Formatted Excel Equations v1.1
News
26 July - Version 2 of the Addin will be available shortly. This creates scalable (vector based) equations and a whole lot more!
Purpose
To automatically converts Excel formulas into formatted mathematical equations.
Ideal if you like to document your worksheet or if you just need help debugging formulas.
Example usage:
The Excel formula:
=(SIN(x)^2)/(1+COS(x))
is formatted to give:
Note: Cell on left contains our formula with numeric solution (i.e. 1.989992). The formatted equation is automatically place to the right of the source formula. All equations can moved and resized.
Usage
The main interface to this Excel Add-in is through the toolbar:
Each button performs the following tasks:
| Button |
Action |
|
Creates a graphical formatted equation for the formula within the current selected Cell.
You can update a previously generated graphical equation, by selected either the source Excel Cell with the formula or the previous graphical equation. Either way, this tool will look for a new formula within the source Cell and update the equation as appropriate. If you have repositioned the graphical equation, then an updated to the equation will maintain this position. Note: If you move a formula Cell, then the link to the graphical equation will be broken. |
|
As above, except that the graphical equation is encapsulated within a box. This box is added within Excel, so the properties of the box (thickness, color, margins etc) can be change afterwards. |
|
This will erase the currently selected graphical equation, or graphical equation associated with a particular Excel Formula. |
|
This will erase all graphical equations generated by this Add-in. |
|
Help - which will bring you back to this page! |
If you select multiple cells or previously formatted equations, then these buttons will cycle through each object (Cell or formatted equation) and execute the action required. Note: that to update a previously generated equation you can select either the graphical equation or the original call and press one of two equation rendering buttons.
This tool converts both Excel formulas and LaTeX equations, as detailed below:
Excel Formulas
Excel equations all start with an '=', e.g.
=A1+B2
gives:
=SUM(A1+B2)/SIN(x)
gives:
})
The add-in understands that these are Excel formulas and applies appropriate formatting to create the graphical equations. This includes making function names bold and cell references blue.
LaTeX Equations
If you prefer to write an equation in the LaTeX equation syntax then simply type the LaTeX equation directly into the cell and click either one of the equation formatting buttons, e.g.
\int_3^4 sin(x^2)
gives:
)
\sum_{n=1}^N \frac{a_n^2}{2}
gives:
For help with formulating the LaTeX code see our LaTeX Equation Editor.
Printing
The equations inserted into Excel and generated in a gif file format at 300dpi. This gives good resolution on most laser printers. For display on the screen, the equation is reduced to only 100dpi. If you enlarge the graphical equation (by scaling) then be aware that although it may look good on the screen, the printed quality will reduced.
Installation Instructions
To installation this add-in, follow these steps:
I wasn't asked?
Occasionally Excel fails to ask. This doesn't matter, the add-in will work perfectly well from any location, however for tidy integration with Excel it is usually best to install all Excel add-ins in the path: C:\Documents and Settings\<your name>\Application Data\Microsoft\AddIns. Copying the file to this directory using the Windows Explorer (make sure hidden files are visible) will have the same effect. Then follow the instructions above and you'll immediately see the 'excelEquations' add-in listed in the 'Add-ins' dialog box. Simply make sure its 'ticked' to activate.
Upgrade
To upgrade to a newer version of the editor, please first follow the Uninstall instructions below.
Uninstall
To remove this addin follow these steps:
- Deactive the addin: Go to Tools -> Add-ins (as above) and make sure excelEquations is not ticked.
- Click the browse button, find 'excelEquations.xla' addin and press the 'delete' key.
- Remove the CodeCogs toolbars: Right click on any toolbar, select 'Customise', find and select 'CodeCogs' (usually at the bottom) and click the 'Delete' button.
Version History
- v1 - Released August 2008. First system for automatically converting Excel Formulas into graphically formatted equations.
- v1.1 - Integrated to work in Excel 2007.
- v1.2 - Rendered equations are now completely scalable and will print out in high resolution.
- v1.3 - Integration with Word (expected in December)
Page Comments
3 Mar 10, 10:56AM
(2 replies)
Strange result
Hi again.
I'm not trying to be a pain about it, but as I was demonstrating the tool to a colegue I was dissapointed to see the result of rendering this particular (ugly but valid) Excel formula:
=1-(1-S37)*(1-R38)/F6-(1-S37)*R38*F6
It does not look at all the way it should. Changing it a bit to:
=1-((1-S37)*(1-R38))/F6-(1-S37)*R38*F6
helps, but how come that the last part gets included with the denomenator? (in the original formula).
You are not being a pain at all. In fact your feedback is fantastic.
