LaTeX support?

Feedback
1

Hi,

I’ve just downloaded Findings and wanted to use it to manage some of my experiments, and so far I haven’t found any way to use LaTeX (or any other way of embedding equations). The research I do is quite math heavy, so without this feature it’s almost impossible for me to use it as a notebook. The app looks as if it would be perfect for my purposes, but right now it seems very biology/chemistry specific. Are there any plans to add such functionality?

Best,
Adam

2 Likes
2

Hi Adam,

I agree a better support for equations in Findings would be very welcome. It makes a lot of sense for an app for scientists, in particular for mathematics, but also for all the other fields. We do plan to add support for equations eventually but that has not happened yet, and it’s indeed not supported at the moment. I can’t promise when that will happen, but I sure hope to get to it in the future. As you suggest, we would very likely add support for the LaTeX syntax while also displaying it once “compiled”. Let me know if that makes sense or if you had other ideas for equation support.

Many thanks for your feedback!

Charles

1 Like
3

Yes, that sounds great! I’m looking forward to that.

Also, there are two hacks that I’ve been using with other apps so far:

  1. Equation Maker lets you type in any single-line LaTeX formula and will generate a PDF/SVG/PNG out of it. Usually it is enough to drag-and-drop its previews into other programs, and they will recognize them correctly as images (works with e.g. Keynote, Sketch)
  2. I recently bought Studies, and while they don’t support LaTeX natively, they support pasting rich text, and in particular one can copy equations generated e.g. on Wikipedia (they get embedded into the page as SVG images), and they will be correctly included as inline images.

Would it be possible to add some support for drag-and-drop or inline images? That would actually be a good enough solution for me (and should be a lot simpler to implement than full LaTeX support).

1 Like
5

Thanks for the additional suggestions. Inline images are also in our todo list. I am not sure which one would come to Findings first, but it’s good to know!

6

:+1: to this suggestion. It’s not only important for the mathematicians, but to computer scientists as well. A lot of the work I do is in LaTeX, and I need the equation support as well.

I will also suggest Quiver as another example of an app that gets it right. To be frank, I’d love to see the functionality of Findings and Quiver merged for a variety of reasons.

1 Like
7

I would also very much like to add my support for LaTeX implementation. Having the ability to add an equation as easily as a sticky or table would be amazing!!

1 Like
8

Hello,
Just wanted to second that mathematical equations support would be greatly appreciated.

1 Like
9

LaTeXiT works well in these situations.
It also supports LinkBack so in some applications (not Findings), you can just double-click on the typeset equation to reopen it in LaTeXiT.
For Findings, you could

  • Paste the LaTeX code in the notebook.
  • Add the LaTeX code to the PDF file’s comments.
  • Create a ‘sidecar’ file (same name as the .pdf, but with the extension .tex) and embed that in the notebook.
  • Use the Hook app to associate a .tex file with the .pdf file.
1 Like