I typically type up my math notes for classes, and use Microsoft Word, inserting the math symbols manually using Insert > Symbols. Is there some sort of program (free/inexpensive/otherwise) that is more efficient at typing up mathematical notation?
TeX. LaTeX
http://www.tug.org/
There are WYSISWYG front ends to TeX, such as TeXshop, or structured editors like Visual Tex.
If you intend doing any serious mathematics you want to learn TeX (or at least LaTeX).
LyX is another GUI LaTeX program.
Why not use Insert > Equation and do the whole equation at once?
The OP didn’t say which version of Word (s)he was using. “Insert > Equation” is available on newer versions of Word, but not on older ones.
However, older and newer versions of Word include “Equation Editor,” which can be accessed using “Insert > Object” and selecting Equation Editor from the menu.
TeX is the professional standard, but Equation Editor should be plenty good enough for the OP’s purposes; it’s WYSIWYG and has less of a learning curve, at least for someone already familiar with Word.
The latest version of Office includes MathType, which means you can insert equations and write them in LaTex format.
Maybe, but anyone who does serious mathematics at any level will probably need to learn LaTeX at some point anyway, so why not now?
Possibly because the OP has given no indication what their relationship with mathematics is or will be. They may just be one of the many college students who only has to take a certain number of units of calculus or something. Many majors that involve taking 1-3 Calc courses don’t lead to careers in which you would ever need to use a tool like LaTeX
Thank you, everyone, for the replies. I was asking in part for myself - a computer science major/math minor, currently studying number theory, with some probability and calculus classes in my future. I was also asking on behalf of one of the graduate students/instructors, who is seeking a program to type up his handouts as opposed to writing them out by hand.
I’ve since looked at Word 2010, and I think that will fit the bill for me. I’ve also looked at TeX, and the computer geek in me is intrigued by the thought of using a WYSIWYM system.
Then learn LaTeX already! That’s what the journals want, that’s what your peers respect, and that’s what everyone around you will be using, in both the CS and math worlds. It’s also just that much less hassle to be able to use the same text editor for your code and your documentation/class assignments/etc.
Finally, if you start using a real editor, such as Emacs (or Vim, I suppose), LaTeX just becomes a pure slam-dunk. Those editors fit it like a hand in glove.
MathType is a wonderful add-on which will output LaTex for you as well as OLEs for putting into word, but it’s not the equation editor that comes with Word. MathType is a product of DesigneScience.
My bad. The old equation writer was a simplified version of MathType, and you could also install the full version as an add-on. The newer version is a built in tool, but they all allow typing in equations using at least some latex codes. (I haven’t run a complete comparison on available commands for equation writing.)
What field is this person in?
LaTeX is certainly the standard, but not really friendly for taking notes.
I actually used Mathcad for this. It allowed you to type notes and also, fairly painlessly, insert equations that were formatted in pretty print like a test book. The bonus of Mathcad is that you can actually run the equations for results if you took care in entering them.
LaTeX is perfectly friendly for taking notes, once you get used to it at least. It’s how I take notes in physics myself. The only drawback is that I haven’t really found a good way to quickly make graphs (both line plots and free-body), but it’s not like Word is the friendliest thing for that either.
Mathematics.
I’m surprised a graduate student in mathematics doesn’t know about LaTeX. Certainly in theoretical computer science, the chances of a journal or conference accepting a paper that isn’t written in LaTeX is effectively nil, and I always assumed theoretical physics and mathematics was similar, so much so that it’s seriously been suggested by respected computer scientists (Scott Aaaronson, for one) that one of the best ways to spot a crank in the subject is the fact that they don’t know LaTeX. Certainly the mathematicians in the department where I did my PhD were all writing everything in it.
It’s not all that unusual for a first year student not to know LaTeX, but if there’s anyone later on, that is a little disconcerting.