How to identify and use keyboard shortcuts in MathType

Keyboard shortcuts are always the fastest way to complete tasks in many computer programs, and so is MathType. Shortcuts help you manipulate equations faster, thus saving a lot of time and formulas.

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But keyboard shortcuts in MathType can be confusing, especially if you're an occasional user of this math notation software. Therefore, to help you experience the program more smoothly and effectively, Download.com.vn will guide you how to identify shortcuts and use shortcuts in MathType. Let's start.

Find out what this shortcut assigns to

How do you discover which shortcut keys are assigned to different components, to form your equation in MathType? The easiest way is to find the item in the appropriate table and point the mouse at it. While hovering the mouse pointer over it, take a look at the status bar, item descriptions and keyboard shortcuts will be displayed there:

If you use Windows, have you ever noticed the underlined characters in the names in the menu bar? Depending on your display settings, they may not be underlined, but the underlined characters also define keyboard shortcuts. (If your menu commands and titles don't have underlined characters, you can turn on this feature by selecting Display from the Windows Control Panel . Click the Effects button on the Appearance tab . Deselect the option labeled as Hide underlined characters… and click OK twice to confirm).

To access a menu, press the Alt key and then press the underlined letter in the menu title. While this menu is expanded as shown below, you can use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move from one menu to another or to navigate up and down a separate menu.

To select one of the commands, press Enter to select the highlighted command or press the underlined character in the command (whether the command is highlighted or not). For the example below, you can use the strings Alt, E, A to select the delete command ( Clear ) from the Edit menu .

A few things to keep in mind when reading keyboard shortcuts

In a shortcut like the example above - Alt, E, A - commas are just spaces, they are not part of the shortcut.

Sometimes you'll see commas associated with a shortcut that requires more than one keystroke. For example, the Greek letter omega take a shortcut Ctrl + G , followed by the letters W . You will see this shortcut written as " Ctrl + G, W ". A comma in this case means you have to press Ctrl + G first, then press the W key before omega appears in your equation. When using these keyboard shortcuts, MathType gives you 4 seconds to press the second key or combination of keys after you release the first key or key combination.

While using uppercase letters to identify keyboard shortcuts is a common practice, do not press the Shift key unless specifically specified. For example, Ctrl + Shift + E is the shortcut for converting Text styles .

The keys separated by the plus symbol + must be pressed at the same time, so in the case of Text style , you must press Ctrl and Shift while pressing and releasing the E key . There is no need to accurately time these three keystrokes simultaneously. Simply hold down Ctrl and Shift while pressing and releasing the E key , then release the other 2 keys.

You also need to note in the screenshot above, if a menu item has a shortcut associated with it, the shortcut will be identified on its own menu rather than in the status bar. The Alt key is used to access the active menus in any Windows application.

Create your own shortcuts

Download.com.vn has shared with you how to create shortcuts in MathType, you can refer to the article to know how to create shortcuts for yourself.

See also: Creating shortcuts for most common symbols and actions in MathType

The above article has shown you how to find out which shortcut is assigned to a specific symbol, pattern, or item, and how to create your own or change existing ones. Hopefully, you will have the most effective use of MathType.