Write Maths easily with Math Input Panel in Windows 7

How many of you are able to write mathematical formulae in any word processing document? See an example of a mathematical formulae.

Look at the above two mathematical equations. is it possible to type these mathematical equations in any word processor program. Definitely not. It is impossible to write such mathematical equations directly into a word processor program. Now let us see how we can write such mathematical equations and add to a word processor application. Fortunately there is an application introduced in Windows 7. It is called as ''. The purpose of introeducing this application in is to use input devices such as touch screens or even mouse to write mathematical equations which can be inserted into various word processor applications.

So if you want to use your computer to create documents or presentations that require typed mathematical expressions or formulae in them, the Math Input Panel applicaition which came with Windows 7 is very useful. You can use Math Input Panel to create mathematical formulae which can be edited. This will definitely improve your productivity if you want to create documents or presentations which contain lot of mathematical expressions.

In this article, I will explain about the Math Input Panel available in Windows 7. I have given details on how to find Math Input Panel in your Windows 7 computer, how to use it and how to correct the formula or equation. Let us see about Math Input Panel in Windows 7.

What is Math Input Panel

Math Input Panel is one of the applications that has come along with Windows 7 operating system. This application uses the math recognizer which is built in to Windows 7 which can recognize hand written mathematical expressions. This recognized maths formulae can then be inserted into any word processing documents.

Please note that Math Input Panel. can insert mathematical equations into applications that support the MathML (Mathematical mark up language). MathML is supported by most of the office products like OpenOffice.Org, or MS Office 2007, MS Office 2010 and mathematical software products like Mathematica.

How to open Math Input Panel in your Windows 7 Computer

It is very easy to open Math Input Panel application in your Windows 7 computer. You need to just click on Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Math Input Panel. See a screen shot below.

$Opening Math Input Panel in Windows 7$

Once you open Math Input Panel, you will see a window similar to the one given below.

$Screen shot of Math Input Panel in Windows 7$

How can we use Math Input Panel

Now let us see how to use the Math Input Panel application in Windows 7. You can see "write math here' in the center of the Math Input Panel window. You can start writing mathematical formulae in that area. You can also use the tools from a menu that appears at the right side of the main window. See a screen shot below.
$Screen shot of Math Input Panel along with tools in Windows 7$

Once you complete writing the mathematical equation, please click on the Insert button which is at the bottom right in the picture shown above. Once you click on the Insert button, the mathematical formula will be pasted into the document where you want to paste it.

If the formula which you want to insert is not copied to other application, no need to worry. Math Input Panel saves the formula in clip board when you click on Insert button. So you can use Ctrl + V to copy the formula into other document. As I have already indicated in the begining of this article, Math Input Panel can insert mathematical formulae only into applications that support MathML. MathML is supported only by MS Office 2007 and above. So if you have MS word application whoser version is below Office 2007, it may not work out.

You can even edit a formula with the help of the tools available with Math Input Panel. The tools can be seen at the right side of Math Input Panel. If you have done some mistake, it can be corrected by using the Erase tool.

Some times the Math Input Panel may not recognize what you have written. This kind of things can be corrected by clicking on 'Select and Correct'. Then select the character that you want to correct and you will see a drop down menu with a list of possible options. You can select the correct interpretation from the list and continue to write. You can see a screen shot of how to make a correction below.

$Screen shot of corrections in Math Input Panel using correction tool in Windows 7$
Using Math Input Panel is very very easy as I have explained you above. The main advantage of using Math Input Panel is that it will speed up your work if you are using mathematical formulae or equations in your documents or presentations.

Write Maths easily with Math Input Panel in Windows 7