MathType works with  PowerPoint 2007 

Note: If you are using a version of PowerPoint other than 2007, we have another article that covers versions 2003/2004 and earlier.

MathType makes it easy to insert mathematical expressions into your presentations. We do not assume you are an expert PowerPoint user, but you should have basic familiarity with Windows (especially drag-and-drop) and PowerPoint's guides and, if you wish to animate equations, PowerPoint's animation features. Screen shots and discussion are specific to PowerPoint 2007 for Windows.

1. MathType toolbar button
2. MathType size and style assignments for PowerPoint slides
3. Inserting display equations into a presentation
4. Inserting in-line equations into a presentation
5. Animating text and equations

Note: We use the term "equation" in this document to refer to any object created with MathType.

MathType toolbar button for PowerPoint

MathType 6 adds a MathType tab to the Ribbon in PowerPoint 2007, giving you the ability to quickly insert equations into your presentations. Earlier versions of MathType will not install anything onto the PowerPoint Ribbon. To use these versions of MathType in PowerPoint 2007, click on the Insert tab on the Ribbon, then click on Object. Select MathType 5.0 Equation (or other version) from the list, then click OK. The remainder of this article will assume you are using MathType 6.

MathType tab in the PowerPoint 2007 Ribbon

MathType size and style assignments for PowerPoint slides

MathType's default configuration uses the Times New Roman font for text, variable, function, number, and vector-matrix styles, with a base size of 12 pt. This size font is appropriate for printed materials, but is too small for PowerPoint slides. You should increase this value so that it matches the font size used in the PowerPoint text boxes, which is 32 pt by default. If you do not increase the font size used by MathType, your equations will be too small.

You should also make sure the font used in text boxes in PowerPoint is the same typeface assigned to your text, variable, function, number, and vector-matrix styles in MathType. Please refer to the MathType documentation if you are unfamiliar with defining sizes or defining styles in MathType. Refer to the PowerPoint documentation or Help files for information about changing fonts in PowerPoint.

It is convenient to save a Preference file in MathType that contains the styles and sizes which are appropriate for equations in PowerPoint slides, rather than changing your MathType settings manually every time. See the MathType documentation for more information on loading and saving MathType Preference files. We have created several MathType Preference Files that are appropriate for use in Office 2007. After downloading the file, double-click to install these Preference Files. They should automatically install into the default MathType Preferences folder. If you installed MathType to a folder other than the default location, you'll have to either change the path or manually move them to your Preferences folder.

Inserting display equations into your presentation

Display equations are equations which appear alone on a line, usually centered. Inserting display equations is simple. The insertion of inline equations, where the equation appears as part of a sentence or paragraph, is more difficult and is discussed in the next section.

This section explains how to create a simple slide containing one equation:

1. Enter any text you wish to appear in text boxes above your equation. In this example, the slide title, three bullets, and one sub-bullet appear above the equation.
2. On the MathType tab of the PowerPoint Ribbon, click the MathType icon in the Insert Equation group.
3. Set the color of the equation as desired, typically the same as the text of your slide. You can change the color using the Color command in the Format menu of MathType, or by right-clicking on the Color section of the MathType status bar.
   
   Tip: Since you no doubt will be putting several equations into each lesson, one good technique is to always use the same color for your text and equations from one lesson to the next. If you use a special color that's not one of the 7 colors on the MathType Color Menu, you can use the "Edit Color Menu" option (View > Color; shown at right) to add the color to your color menu. This will save a great deal of time. You could even create your own Theme on which to base your lesson slides, but creating a PowerPoint Theme is beyond the scope of this article.
    
4. After making sure the font and size are appropriate, create an equation and close the MathType window.
5. You can position the equation by dragging it to the proper location on the slide. For precise positioning, use PowerPoint's guides. Turn on the guides from the Home tab of the Ribbon. In the Drawing group, click on Arrange, then Align > Grid Settings. To move either the vertical or horizontal guide, drag the guide to a new location. (More on guides in the next section.)

Note: If additional bullets or sub-bullets will follow the equation, insert another text box below the equation or type the remaining text in MathType by using MathType's Text Style as shown here. 

Inserting inline equations into your presentation

Inline equations in PowerPoint are more difficult to implement than are display equations. PowerPoint has the ability to produce captivating presentations using color, animation, and multimedia. You can take advantage of those features to create interesting and visually attractive presentations which help hold the attention of viewers and focus their thoughts. This section explains how to create a slide discussing the discriminant, the radicand in the quadratic formula:

The expressions in the first bullet are simple enough to create directly in the placeholder by using styled text in PowerPoint, but to insure consistently formatted equations, it's a good idea to use the method outlined below for all equations.

