 | OOoLatexOOoLatex is a set of OpenOffice.org macros designed to integrate LaTeX equations. |
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OOoLatex Description
OOoLatex is a set of OpenOffice.org macros designed to integrate LaTeX equations. OOoLatex is a set of OpenOffice.org macros designed to integrate LaTeX equations. It contains two main modules: The first one, OOoLatexEquation, allows to insert Latex equations into Writer and Impress documents as png, eps or emf images while the second one, OOoLatexInline, can be used for simpler equations by expanding Latex code in the appropriated symbol characters.With OOoLatexEquation, the equations are created and can be edited through an intuitive GUI while the informations (including the latex code, the characters size and the equation type) are stored in the image attribute and saved in the file. It is thus possible to edit these equations later.To use OOoLatexEquation you need a Latex distribution and the program Ghostscript to create and process the equation. Some additional softwares are required to convert the image to png, eps or emf file format (see section Installation).The OOoLatex project runs under Linux, MacOSX and Windows/Cygwin.OOoLatexEquation can use three file formats to integrate equations into OpenOffice.org documents. Each one has his advantages and disadvantages.· The portable network graphic (png) format is probably the simplest to use. But it has the disadvantage that the image is pixelated. It's possible to increase the resolution but it is to the detriment of the file size. With transparent background, the border of the characters contains residue of the subtracted background color.· The encapsulated postscript (eps) format gives very good results on postscript printer, but the preview image embedded into the eps file is not good enough to be used for quality screen display. Furthermore, it is not possible to obtain transparent image and the pdf export uses the preview image.· The enhanced meta file (emf) format should be preferred since the image uses scalable fonts and can be made truly transparent. The pdf export embed the fonts so the file is readable from any computer but you need to install the Bakoma truetype fonts to be able see the document within OpenOffice.org.Requirements:To use the module OOoLatexInline, you need to install some TrueType fonts. By default, OOoLatexInline needs the MathType fonts for the grec letters and some specials symbols and the Bakoma fonts for a wide range of other special mathematical characters and symbols. You should probably read the MathType Fonts License before using these fonts. The MathType fonts are directly available here.The module OOoLatexEquation requests a standard Latex installation with ghostscript to process the equation. OOoLatexEquation has been tested with ESP Ghostscript 8.15 and AFPL Ghostscript 8.51.The macro uses the shell script OOoLatex (see below for installation) to make the dvi file of the equation and to convert it to other formats. By default, the macro looks for the script in your ${home}/bin directory for Unix/Linux users and in c:cygwinbin for windows users, but you can put it in an other location depending of your system configuration and tell OOoLatex where the script is located (c.f. configuration window). For each of the supported file formats, you need some specific programs or font files:· for png, you need to install the program convert from the package ImageMagick. Notice that with the series of “test releases” (available for OpenOffice.org 2.x), the script OOoLatex can be configured to use Ghostscript to convert the image into the png format. This option should be preferred since Ghostscript can use the alpha channel for transparent background. To configure the script OOoLatex, comment the appropriate line in the beginning of the script. · for eps, install the program epstool. · and for emf, you need the Bakoma TrueType fonts and the program latex2emf (package OOoLatexEmf, see the README file for the latex2emf's installation procedure). Make sure that the Bakoma fonts are accessible from OpenOffice.org, they are not inserted into the emf file. Notice that you need to install the fonts on each computer used to to open documents containing the equations. The macro OOoLatexEquation uses the layer of the Draw module to import the image of the equation into the document. As a consequence, you need to install the Draw module and all the image format filter in addition to Writer and/or Impress.
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