[BlindMath] Issue Accessing Formulae in Word File

Fri Dec 17 09:40:33 UTC 2021

Dear all,

I have now been in touch with the author, who says he has used the native
equation editor in Microsoft Word. I am attaching a very short extract to
this message (less than half a sentence). It contains a letter \theta which
is recognised by pandoc and JAWS, and then another symbol/equation that is
not recognised. Any ideas?

Many thanks,
Bert

On Fri, 17 Dec 2021 at 04:23, Steve Jacobson via BlindMath <
blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> It seems like we may be getting bogged down a bit here.  My understanding
> is that it is not known how the formulas were originally written.  Perhaps
> we need more information about the document.  He is using PanDoc.  Does
> anybody know if PanDoc will convert formulas in Word to LaTex?  If so, it
> is probably dependent upon how the formulas were entered.  It is, of
> course, possible that the formulas he is trying to read are actually images
> that were captured from another program.
>
> Since last spring, one can enter equations in Nemeth Code with JAWS and
> they are stored in Word's Equation Editor.  I had heard that the Equation
> editor can store formulas in a number of formats now, but I don't know any
> of the details.  Perhaps others here know.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve Jacobson
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindMath <blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Neil Soiffer
> via BlindMath
> Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2021 5:21 PM
> To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics <
> blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Neil Soiffer <soiffer at alum.mit.edu>
> Subject: Re: [BlindMath] Issue Accessing Formulae in Word File
>
> If the equations are created with MathType, then they are stored in the
> docx file as an object that has its own format. MathType is the program
> that reads that format, although the format is documented
> <
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdocs.wiris.com%2Fen%2Fmathtype%2Foffice_tools%2Fmathtype-sdk%2Fmtef4&data=04%7C01%7C%7C4e952474db8e4f78950d08d9c0eadfb4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637752937300533934%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=M4nAIW1NaUa%2B76neQi5gDixkoFnB7aLAu%2Fcj5SSvmtU%3D&reserved=0>
> and
> one could potentially write something that reads that and converts it to
> MathML. That then could be added to pandoc or NVDA or whatever and thereby
> eliminate the need for MathType. AFAIK, no one besides Design Science (now
> WIRIS) ever implemented a reader for that format. Obviously, it is a
> non-trivial amount of work.
>
> Neil Soiffer
>
>
> On Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 12:29 PM Bert Van Landeghem via BlindMath <
> blindmath at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> > Dear Robert,
> >
> > Many thanks for your feedback. I will consider Mathtype, but are you sure
> > this is the problem I am experiencing? With pandoc one should be able to
> > convert docx files to LaTeX.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Bert
> >
> > On Thu, 16 Dec 2021 at 17:17, rjaquiss via BlindMath <
> blindmath at nfbnet.org
> > >
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Hello Bert:
> > >
> > > You will need MathType software to work with Word documents. MathType
> > > allows
> > > a user to convert equasions in Word to Latex. MathType is a plugin for
> > > Word.
> > > Hope this helps.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Robert
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: BlindMath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of
> Bert
> > > Van
> > > Landeghem via BlindMath
> > > Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2021 7:43 AM
> > > To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
> > > Cc: Bert Van Landeghem
> > > Subject: [BlindMath] Issue Accessing Formulae in Word File
> > >
> > > Dear all,
> > >
> > > I received a .docx file and have converted it to LaTeX with Pandoc.
> > >
> > > Unfortunately it seems that the formulae are not converted the way I
> was
> > > hoping they would be. Scientific notation seems to be translated with
> > > images.
> > > "\includegraphics{media/image16.emf}." is example code. No image files
> > seem
> > > however to have been generated. Does anybody know what the problem
> might
> > > be, and whether or not there is a possibility to make these equations
> and
> > > symbols accessible?
> > >
> > > Kind regards,
> > > Bert
> > > _______________________________________________
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