MathType for Word and PowerPoint

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An installable AI Agent skill, Codex/Claude plugin, and MCP server for creating editable MathType 7 equations in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Word documents also support MathType-native equation numbering and dynamic cross-references.

Silent AI-agent operation

When an AI agent edits Word, PowerPoint, or MathType content, it must operate silently in the background: do not show or activate application windows, steal keyboard focus, display modal dialogs, or automate visible UI with mouse or keyboard input. If a requested step cannot be completed silently, stop and report the limitation instead of taking over the user's desktop.

Related MCP server: docx-mcp

Features

• Creates genuine, editable Equation.DSMT4 objects instead of Word OMath, images, or typed Unicode equations.

• Supports inline and centered display equations in DOCX.

• Classifies raw manuscript expressions as inline, unnumbered display, numbered display, or dynamic reference after scanning the complete document.

• Inserts Word equation numbers such as (1) and dynamic MathType references.

• Creates centered floating MathType equations in PowerPoint through a hidden Word conversion document.

• Preserves the source Office file and validates the generated output.

• Provides a portable cross-agent skill/plugin plus a local MCP server for Codex and Claude hosts; ChatGPT uses the same capability through a remote endpoint or Secure MCP Tunnel.

Requirements

• Windows 10 or 11.

• Microsoft Word and PowerPoint desktop with COM automation.

• Python 3 on PATH.

• PowerShell 7 or later as pwsh.exe.

• Desktop MathType for Windows from the MathType download page.

This project is developed and tested with MathType-win-zh-7.11.1.462 (ProductVersion 7.11.1.462). Install MathType for Windows, not only MathType Add-In for Microsoft 365. The Microsoft 365 task-pane add-in does not provide the desktop OLE, Word template, PowerPoint add-in, and COM workflow used here.

MathType and Microsoft Office are proprietary products and are not distributed by this repository.

Terminal compatibility

The Office bridge is a Windows PowerShell 7 script. The surrounding terminal may be PowerShell 7, Bash on Windows including Git Bash, or CMD, but the bridge process itself must run through pwsh.exe.

The following command works from PowerShell 7, Git Bash, and CMD:

pwsh.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/mathtype-word.ps1 -Action probe

Install with an AI agent

If you want to use MathType for Word and PowerPoint in Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, or ChatGPT Desktop, paste the following prompt. The agent will configure it for the current environment:

Install or upgrade the MathType for Word and PowerPoint toolkit from https://github.com/felimet/mathtype-for-word. Detect my available terminal and use PowerShell 7, Bash on Windows including Git Bash, or CMD. Do not run the Office bridge under Windows PowerShell 5.1; if 5.1 is active, switch to Git Bash or CMD and invoke Windows pwsh.exe. From WSL Bash, invoke Windows pwsh.exe rather than Linux pwsh. If no supported terminal or pwsh.exe is available, stop and tell me to install PowerShell 7 using https://learn.microsoft.com/zh-tw/powershell/scripting/install/microsoft-update-faq?view=powershell-7.6. Verify desktop MathType for Windows ProductVersion 7.11.1.462 plus Microsoft Word and PowerPoint desktop, install the portable skill, register the local stdio MCP server, run both MathType probes and the repository tests, preserve existing agent configuration, and report every changed file. Do not claim success unless the outputs contain editable Equation.DSMT4 objects and validation returns ok: true.

Then tell your agent which DOCX or PPTX file to edit and describe the required equations.

Platform-specific skill locations and MCP configuration are documented in the installation matrix.

Add the skill and MCP to each agent

Replace <REPO_ROOT> with the absolute local checkout path. Preserve existing MCP entries when editing configuration files.

Codex

Copy skills/mathtype-for-word to %USERPROFILE%\.codex\skills\mathtype-for-word or %USERPROFILE%\.agents\skills\mathtype-for-word, then register the server:

codex mcp add mathtype-for-word -- pwsh.exe -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "<REPO_ROOT>\scripts\run-mcp.ps1"
codex mcp get mathtype-for-word

The release also contains .codex-plugin/plugin.json and dist/mathtype-for-word-plugin.zip for plugin-aware deployment.

