Equations in Framemaker using MathType

What I did was I retyped all of the equations in mathtype and just drag and drop it into Framemaker as OLE objects.

I have no experience with MT, but might I suggest exporting or printing the EQs to PDF, and then importing the PDFs into Frame? (assuming FM8 or later)

Be sure to see:

Using MathType with Adobe Acrobat to Create PDF Files

http://www.dessci.com/en/support/mathtype/tsn/TSN69.htm

OLE is either a benefit or a hazard.

If it's a benefit, it's not my problem.

_______

and your benefit may not be what MS had in mind when

they turned OLE loose on the world. Killing a competing

technology and locking you into Windows are more

likely explanations.

I wish I had better news for you, but at least there is some light. As you've already noticed, both MathType and FrameMaker support OLE, but this isn't the best way to get MathType equations into FrameMaker if you're starting with a Word document. You don't say which version of FrameMaker you're using, which version of MathType, which version of Word, or even whether you're using Windows or Macintosh. (This information is always helpful when you're asking for software help, BTW.) Here's a sample document I created with Word 2010, MathType 6.7a (I don't guarantee this procedure with versions earlier than 6.5), and FrameMaker 10, following the steps below: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23309305/Word-to-FrameMaker.fm.

Here's how I did it (this is a lot of work, BTW, and FrameMaker has its own equation editor, but if you're not familiar with its use, that will be more work; in addition, there's no way to convert MathType equations into FrameMaker equations):

1. Save the Word document in doc format. If it's already saved in docx, nothing's lost; just re-open it in Word and save as doc before you go on. Don't close the document yet.
   
2. If any of the equations were created with a version of MathType before 6.5, in Word's MathType tab, run the Convert Equations command to "convert" MathType equations to MathType equations. That sounds redundant, but it will update their internal information, although the appearance will remain the same.
3. If you performed step 2, save the document again, and close Word. If you didn't need to perform step 2, just close Word.
4. In FrameMaker, use the File/Open command to open the Word document from above. In the "Unknown File Type" dialog, verify it says "Convert From: Microsoft Word" (not Word 2007), and click Convert.
5. The document should convert rather quickly and open in FrameMaker. It'll already have a .fm extension on it, but it won't be saved yet. Save it now.
6. Find the document from steps 1-3, and open it in Word again. You'll do the rest of the steps with both Word & FrameMaker open.
7. You'll notice the inline equations aren't aligned with the surrounding text. This is the painstaking part...
   1. Select an equation so that the entire frame is selected, and not just the equation. In other words, it should look
      

      Like this...	...and not like this

   2. Find this equation in Word and double-click it to open it in MathType. In MathType, select the equation and copy it. After you copy the equation, notice MathType's Status Bar. You should see something like this:
      
   3. Those numbers represent the height & width in inches, and the "baseline offset" in points. The baseline offset is what we'll use to align the equations.
   4. In FrameMaker, the equation is still selected from step 7a, so right-click the dotted line representing the frame. If you miss the frame and accidentally double-click the equation, just select the frame again and try once more.
   5. In the contextual menu, one of the options is Anchored Frame; click it. In the Align panel, you'll see a tab named ANCHORED FRAME. In the center section, titled Distance above Baseline, enter the value from step 7b above, which is in this case 5 points, but we want to move the equation down, so it should be –5 pt. Click Edit Frame, and you'll see the equation snap right into position. (BTW, the Anchored Frame tab should remain visible in the Align panel throughout this procedure, so you shouldn't have to right-click and select it again.)
      
   6. Since this is so much work, I think it makes sense to save the document after every equation, but you be the judge. Now repeat the process for each of the inline equations, as well as each of the numbered display equations. You decide if the unnumbered display equations look all right without adjustment. Just use the actual value for the baseline adjustment for each equation. It'll be rounded off to the nearest point, so if it looks just a little off, feel free to adjust it a little.

I haven't tried this on the Mac, but I would expect it to work similarly, by using Word 2011 (probably not with Word 2008, and definitely not with Word 2004) and MathType 6.7b.

Please let us know whether or not this worked for you, and by all means let us know if you found something else that worked.

Bob Mathews
Design Science

Message was edited by: MrMathType. Minor editorial changes.