Scientific Word Processors?
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Qiranworms
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The best way (in my opinion) is to just learn LaTeX. Since I started using it, I pretty much stopped using word processors at all, even for making "simple" documents with absolutely no math involved.
Being a typesetting system, there's obviously a much greater learning curve than a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) word processor, especially if you don't have any previous experience with markup langauges, but I think it's worth the effort.
Being a typesetting system, there's obviously a much greater learning curve than a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) word processor, especially if you don't have any previous experience with markup langauges, but I think it's worth the effort.
Qiranworms
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Start with The Not So Short Introduction. Try and get started, and you'll quickly be able to tell if this is going to be reasonable for you to do or not.
You'll definitely want to have The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbols List as a reference when looking for the various features of formulae. Many things are obvious and guessable (to get lambda, you type \lambda, to get multiplication symbol, you type \times) but others are stranger (infinity symbol is \infty, I have no idea why). Naturally, you quickly get familiar with whatever symbols you frequently use, and as a result, I think typing them within the document source becomes quicker than looking through a menu or what not to find them.
I'm sure it's not worthwhile for everyone, but it's free (open source), it's definitely a standard so it's good to know, so you might as well give it a try. It took me about a week to get relatively comfortable, but longer than that before I didn't have to look up all the various symbols or techniques I needed. It can be a bit difficult at first, because sometimes the behaviour of certain things can be confusing, and you'll probably end up with documents that fail to compile at first usually because of non-closed brackets and all, but like anything else, it should get easier over time.
If you decide to try this instead of buying a WYSIWYG-style math program, feel free to ask me about any problems you may encounter.
You'll definitely want to have The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbols List as a reference when looking for the various features of formulae. Many things are obvious and guessable (to get lambda, you type \lambda, to get multiplication symbol, you type \times) but others are stranger (infinity symbol is \infty, I have no idea why). Naturally, you quickly get familiar with whatever symbols you frequently use, and as a result, I think typing them within the document source becomes quicker than looking through a menu or what not to find them.
I'm sure it's not worthwhile for everyone, but it's free (open source), it's definitely a standard so it's good to know, so you might as well give it a try. It took me about a week to get relatively comfortable, but longer than that before I didn't have to look up all the various symbols or techniques I needed. It can be a bit difficult at first, because sometimes the behaviour of certain things can be confusing, and you'll probably end up with documents that fail to compile at first usually because of non-closed brackets and all, but like anything else, it should get easier over time.
If you decide to try this instead of buying a WYSIWYG-style math program, feel free to ask me about any problems you may encounter.
Thanks for the PDF. I saved it on my computer, I'll have a look at it during the summer, or maybe sometime after. I decided I would further my learning of Matlab... since that'll be more helpful for me (I'm an engineering student) - but it won't hurt to learn LaTex.
Thanks for the information.
Thanks for the information.
furtivefelon
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take a look at Equation Writer bundled in Word.. Also take a look at the expanded version of equation writer: Math Type..
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