animated formulas

[Ingo Schmidt]

Hello,

I've got the follwing problem generating a presentation using Powerpoint
2003 and Win XP.

I would like to animate a formula, written with the standard microsoft
formula editor, on a slide. The animation of the textfields is working
well but the formula is displayed really bad (jagged symbols, looks like
bad rendering or no antialiasing).

Surprisingly, the problem only occurs due to the animation of that
formula. Without animating the slide including the formula is looking good.

I've checked the older postings and I found only a few concerning the
problem but unfortunately without solving answers.
Is that problem already solved?

Thanks a lot.

Best regards

Ingo Schmidt

 

[Guest]

Depending on how your animating it, there is another option.
Don't animate the equation but animate shapes over the top.
i.e. cover sections of the formula with rectangles matching the background,
then animate their removal.

Alternatively, export the formula as a graphic, cut it up externally and
bring it back into PP. Messy I know.

kraves.

 

[Guest]

Hi

I don't use it myself, but people tend to recommend MathType. You can
download a free trial here: http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/ and
see if it meets your needs.

Lucy
--
MOS Master Instructor
www.aneasiertomorrow.com.au

If this post answered your question please let us know as others may be
interested too

 

[Bob Mathews]

I would like to animate a formula, written with the standard
microsoft formula editor, on a slide. The animation of the
textfields is working well but the formula is displayed really
bad (jagged symbols, looks like bad rendering or no
antialiasing).

Ingo, this is normal behavior. Shouldn't be, but it is. In fact,
PowerPoint will treat any graphic that way if it's animated. The
best I've been able to do with animated equations is to use
MathType (thanks for the recommendation Lucy) and save the
equation as a 384dpi GIF. With the GIF in your PowerPoint slide,
reduce its size to 25%, which will make it the same size it was
originally. Of course if you have a hundred equations in your
presentation, this gets old real fast. (Incidentally, PowerPoint
2007 isn't any better at this.) "Appear" animations, such as
appear, dissolve, and blinds seem to look better than "movement"
animations such as fly from right and zoom.

There are more suggestions on using MathType and Equation Editor
with PowerPoint in our tutorial "Using MathType with PowerPoint",
available on our web site:

www.dessci.com/tutorials

--
Bob Mathews
Director of Training
Design Science, Inc.
bobm at dessci.com
http://www.dessci.com/free.asp?free=news
FREE fully-functional 30-day evaluation of MathType 5
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