This is a rather silly error, that I'm sure we can resolve today. Doesn't actually need to be anything more complicated than:
=(A1)*(R38)/F6-A3
The error is simply that we're not resetting a few flag once we've analysed the first equation fraction, so subsequent parts of the equation over flow into this.
Problem is fixed. We've also enhanced the treatment of brackets so they system will remove when possible redundant brackets, i.e.
=((A1+A2))*(((A3)))
becomes just
We could in theory take this further, but sometime the user may actually extra brackets for their own clarity.
17 Feb 10, 8:20AM
(1 reply)
Parsing error?
Hi, I just noticed something you might want to look into.
If you try something like this (rather primitive) calculation:
=E28*E9*10^3*E11*E14*10^-6
You will see that the last exponent is incorrectly identified, and separated from the base, and thus require a set of brackets to render correctly.
This bug has now been fixed.
Thanks for the reporting it. Your equation now looks like this:
6 Feb 10, 4:12PM
(1 reply)
Use on Mac
I have successfully installed the add-in in my Excel (Excel 2004 for Mac), but i get the following error:
"Compile error in hidden module: Module 1"
Is it not supposed to work on a Mac, or do you have any suggestions?
The short answer is no.
It's been a while since I used Excel 2004 for the Mac, but if I remember it had limited Visual Basic support, which we need for this addin. Unfortunately, Excel 2008 has no Visual Basic support and I can only hope the next version sees a return of VBA. In the mean time the user base for 2004 is too small for us to develop a dedicated solutions for; and perhaps unfairly we envisage that most advanced Excel users will use Excel 2003 or 2007 for Windows - through a Virtual Machine running on their Macs.
So to conclude, our focus for now is on Excel solutions for the Windows platform.
12 Jan 10, 7:21AM
(5 replies)
Problem formatting Log and exponents
This add-in is very useful, and with the right formula discipline it works quite well.
However, when working with noise models and logarithms and exponents, it usually goes wrong, like when adding two dB values:
=10*LOG(10^(A1/10)+10^(A2/10))
you get:
Even adding extra brackets does not really make it right:
=10*LOG((10^(A1/10)+10^(A2/10)))
as:
The flying exponents can to some extend be controlled by adding extra redundant brackets, but is this really needed?
And the Log() is not really well positionend anyway. What it should look like is something like :
Any suggestions?
Thanks for those comments. We should be able to fix these bugs fairly quickly - there similar to another bug we've seen.
Our focus recently has been on a whole new excel equation, which we're release shortly also.
Fixed. Everything should render correctly.
Also added a new feature
LOG(23.2,8)
becomes
because the second term of LOG is the base.
Incidentally.
This addin should always be mathematically consistent and correct. I don't expect users to have to add in extra brackets etc other than to simply change the output style. In all cases the rendered equation should be mathematically correct.
This biggest challenge we have is knowing when to remove brackets that are needed in Excel, but you may not want in the rendered equation - as your example above illustrates with
should this really be
Hi,
I'm running Office excel on an Apple Mac and the addin wont load. Can you help?
Perinouk
5 Jan 10, 1:11PM
(1 reply)
Sourcecode
Great product. I'm new to codecogs and was wondering if there is a way to get the source code running on the web server?
Regards,
Per Arild
Hi,
We're coming out with a new version shortly. We won't be releasing the source code behind the webserver, though a commercial licence to binary code will be available in the Spring.
Will.
4 Dec 09, 3:13PM
(2 replies)
Greek characters
Great addin!
I have a couple questions/comments:
1. Is there a way to do greek characters?
2. Is there a way to change the font, font size and colors?
3. It would be nice to have a toggle or a separate button to create the Latex text for the equation.
4. As another reviewer mentioned, it would also be nice to be able to do a formula with the numeric values of the cells. Perhaps the user could indicate the numeric formatting to be used (notation and number of decimal places) and the rendering macro would use that to format the values. It would be best to have a separate button for this so the user could choose either cell/name references or numeric values.
Great minds clearly think alike! We've a whole a new addin that we've developed. We should release the beta, but we're about to redevelop the whole thing in C# to solve some snags we've hit (currently its written in VBA).
- Greek characters with the current version should work with just by adding a backslash in front of the greek name of the character, i.e. \alpha
- Font size will be fixed in the new edition
- Color is tricky - since we already do some colouring, but we'll consider it
- Toggle for LaTeX text is a nice idea, I think its probably easiest to route the user directly to our Equation editor.
- Numeric values is also solved in the new version - in fact we're done a whole lot more.
Thanks for the prompt response. Prior to seeing your reply, I did find out how to do the greek characters using a backslash prefix. However one thing I noted on this was that uppercase greek characters don't seem to work. I tried doing Α but that didn't seem to do the trick. If the first letter or entire string is capitalized, nothing at all seems to show up.
