[Solved] Saving formulas as image files?

[ijwfc]

Hello, all I want to do is save formulas as jpg's so that I can load them onto Anki, the program I use for flashcards (.png .gif .tiff and .svg files would also work). But I honestly cannot figure it out. How can I do this?

And why the devil is there a copy function in the toolbar, just taunting me with almost being able to simply copy and paste it, if it seems to be grayed out no matter what I do?

This should be so ridiculously easy, but instead it's so ridiculously frustrating that now I'm just sad. Any help would be wonderful.

[tn@BeWo]

I've not yet done anything with the formula editor, but I'd be surprised, if 'saving as image' was asking anything less than asking Writer to do the same. Perhaps a PDF export could bring you closer to what you want.
Draw is the graphics editor in OOo. So I'd try to invoke the formla editor from there. Chances are higher to come to a save as picture option from there.
As for the copy button, I think you need to have something editable selected. Isn't there an entry area?
As said, should probably as ridiculously easy as asking a word processor to save its file as a picture.

[acknak]

The formula editor is a fairly minimal application. It's primarily meant for embedding formulas in other documents, rather than for stand-alone use. As a result, it's missing a lot of features you might expect to see.

The grayed-out copy button on the toolbar is a known problem: Issue 90115: copy icon on toolbar is not enabled on selection
You can register there and add your vote (up to two) or comment.

You can always use the standard shortcut keys: Ctrl+C for copy; Ctrl+V for paste. However, in the formula editor, the clipboard functions only work with the formula code--as plain text. You can export to PDF, but I doubt that's going to be terribly useful for you.

If you use the formula editor to create a formula embedded in a Draw document, Draw can export the formula object as an image (File > Export), or you can copy and paste-special as a "GDI Metafile" then copy/paste the metafile as an image.

Also, you can always capture the screen and crop it to get an image file.

[ijwfc]

Okay, so I got all the equations I wrote into Draw. Is there a snapshot tool or something I can use to select each individual equation so that I can save it individually? Or, if I export the Math file as a pdf, how can I get it to work so that I can actually see all the equations I wrote, and not just a couple of them in a box near the top, with stuff like newline V(hat %beta_0)= %sigma^2 taking up most of the document, which refuses to be any more than one page?

Otherwise, I'll have to create about thirty separate Draw files, and then paste them all into paint so that I can save them as a jpg. Unless there's a way to save files as jpgs.

thanks

[TheGurkha]

As a workaround how about using any of the free screen grab utilites to do screenshots of the formulas and then save them from there to jpg, and perhaps tidying them up in Gimp?

[acknak]

I'm not sure just where, but it seems that somehow you've gotten off the trail.

Here's an example. It's a Draw file with nine Math formula objects in it.

You can export them (one at a time) by selecting the formula (single click), then File > Export, as some image type.

The default settings produce rather small images and the quality will probably suffer if you scale it very much. If you need to scale the formula, make a copy of it as a metafile and scale that--it will scale without losing any resolution. With the metafile scaled to whatever size you need for the flash cards, export that as an image.

Obviously, you can print the Draw document, or export it to PDF.

Maybe it would be easier to just use Draw to make the cards?

[ijwfc]

I double clicked on a formula, hit file>export, and saved it as a png. But I can't just export that one equation. No matter if the box for selection in the export window is checked or unchecked, all I can seem to export is the whole file. What am I doing wrong??

But at this point, I think the best option is to just export the list of equations to pdf from Draw, since Math won't do it properly, then zoom in to the appropriate distance and use the snapshot tool and paste each formula individually in paint. Which I think will be a little easier than taking a screenshot. Since the snapshot tool is only in adobe, not draw, correct?

And if I used draw to make the cards, then I might as well just make them by hand, since the reason I'm making them on my computer and need them as jpgs is so I can use a program that will keep track of when I need to review cards so I can optimize my studying.

[acknak]

Sorry you're still having trouble.

It may be that OOo 3.1 has a bug that ignores the "Selection: YES/NO" setting. It works correctly for me in OOo 3.1.1; I seem to remember that some people have reported problems with that particular operation, now that you mention it.

You may want to look into this flash card learning tool; it's packaged as an extension for Impress, which can embed formulas just like Draw: http://extensions.services.openoffice.o ... /OpenCards

[ijwfc]

Well now that I know how to just export the pdf using draw, it's really not all that time consuming to select each formula one by one and save them as jpgs from there. I'll definitely consider that extension though if I run into any more problems in the future.

Thanks for the help (I'm quite new to open office).

[acknak]

Glad you got something working.