Guide

This guide covers the LaTeXFlow add-on for Google Docs™. The add-on turns LaTeX into equation images inside your document. If something here does not match what you see, or your problem is not listed, see Get help at the end.

1. Install

Install LaTeXFlow from the Google Workspace Marketplace. It is installed to your Google account; nothing is downloaded to your computer.

2. First run and permissions

During installation Google shows a consent screen in two pages: first your account, then a summary of the permissions with checkboxes and a Continue button.

Allow all of the requested permissions. The add-on needs each of them to show its panel and to read and change the document you have open. If you untick one, the panel or the scan will fail later with a permission error (see Troubleshooting).

The document permission is limited to the current document only — the one the add-on is running in. The add-on does not ask for access to your Drive or other files.

3. Open the panel

In a document, choose Extensions → LatexFlow → Open Equation Panel.

A panel titled LaTeX → Equation opens on the right. It has two tabs, Input and Scan, and opens on Input.

The first time, a Data Collection Consent box covers the panel. It explains what is collected if you agree (the LaTeX source and the rendered image, with a pseudonymous ID). Choose Agree or Decline — the add-on works the same either way, and your choice is remembered. You can change it later under Extensions → LatexFlow → Data Collection Settings. Details are in the Privacy Policy.

4. Type an equation (Input tab)

Click in the document where the equation should go.
In the Input tab, type LaTeX into the box, for example \frac{d}{dx}\sin x = \cos x. The symbol buttons (Greek, Sym, Frac, …) insert common commands.
Check the Preview.
Click ➕ Insert into Docs.

The button stays disabled while the preview shows an error, so fix the LaTeX first.

The Input tab always inserts the equation as a display (block) equation. For inline equations, write them in the document as $…$ and use the Scan tab instead.

5. Convert LaTeX already in the document (Scan tab)

If your document already contains LaTeX — for example an answer pasted from a chatbot — the Scan tab finds it and converts it in place.

Open the Scan tab and click 🔍 Scan Document.
Each equation found appears as a card, in document order, with a badge showing its delimiter. The status line reads like Found 7 equation(s) — display: 2, inline: 5.
On a card, click the LaTeX to edit it before converting, or click Skip if it is not an equation (for example a price like $100).
Convert with ⚡ Convert All, or one card at a time with that card’s ➕ Insert into Docs (read the note on several equations in one paragraph first). ⏹ Stop halts Convert All after the equation in progress.

The scanner looks at paragraphs, list items and table cells, and recognises four delimiters:

Written as	Kind
$…$	inline
`$…$`	inline
`$$…$$`	display
`\[…\]`	display

Bracket mode. Chat apps sometimes drop the backslashes from \[ … \], leaving plain [ … ]. Tick Also detect [ … ] — backslashes stripped by chat apps before scanning to find those. It is off by default in the add-on, because brackets in ordinary writing are usually not equations.

Formula with no delimiters? Select it (or put the cursor in its line) and click Tag as $…$. With a selection it wraps the selection; with only a cursor it wraps the whole paragraph. Then scan again. The button wraps as inline $…$ only — type $$ yourself for a display equation.

After converting, look over the document once: a formula with a LaTeX mistake can be converted into an image that shows a red error message instead of the equation.

6. Turn an image back into LaTeX

Converted equations are images, so anyone can see them without the add-on. The original LaTeX is stored with each image.

To edit one, select one or more equation images in the document and click ↩ Revert to LaTeX in the Scan tab. The image is replaced by its LaTeX text; edit it, then scan and convert again.

Select an equation image in the document first. — nothing was selected.
No LaTeX metadata found. This image was not inserted by this addon. — the image was not made by LaTeXFlow, so there is no LaTeX to restore.

7. Troubleshooting

Several equations in one paragraph

When a paragraph contains more than one equation, use ⚡ Convert All, or click 🔍 Scan Document again after each single conversion. Converting cards one by one from top to bottom in the same paragraph can fail with an error like Index (127) must be less than the content length (104), or remove nearby text.

If text disappeared, undo with Ctrl+Z (⌘+Z on a Mac).
Do not edit the document or switch document tabs between scanning and converting. If you did, scan again before converting.

Nothing was found

The status line says No equations found. Check, in this order:

No delimiters. The formula is plain text without $…$ , $$…$$, $…$ or \[…\]. Use Tag as $…$ (section 5).
It is a Google Docs equation. Equations made with Insert → Equation are not text, so the scanner cannot see them. Do not wrap them in delimiters — their text reads wrongly (\frac{1}{2} comes out as 12). Retype them as LaTeX.
An inline $…$ is broken across lines. Open and close it on the same line.
A display equation spans paragraphs. The opening and closing delimiters must be in the same paragraph. Use Shift+Enter for a line break inside it.

Pasted from a chatbot with bare [ … ]? Turn on bracket mode (section 5) and scan again.

“You do not have permission to call …”

A permission was not granted, usually because a checkbox was unticked on the consent screen.

Close the panel, open it again from Extensions → LatexFlow → Open Equation Panel, and allow all requested permissions.
If you are signed in to several Google accounts in the same browser, the add-on can pick the wrong one. Open the document in a window where only one account is signed in (for example a private window) and try again.

“Contact your organization administrator”

Your school or work account’s administrator has blocked the add-on. Ask them to allow LatexFlow in the Google Workspace Marketplace settings for your organization. We cannot change this from our side.

Right after opening a document, the Extensions → LatexFlow menu sometimes does not appear. This happens when Google limits how many add-on scripts run at once (for example with many documents open at the same time). Reload the document.

Get help

If your problem is not covered here, report it on the Support page. Please include what you were trying to do, what happened, and the LaTeX involved.