Getting Started Guide

Markup
You can type the markup directly on the equation editor. For example,
you can type “5 times 4” to obtain
5×4
. If you know the markup, this
can be the fastest way to enter a formula.
Tip
As a mnemonic, the formula markup resembles the way the
formula reads in English.
Below is a short list of common equations and their corresponding
markup.
Display Command Display Command
a=b
a = b
a
sqrt {a}
a
2
a^2
a
n
a_n
f xdx
int f(x) dx
a
n
sum a_n
ab
a <= b
infinity
a×b
a times b
xy
x cdot y
Greek characters
Greek characters (
, , ,
, etc) are common in mathematical
formulas.
These characters are not available in the selection box or the
right-click menu
. Fortunately, the markup for Greek characters is
simple: Type a % sign followed the name of the character, in English.
To type a
lowercase
character, write the name of the character in
lowercase.
To type an
uppercase
character, write the name of the character
in uppercase.
See the table below for some examples.
Lowercase Uppercase
%alpha
%ALPHA
A
%beta
%BETA
B
%gamma
%GAMMA
%psi
%PSI
%phi
%PHI
%theta
%THETA
314 Getting Started with OpenOffice.org 3