How do I paste an Equation from Word into Affinity Publisher 2 (on a Mac)?

[jimrome]

I have a scientific article in Word, and would like to get the equations into my AP2 article. I can copy the equations into the clipboard, but there seems to be no way to insert them from the clipboard into AP2. Dragging does not work, and I can't save the equations to a file to place.

[v_kyr]

Depends on how the equations (their format) are initially embedded into Word. The Affinity apps can only deal here with with images (as bitmaps) or SVG and with some limitations when certain system wide math fonts have been used for the equations. - The easiest to share for equations between Word and Affinity would be as images here.

[lacerto]

I have made a few posts earlier dealing with equations (related to Word, but also generally) and Affinity apps, and unfortunately cannot say that there has been any development.

On macOS the situation is particularly austere. If you have universal license and access to a Windows machine, you could open your Word document with equations on Windows and then copy Word equations and paste them as "Enhanced Windows Metafile" to get something workable (one would typically need to make adjustments like shown below, and also convert RGB black to K100), as shown on the clip below:

But you cannot import a Word document with equations (like you could when you use InDesign, at least to get placeholder equations to be replaced with file-based equivalents).

More practical solutions might involve getting a tool like MathType (nowadays only via subscription) and convert the Word equations en masse to PDF format and then import them into macOS Publisher. I have no experience of this workflow on macOS but can say that legacy version of MathType on Windows that only supports EPS and WMF vector exports does not work with Affinity apps (though still does work more or less flawlessly with Adobe apps) because Affinity apps cannot read properly either format.

On macOS there are probably SVG and PDF or raster based equation utilities that can produce something usable for Publisher on macOS, but if you need a workflow based on Word and Word created equations, I suppose you need to make a visit to Windows.

As a general note I think that dedicated utilities using something like LaTeX have smoother publishing workflows on Windows than on macOS, but more robust and versatile publishing routines might require something like Adobe FrameMaker (only available on Windows). We have long experience on using (LaTeX to ) Word to InDesign print publishing workflows and that works reasonably well though may require some additional manual work. I hope other users post some information on useful and actually tested workflows involving other apps and tools (on either platform). 

[jimrome]

Actually, when I copied the Word text including the equations, they copied into AP2! Amazing.

[lacerto]

Interesting! What kinds of equations do you have? I was referring to inherent modern Word (latest version) equation objects and only simple ones can be transferred via Clipboard. I also cannot copy paste continuous text flows via Clipboard, and when importing Word files, all included Word equations are lost. 

In Word:

And in Publisher:

Copy pasting the same document from Windows version of Word (latest version) to Windows version of Publisher (2.0.4, as new objects and as Enhanced Windows Metafile, using Paste As):

 

As shown, equations come pretty well but often need editing, and all text is pasted in parts so that continuity is lost.

If you have different experiences with e.g. older kinds of Word equations, or equations created with other methods, with third party apps, please share! It would be important to find alternative workflows and something that is not dependent on e.g. subscription based tools like MathType (or dependent on subscription based InDesign).

[v_kyr]

Didn't tried that (as I lack to have/use Word) but Aspose claims to offer Word to SVG (probably also PDF) conversions ...

• Convert Word Equations and MathType into SVG
• Convert docx to SVG
• ... etc.

Personally for equations I would use more things like ...

• LaTeX to SVG
• LaTeXIT
• LyX

[jimrome]

You are right. Unlike the others in the document, this one was done with just special characters and super/subscripts.

I am trying to replace FrameMaker, and Affinity would be perfect if it did equations.

Edited April 1, 2023 by jimrome
added comment

[jimrome]

I enlarged Word doc, made a screen shot of just the equation, and placed it into the doc. It comes in tiny and must be enlarged. The main issue is how to get all the equations the same size.

[v_kyr]

50 minutes ago, jimrome said:

I am trying to replace FrameMaker...

Which was (...and maybe still is) one of the best apps for technical  writing (books, thesis, diploma ...etc.) purposes. Used it mainly (beside LaTeX) in the pasts (pre Adobe times) on Unix systems. - Sadly after Adobe took it over, it was only continued to be developed further for WIn and then nowadays also to be Adobe typical cloud-based oriented rental software. - Word is by far no replacement for FrameMaker, neither is APub.

40 minutes ago, jimrome said:

I enlarged Word doc, made a screen shot of just the equation, and placed it into the doc. It comes in tiny and must be enlarged. The main issue is how to get all the equations the same size.

If you can (would) get the equations instead of bitmap screenshots as SVG vectors, then you can scale them as wanted, or alter the SVG internal xml code to be of equal size for all the SVG format equations just by editing the SVG xml code accordingly in some text editor, before reusing (placing, draging over etc.) into APub.

[lacerto]

55 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Sadly after Adobe took it over

They did not just take it over, but have continued to develop it strongly, now for nearly three decades, the most recent version was released in 2022, and the Macintosh version was dropped nearly two decades ago. Life seems to have continued for many in the industry despite this sad event, or might have even become better for some because of still being able to use this effective tool, which the former owners and developers nearly managed to kill. It is not a hobbyist tool but it is not pricy even for professional individuals, if it is enough to rent it only for the time it is really needed.

[jimrome]

I agree. I can no longer afford to use a new FrameMaker. I have an ancient version that is barely holding on, so am trying Affinity. Some things are easier in AP2. It is equations that are the big hangup.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, lacerto said:

They did not just take it over, but have continued to develop it strongly ...

I've used FM since the past NeXT times, initially got it as a part payment for a customer programming job since I also had an urgent private usage need for the FM software. AFAI recall it's price in the past was somewhere in between ~$2500-$3000 for NeXTstep, which was a bunch/lot of money those times for a software. Later after my NX times I contacted an Adobe rep I had good contact to, who managed to send me a NX to Win system update kit for it (...as far as I recall, I got a bunch of FM 7 Win floppy disks as an upgrade package).

After Adobe acquired FM of course also a lot of former times Frame Technologies algorithmic programming code know how also flow into Adobe's own InDesign product those days, similar as before with a bunch Altsys/Macromedia Freehand know how which flow into Illustrator, etc. - In case of FM, Adobe on the one side rescued the survival of the product and pushed it again towards pro markets. Of course they benefitted from it, though the support of other system platforms, div Unix'es and OSX, had been dropped then over time. - Nowadays Adobe has with FM and ID two strong pro players in this publishing field, with which everything else must be measured.

[lacerto]

I installed MathType Office365 plug-in on macOS Word and can say that it is not a solution: while it allows adding and editing equations using a similar editor as before, and does that job competently, the equations export as raster images, no matter whether transferred via Clipboard, within Word documents or exported as PDF. Individual equations can be saved as pictures, including formats like PDF and SVG, but sadly these, too, only include raster images.

The Office plug-in also does not seem to come with any of the features of the former desktop application, which allowed e.g. conversion of Word legacy and modern equations to MathType equations, and further exporting all equations of the document in one go to EPS files. They still have the desktop versions for Windows and macOS supporting these features, but as mentioned, as subscription based, and the macOS version it seems has not been developed past the 64-bit barrier so Mojave is the last version supported. So no macOS solution in this direction, either.

[jimrome]

Rasterized equations are not bad if they are of sufficiently high resolution. 

[lacerto]

Are you on post-Mojave macOS? If not, getting the legacy MathType 7 might be a possible solution as that version would allow conversion of all Word equations in one go first to native MathType equations, which when imported with Word document in Publisher, come as pretty good-quality Windows Meta File based compositions. In macOS version it is likely that the native MathType equations are in SVG or PDF format.