Claude Code

Copy skills/mathtype-for-word to %USERPROFILE%\.claude\skills\mathtype-for-word, then register the server:

claude mcp add --scope user mathtype-for-word -- pwsh.exe -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "<REPO_ROOT>\scripts\run-mcp.ps1"
claude mcp get mathtype-for-word

The release also contains .claude-plugin/plugin.json, .mcp.json, and the combined plugin package. Restart Claude Code after installation.

Claude Desktop

Upload dist/mathtype-for-word.skill from Customize > Skills. Then merge this server into %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json and restart Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mathtype-for-word": {
      "command": "pwsh.exe",
      "args": ["-NoLogo", "-NoProfile", "-NonInteractive", "-ExecutionPolicy", "Bypass", "-File", "<REPO_ROOT>\\scripts\\run-mcp.ps1"]
    }
  }
}

See Anthropic's skill upload instructions and local MCP setup guide.

ChatGPT Desktop

If Plugins is available for the account or workspace, install or enable the packaged capability through the supported ChatGPT plugin workflow. ChatGPT Desktop does not automatically discover this local repository. OpenAI's current full-MCP documentation applies to ChatGPT web; do not assume the desktop app has the same developer-mode surface unless it is visible for the account.

ChatGPT cannot connect directly to the bundled local stdio MCP command. It requires a remote MCP endpoint or Secure MCP Tunnel, with Developer mode or Apps enabled as allowed by the account or workspace. Because MathType automation must execute on the interactive Windows desktop, the endpoint or tunnel must route execution to that Windows host. This repository currently ships only the local stdio server.

Equation typography

Apply one notation standard throughout the document, including equations, inline math, prose, captions, and symbol definitions.

Use MathType styling or MathML mathvariant; do not imitate bold or italic mathematics with Unicode presentation characters. Preserve the document's selected math font family unless a journal or user specifies another one. IEEE requires variables to remain italic in both prose and equations, vectors to be bold, and functions to be upright. See the IEEE Mathematics Style Guide and IEEE Math Typesetting Guide.

Detailed bilingual prose and typography rules are in the academic equation style reference.

Supported outputs

PowerPoint rendering keeps Word, PowerPoint, and MathType hidden and does not use mouse, keyboard, focus, AppActivate, or SendKeys. It briefly uses the Windows clipboard to transfer the converted OLE object.

Verify the installation

pwsh.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/mathtype-word.ps1 -Action probe
pwsh.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/mathtype-word.ps1 -Action probe-pptx
pwsh.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File tests/run-tests.ps1 -IncludeLiveOffice

Quick AI-agent test prompt

Paste this prompt into an AI agent after installing the toolkit:

Use the installed MathType for Word and PowerPoint toolkit for a smoke test. Run both prerequisite probes, then use evals/fixtures/en-paper-draft.docx with en-word-manifest.json and evals/fixtures/en-presentation-draft.pptx with en-powerpoint-manifest.json to create new temporary DOCX and PPTX outputs. Keep Word, PowerPoint, and MathType silent and hidden throughout; do not overwrite the source fixtures. Validate both outputs and report their paths, MathType object counts, Word native number/reference counts, and the PowerPoint mathml_verified count. Do not claim success unless both validations return ok: true.

The bridge preserves source files, validates each temporary Office file before atomic publication, and refuses to replace an existing output unless -Overwrite is explicit. It removes the current run's tokenized temporary sibling on handled exits and sweeps only matching siblings older than 24 hours; MCP timeouts request cleanup with the same per-run token.

Repository layout

Packaging

python scripts/package_plugin.py

The command creates dist/mathtype-for-word-plugin.zip and its SHA-256 file. The standalone skill package is dist/mathtype-for-word.skill.

Support

If you encounter any problems, please open a GitHub Issue to report them and discuss solutions.

License

MIT