I also noticed that you can do subscripts using the underscore character but I could only do these if there was a single subscript, i.e., F_y works but F_ys does not.
You mentioned using "our Equation Editor". Is this a separate install? Does this make the equations editable? That would be nice. I was thinking that LaTeX formatted equations might be an intermediate step between interpreting the Excel equations and displaying them graphically which is why I recommended that. Perhaps this is not the case.
Does the new version support different fonts as well as font size?
I'm looking forward to your next release. Thanks for the good work.
6 Nov 09, 9:00AM
(1 reply)
Please connected to the web
Hi,this addin has worked for a time now, but for a couple a weeks ago it stopped working. Now it gives a warning saying "Please connected to the web" (literally). And, of course, I am connected to the web. Any suggestions? I´ve tried to reinstall.
/Luka
Dear Luka,
Sorry for the delay, and concerned your experiencing problems. I've been waiting to see if other have experienced any problems. None reported so far and it is working for us on a number of machines. Could it be possible that your company or university have enable a new fire-wall or do they use a proxy to route traffic? If you have the same problems from a different location, then please email us directly with your phone number and I'll call to work through this and see what causes this. Its important we iron out bugs before our next major release of this product - currently go through testing.
Best wishes
Will
26 Oct 09, 7:11AM
(5 replies)
does not work . error: unable to find project or library
when I hit the toolbar comes out a windows saying "cannot find hidden module" module1.
then it asks for password.
I tried to uninstall following the Procedure but it does not work. always the same problem. once it used to work then something happened and it broke. now I cannot make it work again.
I use win2k with office 2002 pro.
thank for your help!
Hi,
The trouble is, is that the toolbar has become disconnected from the VB Addin. I suspect you've managed to delete the Addin, so all you now need to do is remove the Toolbar. To do this:
- Right click on any toolbar, perhaps even in the space between buttons
- Select Customise toolbar,
- Search for 'CodeCogs', often at the bottom of the list, selected this and then click delete
Hopefully your toolbar will be removed. Now install the equation renderer again from scratch.
Hope this works for you; let me know if you still have problems. I aiming to release a new addin within the next few weeks, which will automatically solve all of these problems.
Best wishes,
Will
thank a lot for your quick help. I write here what i did and found.
I did the following:
- Removed toolbar
- Removed excelequation.xla
- Stopped excel
- Restarted excel
- Put excelequation.xla in c:/...../my_folder/application_data/microsoft/addins/
- Downloaded examples.xls from codecogs and started xl.
- Clicked on the second formula and clicked on render eqn.
the error states cannot find macro ExcelEquations_Examples.xls!latexIT
I tried to uninstall, delete files, start with a blank file but
- either it does not find the macro
- or it ask for a password.
- some times it ask for a missing library (dll)
is there a way to link the button to the macro manually or some key in the registry to clean in order to make it start working again? a new addin in few weeks would anyway be a good solution.
thanks a lot again
Hi,
Thanks for the great photos of the problems you're experiencing.
Looking at your instructions, have you enabled the CodeCogs Equation Addin, by going to Tools->Addin ?
The other thing to be wary of, it that you should probably avoid using the Example sheet. This is another mistake we make with this earlier release, because the example sheet contains its only private copy of the equation rendering solutions, and this conflicts with the main one that you've correctly tried to install also.
We shouldn't have done this. Therefore assuming you have already enable the Addin; then again remove the toolbar (as discussed previously); The Enable the Addin (Tools->Addin). If it already Enables, then disable it, close excel, start excel, then enable the addin. If all goes well it should then create its copy of the toolbar which will correctly point to the appropriate underlying code.
Sorry you're having so many troubles - we're going to expedite our new version, I hope you can remain sane till then :)
Will
hi will
thank again and again for your help. I'm not going insane, I would just like to understand. I know, I am maybe wating my precious time and I'd better finish my cylinders and my new valve. I know...
well. The last question before I give up:
what libraries have to be selected in VBA Project reference in order to let your xla to work, or at least what libraries and what versions does the addin requires? is there any name conflict? I had troubles with some apps for MSAccess requiring MSDAO 3.5 instead of 3.6 ... my excel is an XP (2002) version, I am running win2k ... and sometimes when I click the icon XL complaints of missing libraries and opens the VBA Project.if I select VBAProject (xlequations.xla) it complaints missing library. boh?!?
Bye
have a nice day!
