User Guide

Chapter 7: Fonts, Styles, Sizes and Spacing
Last printed 8/20/2001 9:40 AM
Units of Measurement
When entering new dimension values in MathType’s Define Sizes or Define
Spacing dialogs, you should understand MathType’s system of units. There are
four units of measurement available:
Units Abbreviation
inches in
centimeters cm
points pt
picas pi
It’s often a good idea to specify a dimension as a percentage of your Full
typesize, because then you won’t need to change it in the event that you change
typesizes. As an example, suppose your Full typesize is defined as 12 points. If
you set your Subscript Depth dimension to 25%, then your subscripts will be
shifted 3 points below the baseline, but if you later change your Full typesize to
10 points, your subscripts will be shifted down only 2.5 points.
Equation Preferences
The definitions of all the styles, sizes, and spacing used in an equation are
referred to collectively as “equation preferences”. The equation preferences used
to create an equation are saved with that equation. Changes you make using the
Define Styles, Sizes, and Spacing dialogs in one equation will not be reflected in
equations you have already created. However, if you leave the “Use for new
equations” box checked in each of these dialogs, MathType saves the equation
preferences in a special place. The next time you create a new equation, it will
start off with those preferences.
There is a more advanced technique, discussed below, that allows you to save
equation preferences in a file. You can then use this file to set the preferences of
any equation you create in the future.
Using Preference Files
MathType’s Preference files are somewhat analogous to style sheets in a word
processing application. They provide a quick and consistent way to switch
between various MathType configurations of styles, sizes, and spacing as set
using the Define Styles, Define Sizes, and Define Spacing dialog boxes.
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