Equations in word AAAGH!


Anyone got much experience of equations in word? I got to grips with drawing/writing them in (finally....look A LOT off faffing to understand how the process works!). The problem I now have is with printing them. I have four equations, two print fine, two just come out as a line. If I cut and paste into another document they print. If I then paste back into original they won't again. I tried re inserting....still won't print. there seems to be no difference between these two and the two that won't print. Any ideas?

I can insert them as a picture, but then the resolution is rubbish. :-s


oK, have now discovered it's not the equations that are the problem, it's the image slightly higher up the page. if I delete it the equations come out fine, or if I make them on the next page.... fine again. A section break between them didn't sort the problem. It appears I'll either have half a page blank or I need to write another paragraph to fill the gap! Unless I can figure out why having an image interfers with the equations on the same page. Three weeks til submission I really don't need this :-s


I can only sympathize, as I am not in your field. But I made some nice reconstructions of buildings using photos and power point, to discover that while in word they were fine, in PDF they were all scrambled up!

Could you put the image on a separate page altogether? Word probably thinks that you are overwriting on that picture and that's why it doesn't print your equation. If you double click on your image you should see the real picture-field, that is the real portion of the page that this covers (e.g. there might be several mm. of white border around your image that you cannot see on your word document, but that actually cover the page).

If this is the case, you can "cut" this border out using photoshop. I can tell you how to do it, if this the problem.


Have you tried inserting a single cell table and pasting the picture into that rather than directly into the text? I've found that solves at least some of the myriad stupid problems word has when dealing with pictures.


======= Date Modified 11 Sep 2011 10:30:56 =======

Quote From catalinbond:


Are you just pasting them in or have you tried 'paste special'? If you explore the other paste options ('enhanced metafile', png etc) you might get something with better resolution. Might also be worth trying that on the other image that's causing the problem?

Or, similar to Clupea's suggestion, past into a text box?

Alternatively do you know someone who uses LaTeX? Maybe they could create the formula in that programme (it's really good for that) and then output it for you as an image you could paste it?


Thanks for the suggestions. Will try the table one. Not sure what the issue is, it's not that the equation is being obscured as there is a papragraph of text between the offending picture and equation!

Will try fiddling with it tomorow but if all else fails I'll make the picutre bigger so the equations end up on the next page!

Avatar for sneaks

my hubs had issues with this, but particularly when saving docs as 'old' word and then 'new' word - it would change the equations and faff about with it. Maybe try saving it as a 'compatible' i.e. old-word version or new-word version and see what happens?