Marco
Hi,
This is a list of everything I have checked:
- Visual Basic For Applications
- Microsoft Excel 11.0 Object Library
- OLE Automation
- Microsoft Office 11.0 Object Library
- Microsoft Active X Data Objects 2.6 Library (*)
- Microsoft Scripting Runtime (*)
- Microsoft XML v2.6 (*)
The first 4 are default. The last 3 are additional and are required by our addin
23 Oct 09, 3:08AM
(4 replies)
Mathematical Incorrect Representations !
Great program but it can generate mathematically incorrect representations.
Essentially the problem is non-compliance with BIMDAS rules.
Below are two examples where Formatted Excel Equations gives the incorrect representation:
Example 1:
Type 1/2*pi in a calculator or excel:
The correct answer is 1.570796
But Formatted Excel Equations renders this as
1 /( 2 * pi)
This equals 0.159155 which is clearly not 1.570796
Example 2:
Type 2^1^1 in a calculator or excel:
The correct answer is 2
But Formatted Excel Equations renders this as
2^11
This is clearly not 2.
I suggest the developers check the compliance of this program with BIMDAS.
Regards,
Richard
Thanks for reporting these bugs.
The first example you give seems to works perfectly for us, i.e. the excel code
=1/2*pi()
gives
Alternatively:
=1*2/pi()
gives
In the second example you gave, you've correctly identified an error. This is now fixed such that
=2^37.4^3
gives
Numerically, this gives 5.964e+33
Your example:
=2^1^1
now gives
Many thanks for reporting this.
CodeCogs,
Formatted Excel Equations still seems to incorrectly formatted =2^1^1 as 2^11.
Strangely this happens with 1^1^1 and 2^2^2 but not with 3^1^1 or 3^3^3?
Richard
Hi,
This is a caching issue. The bane of our life: Make a mistake and it persists for a while until it's flushed out the system.
I've just tried a little test here and this seems to work for me. Basically our script with Excel requests an image from the the external CodeCogs servers, this in true Microsoft style relies upon Internet Explorer, so the image is actually cached by this browser even if you don't normally use it.
Solution (for us with IE7)
- Open IE
- Click on Tools Menu
- Delete Browsing History...
- Delete files...
And if that doesn't work, try Delete all.
Will.
Will,
Thanks that has fixed the problem.
Richard
4 Sep 09, 8:00AM
(2 replies)
Deinstall: Office 2007, Vista
Hi,
Sorry but i cant't delete the toolbar of CodeCogs Formatted Excel Equations v1.1.
'excelEquations.xla' I allready deleted!
Can you help please!
BR Ludwig
Hi,
Steps you need to do include:
- Under Tools->Addins deselect the Excel Equation addins
- Now right click on the main toolbar and goto customise. In there you can then select to delete the Toolbar.
We're completely rewriting the addin at the moment, so in the future this problem won't happen.
Will
Hi Will
Sorry, but in my German Office 2007 Excel I didn't found buttons (Ribbons): Tools -> Addins Excel Equation
Can you show me where you deselect "Excel Equation Addins"
BR Ludwig
Cell names?
Would it be possible to make it so that one could activate it so that instead of displaying the cell name, for instance A1, but rather display the number located in A1?
26 Feb 09, 4:38PM
(3 replies)
Code source?
Is the code for this plug-in available? (The VBAProject is password protected)
eduardo
With excelEquations.xla
downloaded from the above link (http://www.codecogs.com/pages/functions/download.php?dir=/components/excel_render~4cb8068b3f&file=excelEquations.xla~d0f625751f),
I keep getting this message when trying to Render Eqn both on new document and the example file provided in this website:
"excelEquations_examples.xls could not be found. Check the spelling of the file name ..."
Do I need that XLS file in addition to XLA file to run this Addins?
David
Hi,
What I suspect has happened is the toolbar has become miss-aligned with the actual equation render addin.
I'm guessing you loaded excelEquations_examples.xls first? This for simplicity has all the equation code within it, and also displays a toolbar. Even when you close this sheet the toolbar remain and this points to excelEquations_examples.xls. Once you delete this example file (as you reasonably wood), the connection is lost at the equation toolbar will fail.
However when you subsequently install the addin; the original 'excelEquation_examples.xls' toolbar is still there, and isn't replaced. Hence although the addin is there you can't run it.
Solution
- Right click in the grey area behind where the toolbars are. You should get a menu.
- At the bottom of the menu, click 'Customize...'
- Scroll to the bottom and find the 'CodeCogs' toolbar. Select this, then click 'Delete' near the top right.
Now reinstall the addin as before.
Hopefully this will fix your problem.
Mean while I'll look at way to make the equation toolbar uninstall when you load and unload the examples sheet. This should prevent this problem occurring for others.
Thanks for reporting this problem
Will
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Examples.xls
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excelEquations.xla
