So iBooks Author got an equation building tool... why hasn't iWork got on?

[MasterHowl]

Title says it all really.

The equation builder looks pretty good on iBooks Author. Surely it wouldn't have been a massive job for them to include it in their iWork suite too?

Very frustrating. Once again, I find myself having to resort to Microsoft Office to do university work.

 

[maflynn]

Very frustrating. Once again, I find myself having to resort to Microsoft Office to do university work.

Office is more feature rich for many tasks and I'd say that's probably a better option many ways.

I don't think apple is too interested in iWork at the moment

 

[MisterMe]

...

Very frustrating. Once again, I find myself having to resort to Microsoft Office to do university work.

This is simply not true. MathType, the parent of Equation Editor, is explicitly Pages-compatible. It is a free download. If you chose not to pay the license fee within the 30-day trial period, it reverts to the free MathType Lite version. Unlike its Equation Editor progeny, a single version of MathType Lite can be used with a number of Mac applications including Office and iWork.

 

[MasterHowl]

This is simply not true. MathType, the parent of Equation Editor, is explicitly Pages-compatible. It is a free download. If you chose not to pay the license fee within the 30-day trial period, it reverts to the free MathType Lite version. Unlike its Equation Editor progeny, a single version of MathType Lite can be used with a number of Mac applications including Office and iWork.

Oh wow! Didn't know this existed I'l try it out tomorrow when I get my mac back tomorrow (MagSafe charger just broke in two )

 

[Saladinos]

This is simply not true. MathType, the parent of Equation Editor, is explicitly Pages-compatible. It is a free download. If you chose not to pay the license fee within the 30-day trial period, it reverts to the free MathType Lite version. Unlike its Equation Editor progeny, a single version of MathType Lite can be used with a number of Mac applications including Office and iWork.

MathType is simply awful. It's a slightly expanded version of the Windows Office '97 equation editor.

It doesn't hold a candle to the system in modern Windows MS Office. It isn't integrated - it's a separate application that controls a little area of the document. Whenever you want to change your equation, you double-click and get sent to some new window with an enormous toolbar with every symbol in mathematics. The equations aren't readable in QuickLook or on iOS versions of iWork, and I believe they also get rasterised when exporting to Office filetypes.

Oh, and that's beside the fact that it's a separate purchase. This sort of thing should be built in. Equations are a little specialised, but they're absolutely necessary for anybody studying any sort of science, mathematics, business or economics.

Office 97 editor:

MathType 6.7 (yes, it still looks like this. Current version is 6.8):

iWork needs an equation builder built-in. Mathtype is pretty obviously nowhere close to the experience of Word's equation editor. Haven't tried the iBooks one yet.