1. Create your slide normally, up to the point where you need to insert your first equation.
2. Insert your first equation, following the above steps.
3. Using PowerPoint's guides, position the equation in the proper spot in your paragraph. With the equation selected, you can make fine positioning adjustments using the arrow keys on your keyboard.

4. Click inside the text placeholder and position your cursor at the end of the text you entered above. In our example, you would place it after the word 'expression'.
5. Insert enough blank spaces to position the cursor to the right of the equation, and continue typing your text.

Animating text and equations in a PowerPoint slide

There are many ways to animate a slide. Different techniques are appropriate for different kinds of slides. You should experiment with various animation techniques to see which methods you prefer.

This section will continue with the discriminant slide which was created above. Since the equations are not part of the text, they will not animate with the text. There are two common techniques you can use to animate the equations.

Note: Refer to PowerPoint's documentation if you are not familiar with animating text in PowerPoint.

If there are several equations in a bullet, it is convenient to group the equations together so they can all be animated at once. It is not possible to group equations and a text box together, but you can group the equations to each other.

To group the equations, do the following:

1. Select the first equation by clicking on it once.
2. Hold down the Shift key and click the other equations that you want to include in the group to select them as well.
3. To group the equations that are now selected, make sure the Ribbon's Home tab has focus (i.e., the Home is the tab in front), then in the Drawing group click on Arrange > Group. The Group command also appears on the contextual menu that appears when you right-click on the group.

The first technique is to animate the text with a mouse click, then set the animation on the group of equations to "Start With Previous", as shown below. Note that the animation on the group won't automatically appear after the animation of the text. It will appear at the bottom of the all the slide's animations. Just click on it and move it up to appear immediately after animation #1, "The expression".

Animating equations in PowerPoint 2007 (Click for larger image.)

The second technique is to type both text and equations in MathType, instead of using separate text boxes and equations. The advantage of this method is that it's much easier to animate than the first method.

Note: If you use this method, you will need to insert returns manually at the end of each line. There is no text wrapping in MathType.

1. Use the ruler in MathType to keep your equation the proper width, 8½ to 9 inches or less, since a PowerPoint slide typically measures 10" wide by 7½" tall. If you have a wide-screen projector (16:9), your slides still measure 10" wide, but they're shorter -- only 5.63" tall instead of 7.5".
2. It is still possible to insert the bullet characters in the PowerPoint placeholder, but it is easier to use MathType. Most bullets in PowerPoint templates come from fonts like Wingdings and Monotype Sorts. You can use the Insert Symbol command in MathType's Edit menu to find the bullet symbol you want to use.
3. To insert the standard round bullet (•) hold down the Alt key while typing 0149 on the number pad and then releasing the Alt key (make sure NumLock is on).

4. When you change the font assigned to MathType's Styles (Style > Define), the Style change is applied to everything in the MathType workspace. You may wish to save the bullet you are using. You can save it to MathType's toolbar by following the steps in the MathType documentation if you are unfamiliar with this process.
5. Align the hanging indent by placing a tab stop on the MathType ruler. You can set a MathType tab the same way you would set a tab in Word or PowerPoint. Click on the ruler where you want the tab to appear. Remember, the Tab key in MathType does not insert tabs into the text. You must use Ctrl+Tab to insert a tab character.

You may notice that your animated text and equations don't look as smooth as those parts of your slide that are not animated. Animated equations may appear blocky or pixilated, with rough edges. This can sometimes be reduced by choosing a different animation effect, such as "appear" or "dissolve" rather than "fly from right". Reduced resolution of animated elements can sometimes be avoided by not using animation. Another solution is to save the MathType object as a high-resolution GIF. Set the GIF resolution in MathType (Preferences > Web and GIF preferences) to 384. Save your equation or bulleted item using File > Save, remembering where on your hard drive you saved it. On PowerPoint's Ribbon, select Picture from the Insert tab. Insert the MathType GIF you just saved, then while it is still selected, change the size to 25% of the original (Right-click the equation and click "Format Object". On the Size tab, change the Scale to 25%.). This is a lot of work, but it will produce excellent results regardless of the background or animation technique.

If you have experience with PowerPoint 2007 and have specific tips about how best to use MathType to work with it, we would love to hear from you. Please send questions, comments and suggestions to interop@dessci.com.