Aurora: Ribbit all grown up

I just found out that Ribbit, the program that gave LaTeX support to Microsoft® Word (on Microsoft® Windows), has changed its name to Aurora and has lots more features. From its web page:

• No more mouse-hunting for symbols—enter great-looking math quickly and efficiently using the standard language of scientific typesetting.
• Express any scientific concept from mathematics, computer science, chemistry, engineering, and many other areas.
• Full integration with Microsoft® Word, PowerPoint®, Visio®, and Excel®.
• Built-in LaTeX document converter.
• Advanced support for equation numbering.
• Works with any Windows application that has an “Insert Object...” function or lets you paste images.

In short, Aurora brings to Windows what a countless many applications (e.g., LaTeX Equation Editor) bring to OS X.

There's a 30-day free trial. After that, Aurora is $45 for regular users and $35 for academic users. If you don't have MiKTeX (or some alternative) installed, it can install a free micro version for you.

Other notable examples of Windows applications with LaTeX integration include AbiWord, OpenOffice (see OOoLatex), and TeXmacs.

My LaTeX-using colleagues would want me to reminder the reader that if you know enough LaTeX to be entering equations using it, you probably should just be using LaTeX directly. Why fake it? Despite Aurora's claim that it is "even better than the real thing," it's a distant second at best. That being said, it is SO much better than the Microsoft® Equation Editor, which should absoultely never be used.