Equation Editor produces narrow rendering and bad spacing in Office 2021

[coffee]

I have found what appears to be a rendering problem with equations created using SoftMaker's internal Equation Editor in Office 2021 (version 2021.11.5.1068).

If I create an equation, it looks correct while the Equation Editor is open. When I close the editor, the equation is sometimes rendered noticeably too narrow and more upright than it should be, with unusual spacing. The same problem occurs in both TextMaker 2021 and Presentations 2021.

I have found an interesting workaround. If I copy the badly rendered equation object from SoftMaker into Microsoft Word 2013, Word displays it correctly. If I then copy it from Word and paste it back into SoftMaker, it also displays correctly in SoftMaker.

So the same equation can be rendered incorrectly by SoftMaker, correctly by Word, and then correctly by SoftMaker after passing through Word.

This makes me suspect that SoftMaker 2021 is mismanaging the OLE rendering, while Microsoft Word is handling the same object correctly.

Has anyone else encountered this? Is there a setting, update, or known fix for this rendering problem?

[coffee]

Since posting this, I observed the same effect in FreeOffice 2024 as well as Softmaker 2021.

I don't think this is a flaw in the built in legacy Softmaker Equation Editor, as it also occurs with my much newer Equation Editor, which also communicates with Softmaker via OLE. It seems to be a bug in the way that Softmaker processes OLE objects.

I have already confirmed that Microsoft Office does this processing correctly, meaning the Softmaker team just needs to investigate it and fix it. I submitted a bug report, which was confirmed by the response team who replied that they have submitted it to the developers.

[SuperTech]

Thanks for your post.

To better understand the issue, please share a screenshot showing the problem along with the file in which you are experiencing the issue.

If the file contains confidential information, you can send it to forum[at]softmaker.com and include a link to this forum post for reference.

[coffee]

I am replying with an example as requested in the post by SuperTech on Fri Aug 14, 2026 2:38 pm

Here is a docx showing the proper rendering when Design Science MathType Equation Editor (EE) 6.7a has control.
I get the same results if I instead use your stripped down version of EE that you ship with the software.

Notice the font is rendered correctly while the MathType editing window is open.

But then when the MathTyoe editing window is closed and EE hands off the object to your OLE software, it is rendered incorrectly in Softmaker. Something about calculating the boundary boxes incorrectly. It seems that your OLE engine is misinterpreting or mishandling what EE is sending you.

The rendering error in this example is subtle, so look carefully. Note that in this example all the characters are default Times Roman. The fault is more pronounced with some greek characters. Try it a bunch of ways.

example bug.docx

(490.4 KiB) Downloaded 1143 times

[SuperTech]

Thank you for providing the file and screenshot. I have been unable to reproduce the reported behavior. Also, the equation editor is not available in FreeOffice. Please first reinstall SoftMaker Office 2021 and test the file again.

Please also test it with the 30-day trial of SoftMaker Office NX or 2026. This will help determine whether the issue is limited to the older installation.

SoftMaker Office 2021 is outside its support period and will not receive further corrections. Even if a defect is confirmed, a correction would apply to the current generation, SoftMaker Office NX and 2026.

[coffee]

I have done extensive testing; it is not caused by my w10 machine. It seems straightforward for you to test it in a SM2026 install, but since you did not I downloaded the 2026 trial and did it myself. But needless to say I won't be upgrading or recommending SM2026 unless you address this and fix it.

Here it is again:

TextMaker 2026's built-in equation editor horizontally compresses single-character Equation Editor inputs.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open TextMaker 2026 and insert an equation object (Insert | Equation) using the built in Equation Editor. Type any single character (e.g., x, A, greek A, or greek beta) and exit the editor back to the document canvas.

Result: The character is squeezed and compressed horizontally. The rendering is unusable for documents.

2. Add trailing spaces after the character inside the equation editor.

Result:/The distortion worsens; the character compresses thinner with each added space.

3. Now create an equation object with several characters (e.g., x+y, or alphabeta)

Result: The horizontal aspect ratio renders normally with correct character width.

This bug appears at all resolutions and on a fresh user profile/

I have attached the *.tmdx document containing the proof.

It seems that TextMaker 2026’s built-in equation editor has an issue handling container frame dimensions when rendering single characters.
Based on how it behaves, it appears to be a potential bounding-box or image scaling bug:

Single Characters: When an equation object contains only one character (like a single x, A, or \alpha), the container frame appears to miscalculate the horizontal width. This seems to force the graphic to squeeze horizontally into an unnaturally narrow space while keeping its full height.

Adding trailing spaces inside the equation editor appears to make the compression worse. It seems as though the internal content width grows, but because the outer frame boundary doesn't expand to match, the engine squashes the image even further to fit it into the fixed width.

Adding a second or third character seems to bypass the issue entirely. Once a second character is present, the layout engine appears to re-evaluate the frame width properly, restoring normal proportions.

This looks like a bug in how the equation renderer calculates frame boundaries for single-token objects versus multi-character expressions.

If you don't evaluate it for single character equations you surely won't reproduce it.

Thanks, looking forward to a reply.

---

[SuperTech]

Thank you for clarifying the exact conditions and providing the sample file. I had already attempted to reproduce the issue in TextMaker 2026, but I tested with multi-character equations, which render correctly. This is why the problem did not appear during my earlier testing.

Using a single-character equation, I can now reproduce the horizontal compression in the current version. Adding trailing spaces makes the distortion progressively worse.

I have passed the issue on for further investigation.

[coffee]

Thank you for your confirmation.

Please post the bug in the forum for SM2026 so that the current version users may be able to weigh in on it; perhaps maybe someone else has experienced it and has a workaround. I do not own SM2026 so I do not feel that I can properly post there.

This would give purchasers of SM2026 fair notice of the bug so they can seek a refund if they need to do produce readable technical documents.

It will also, hopefully, apply some motivation on your software development team to get this fixed as soon as possible.