Apache OpenOffice (AOO) Bugzilla – Issue 24256
Exporting to HTML should turn Formulae into MathML (not GIFs)
Last modified: 2013-08-07 14:54:45 UTC
When formulae are exported to image formats such as GIFs the result displays poorly. I have tested this with PNGs also of various sizes, both RGB and indexed, and they all display poorly unless the image is large. I think that this is a limitation of image file formats intended for the web. Only the simplest text can be exported to an image and still look alright. The best solution is to simply export formulae as MathML. Or at least have the option (maybe in Tools > Options) to do so. This shouldn't be hard since OOo already uses MathML to save formulae. This issue limits the use of OOo in university settings.
I'm setting the target milestone to 1.1.2 because this issue doesn't look too difficult to fix. It's the kind of simpler fixes that should (I think) go into the 1.1.x branch.
TL->BH: request for enhancement. To you.
This already works fine with the Latex export filter, which includes the "XHTML 1.1 + MathML 2.0" export filter. It appears in the File->Export dialog. See Bug 24813. The exported XHTML successfully renders in my Mozilla 1.6 browser. With this combination I could avoid the ugly formula-GIF for the first time. As far as I know, Mozilla requires the strict XML-based XHTML variant for in-line MathML formulas. Just HTML like in the current OO export is not sufficient. I checked already with embedding some MathML-code into HTML pages, didn't work. The XHTML-export from the Latex filter package is the only choice at the moment to realize the MathML formula export and avoid the ugly GIF images. The integral symbol could be more pretty in Mozilla, it's not a true Tex renderer. Future MathML engines would render it better for sure. Up to now you have to patch OO manually by adding some files (recompilation not necessary) to the OO distribution. See the dependency tree for more info. I hope that it will be included in the OO distribution soon.
Created attachment 12742 [details] export test with embedded MathML (Writer2Latex export filter, includes also XHTML+MathML 2.0)
Oh, I forgot to mention that you need a standards-compliant browser to see the formula inside of the attachment. With "Internet Exploder" you see only rubbish. IE does not know anything about MathML, Microsoft does not like standards. Newer Netscape's, Mozilla 1.6 & Mozilla Firebird 0.7 will display it, some older versions too. It's not as good as Tex typesetting however, don't expect too much. If the Math symbol fonts are too ugly, check this out: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/mathml/fonts/
Hello frank7, this issue is considered for Office later. But please, never never again touch the status field of an issue! That field is only to be set by development or user experience. If you set this flag, you say, that you are going to implement this feature.
Could someone explain to me why this is "OOo Later". Is it difficult to change this?
@dcarrera: good news for you, this feature already exists, as you can see in the attachment I created. It's a XHTML/MathML export filter in the "File -> Export" menu. However, you have to integrate the export filter manually, see here: http://www.hj-gym.dk/~hj/writer2latex/ (GNU LGPL) Don't worry, you don't have to recompile, just copy 2 jar-files and one xcu-file into an existing StarOffice or OO 1.1 installation. About the difficulty : I did it in < 10 minutes. @bh: are you a Microsoft agent? Or what's your explanation to set this issue to one of the lowest priorities P4+OOLater and blocking my account for writing ? That is not very cooperative style. Similar motivation to support math standards I see only at our most beloved company Microsoft. I don't understand your argument that I should implement this feature. This feature IS implemented. It is just ignored up to now and waits for inclusion into the main distribution. I offer my support to test it on our Linux and Windows machines. This is critical for us now, because we have to decide between OpenOffice+Latex-Export and MicrosoftOffice+word2tex-filter. MS+filter has a slightly better Latex support while OO+filter offers additional MathML support. Price is not important to us, just functionality and standards-compliance. It will be difficult to convince the institute staff and the procurement department if this feature is just an "unofficial patch" to Staroffic/OO. Frank
Take over mathml export, as to investigate if the usage of the W3C mathml content to mathml presentation transformation could be used in the XHTML export. This might would enable mathml in larger scale in modern browsers as Firefox.
started
Removed dependency as 24813 does only integrate two LaTeX export filter (BibTeX and LaTeX 2e) and no XHTML export.
Are you planning to integrate into OOo the second half of Writer2Latex filter which handles XHTM and MathML? I think the old and new formula export can go along...
... for example they can be checkbox selectable. MathML should be the default IHMO.
Hi kami_, AFAIK the writer2latex export is one filter, the xhtml 1.1 and mathml is a different export filter. When added to the office they should be added as an equivalent filter not as a subgroup. No checkbox selection is required for equivalent filters. If we would add it as further filter, we nned to make sure the quality would justify an exchange of the current xhtml export filter. From what I have seen last year it was no superset of functionality, but you might prove me wrong. Regarding the mathml functionality it is an independent XSL module from the W3C, which can be added to any other XML based filter, as well to the existing XHTML export. Regards, Svante
henrikjust: Can you do a miracle again? :o)
Kami I can not follow you. Mathml will be added to the current XSLT XHTML export, by reusing the same module Henrik had used. Is there any further problem you refer to Henrik I have overseen? cheers, Svante
Why is this still not fixed? MathML is now supported by all major browsers, except, it seems, IE. (Possibly IE 10 does. I have only been able to try IE8 and IE9.) It is 5 years since the last comment was added to this bug report. Please include the filter mentioned in comment #8 in the next release. It's probably better to have this as an option for XHTML export rather than a separate export type.
(In reply to comment #17) > Why is this still not fixed? Because no one is interested in working on the html filter. MathML is now supported by all major browsers, > except, it seems, IE. (Possibly IE 10 does. I have only been able to try IE8 > and IE9.) It is 5 years since the last comment was added to this bug report. To get all in one converting use export to XHTML. Or if you only need one formula save it to MathML directly from the context menu of the formula. > > Please include the filter mentioned in comment #8 in the next release. That is not possible, because it has an unsuitable license.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I did not look at the XHTML export carefully enough. It is indeed using MathML. I had thought the equations were in the data: URI images in the export. My apologies for my error. XTHML export is what I am using and when seeking to file a bug against that, I found this apparent duplicate.