Unary/Binary Operators

You can choose various unary and binary operators to build your Office Math formula. Unary refers to operators that affect one placeholder. Binary refers to operators that connect two placeholders. The lower area of the Elements pane displays the individual operators. The context menu of the Commands window also contains a list of these operators, as well as additional operators. If you need an operator that is not contained in the Elements pane, use the context menu or type it directly in the Commands window.

To access this command...

Open the context menu in the Commands window - choose Unary/Binary Operators

Choose View - Elements; then on the Elements pane select Unary/Binary Operators from the list box.

The following is a complete list of the unary and binary operators. The symbol next to the operator indicates that it can be accessed through the Elements pane (choose View - Elements) or through the context menu of the Commands window.

Unary and Binary Operators

Plus

Inserts a plus with one placeholder. You can also type + in the Commands window.

Minus

Inserts a minus with one placeholder. You can also type - in the Commands window.

Plus/Minus

Inserts a plus/minus with one placeholder. You can also type +- in the Commands window.

Minus/Plus

Inserts a minus/plus with one placeholder. You can also type -+ in the Commands window.

Addition (plus)

Inserts a plus with two placeholders. You can also type + in the Commands window.

Multiplication (dot)

Inserts a dot operator with two placeholders. You can also type cdot in the Commands window.

Multiplication (x)

Inserts an 'x' multiplication with two placeholders. You can also type times in the Commands window.

Multiplication (*)

Inserts an asterisk multiplication sign with two placeholders. You can also type * in the Commands window.

Subtraction

Inserts a subtraction sign with two placeholders. You can also type - in the Commands window.

Division (Fraction)

Inserts a fraction with two placeholders. You can also type over in the Commands window.

Division

Inserts a division sign with two placeholders. You can also type div in the Commands window.

Division (Slash)

Inserts a slash '/' with two placeholders. You can also type / in the Commands window.

Boolean NOT

Inserts a Boolean NOT with one placeholder. You can also type neg in the Commands window.

Boolean AND

Inserts a Boolean AND with two placeholders. You can also type and in the Commands window.

Boolean OR

Inserts a Boolean OR with two placeholders. You can also type or in the Commands window.

Concatenate

Inserts a concatenation sign with two placeholders. You can also type circ in the Commands window.

You can also insert user-defined unary operators by typing uoper in the Commands window, followed by the syntax for the character. This function is useful for incorporating special characters into a formula. For example, the command uoper %theta x produces a small Greek letter theta (a component of the Office Math character set). You can also insert characters not in the Office character set by choosing Tools - Symbols - Edit.

You can also insert user-defined binary commands by typing boper into the Commands window. For example, the command y boper %theta x produces the small Greek letter theta preceded by a y and followed by an x. You can also insert characters not in the Office character set by choosing Tools - Symbols - Edit.

By typing oplus in the Commands window, you insert a circled plus operator in your document.

Type ominus in the Commands window to insert a circled minus operator.

Type odot in the Commands window to insert a circled dot operator in the formula.

Type odivide in the Commands window to insert a circled division operator in the formula.

Type a wideslash b in the Commands window to produce two characters with a slash (from lower left to upper right) between them. The characters are set such that everything to the left of the slash is up, and everything to the right is down. This command is also available in the context menu of the Commands window.

Type a widebslash b in the Commands window to produce two characters with a slash (from upper left to lower right) between them. The characters are set such that everything to the left of the slash is down, and everything to the right is up. This command is also available in the context menu of the Commands window.

Type sub or sup in the Commands window to add indices and powers to the characters in your formula; for example, a sub 2.

If you want to use a colon ':' as division sign, choose Tools - Symbols or click the Symbols icon on the Tools bar. Click the Edit button in the dialogue box that appears, then select the Special symbol set. Enter a meaningful name next to Symbol, for example, "divide" and then click the colon in the set of symbols. Click Add and then OK. Click OK to close the Symbols dialogue box too. Now you can use the new symbol, in this case the colon, by entering its name in the Commands window, for example, a %divide b = c.

When entering information manually in the Commands window, please note that a number of operators require spaces between the elements for the correct structure. This is especially true if you are using values instead of placeholders in your operators, for example, to construct a division 4 div 3 or a div b.