Two simple ways to insert equation numbers in MS Word
It is essential to insert equation numbers if you are working on your thesis and/or any scientific paper consisting of a lot of equations. If your paper has many equations, then probably the best and the easiest way for you would be to write your manuscript in latex. Latex can do it smoothly and efficiently. But MS word offers several features like a spelling and grammar checker, easy writing without memorizing the codes for different tasks that have a definite advantage over the latex. The most important of all is the collaborative purpose. Almost all people are familiar with MS word, but only a fraction of our collaborators are familiar with latex.
MS Word has been evolving fast. It is now quite responsive for longer documents (one of my biggest complaints with older versions of MS Word), and now it offers the insertion of equations in the latex syntax. They are adding more and more features with time. Probably add-ons are my next favorite feature.
Step-by-step demo
I have a manuscript where I want to insert several equations in order. Following are the steps to how to insert auto-numbering to the equations.
Let’s first start with one equation. The goal is to create a template that can be used to automatically generate the table and equation with equation number to the right.
- We select the equation and then go to the references tab
2. We click on the `Insert Caption` option and select the `label` as an equation. We can exclude the label from the caption if desired.
3. We can also edit the numbering format.
We can select to include the chapter number where the chapter starts with heading 1 numbering and use the separator as “period”. Here, I chose to exclude the chapter number in the numbering.
4. Now, we insert the table with three columns and format the cell size according to our requirement.
5. Now, we cut and paste the equation and equation number in the second and third columns respectively.
6. Now, we need to align everything. We do this by selecting the table and going to the Layout tab and `align center`.
7. For the table, we don’t need a border, so remove it.
8. Now, we have an equation and its number. We can now write as many equations as we like by just copy and paste the format. We can right-click and update the field to get the ordered numbering of equations.
We can also edit the equation label and use `Eq.` instead of just a number.
Template for easy insertion of equations
We can save the equation to the equation gallery for later use as a template. To do this:
- Highlight the equation table
- Select Insert → Equation → Save Selection to Equation Gallery
Video demo for inserting equations
Create equation template for quick insertion
We can save the equation to the equation gallery for later use as a template. To do this:
- Highlight the equation table
- Select Insert → Equation → Save Selection to Equation Gallery
Use the “#” to right-align any text
Recently, through one of the followers of my blog, I came across this simple solution to the right-align anything to your equation. We can hack this to insert the equation number right of the equation.
- Enter into equation writing mode
- End your equation with
#(1) - This will give you right-aligned equations as follows:
Originally published at https://www.earthinversion.com on October 20, 2020.
