Jex - a Java Equation Editor for Open Office [OO 1.1x version]

Jex is an equation editor designed to insert and edit equations in Open Office. It is similar to the Design Sciences Mathtype editor, a version of which also ships as the default equation editor with Microsoft Word. Installation and downloads are below. Jex is a wysywig editor that supports both TeX and MathML. This version will only work with openoffice 1.1x and not with 1.0 or 1.9+, and you should use at least a 1.4 version of Sun's Java j2sdk or jre. If you want the current version for openoffice 1.9+ click here.

Downloads: Final Public Domain, Openoffice <1.9 version (stable version 9) (Note that the jar files contain the source code along with the executables.) Installation instructions are below. Rename the file to jex.jar.

Changelog

Copyright: This version and all earlier versions are placed in the public domain.

Compiling: The source files are contained in the jar file. To compile, change the jar extension to zip and unzip the file. The java files should be in a directory called jex, the images in a subdirectory of that directory called images. The support files must be in your class path. From the superdirectory of the jex directory issue the command javac jex/Jex.java. You can then run the program by java jex/Jex and put it in a jar file using jar jar cvfm jex.jar jex/jmainclass.txt jex. If you want to make modifications, it would be useful if you changed the data in ver.txt to show that this is a different version.

Usage: To insert a new equation in Openoffice, use the keyboard accelerator ctrl-m. To edit an existing equation, select it, and use the keyboard accelerator ctrl-m. In both cases a Jex window will open. The first time Jex runs it will take a while to load, so be patient. However, even when all Jex windows are closed, Jex will remain running until Openoffice closes, so subsequent window openings will be reasonably fast.

Equation editing uses keystroke bindings similar to Mathtype or Scientific Workplace; in particular control-j inserts a sub/superscript and control-g make the next character greek. You can find a complete list of keyboard accelerators under the help menu. To insert something into the "User" menu, copy it to the clipboard, then click on the target using any mouse button except the usual one. When you are done editing your equation, save it, or use the ctrl-m keystroke accelerator from within Jex to save the equation and close the window.

If you are editing an equation, the "save" operation replaces the equation in openoffice with your edited equation. Otherwise the new equation is inserted at the cursor in openoffice. Note that the font size of the equation inserted into openoffice is determined from the font size of the text that precedes the equation. If you change font sizes in the Openoffice document, simply edit your equation and resave it to get the font size reset.

Jex speaks a dialect of both MathML and of LaTex. LaTex is the default format. The paste operation will read the clipboard to determine if it contains TeX or MathML. You can also type TeX directly into equations by hitting \ in the editor. Be aware that hitting the space key will insert your TeX and exit TeX mode. Exactly what LaTex is and is not supported by Jex is documented here. MathML support is "more experimental" than TeX support, and is not yet documented. Jex can be used to convert from supported TeX to MathML and vice versa.

Jex supports two command line options. You may use the option --server and also the path to a configuration file. If you specify a configuration file, the configuration will be loaded from that file, and configuration changes will be saved to that file (it will be created if it does not already exist). The default installation uses a file called conf.jex in the same directory you installed Jex into. The --server option will try to edit whatever is selected in Openoffice when Jex first starts up, and will cause Jex to remain resident until all Jex windows are closed and Openoffice closes. This is the default option. If you do not use the --server option, Jex will start up without trying to get an equation from Openoffice, and it will close as soon as all Jex windows are closed.

Known Limitations:

• In order to get the correct vertical alignment, equations are padded with space so that they extend an equal distance from the baseline both above and below the line. If you use variable spacing this will lead to strange spacing between the lines. In any case, your document will look better if you use fixed spacing for your text, and the extra padding should not pose a problem for displayed equations that use variable spacing.
• The routine for finding equations that are being edited does not work properly when the equations are inside of tables or footnotes; if you have selected the equation you want replaced everything will work fine; if you have selected something else,  that something else will be replaced rather than the equation in the table or footnote.
• If Jex cannot find the equation you are editing (for example it is in a table or footnote; you have deleted it; or it is in a different document) it will insert the equation being saved at the current cursor (deleting anything that is selected). This is a workaround for the footnote/table problem, but be careful.
• Jex only looks in the document you are currently editing, so if you edit an equation and switch documents, then save, the saved equation will not go into the original document.
• You can undo equations inserted or edited with Jex using the Openoffice undo - but Jex inserted the equation in several steps, and it will take several undoes to get back to where you started, resulting in some rather strange looking interim results.
  
• Jex only works with swriter/oowrite - it does not work with the spreadsheet or drawing program.
• Equations occasionally disappear while typing - this appears to be an openoffice bug with the display of graphics. They haven't gone anywhere, they are just temporarily invisible and will reappear shortly. If you turn the graphics display off and on again you can force them to reappear.
  
• Never put a graphical object, including an equation, at the very beginning of an openoffice document.

Fonts: Use the Design Science Euclid fonts, which you can download here. You should first read the licensing agreement.

Installation

Upgrading

What the Installation Routines Do

• modifies the share/registry/data/org/openoffice/Setup.xcu file to open communications with Java on port 8100. It does this by adding  <prop oor:name="ooSetupConnectionURL" oor:type="xs:string"><value>socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;</value></prop> immediately following <node oor:name="Office">. You can also modify this file by hand, or you can include “-accept=socket,host=localhost,port=8100;urp;” on the swriter/oowriter command line everytime you run it. If you have problems, you might want to run netstat -a to make sure that Openoffice is really listening on port 8100.

• it writes a file JexMod.xba to the user/basic/Standard directory; this contains the Jexgrab macro. The Jexgrab macro when executed attempts to connect to Jex on port 8101. If it fails it runs Jex with the command line options --server <jexdirectory>/conf.jex.
• it modifies the script.xlb file in that same directory to make the JexMod module known to openoffice
• it modifies the user/config/soffice.cfg/writerkeybindings.xml file to assign the Jexgrab macro to the keystroke ctrl-m. You may change this from the "Configure" submenu of the Openoffice "Tools" menu if you like.

• it unzips and copies the Euclid fonts to the share/font/truetype directory

• it unzips and copies the Euclid fonts to the jre/lib/fonts directory

• writes a small file, jexpath.txt, to the user/config directory; this contains a system dependent shell command that the Jexgrab macro uses to start Jex when it is not already running. You may edit jexpath.txt by hand if you wish to use different command line options.

What is in the support files?

The support.zip contains the necessary java support files from openoffice 1.1 needed to control openoffice from Java. They are probably already installed on your system but are a pain to locate, so I have provided a set of copies and bound the jar file to copies that are in the same directory as the jar file. The support.zip file also contains the install.sxw file.