Math courses that require the submission of course work using special characters and special formatting
(such as equations) may have specific requirements, and the instructor may not accept electronic submission of
course work, such as Math 201x and 202x. Math course work that is electronically submitted may differ visually when received from what was created,
depending on what software and print drivers are used to create and retrieve the files.
If an instructor does not indicate otherwise, you should be able to successfully submit your math course work
electronically using the following guidelines.
Create Equations
Use Microsoft Word or WordPerfect equation editor to create math equations (choose "Insert"/
"Object"/"Microsoft Equation"). Word and WordPerfect are suggested because they are widely
available and the equation editor is included and fairly easy to use.
Special software options, such as MathML,
work well for math equations, but we thought most students would consider them too expensive to suggest here. If you have access
to other equation/math programs already, you may be able to use them and still follow the general guidelines
provided below for submitting files. W3 protocols and Web-based options are under development also and could offer solutions in the
future.
Submit Equations
We recommend submitting files with math equations in one of two formats:
(1) PDF (portable document files) files or (2) files with graphic images.
PDF files
Word and WordPerfect files saved in a PDF format can be read and printed from any
computer with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader program. Special software, such as
Adobe Acrobat, is needed to create PDF files, however, you also can access services online that will create the
files for you—at least one advertises that the service is free. Adobe Acrobat is
often available at an academic discount and many shareware or freeware options are available. DDP
can't recommend specific sites, but you should be able to
find several software and/or service options by doing a search with a search engine, such as Google.
When creating the PDF files, you will need to embed the fonts to get special characters to save correctly. Make sure
the equations are accurately represented before submitting with "My DDP"; or attaching to
an e-mail submission.
Equations as Graphic Images
Saving the equations as graphic images will maintain the visual integrity of the equations, but may create large files.
Images can be created from equations by a variety of options (depending on the number and size of image files, the
file sizes could be large):
- Save the equation file as "html"; this will create an image graphic (gif format) for each equation in the file
and save the image and the html file in the same folder as the original file. Create a new Word/WordPerfect
file and insert each of the images created. (Note: The images in the html file aren’t embedded so if you transfer
the html file without transferring all the image files with it, the images won’t show when viewing the transferred
html file; broken link icons will show instead.) Save the Word/WordPerfect file and submit.
- Copy each equation into a paint/Photoshop-type program (search for a freeware/shareware program if you don't
have a program already) and save as a graphic image (gif suggested). Then insert all images
into a Word/WordPerfect file. Save the file and submit.
- Do a screen print (fill up as much of the screen as possible with the completed equations and hit the "Print
screen" key) and paste ("Edit"/"Paste") the screen image into a Word/WordPerfect file.
Crop the image to eliminate the non-equation part:
• load the "Picture" toolbar (in Word: "View"/"Toolbars"/select "Picture")
• select the image to crop—squares [handles] will appear at corners and in middle of each side
• choose the "++" icon and drag the side handles to frame the equation.
Repeat with as many screen images as necessary to get all the equations and then save the file and submit.
- Scan the file. Print the file with the equations, and then, using a scanner, scan and save each page as a
graphic image (gif suggested); experiment with the scanner to find settings that will create legible
images while minimizing file size as much as possible). Submit the image files individually or insert each image
in a Word/WordPerfect file and save and submit that file (might be large).
(Note: DDP uses Microsoft Word 97 to retrieve files submitted by "My DDP" or attached to
e-mails so creating files in Word 97 format is recommended, if possible.)
If you are having problems submitting your work electronically, you can request help online from
SCS (Student Computing Center). You can also contact SCS through
their toll-free number, 800-608-3839 (then choose options 1, 1, and 3). They will attempt to solve your problem
or direct your request to the appropriate staff person. SCS staff are not able to answer questions about course
content or procedures (e.g., assignments, grades); please contact DDP (800-222-4978) with those questions.
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