Viewing And Editing MS Documents In Statistics (Word, Excel, Powerpoint)

Two Office Suites are available on CSL/Stats Linux computers, OpenOffice and CrossOver Office. These packages allow viewing and editing of Microsoft formatted files, including Word, Excel and Powerpoint files. The basics on their use are covered in the CSL Office Suites FAQ pages.

Equation Editing for MS Documents in Statistics

In Statistics, there is often a need to edit equations for Word and Powerpoint documents. The OpenOffice and CrossOver Office suites provide this functionality.

Equation Editing in =OpenOffice

The OpenOffice equation editor can be invoked through the pulldown menu with Insert -> Object -> Formula. The equation editor is capable of fairly sophisticated formatting. General information about using many features of OpenOffice can be found at the OpenOffice.org Documentation - HOW TO site. Files are available to view in pdf. The pertinent files for equation editing are the Formula Command Reference and the Formula How To documents.

Importing equations in =OpenOffice

Equations written in MS Office are likely to be properly interpreted by OpenOffice but it will not be possible to edit them in OpenOffice. An equation edited in OpenOffice will not produce a proper Microsoft Equation Object that can be viewed in an MS-Office application.

LaTeX equations cannot be viewed as graphics images in OpenOffice.

An equation written in one of the math packages such as Maple and saved in HTML form can be imported into OpenOffice, but it is converted to GIF format and placed in an images subdirectory of your home directory. As a graphic object, the print quality is fuzzy.

Equation Editing in =CrossOver Office

The CrossOver equation editor can be invoked through the pulldown menu with Insert -> Object -> Microsoft Equation 3.0. This should be the same equation editor available when MS-Office applications are run on Windows systems. The Microsoft Equation Editor is fairly simple to use, with a point-and-click interface to build equations and a WYSIWYG viewing window to see the results as the equation is formulated. There is a MS-Word manual available from the web, Using Microsoft Equation Editor that provides some details about using the editor.

Importing equations in =CrossOver Office

It is unlikely that equations imported from other applications can be viewed or edited in CrossOver Office. Image objects of equations can be inserted but not edited.

-- MikeRedmond - 11 Aug 2005