How to create a strike through in an equation in MS Word

I'm not sure how to create a strike through in the Microsoft equation editor.

Example 1

Example 2

In LaTeX one is able to use the cancel command for this, but I'm failing to find an approach to this in Word.

4

5 Answers

My workaround (not quite sure what the names of the menus are in the English version):
1. Open a math zone
2. Open Accent menu and select Boxed formulas (or type \rect)
3. Right-click on the placeholder, select Border property, and remove one by one each side of the border; finally insert the desired strike through, from the same menu
4. Select the template you have built and save it as a new equation.

Now you have a new template you can use with any expression.

4

The LaTeX cancel command is not supported in Word's equation editor. I've struggled with this before and the solution below is the closest I got.

Let's take 3/7 as an example and cancel the 3:

1. Insert a new equation object and add a fraction object, type 7 as the denominator.

2. Select the numerator, then on the Insert tab click Quick Parts and choose Field....

3. On the field name list choose Eq and click the Field Codes button.

4. In the Field codes textbox type EQ \O(3,/). The \O flag stands for "Overstrike", and it superimposes its parameters on top of each other. In this example it will produce 3 with a slash.

5. Click OK and you'll get this result:

There are a few limitations to this approach. It's hard to insert and impossible to edit properly. It also doesn't scale to larger (wider) objects since you're just getting a slash character on top, not a real diagonal line from the top right corner to the bottom left.

I'd be happy to find a better solution, other than placing a line drawing object over the relevant area of the equation.

Note: screenshots taken using Word 2010

1

Old post I know, and maybe things have changed. With Word 2016 (iMac version)... simply typing the strike through variable as text (ie, select it and tap the strike through font option), then coping and pasting that into my equation worked. You had to watch those irritating auto “smart selection” options etc, or it would try and paste in paragraph marks too. See example screenshot.

For single characters there is another neat workaround using \hsmash which gives an object zero width.

Open a formula field. Then, for one struck through character type the following sequence (space does matter!). Make sure you use the "professional" setting for entering formulas.

1. \hsmash
2. [space]
3. [character of choice]
4. [space]
5. "/" (this prints / rather than creating a fraction)
6. [space]

This should be quite robust, but you need to follow the exact sequence, otherwise it won't place the characters in the right spot.

2

The workaround from Atzmon is actually excellent. The strike through option is ok but does not look like a standard way of doing simplifications in Math.

The only difference with the new version of Word is that after clicking on the insert tab you need to click on the Text option in order to see Quickparts in the menu. Everything else is as Atzmon explained and described. The font will look slightly bigger than usual in the equation, but it is not very noticeable.

The box with no borders method works as well, but it is a bit more time consuming,

MS Word version 1907

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