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I am fascinated by the Maths SE using MathJAX for expressing maths equations. However writing the equations takes some time and searching for a newbie, so I am looking for a WYSIWYG editor that allows to write equations easily without the need to type the TeX code.

Maple allows me to do that by pressing buttons, but unfortunately I don't have access to it at home, so I am basically looking for an alternative.

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You will find some online equation editors at Compiling documents online. Specifically, the equation editor has a button-press interface that might be of help. For offline editors, see LaTeX Editors/IDEs and find the one you're after. – Werner May 23 '12 at 15:31
As Werner wrote, the equation editor is a very usable tool. Try it! – uzsolt May 23 '12 at 16:12
The output of a TeX/LaTeX/etc file cannot be made fully wysiwyg. Even programs such as Scientific Workplace can, at best, offer at most only an approximation of the final output. – Mico May 23 '12 at 16:21
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Another helpful application might be EqualX. It is similar to the equation editor mentioned by Werner, but it's an offline utility that requires a working LaTeX environment installed. – Martin May 23 '12 at 20:42
@Martin EqualX is really nice, but the output is really small and hard to see any ideas on how to fix that? – Panayiotis May 24 '12 at 6:35
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As already mentioned in my comment above, EqualX is a nice equation editor available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. It requires a working TeX Live or MiKTeX installation available.

The generated images can be directly dragged and dropped into other applications. The properties bar (activate with Window > Properties Bar) between image and source area allows to change color, transparency, and size of the generated images.

enter image description here

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Nice and easy to use, thanks. – Panayiotis May 24 '12 at 10:51
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LyX has a relatively decent math editor. By selecting View->View Source, one can directly see the resulting LaTeX code and easily copy&paste it from there. Furthermore, it is easy to typeset the result via LaTeX to get a quick impression on the actual look of the result. The immediate representation of the resulting LaTeX source helps me a lot to actually learn the respective LaTeX commands.

enter image description here

Within the math editor, one can either choose symbols and environments from the toolbars or, if known, just type the respective LaTeX / AMS math commands directly, which LyX then converts on the fly to its WYSIWYM representation. Furthermore, it is possible to define own math macros. This provides for rapid entering of formulas.

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In Lyx, there's an Instant Preview feature (Tools -> Preferences -> Look & Feel -> Display) which, if turned on, will allow you to view the math formulas exactly as they would look on the output on the fly. – becko Jun 7 at 2:58
@becko That's actually pretty nice! It must be a newer feature; I don't remember this existing when I used it :( – Sean Allred Jun 9 at 1:03

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