Google Docs just keeps adding and adding lots of useful features. Over a year ago Google imported the equation editor from Knol (does anyone actually use that?) into Google Docs, which is helpful if you need to write documents with equations.
Here’s a step-by-step introduction to adding equations in Google Docs. Clicking on each of the figures below will take you to a larger version.
Inserting equations is very straightforward. Open up a new document or one already in progress. Choose the Insert menu, and then select “Equation…”. As you do these steps, you’ll see a menu like this:
You’ll see the equation editor pop up, giving you a blank slate in which to add your equations.
At this point you can choose between clicking the symbols you want to add to your equation or using LaTeX notation. For the former choice, you can select from five different pop-out menus full of equality signs, symbols, superscripts or subscripts, and many other possibilities for the equations you might need. For writing equations in LaTex, you type in directly the code which will produce the equation you want. Below I’ve written in the LaTeX code for everyone’s favorite, the quadratic equation. Helpfully, Google Doc gives you a preview of what the equation will look like.
Finally, click the “Insert Equation” button. You’ll be taken back to your Google document, where your equation is ready to go. You can type before and after it as need be, which I’ve done in the figure below.
The equation editor in Google Docs will by no means give you publishable-quality typesetting for equations, but it’s remarkably good for typing up equations for various needs you might have, such as creating some handouts for students, or for collaborating with others using a shared Google Doc.
Sometimes we need word processing programs to do more than just type words. What extra features do you need out of word processors, and how have you implemented these? Let us know in the comments.
[Creative Commons licensed photo by Flickr user quinnanya.]
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4 Responses to Writing Equations in Google Docs
bob1@dessci.com - December 17, 2010 at 9:40 am
Everything in this article pertains to Google’s OLD editor. In the new Google Docs editor (introduced in April 2010), there is a completely different equation editor (EE). The new EE uses LaTeX shortcuts, but doesn’t allow pasting LaTeX code, and not all LaTeX codes are accepted as shortcuts. In more ways it’s a step backward than it is a step forward. MathType, from Design Science, works with both the old Google Docs document editor and the new one.
heatherwhitney - December 17, 2010 at 3:43 pm
@bob1. This appears to be true. I was able to create equations using the old editor, which you can still use if you ensure that the box next to “Create new text documents using the latest version of the document editor” in Google Docs Settings–>Editing–>New Version of Google documents is NOT selected.
tjhanson - February 2, 2011 at 9:26 pm
As bob1 notes, the new editor seems to be a step backward. And it seems if you are starting from scratch, you can’t make use of the old editor? But if you can simply get access to a document created under the old editor via a third party you can proceed as you suggested. We have linked to your explanation on OpenEducation.net (http://www.openeducation.net/2011/02/01/free-software-for-writing-mathematical-equations-in-a-word-document/) and added the caveats necessary to continue to use the Google Docs as a free tool for writing equations should you be able to only access the new editor. Should a person do a great deal of this work then the MathType software likely makes sense to purchase.