Word 2007 - Hidden Equation Editor Features

Interesting enough the, to my opinion, most useful feature of Word 2007 concerning the scientific text editing has been hidden or at least not shown in an obvious way to the user.

In fact it is possible when editing with the new equation editor (i.e. using .docx document type) to use keyboard short cut to type the equations. The way the equations should be entered is very similar as latex.

As an example:

• Type ALT + = , to enter the equation editor (you can customize this shortcut)
• Type A + / + B then hit spacebar , and you will get a fraction
• Type A + ^ + B then hit spacebar , and you will get A to the power B
• Type \Omega  then hit spacebar , and you will get the greek uppercase Omega letter
• Type \omega  then hit spacebar , and you will get the greek lowercase omega letter

Here is some unofficial documentation from the Microsoft engineers:
http://www.unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v2.pdf 

An other tutorial I found:
http://www.chem.mtu.edu/~tbco/cm416/EquationEditor_main.pdf


Hope this helps.

Pascal