Wysiwyg vs. Command-based Editing

Once you have decided whether to use images, applets, or a mixture of both in a Web page, it is time to get down to business. There are basically two ways to proceed. If you like to see what your equation looks like while you are working on it, and are more comfortable using the mouse and menus, you will probably prefer using the WebEQ Equation Editor. Alternatively, if you prefer the flexibility and control of using command languages to describe equations, or if you are already familiar with LaTeX, you will probably want to use the WebEQ Page Wizard.

There are advantages to both methods, and which is best for you depends largely on how you prefer to work, and the complexity of the project you are working on.

The WebEQ Equation Editor

The Equation Editor is based on the MathML equation description language, the new World Wide Web Consortium language for encoding math on the Web. As a result, it helps to be familiar with the main ideas of MathML when using the Equation Editor. Interested readers may wish to look at A Gentle Introduction to MathML.

The WebEQ Page Wizard

To use the WebEQ Page Wizard, an author creates an HTML file which contains math notation commands interspersed with the rest of the HTML source. The Wizard scans through the source file, generating either images or applets in place of the math commands.

The Wizard offers a wide variety of processing options. For example, in addition to generating images and applet calls, it can expand WebTeX macros, translate from WebTeX to MathML, and set a wide variety of parameters which control the behavior of WebEQ applets being used for interactive equations.

Creating Web pages with the Wizard is very much analogous to creating TeX documents. An author writes an HTML page using his or her favorite HTML editing tools, with math markup mixed in with the surrounding text. To signal the Wizard what it should interpret as math markup, commands are placed between dollar signs for inline math, or escaped brackets for displayed math. Alternatively, <math> tags can also be used for better MathML compatibility. Finally, running the Page Wizard writes out a new HTML page, ready for publication, containing the necessary applets or images, depending on the processing options selected.