In addition, MathType would allow exporting MathType converted equations to one of the formats that macOS version of Affinity Publisher can read, possibly even PDFs (as math fonts and vectors). The version I have on Windows only writes EPS (the way in which MathType writes is poorly supported by Publisher) and WMF (which does not work on macOS version of Affinity app), but the latter works fine also when placed in Publisher, and the macOS version might well support exporting to PDF or SVG, instead. My version also exports monochrome GIF<sic>, pretty low-res, but the version 7 might write higher-res PNG. Just an idea, and worth testing if you have an older mac available...

[jimrome]

I am on Ventura on a Mac Studio.

Has anyone used Math+Magic? http://www.mathmagic.com/

[v_kyr]

49 minutes ago, jimrome said:

I am on Ventura on a Mac Studio.

Has anyone used Math+Magic? http://www.mathmagic.com/

I recall that I once tried that out, though not in the Affinity context and It did what it was meant for. - Though there are also many (a bunch of) similar solutions available commercial & freeware ...

• Equation Maker
• xFormula
• Equatio
• Klatexformula (freeware on GitHub)
• LibreOffice Math - (freeware)
• Apple Pages Equations (usually part of Pages)
• JMathEdit
• LaTeXIT (freeware)
• TeXMaths (freeware)
• Cassiopeia
• ...
• ... and so on ...

[lacerto]

18 hours ago, jimrome said:

Has anyone used Math+Magic? http://www.mathmagic.com/

I am just about to trying it out, I'll report back once I know more... MathType desktop version 7 that I referred above is no longer for sale as mac version (I have Mojave on an old mac and thought that. I'd try it but dead end there, too)...

UPDATE. Wow, the trial does not let me try out conversions or even copying via Clipboard -- not a good sign, and discouraged me from giving them any money to find out. To me the app appears convoluted, and it does not seem that it can convert modern Word equation objects in place and then batch export similarly as MathType does (unfortunately now available only on Windows), rather it (tries) to convert external equations. How successfully I cannot know, but I trust that if the equations are in dedicated equation format like MathML, LaTeX, MathType, MS Equation, conversion is done decently; but how about e.g. modern equations in PDF format, or equations in miscellaneous image formats? Pro version is also pretty pricy. It seems the app can also paste its equations in PDF and SVG vector format, which would mean good considering use in context of Affinity apps.

Hopefully someone using this app can comment!

[jimrome]

xFormula in Mac Store works! I just copied and pasted. 

[lacerto]

Congratulations on finding a solution! Can you tell us a bit more: in which format(s) does it export? If in image format, how high resolution? If you copy paste, does it keep well the size (in relation to size it had in Word) so that you do not need to resize? Can you batch export just the equations?

[jimrome]

It will export in TeX or as an image, which is what copy and paste gave me. It is free too in the Apple Store. You would have to edit it in xFormula.

I had to enlarge it with the Arrow tool. So the question is how do I make sure that the sizes of all these equations are the same?

[v_kyr]

Well, the free Klatexformula and some of the other mentioned tools will export to much more formats, also to several vector formats. - Another thing to mention is, that tools which offer LaTeX like text input methods are much faster and flexible to use that pressing calculator like buttons. The same applies to scientific calculators here, where CLI like text input is also much more flexible than dealing only with buttons, in order to input and deal with calculos and/or equations!

 

[lacerto]

12 hours ago, jimrome said:

So the question is how do I make sure that the sizes of all these equations are the same?

Since raster format is ok for you, and you do not seem to need a tool that can actually convert already existing Word equations to whatever format that Affinity apps can read, you might want to have a look on the MathType Office 365 add-in. It is subscription based but its yearly costs is not too bad. I think it would be a reasonably useful tool in workflows that are based on text and equations imported from a Word document, and that works also on macOS:

a) When creating and editing in Word (all MathType equations stay editable while in Word):

b) When the Word .docx file is placed in Publisher, the font changed to Helvetica Now Text, paragraphs formatted fully justified, and equation numbering added: