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• • June 20, 2017 at 4:35 am #95566
    Torbjörn Bernhardsson

    Member

    Hi, do you know the best way to import equations from word to indesign?
    Is it possible to change font.
    thank you
    /Torbjörn

  • June 20, 2017 at 5:29 am #95567
    Michel Allio for FRIdNGE

    Participant

    I’ve made lots of “maths” books!

    For my own work, i’ve imagined fringe processes for that!

    I only indicate how I played it:

    The Word equations (inside a Word file) are converted to TeX equations.
    The Word File is imported into InDesign, cleaned up with a script based on “not-really-simple” regex => lots of typing errors are corrected with Grep.
    The TeX equations are converted in “MathMagic” equations, played with a second script, building equations in the good font(s), size, color … depending of the para where they are!

    That’s all!
    Good luck!

    (^/) ;-)

  • June 20, 2017 at 6:14 am #95570
    Torbjörn Bernhardsson

    Member

    Thank you Obi-wan,
    that sounds a bit complicated, is there a plugin or script?

  • June 20, 2017 at 8:03 am #95578
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    There are plug-ins such as movemen’s MathTools: https://movemen.com
    They showed their tool at The InDesign Conference last month and it was awesome!

  • June 20, 2017 at 2:15 pm #95584
    Lindsey Martin

    Member

    I use MathType, which is integrated with MSWord, but not with ID. One has to place the equations as a PDF or an image. I chose MathType because, at the time if I recall correctly, the cost of MathTools was quite a bit higher, I only need to work with equations occasionally, and all manuscripts come to me in MSWord. I believe the equation editor in MSWord is an integrated, simplified, version of MathType.

    The price of two applications seems about the same now. You can set up a template in MathType that specifies the font(s) to be used.

  • June 20, 2017 at 4:20 pm #95589
    Ariel W

    Participant

    I use MathType as well.

  • June 21, 2017 at 1:15 am #95592
    Torbjörn Bernhardsson

    Member

    Thank you for your answers David, Lindsey and Ariel.
    i bought Math tools, hopefully that works alright.
    have a nice day/Torbjörn

  • August 2, 2018 at 9:35 am #105175
    Lluc Julià

    Member

    Hi

    Someone has tried MathTools to import Word equations to inDesign?

    Thank you!

  • August 5, 2018 at 7:07 am #105189
    Peter Kahrel

    Participant

    MathTools can convert MathType equations in placed Word files to its (MathTool’s) own format. Works very well.

  • August 5, 2018 at 7:12 am #105190
    Lluc Julià

    Member

    Thank you for your answer, Peter.

    I will try it.

  • October 25, 2019 at 6:37 am #14323869
    André Cardoso

    Member

    Over the years, I used all kinds of math editors, most of them are not free. Lately, I’m using Latex, witch is free and easy to use. The only flaw is that you must do over all the math, but its pretty easy to learn and make. I use this online tool to edit the latex and then export it to PDF and place it in the document.
    https://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php

  • June 8, 2020 at 6:37 am #12538034
    Brian Kleppe

    Member

    Thanks to this post I´ve discover MathTools and I agree with David Blatter: It´s a great plugin.
    But I´m back here to alert about their infamous license system. After install the plugin if you need to move it to another machine (in case o upgrade, by example) it can only be done paying a 40 euro fee additional to the montly license you already pay. I´ve never heard about something like this and get me surprise (unfortunatelly after aquisition). This information is not clear on their site an it´s the reason a came here to make it clear to everyone.

  • September 30, 2020 at 7:10 am #127212
    Roland Mol

    Member

    If you save your Word document as a .RTF document and you import that file into InDesign keeping local formatting in text and tables, you’ll see that all (or at least most) of the equations get imported quite nice. The only downside of this workaround is that somehow all the equations (they are imported as EPS images into InDesign) are surrounded by a 1 pt black line. When you try to edit the eps file Illustrator messes up the equation so that’s not an option.
    If anyone knows how to get rid off the black line (preferably within the eps files) please let me know!

    • November 27, 2022 at 11:43 am #14375184
      Sebastian

      Member

      Hi!!!
      I have the same problem at this moment and I cant find any solutions to unwanted black line.
      Did you find a solution and do you know how remove this black line? :<
      Please, help :(((
      I have to copy big math document with many equations from word to indesing I have been struggling with this problem for a week, i cant remove black line….

    • November 27, 2022 at 12:25 pm #14375185
      David Blatner

      Keymaster

      This is a fascinating and horrible problem… I just tried everything I can think of and I cannot get rid of the black line. It seem like equations are converted to an image when you save as .DOC or .RTF. If you leave it saved as .docx, it does not have that black border.
      I even tried exporting the EPS files and opening in a text editor (because I know some postscript), but Word encodes the postscript code in a way that cannot be edited easily! Ouch.

  • October 1, 2020 at 6:19 am #14331423
    Qing Youguo

    Participant

    Hi Cardoso,
    In-TeX/LaTeX is a JavaScript tool to compile LaTeX code to PDF in InDesign, it can run under both macOS and Windows.
    Download form: https://github.com/cooldtp/InTeXLaTeX
    Demo:
    And more:
    The English version is not available yet, but it’s So easy to follow by demos.

    • January 14, 2022 at 4:46 pm #14356623
      Roberto Garcia

      Participant

      I was trying to use it, and it seem powerful, but it is not in English, and the videos are not available.

  • September 27, 2021 at 7:16 am #14347619
    Sergio Israelson

    Participant

    Over the years I used MathType to export the equations from Word as eps and import them in indesign with the help of a script to get the correct vertical alignment.
    Recently I had to make two math books and I decided to implement a custom solution with open source software. It involves many steps but it works. For this solutions, Word equations must be made with the Word equations editors newer than version 3.
    First I converted the word document to html via Pandoc with mathjax option (yes, it sounds weird). What you get is a text file with all the equations in LaTeX. Then convert this to .rtf (again via Pandoc) and place that file in indesign.
    The second step involves a custom script that search with GREP for the equations delimiters \( \) or \[ \] and creates for each one a .tex file replacing the equation text in indesign with a marker text (example: <<eqn001.pdf>>; <<eqn002.pdf>>; etc.).
    Now it’s time to process all the .tex files with a LaTeX compiler and get the equations rendered as pdf files. At this point it’s important to get the baseline shift displacement so when the pdf file is placed in indesign align correct within the text leading. As a quick but no elegant solution I made the .tex file wrote this value into the pdf “author” metadata.
    With all the equations converted to pdf, it’s time to place them in indesign via another scripts that looks for every text marker <<eqn###.pdf>> and replace it with the pdf file of the same name. The vertical shift is applied to the anchored pdf file so it gets the correct vertical alignment.
    And that it’s. It implies a lot of work, many tests with diferents LaTeX preambles and packages to get the desired result but it works for me.
    Hope this serves as a starting point for anyone who wants to make a custom solution.

    • January 14, 2022 at 4:45 pm #14356622
      Roberto Garcia

      Participant

      It’s a good job.
      Could you share the scripts?

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