Can't edit Equation Editor Objects

Question

The Equation Editor objects in my document are no longer editable. When I double click on them, all I get is the Format Picture dialog box. How can I restore their editability (if that is a word)? I'm using Word 2008 for Mac.

Answer 1

OK, a bit of digging yields the following conclusion: it's a long-standing bug, supposedly fixed in the various Word 2008 updates, but not quite.

Solutions? Various mentioned in many forums:

• Install MathType and convert all equations to this format. MathType will run in demo mode for 30 days and revert to MathType Lite after that: http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype%5Fmac/trial.asp.
• Open the document in Word 2004 and work there.
• Disable AutoRecover, as this seems to corrupt equations and would account for the "random" nature of the corruption (it would actually be periodic). This is a good one.
• Rebuild equations from scratch. This would fix the broken ones, but what's stopping Word from re-corrupting?
• Copy equations from old backups. This seems to work "mostly" (could be so, if the AutoRecover corruption is real).
• Save equations separately and link to them in the main document.
• Some users blame the .docx format, but does not seem likely.

Answer 2

Wow! Thanks for the fast response!

Unfortunately that did not seem to be my problem. My documents are in .docx format from the get-go.

I just had a repeat incident. I was editing equations, opening one and then another. I double-clicked on an existing equation and I got an error message that said "Word cannot edit Microsoft Equation". I tried double clicking another equation and got the same message. So I immediately quit Word and restarted. When I double-clicked I got the Format Picture dialog box. Aargh! More lost work. I never had this problem in the PC version of Word.

Tim

Answer 3

Once again, thanks for your help.

That Knowledge Base reference looked like it might do the trick. The error message was right, but the cure was to do what I had been doing. I wanted to try opening the equation object as described in the KB article in some other way than double clicking it, but I could not figure out how to do that. So I struck out with that suggestion.

Next I tried your second suggestion. My .docx document was open in Word. I "saved as" the document in .rtf format. I then quit and re-started Word. I opened the .rtf version and then "saved as" a .docx file with a slightly altered name from the original. I then quit and restarted Word. I opened the altered-name version of the .docx file. My equations were still acting like pictures, but, worse, the images no longer lined up with the text so the equations no longer look as if they fit in the text.

Tim

Answer 4

How about this method, then, straight from the horse's mouth?

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/183625

Naah, don't think so... Too much PC.

Try "Save As" into RTF format, close, reopen and Save As again in .docx. I sometimes fix documents that way.

Answer 5

That conversion problem also happens in Word 2011 if the file is saved as .doc.

Try Save As into the .docx format to see if the equations are restored (you may need to close and reopen the document). This works for Word 2011 and has worked for Word 2008 users.

From then on, the .docx format should preserve new equations.