The conventions of math typography give clues that help readers distinguish, for example, the English indefinite article “a” from a variable named “a” and to distinguish the symbol for maximum from the product of variables “m”, “a”, and “x.” I imagine most people do not consciously notice these conventions - I never noticed until I learned to use LaTeX - but subconsciously notice when the conventions are violated. Also, word-like symbols such as “log” or “cos” are not set in italics. For example, mathematical symbols are set in an italic font that is not quite the same as the italic font used in prose. LaTeX produces ugly math too when people do not use it correctly, though this happens less often. I realize now that the problem is that most people writing math in Word are not using the Equation Editor. But the fault lies with users, like myself, not with Word. I’ve long said that math written in Word is ugly, and it usually is. I don’t remember what version I’d tried before. I tried it again recently and was pleasantly surprised. It was hard to use and produced ugly output. I tried to use the Equation Editor in Microsoft Word years ago and hated it.

Cant insert equation in word