30. Use Mathematical Formulas in Documents  BEFORE YOU BEGIN 27 Insert Graphics in a Document 29 Add a Chart or Spreadsheet to a Document
By its very nature, the inclusion of advanced mathematical formulas isn't the simplest to explain. Math experts will understand, and those who cloud up at long division may want to skip the whole thing. Probably, if you have the need to include mathematical formulas, then you understand the math behind what you're including in your document. This task shows you how to use the formula editor to include a mathematical formula in your document. OpenOffice.org contains a tool called Math for creating advanced mathematical equations. Math can be run as a standalone program, but it is often simpler to access its tools while working within another document. Instead of opening Math and then copying and pasting the formula into Writer, you can open a formula editor within Writer to create and insert the formula without ever leaving your document window. Far too many combinations of far too many expressions exist to cover them all in one task. Therefore, this tasks presents some fundamental ways to include such expressions in your document, but it does not present an exhaustive demonstration. Having said that, you may be amazed at how simple Writer makes it for you to enter such formulas. With Math's formula editor , you can build an extremely complex expression. 30. Use Mathematical Formulas in Documents 
If you work extensively with mathematical expressions in your documents, you'll want to explore the exhaustive variety of expressions and formula-building tools available to you in Math.  KEY TERM Formula editor A tool with which you can compose complex math equations. OpenOffice.org's formula editing tool is called Math.
TIP To open Math as a standalone program, select Math from the OpenOffice.org program group in the Windows Start menu, or select File, New, Formula from any open OpenOffice.org program.
| 1. | Request a Formula When you need a mathematical formula, click Object on the Insert menu, and then click Formula in the submenu. When you do, a new window pane will open in the lower half of your screen to provide a place to build your mathematical formula and the Tools toolbar will open to offer one-click access to common Math- related commands. The formula editor is always at work in this lower window pane to build mathematical formulas you request. The Selection window appears also. From the Selection window, you select the kind of formulas you want to build, such as sums, relations, and functions. TIPS If the Selection window doesn't appear, select View, Selection from the menu to display it. If the Insert Object toolbar is open on your screen (select View, Toolbars, Insert Object ), you can request a Math object by clicking the Insert OLE object button and then double-clicking OpenOffice.org 2.0 Formula in the Insert OLE Object dialog box. | | 2. | Use ToolTips
Hover your mouse pointer over any of the Selection window's items to view more information on that item. The ToolTip that appears provides an explanation of what the symbol stands for.
| | 3. | Select General Expressions
When you click a button in the top half of the Selection window, the available expressions in the lower half change. Click the Functions button (the one that looks like f(x) ), and the lower half of the window changes to reflect all the functions you can build inside the formula editor.
| | 4. | Select an Expression Click to select the N-th Root button in the lower half of the Selection window. As soon as you do, the formula editor displays an expression that represents an nth root. NOTE You won't see math symbols in the formula editor, but as you build formulas, the symbols will appear above in your document. | | 5. | Fill in the Details
You now must fill in the details, replacing the placeholder symbols with actual values. To write a formula that represents the 4th root of the number 16,600, for example, you would replace the first placeholder, <?> , with 4 and the second placeholder with 16600 . Have patience, because the formula editor takes its time parsing your expression before producing the formula with all the proper symbols in the document at the top of your screen.
All OpenOffice.org programs support a symbolic mathematical language. When you type the language in the formula editor, the formula editor interprets what you type and builds the formula above in your document. As you work with the formula editor over time, you will get accustomed to the language used there. Once you learn some of the language, you can type the language directly instead of selecting from the Selection window if you find that typing the language is easier. For example, instead of selecting the N-th Root button, you could have typed nroot{4}{16600} , and the formula editor would have known what you wanted to build.
| | 6. | Get More Symbols To add more symbols, such as a delta symbol, to your formula, click the Catalog button on the Tools toolbar. The Symbols dialog box appears. You can browse through the available symbols and click the Symbol set list arrow to view other available symbol categories. When you find the symbol you want to insert, click the Insert button. NOTE If you double-click a symbol in the Symbols dialog box, the symbol is inserted at the location of the insertion point and the dialog box closes . If you select a symbol from the dialog box and then click the Insert button, the symbol is inserted but the dialog box remains open. | | 7. | Select a Symbol to Insert
When you click a symbol, a description of that symbol, in the formula editor's math language, appears in the lower window pane. The symbol then appears above next to the first part of your formula. You can continue adding symbols (in this case, adding more symbols would represent multiplication of them).
| | 8. | Return to the Document
Click the Close button to close the Symbols dialog box when you're done inserting symbols. You can jump back and forth between the Symbols dialog box and the Selection window as you build more complicated expressions.
Click the Selection window's Close button to close this window when you're through building your formula, or simply click anywhere in the document window.
Clicking anywhere in your document hides both the formula editor's window pane and the Selection window, so you can get back to work on your document.
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