5

I think I'm not the only one with this problem on Mac.

I have to buy a new MacBook with Catalina 10.15 (64 bits).

Being a math teacher, I need Mathtype to edit equations in my docs. I have a lot of old (and actual) docs made with Mathtype. The big advantage with Mathtype is that I can change my equation's font (arial, franklin, etc.). This is what I'm searching for.

But Mathtype (Wiris) doesn't plan a new version for Catalina (see https://lp.wiris.com/catalina/ or others forums). If I change my mac, I couldn't use Mathtype anymore.

I do not know what to do with this problem...

I can use Pages or Word for editing.

I could use Latex : not easy to use different font. Not easy to insert graph or other geogebra images, etc. I tried this solution last year, but I'm really too perfectionist to get what I need.

I could use Word 2016 equation editor : only 2 or 3 fonts availables on the web...

I could use Page 8.2.1 equation editor : the Blahtex fonts are limited. This is impossible to find a ttf who matches with possibles fonts.

I don't understand why I seem to be te only person with this problem on internet... It's impossible. Probably because others don't care about the font.

Could you help please? Some suggestions?

(Sorry for my bad english)

Improve this question
4
  • Welcome to Ask Different. Thanks for letting us know you’re using English as a non-native language. One thing I like in software recommendations is to take all your options and put them in an answer - explain why they don’t work, then come back and edit the question so that it’s about 3 sentences and a list of requirements only - rather than discussing how each alternative does or does not meet requirements. See Ask Different Meta on how to ask software recommendation advice if this gets down votes.
    – bmike ♦
    Jan 19, 2020 at 23:40
  • How about buying a refurbished machine from an earlier year which can still run Mojave?
    – Tom Gewecke
    Jan 19, 2020 at 23:55
  • I would look at running Mojave or even High Sierra in a Virtual Machine on Catalina. See: apple.stackexchange.com/questions/379890/…
    – Allan
    Jan 20, 2020 at 0:55
  • 1
    "But Mathtype (Wiris) doesn't plan a new version for Catalina...": According to the website they do. Quote: "MathType 8 will be our new 64-bit version, which will include many new features. This new version will work smoothly on macOS Catalina. But we do not have a release date for MathType 8 yet. While we await the MathType 8 release, we will make available an interim MathType for Catalina version [...] will work on Microsoft Office and Apple iWork suites"
    – klanomath
    Jan 20, 2020 at 1:01

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
2

I had the same dilemma with Adobe CS5 and CS6. Ended up buying a refurbished 2018 Mac Mini directly from Apple. Came with Catalina preinstalled. Used the following steps to install Mojave.

  1. Download Mojave from the link on the Apple website How to upgrade to macOS Mojave.
  2. Use the Disk Utility application to create a new APFS volume in the existing APFS container.
  3. Boot to macOS Recovery to allow booting from external media. You will only need to perform this step, if your Mac has the new T2 chip.
  4. Used a flash drive to install Mojave to the new APFS volume. The instructions are given on the Apple website How to create a bootable installer for macOS.

You can now install your 32 bit applications. Basically, you will have a dual boot arrangement. When MathType 8 is released, you can install to the preinstalled Catalina. Mojave can be removed by using the Disk Utility to delete the APFS volume containing Mojave.

Before purchasing a refurbished Mac, you should confirm that the model was early enough to run Mojave. The website everyman.com is a good place to get this information. If for some reason the purchased model can not be downgraded to Mojave, Apple does have a 14 day return policy.

I should note that under Mojave I do get a error message when quitting an Adobe CS5 or CS6 application. Other than the message, the applications appear to function properly.

Improve this answer
2

I have a similar issue: I need to use MathType for one specialized project, so I'm not upgrading from Mojave to Catalina. As klanomath says, Wiris (the publishers of MathType) claims that they'll have an interim MathType for Catalina available. I emailed them about this, and they replied,

Unfortunately, though we have been months working around the clock on an interim MathType version for Catalina, we regret to inform you that this version will not be ready for a few months. We will keep you informed of the progress of this version promptly via e-mail.

If you would like to keep on using MathType, we would strongly advise not to update your macOS to Catalina until we release our MathType Catalina version.

This was back on October 9th, so I'm not sure what to expect. I will note that it took MathType something like 6 years to upgrade from v. 6 to v. 7 so that MathType would work on Word 16 for Mac. I had to use Word 11 for years because of this. Also, every developer has known about the transition to 64 bit apps for many years, but Wiris appears to have been caught off guard, or at least they were unable to make the transition in the several years they had. So why would we expect them to be able to do it in the next few months?

I mostly write equation-heavy documents in LaTeX, but, as I said, there's this one project I have which needs Word and MathType.

Improve this answer
0

Typically there are many old Windows machines available in a university setting. Therefore, another possibility is to request one that is no longer in use and configure it so that you can log into it from your new MacBook machine using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP). Run Microsoft Word on both your MacBook and Windows machines with MathType included on the Windows machine. RDP will open a "window" on your MacBook showing Word with MathType running on the Windows machine. You can write your equations in the Windows "window" and simply copy and paste into Word running on your MacBook.

Improve this answer
0

I recently purchased M1 chip(Catalina/BigSur).I also found that I could not edit my old MS word documents. Then I discovered that MathType was working on docx files but would not work on doc files. In docx files you could delete the old equation and write a new one in its place but you still wouldn't be able to edit those equations. So whenever I need to make changes tonally old document I have to change the document to docx. Hope this works for you too.

Improve this answer
-2

According to https://store.wiris.com/en/products/mathtype/download/mac MathType still isn't compatible with the latest versions of macOS, Catalina (10.15) and Big Sur (11.00).

The best solution for me has been using Mathematica from Wólfram. They have accessible academic licenses, and it is an excellent software for numerous mathematical applications.

In Mathematica, we can write our equations nicely and professionally and, in principle, display them in their environment.

But that is not all; one can select a nicely formatted equation in Mathematica, and under the "Copy As" option of the Edit bar, one can copy it as "LaTex" or "MathML" inputs. Then, one can paste this input directly as an equation in Word and forget about "MathType" for once and forever.

Unfortunately, the LaTeX option for Word only works for Windows, so if LaTeX quality is desired, this should be done through a virtual machine. But the MathML option works fine for the Mac, not as nice as LaTeX, but quite acceptable.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .