"Golden Rules" for mathematical typesetting with InMath

As a kind of summary of your questions, requests, and experience, we'd like to put together some "golden rules" for your InMath typesetting:

1. Use Unicode-compliant fonts. (This is no obligation, but, in general, it is wise to do so). You can check the Unicode compliance of your fonts by comparing the Unicode values shown in the Glyphs panel with those listed in the Unicode code charts which are available at www.unicode.org.

2. Make sure that all machines in your InMath workflow are equipped with InMath, at least with the Reader version, in order to avoid any loss of InMath information. With InCopy, the presence of InMath (at least Reader) is mandatory.

3. Within InMath equations, use only those space characters that have a fixed width. Meaning: Don't hit the "normal" space bar, but insert, e.g. a hardspace (= non-breaking space) with fixed width.

4. Always assign a dedicated font and style to the "blue elements" like bars, delimiters, radical sign, operator sign etc.

5. Don't use characters within an InMath equations that have arbitrary width, for example TABs or break characters.

6. Never use [Basic Paragraph] as paragraph style, especially not on a MAC. Always assign a dedicated paragraph style to your text.

7. Use, if ever possible, character styles for custom styling of single characters within your paragraph, rather than manual overrides.

8. Don't use "Optical Kerning" within your InMath expressions. (Not supported by InMath)

9. Don't use "Tracking" within your InMath expressions. (Not supported by InMath)

10. Don't use "baseline shift" within your InMath expressions.

11. Be aware of the character that stands directly before your InMath equation; the proporties of this character might be inherited into the InMath expression. You might want to enter a "thin space" (1/24 em) in front of the one or other equation to avoid this effect.

12. Don't use OpenType "tricks" like "OpenType fractions" or specific OpenType numbers. (Not supported by InMath)

13. Don't use any "Letter Spacing" within your paragraph style options (Justification -> Letter Spacing). Set all three values "0%" (zero percent).

14. Don't use any custom "Glyph Scaling" within your paragraph style options (Justification -> Glyph Scaling). Set all three values "100%" (one hundred percent).

15. Don't empty the "yellow boxes" completely, for example when you're editing within mathematical expressions.

16. Don't use GREP styles in paragraphs containing InMath expressions. (Not supported by InMath)

17. When updating your InDesign document from CSx to any higher version, be sure to go ahead as follows: a) open the old document with the new InDesign; b) export the document as INX (up to CS3) or as IDML (CS4); c) close the document without saving; d) open the INX / IDML document; e) save the new document and further work on this one. - With these steps, the document will be rebuilt from scratch, and its internal structure will be reorganized.

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