Operation Manual

Example 3
When braces are used in markup language, they are used to define the layout of the formula
and are not displayed or printed. If you want to use braces within your formula, you use the
commands lbrace and rbrace within the markup language.
x over {–x + 1} gives the result
x
– x+1
Replace the braces using the commands lbrace and rbrace in the markup language.
Write x over lbrace –x + 1 rbrace and the result is
x
{– x +1}
Brackets (parentheses) and matrices
If you want to use a matrix in a formula, you have to use a matrix command. For example,
matrix { a # b ## c # d } gives the resulting matrix
a b
c d
in your formula, where rows
are separated by two hashes (##) and entries within each row are separated by one hash (#).
Normally, when you use brackets within a matrix, the brackets do not scale as the matrix increases
in size. For example, ( matrix { a # b ## c # d } ) gives the result
(
a b
c d
)
To overcome this problem of brackets with a matrix, LibreOffice Math provides scalable brackets
that grow in size to match the size a matrix. The commands left( and right) have to be used
to create scalable brackets within a matrix. For example, left( matrix { a # b ## c #
d } right) gives the result
(
a b
c d
)
where the matrix is now bracketed by scalable brackets.
Scalable brackets can also be used with any element of a formula, such as fraction, square root,
and so on.
Tip
Use the commands left[ and right] to obtain square brackets. A list of all brackets
available within Math can be found in Appendix A Commands Reference.
Tip
If you want all brackets to be scalable, go to Format > Spacing to open the Spacing
dialog. Click on Category, select Brackets from the drop-down list and then select the
option Scale all brackets.
Unpaired brackets
When using brackets in a formula, Math expects that for every opening bracket there will be a
closing one. If you forget to add a closing bracket, Math places an inverted question mark next to
where the closing bracket should have been placed. This inverted question mark disappears when
all the brackets are paired. However, an unpaired bracket is sometimes necessary and you have
the following options.
Non-scalable brackets
A backslash \ is placed before a nonscalable bracket to indicate that the following character should
not be regarded as a bracket, but as a literal character.
Chapter 1 Creating & Editing Formulas | 25