TeX-like enclosures for math formulas

[kmgonzales1]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

---

In Moodle, inline math formulas may be entered simply by enclosing them inside a pair of double dollar signs, e.g., $$\int_a^b x^2 dx$$, while an equation displayed on its own line are enclosed by \( and \),  e.g. \(\int_a^b x^2 dx\). This feature also makes it easy to edit a document created in a TeX editor, and paste it directly on to Moodle's rich text editor. Right now the only way to enter mathematical expressions in Canvas is to open the formula editor, which can be cumbersome. I suggest these TeX-like enclosures for Canvas.

[JustinBrody]

I would love this.   I end up forgoing a lot of mathematical formatting in my reading quizzes because it's so cumbersome.

[James]

@JustinBrody,

About a month after this feature request was made, Canvas announced support for typing LaTeX directly without invoking the equation editor. It now supports \( ... \) for inline LaTeX and $$ ... $$ for block LaTeX.

[Stef_retired]

Comments from Instructure

LaTeX equations can be entered in any Canvas text field, and MathJax is loaded if Canvas detects an equation image added by delimited LaTeX characters. This change allows users to use equations in more areas of Canvas and manage equations more efficiently. 

For more information, please read through the  Canvas Release Notes (2021-02-20).