# Math notation on WordPress.com?

## The question:

I am a new user with WordPress, and I would like to use mathematical formulas. I have been reading the mathjax pages for hours, such as this one and quite a few others. This may be a bad question, but can someone please help me? All I want to do is enable Latex, and I am hopelessly lost. My most recent attempts have been trying to find the “header file” so that I can copy and paste in

<script type="text/javascript"
src="https://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML">
</script>


I have tried looking for it, and looked over a whole bunch of forum posts about where to find this header file, but I just do not understand. A step by step explanation of how to make mathjax work in the simplest way possible would be extremely appreciated!! (Also, don’t worry about leaving in too many steps!)

## The Solutions:

Below are the methods you can try. The first solution is probably the best. Try others if the first one doesn’t work. Senior developers aren’t just copying/pasting – they read the methods carefully & apply them wisely to each case.

### Method 1

If you have a blog that is hosted on WordPress.com, you can’t install extra plugins or modify the theme files yourself – this is only possible with a self-hosted version.

However, WordPress.com has enabled LaTeX support for everyone. Just write $latex your-latex-code$ and it will be rendered as images.

### Method 2

It can be very confusing to users when plugins ask users to upload files and insert lines of code. The plugin linked to in the question does contain an option to automatically load the MathJax without the need to insert anything into the header.

### Method 3

If you are talking about your own site built on WordPress, you can take a look at GFormula plugin. It allows you to write LaTeX expression and get formula image for it. Also it makes possible to setup background and text colors, to set image dimensions. Check it out.