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Setting equations in Word 2010 with font different from Cambria (Math)

Anonymous
2010-08-23T07:55:41+00:00

Dear Word Users,

the equation editor introduced with Word 2007 was a great step into the future.

Now my question: is it possible to typeset equations with a font different from Cambria (Math).  I would like to uses Times New Roman and Segoe as (other) standard fonts for equations.

All comments are welcome.

Regards,

Tischbein.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2010-08-23T18:17:48+00:00

Dear Doug,

thank you for the answer.  You confirm that it is not possible to switch the math font.  As the old Equation Editor 3 is no viable solution, I have to re-consider switching to MathType.  I did not want to make that move, due to the fact that I will force others to make the same step, but I am not argue.

Just for your information, what I have researched today:

  1. The STIX project intends to provide fonts with the up-coming V1.1 that shall support Microsoft Office Applications.
  2. It will be very difficult to use Math Cambria for publishing purposed.  One of the most important scientific publishers in Germany, the Springer group, demands that authors use the old Equation Editor 3 or MathType.  IEEE asks authors to only use the traditional fonts for typesetting, i.e. Times and Palatino and Arial.  But Cambria is not listed among them.

Maybe you, as MPV, have an influence on the roadmap generation and software requirement engineering of Mircosoft to overcome these issues.

Regards, Tischbein.

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-11-01T18:16:13+00:00

    Hi Tischbein,

    As many on this thread pointed out, the caveat is that not all fonts support all the required Math glyphs and characters you'll need. However, if you only have simple equations with typical alphanumeric characters and punctuation glyphs, I've been working at this issue for awhile on Word 2010 (my results should also work in Word 2007) and found two workarounds:

    1. For those brave enough to forage in regedit, I found this key *may* control the list of fonts available, but I couldn't seem to make it stick for more than one session, and when it did stick, it was wonky:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\MathFonts

    ((Note for Word 2007, I believe the Office version is 12.0 instead of 14.0, so the HKEY would change to be ...\Office\12.0...)) 2. On the "Equation Tools" Ribbon's "Tool" component, there's a control labeled "Normal Text". It switches a formula from italics to normal and back. 

    1. Use this "Normal Text" control to switch the equation from italicized to normal.
2. Then select the equation's text.
3. Now use the Font picker from the Home ribbon's Font component to change the equation's font.

    Option #2 alleviated the bulk of my issues, and by using this with TeXie's excellent tip of "XITS Math," you should be able to convert more complex equations to a workable font, or mix and match fonts for your needs.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-11-20T12:37:14+00:00

    I think I may have found it. When you have typed your equation in the equation editor, select the parts (or all) you require in a different font, then click "Normal Text" on the left of the equation tool bar. You can then right click and change the font.

    Hope this helps!

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-11-27T17:58:23+00:00

    Dear Guthrix,

    thank you for the hints.  XITS Math is a good option, and now I found another one: Asana Math, also from the TeX-Community.  This results in one math font compatible with Times (XITS), one with Palatino (Asana), and one with Microsofts C-Fonts (default Cambria).

    Hopefully the STIX project will also do what was announced, to provide the STIX fonts with all support necessary to be used by / with Word.

    Regards,

    Tischbein.

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-09-27T09:21:55+00:00

    In Word 2011 one can easily switch the font to XITS for example (and I guess that the same is true for Word 2007):

    Normal Times won't work since the font is not suitable for Math (missing glyphs and metrics), but you are free to select the formula and change the font to XITS Math.

    However I'm still curious about how to change the font used for math somewhere in style. I cannot find any style entry that would apply to math formulae.

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