IguanaTex

(C) Jonathan Le Roux and Zvika Ben-Haim (Windows), Tsung-Ju Chiang and Jonathan Le Roux (Mac)

IguanaTex is a PowerPoint add-in which allows you to insert LaTeX equations into your PowerPoint presentation on Windows and Mac. It is distributed completely for free, along with its source code.

This repository hosts the source code in a form that can be easily tracked, shared, and discussed (the VBA code is exported using the ExportVBA macro).

The add-in file (.ppam) and its source version (.pptm) can be found in the Releases.

Table of Contents

• System Requirements
  • Windows
  • Mac
• Download and Install
  • Windows
  • Mac
    • Automatic installation with Homebrew
    • Manual installation
  • Other installation settings
• Tips, Bugs, and Known Issues
  • What to do if something does not work, or does not work as you expected
  • Debugging an issue
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Known Issues
• Stay up to date: IguanaTex Google Group
• License

System Requirements

Windows

• OS: Windows 2000 or later (32- or 64-bit).
• PowerPoint:
  • IguanaTex has been tested with Office 365, Office 2019, Office 2021 (including LTSC version), PowerPoint 2003, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 (both 32 and 64 bit). It is likely to also work in PowerPoint 2000 and 2007.
  • SVG support is available for Office 365 and recent retail versions of PowerPoint. Support is confirmed for PowerPoint 2021 at least for versions 2108 and above, and likely (although unconfirmed) for PowerPoint 2019 and maybe even PowerPoint 2016 for the same versions. Note that volume licensed versions, which are at version 1808 as of August 2023, do not support SVG conversion to Shape, which is required by IguanaTex.
• LaTeX: TeXLive or MiKTeX
• GhostScript (if the latest version raises issues, try gs9.26)
• ImageMagick
• (Optional) TeX2img, used for Shape output via EMF (Download)
• (Optional) LaTeXiT-metadata, used to convert displays generated with LaTeXiT on Mac into IguanaTex displays

Mac

• Intel or Apple Silicon Mac
  • On Apple Silicon based Macs, PowerPoint needs to be run with the setting "Open using Rosetta."
• PowerPoint for Mac:
  • Office 365, Office 2021 (including LTSC version), Powerpoint 2019, PowerPoint 2016 (Version 16.16.7 190210 or later)
  • SVG support is available for Office 365 and recent retail versions of PowerPoint, including 2019 and 2021. Note that volume licensed (LTSC) versions do not support SVG conversion to Shape, which is required by IguanaTex.
• MacTeX
• Ghostscript library: For SVG/Shape support, download and install Ghostscript-10.04.0.pkg and Ghostscript-10.04.0-Extras.pkg (Once MacTeX 2025 is released, this should no longer be necessary). More details about SVG support via dvisvgm in MacTeX.
• (Optional) LaTeXiT-metadata, used to convert LaTeXiT displays into IguanaTex displays

Download and Install

Windows Installation

1. Download the .ppam add-in file from this repository's Releases page and save it in a Trusted Location (see this Microsoft article), such as %appdata%\Microsoft\Addins (i.e., C:\Users\user_name\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Addins). If you get a malware warning, try "Trust"-ing the file (Right-Click > Properties). You may have better luck downloading the .pptm file, Trusting it, opening it in PowerPoint, and using "Save As" to create your own .ppam file.
2. Load the add-in: in "File" > "Options" > "Add-Ins" > "Manage:" (lower part of the window), choose "PowerPoint Add-Ins" in the selection box. Then press "Go...", then click "Add New", select the .ppam file in the folder where you downloaded it, then "Close" (if you downloaded the .pptm source and saved it as .ppam, it will be in the default Add-In folder).
3. Create and set a temporary file folder: IguanaTex needs access to a folder with read/write permissions to store temporary files.
   • The default is "C:\Temp". If you have write permissions under "C:", create the folder "C:\Temp". You're all set.
   • If you cannot create this folder, choose or create a folder with write permission at any other location. In the IguanaTex tab, choose "Main Settings" and put the path to the folder of your choice. You can also use a relative path under the presentation's folder (e.g., "." for the presentation folder itself).
4. Install and set path to GhostScript and ImageMagick (required for Picture outputs, except if using "Latex (DVI)" engine):
   • Needed to convert intermediate PDF files into PNG before insertion into PowerPoint as a Picture object. In the Picture generation process, all LaTeX engines except "Latex (DVI)" output PDF files. Even when generating a Shape, it is often better to first generate a Picture then convert to Shape: Picture generation is faster and more robust, so it can be convenient to work on a display in Picture mode then do a final conversion to Shape, preserving the size.
   • Set the full path to gswin32c.exe or gswin64c.exe (note the "c"!) and to ImageMagick's magick.exe in the "Main Settings" window.
   • Best way to make sure the path is correct is to use the "..." button next to each path and navigate to the correct file.
   • Some default paths include %USERPROFILE%. It is recommended to click on "..." to make sure the path gets properly converted to the actual user profile path.
5. (Optional) Install and set path to TeX2img:
   • Only needed for vector graphics support via EMF (compared to SVG, pros of EMF are: available on all PowerPoint versions, fully modifiable shapes; cons: some displays randomly suffer from distortions)
   • Download from this link (more details on TeX2img on their Github repo)
   • After unpacking TeX2img somewhere on your machine, run TeX2img.exe once to let it automatically set the various paths to latex/ghostscript, then set the full path to TeX2imgc.exe (note the "c"!) in the "Main Settings" window.
6. (Optional) Install LaTeXiT-metadata:
   • Needed to convert displays generated with LaTeXiT on Mac into IguanaTex displays
   • Download LaTeXiT-metadata-Win.zip from the Releases page, unzip, and set the path to LaTeXiT-metadata.exe in the "Main Settings" window.
   • LaTeXiT-metadata was kindly prepared by Pierre Chatelier, LaTeXiT's author, at my request. Many thanks to him!
   • Source code is now public.

Mac Installation

Automatic installation with Homebrew

If you use Homebrew, installation is as simple as:

brew tap tsung-ju/iguanatexmac
brew install --cask --no-quarantine iguanatexmac latexit-metadata

Then follow 5. Verify that paths are set correctly in the Manual installation instructions below.

For more details (e.g., how to upgrade or uninstall), please see Tsung-Ju's Homebrew instructions.

Manual installation

1. Download the "prebuilt files for Mac" zip from this repository's Releases page
   There are 3 files to install:

   • IguanaTex.scpt: AppleScript file for handling file and folder access
   • libIguanaTexHelper.dylib: library for creating native text views; source code included in the git repo, under "IguanaTexHelper/"
   • IguanaTex_v1_XX_Y.ppam: main add-in file

2. Install IguanaTex.scpt

   mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Scripts/com.microsoft.Powerpoint
   cp ./IguanaTex.scpt ~/Library/Application\ Scripts/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/IguanaTex.scpt
   

3. Install libIguanaTexHelper.dylib

   sudo mkdir -p '/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office365/User Content.localized/Add-Ins.localized'
   sudo cp ./libIguanaTexHelper.dylib '/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office365/User Content.localized/Add-Ins.localized/libIguanaTexHelper.dylib'
   

4. Load the add-in: Start PowerPoint (restart if it was running when installing the dylib). From the menu bar, select Tools > PowerPoint Add-ins... > '+' , and choose IguanaTex_v1_XX_Y.ppam

   • The first time you click on one of the add-in buttons, you may be notified