apr 17, 2023 2:02 PM

Reply

Similar questions

9 replies

Apr 18, 2023 4:09 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you for participating in the thread I made, but I really didn't see any answer to what you said (or maybe my english is very poor).


I don't know if you've ever used MathType to write maths in Pages, but after having written thousands and thousands of pages in my books over the past 12 years (using Pages 4.3 and MathType 6.7), I can tell that there is no better way to do this than MathType! 100% tested over thousands of pages and workhours spent!


Trying to do this with Latex, I will say it again, is going back to Stone Ages! It's the worst way to do this; way too much effort, much much more tiring, the hours needed are multiplied by a factor of 2 or even 3!


Install Microsoft Word in order to use MathType??? Seriously??? Microsoft Word??? On a Mac? It is simply a matter of (very short) time before Word starts causing problems. I've been using Word for many years too and problems were always there, always! After switching to Mac and Pages, I have to look up in a dictionary to remember what "problem" means! And this goes on for almost 12 years so far. And Apple is ok with this? Installing a much more inferior app (Word) in a much more superior OS (Mac) is something that Apple is happy about and promotes in their own way? To say the least, this is embarasing!


You wrote about you can contact the Pages product team. How can I do this too? How can I contact them? I would very much appreciate if you shared a link so as to contact them directly. Instead of telling you about these, there might be a (very) remote chance of telling them and changing this terrible situation they've put us in. I recently bought a new MacBook Air M1, but I never imagined that they would do such a huge damage with my work! Thankfully, I can still continue writing my books in my old iMac, in which Pages 4.3 still works perfectly with MathType (now THAT'S the way to write Maths!), but then, what's the point of buying my new MBA? Why spend over 1200 Euros for this?


Anyway, I am not taking out on you, forgive me if it sounds so. There is NO progress in using Latex, no matter how many guides one can find on the Internet. It is definitely steps back, too many steps back. In the time of building websites with drag and drop website builders, what Apple did with Pages and Latex is like building a website writing code! Totally unacceptable! Totally wrong!



Again, thank you for participating. Could you please share how can I contact the Pages product team about this issue?

Apr 17, 2023 3:52 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

Microsoft Word uses UnicodeMath and MathML in its equations and for the current Pages to maintain some semblance of equation portability, the Pages product team has incorporated its equation editor to use either some MathML or input LaTeX that is converted to embedded MathML. Do not expect this to change, and there is plenty of free documentation on the web about how to write LaTeX or MathML equations.


Apple used to have an excellent article about what LaTeX/MathML features are supported in Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and Apple Books, but that link has gone away — including the downloadable blahtex translator PDF manual that provided the accepted LaTeX equation support for the Apple equation editor. The loss of a link to that manual pretty much makes the equation editor of limited usage.


As far as Pages is concerned, MathType is both a subscription product and now intended for use with MS Word, not Pages. Apple has no control over that product planning.

Apr 18, 2023 7:10 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

I am sending the Pages product team feedback (now) about crippling their equation editor without access to that article or its contained blahtex PDF manual. I have found the original blahtex author's github site where I can use a makefile to build just the TeX PDF for blahtex. I have MacTeX 2023 to do that, and I will post a link here when that is done.

Apr 18, 2023 7:43 AM in response to VikingOSX

Here is a link to the newly rebuilt BlahTeX PDF guide that supports the Pages v6 - current Equation Editor LaTeX syntax. The guide was generated by MacTeX 2023. This is the same syntax used in Apple's other Numbers, Keynote, and iBooks Author applications.


I have also sent feedback to the Pages Product team about reinstating the "About LaTeX and MathML support in Pages, Numbers, Keynote, and iBooks Author" article link.

Apr 18, 2023 7:59 PM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

Design Science, who offered MathType for years, sold it to Wirris, who subsequently made the decision to offer the product as a add-in for Microsoft 365 on Windows, or Google Workspace. They do not provide a product for macOS, Pages, or Microsoft Word on Mac any longer. Apple has nothing to do with Wirris' internal business decisions.


All of your documents that had MathType equations entered into them are now islands without MathType support in recent and current releases of Pages. You will need macOS Mojave or earlier and MathType 6.7 to continue support for those existing documents.


The Pages application menu has a Provide Pages Feedback item that allows you to communicate directly with the Pages product team. You have almost zero chance of convincing them to implement an entirely new Equation syntax in the relevant applications that would require a major rewrite, testing, and compatibility issues for years of Pages documents that use the current equation editor.

Apr 21, 2023 3:47 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you very much for your help.


Maybe you know more things than me for as to say that "Apple has nothing to do with Wirris' internal business decisions", but allow me to have serious doubts about it. Unfortunately, and although I've been in the Apple "family" for almost 12 years so far, I have reasons to believe that Apple HAS to do with it and it may not be all the blame to be fallen onto Wirris' shoulders. Maybe I'm wrong, but for sure I am a victim of this situation. More than 15 years of work are hanging in the air right now and I have to find a solution to keep it.


Be well :-)

Apr 22, 2023 5:58 AM in response to Dimitris Moshopoulos

I suggest that you ring up Wirris and ask them why they chose not to support further releases of MathType on the Mac platform. Unless they provide factual information, you are just speculating about Apple as a causal agent.


Apple encrypts the internal document architecture of Pages v5 and later. They don't give that detailed information to any third-party vendor. The iWork '09 releases of Pages was an open architecture and vendors like Design Science could support MathType on it.

Inserting Math equations in Pages 13

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.