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A while ago, I was excited when I learned that Microsoft had released Equation Writer, a free download as part of an Education Pack.

Equation Writer is designed for the tablet PC. You can write your equations using the stylus and they are converted into images.

I finally got a chance to play with it just now on a tablet PC. The verdict? I’m disappointed.

• The spacing between characters in each expression is limited, making it hard to read. Here’s an example:
  
• It only creates an image. It would have been much more versatile if it had created LaTEX, or better, MathML, so that the equation could be used in other applications and on the Web.
• The image size is fixed. Not a good feature.
• It only allows copy to the clipboard. To save as a GIF or similar file extension, you have to save each image separately into another image editing application.
• I can type expressions into Scientific Notebook (or similar) more accurately and quicker than using Equation Writer. And I can save my file and come back to it later and edit it. I can use what I have done in several different ways, including having SNB solve the equation for me and draw its graph.

I’m not in a hurry to use Equation Writer.

Anyone used it and like it?

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