Microsoft® Word 2007 Bible

Chapter 20. Symbols and Equations

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Inserting symbols and special characters

• Inserting built-in gallery equations

• Creating equations

• Understanding equation editing

• Working with equations

• Equation numbering

• Word 2003 equations in Word 2007

It's not altogether clear why people distinguish between letters and numbers on the one hand, and symbols on the other. After all, letters and numbers are symbols. Be that as it may, we tend to use the word symbol to refer to a disjoint collection of characters that span the spectrum. If they have anything in common, it is perhaps that we don't usually know them by name. We can type various symbols and people will know what they are and how they're used, but they won't necessarily know what they're called. After all, they're symbols, and sometimes a tiny ideograph, wingding, webding, or whatever you might call it is sufficiently eloquent without a name.

This chapter includes two ways of looking at symbols. The first part looks at them individually, and how you go about locating the symbol you're looking for and inserting it into your documents.

The second part looks at a special way of using symbols to represent often complex concepts in mathematics, statistics, engineering, and other quantitative fields. In short, we look at Microsoft Word 2007's brand spanking new equation editor. It replaces Microsoft Equation Editor 3.1, and makes you hope you'll never have to look back. If you do have to look back, though, Word still lets you edit legacy ...