To add an equation to an OpenOffice Write document, begin by clicking on the insert object menu on the right side of the screen. Hold the mouse button down to cause the submenu to extend.
Choose the second item from the left, the square root symbol, to open the equation editor.
The top two rows of the Selection panel are actually menus that cause the bottom rows to change. The Selection panel usually opens with the most commonly accessed symbols shown. Click on the fraction button to start a fraction.
The < and > brackets will have to be replaced by the numberator and denominator of the fraction as seen below. Simply click and type in the Commands window to create the fraction.
Click outside the Command window on the document to put the equation editor away.
Continue typing the test. The equation editor has a broad range of mathematical capabilities.
Documents can be saved in the native OpenOffice format and printed. The document can also be saved as HTML. OpenOffice will convert all of the equations to Graphic Interchange File format image files. The result can then be viewed by anyone with a browser. For an example, see http://shark.comfsm.fm/~dleeling/prealgebra/p31q04.html