OpenOffice.org 2, Firefox, and Thunderbird for Windows All in One [Electronic resources]

1.

Request a Formula

When you need a mathematical formula, click

Object on the

Insert menu, and then click

Formula in the submenu. When you do, a new window pane will open in the lower half of your screen to provide a place to build your mathematical formula and the

Tools toolbar will open to offer one-click access to common Math-related commands. The formula editor is always at work in this lower window pane to build mathematical formulas you request. The

Selection window appears also. From the

Selection window, you select the kind of formulas you want to build, such as sums, relations, and functions.Functions button (the one that looks like

f(x) ), and the lower half of the window changes to reflect all the functions you can build inside the formula editor.

4.

Select an Expression

Click to select the

N-th Root button in the lower half of the

Selection window. As soon as you do, the formula editor displays an expression that represents an nth root.

NOTE

You won't see math symbols in the formula editor, but as you build formulas, the symbols will appear above in your document.

5.

Fill in the Details

You now must fill in the details, replacing the placeholder symbols with actual values. To write a formula that represents the 4th root of the number 16,600, for example, you would replace the first placeholder,

<?> , with

4 and the second placeholder with

16600 . Have patience, because the formula editor takes its time parsing your expression before producing the formula with all the proper symbols in the document at the top of your screen.

All OpenOffice.org programs support a symbolic mathematical language. When you type the language in the formula editor, the formula editor interprets what you type and builds the formula above in your document. As you work with the formula editor over time, you will get accustomed to the language used there. Once you learn some of the language, you can type the language directly instead of selecting from the

Selection window if you find that typing the language is easier. For example, instead of selecting the

N-th Root button, you could have typed nroot{4}{16600}, and the formula editor would have known what you wanted to build.

6.

Get More Symbols

To add more symbols, such as a delta symbol, to your formula, click the

Catalog button on the

Tools toolbar. The

Symbols dialog box appears. You can browse through the available symbols and click the

Symbol set list arrow to view other available symbol categories. When you find the symbol you want to insert, click the

Insert button.

NOTE

If you double-click a symbol in the

Symbols dialog box, the symbol is inserted at the location of the insertion point and the dialog box closes. If you select a symbol from the dialog box and then click the

Insert button, the symbol is inserted but the dialog box remains open.

7.

Select a Symbol to Insert

When you click a symbol, a description of that symbol, in the formula editor's math language, appears in the lower window pane. The symbol then appears above next to the first part of your formula. You can continue adding symbols (in this case, adding more symbols would represent multiplication of them).

8.

Return to the Document

Click the

Close button to close the

Symbols dialog box when you're done inserting symbols. You can jump back and forth between the

Symbols dialog box and the

Selection window as you build more complicated expressions.

Click the

Selection window's

Close button to close this window when you're through building your formula, or simply click anywhere in the document window.

Clicking anywhere in your document hides both the formula editor's window pane and the

Selection window, so you can get back to work on your document.