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## Equation Editor Issues

My question has to do with symbol function with the Equation Editor.  Recently I tried to recreate a formula that included the summation symbol (sigma sign).  It copied sign just fine, but it does not allow me to add indexes or limits - which would give me blue shaded boxes the same way as fractions, root signs, subscripts and superscripts - - these work fine.  The sigma sign is missing this function so formulas with it are incomplete.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

James

1 Solution

Accepted Solutions
Community Champion

If you are using the equation editor that is part of the Rich Content Editor, then I have advice. If you're using the equation editor that comes with Quizzes.Next, then I don't have a way of testing that, but the other advice might work.

When I need to create limits, I go into the advanced editor. I do not use the summation symbol that is under the basic palette. It may work, but I know enough LaTeX and need enough advanced stuff that it's quicker for me to just type it than try to click it.

I switch to the advanced view where there are no blue boxes available, but you have more control.

To get limits, use the \limits or \displaystyle LaTeX macros.

\limits places the limits above and below the summation instead of to the side.

\displaystyle makes it larger and places the limits above and below the summation.

Here are three examples:

y=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}c_nx^n‍y=\sum\limits_{n=0}^{\infty}c_nx^n‍\displaystyle y=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}c_nx^n‍‍‍‍

and how they render (in the same order) in Canvas

There is no need to use \limits if you have \displaystyle, but it doesn't hurt other than making it a little longer, while it is clearer (perhaps) to someone looking at the code.

In LaTeX, the two display modes are inline and display. In Microsoft Word nomenclature, that would be linear and professional. \displaystyle makes fractions full-size rather than trying to cram them into a single line. There are other differences between them as well.

Finally, a note about the equation editor. While in the editor itself, it uses display mode, even if you don't have the \displaystyle in there. The equations may also turn out smaller than they look in Canvas.

Here's how the first one displays in Canvas while editing. Notice the limits are above and below the summation symbol, even though they come out after it on the saving it.

This first one, without the \limits or the \displaystyle can also be seen in the Basic View. So when I edited it after saving it, It rendered as basic where I have the blue boxes I can change things.

If I add \limits or \displaystyle to it, then Canvas tells me it cannot be rendered in basic view.

Hope you can figure it out from that.

5 Replies
Community Champion

If you are using the equation editor that is part of the Rich Content Editor, then I have advice. If you're using the equation editor that comes with Quizzes.Next, then I don't have a way of testing that, but the other advice might work.

When I need to create limits, I go into the advanced editor. I do not use the summation symbol that is under the basic palette. It may work, but I know enough LaTeX and need enough advanced stuff that it's quicker for me to just type it than try to click it.

I switch to the advanced view where there are no blue boxes available, but you have more control.

To get limits, use the \limits or \displaystyle LaTeX macros.

\limits places the limits above and below the summation instead of to the side.

\displaystyle makes it larger and places the limits above and below the summation.

Here are three examples:

y=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}c_nx^n‍y=\sum\limits_{n=0}^{\infty}c_nx^n‍\displaystyle y=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}c_nx^n‍‍‍‍

and how they render (in the same order) in Canvas

There is no need to use \limits if you have \displaystyle, but it doesn't hurt other than making it a little longer, while it is clearer (perhaps) to someone looking at the code.

In LaTeX, the two display modes are inline and display. In Microsoft Word nomenclature, that would be linear and professional. \displaystyle makes fractions full-size rather than trying to cram them into a single line. There are other differences between them as well.

Finally, a note about the equation editor. While in the editor itself, it uses display mode, even if you don't have the \displaystyle in there. The equations may also turn out smaller than they look in Canvas.

Here's how the first one displays in Canvas while editing. Notice the limits are above and below the summation symbol, even though they come out after it on the saving it.

This first one, without the \limits or the \displaystyle can also be seen in the Basic View. So when I edited it after saving it, It rendered as basic where I have the blue boxes I can change things.

If I add \limits or \displaystyle to it, then Canvas tells me it cannot be rendered in basic view.

Hope you can figure it out from that.

New Member

This was awesome thank you. It helped me looked into macros a little more.

I don't know what content editor I am using. I just know it's the Equation

Editor in Canvas through my school. If you could help a little more, I was

having trouble figuring out how to format this (below) in advanced view

with the fraction. Could you type this out in macro. I caught on to how

" _ " and " ^ " work. I'll start with \frac and then I can only get "P"

on top, the rest ( (A_i)... continues on after/outside the fraction, if

that makes sense? The first bracket ends up under the P in the fraction.

How would you write this out, starting from the equals sign?

Thanks so much for your thorough response!

James Westmoreland

New Member

I figured it out. =\frac{P(A_i)*P(E\mid

A_i)}{\sum\limits_{j=l}^P(A_i)*P(E\mid A_j)}

At first I neglect to add \limits after \sum, so my index and limits were

placed to the right....once I added \limits, they both jumped above/below

the summation perfectly. How cool !

Is there a resource you can reference so I can share with my class?

New Member

I had another issue with spacing after \mid A_i ..... I figured out \mid

had to be in { } and it squeezed everything together.

This was weirdly fun. Is this is programming is like using macros and

formulas the same way?

Community Champion

LaTeX is like a programming language of sorts, but not in the normal way. It's more like HTML where you have to specify all the formatting codes yourself, but it has built-in support for mathematics. All that Canvas is using is the mathematics portion, but it works well because LaTeX is the standard for composing mathematical content. Many mathematical journals require documents be submitted as LaTeX and are just now coming around to accepting Word. Generally, when macros take arguments, they're included in braces { } and when they're optional, they're included in brackets [ ].

A good starting point, although not a single page, is LaTeX - Wikibooks, open books for an open world. In particular, there's a page for mathematics that has a lot of beginning stuff.

When I have questions, I normally Google it and end up on tex.stackexchange.com. It's a Stack Exchange site dedicated to TeX and LaTeX. Users try to figure stuff out and when they can't, they ask, provide what they've gotten so far, and then someone will come in and explain how to do it.

There is one other trick I learned the other day. If you have Word 2016 or later, or maybe it's Word 365, anyway, if you're in the equation editor there are a couple of formatting options from the right-side pull-down.

I went through and designed it like this using the Professional setting.

When I change it to linear I get this

So, if you're used to using Word, you can use it to generate the LaTeX that you can then paste into Canvas.

I'm old school and it's quicker for me to use the keyboard than the mouse, so easier for me to just type the LaTeX then create it Word. Canvas' equation editor and Words equation editor are different and the supported commands mostly overlap but there is some places where it doesn't. That means that this trick doesn't always work, but it should for the major stuff. LaTeX gives you better control over things and is more powerful, so I would learn enough to get you by in Canvas as it doesn't require creating it, then converting, then copy/pasting.