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How to use MathPlayer for displaying MathML

Version: 4.x - Scientific WorkPlace, Scientific Word, & Scientific Notebook

MathML—Mathematical Markup Language—is changing the way mathematics appears on the web. MathML is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation for meaningfully encoding mathematical content. Just as HTML provides meaningful text on the Web, MathML provides meaningful mathematics. In Version 4 and later of SWP, SW, and SNB, you can automatically encode mathematics in MathML when you export your document to HTML.

Although MathML is developing rapidly, support for it is developing more slowly. Current browsers are unlikely to display a formula that has been marked up with MathML. But new plug-in viewers, such as MathPlayer from Design Science, allow many browsers to display MathML.

MathPlayer works in IE5.5 and higher on Windows. It successfully displays MathML-encoded mathematics in SWP, SW, and SNB documents that have been exported to HTML. Version 5.x is configured to use MathPlayer to render MathML. Follow these instructions to try MathPlayer in Version 4.x:

  1. Download and install MathPlayer from the Design Science website at http://www.mathtype.com/webmath/mathplayer/

  2. Change the CLASSID that SWP, SW, or SNB uses in the HTML file:

    1. Using an ASCII editor, open the file htmlout.cfg in your SWP, SW, or SNB installation folder.

    2. Find these lines:

      <OBJECT ID="mmlFactory"

      CLASSID="clsid:0E76D59A-C088-11D4-9920-002035EFB1A4"></OBJECT>

      <?IMPORT namespace="mml" implementation="#mmlFactory" ?>

    3. Change the lines to read as follows:

      <OBJECT ID="mathplayer"

      CLASSID="clsid:32F66A20-7614-11D4-BD11-00104BD3F987"></OBJECT>

      <?IMPORT NAMESPACE="mml" IMPLEMENTATION="#mathplayer" ?>

  3. In SWP, SW, or SNB, create a document containing mathematics.

  4. From the Tools menu, choose Export Settings and then select the /HTML Document Export Settings tab.

  5. Select Export Math as MathML and choose OK.

  6. Export your document to HTML, then open the file in your browser to view the encoded mathematics.

You can find a list of other plug-in viewers for MathML at http://www.w3.org/Math/.

Added 08/27/03; revised 07/20/05

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