25. A computer system, comprising: at least a memory and a processor; means for receiving a live component comprising a viewer module and a component description file, wherein the viewer module and component description file define a set of displayable equation elements; means for displaying a subset of the displayable equation elements means for receiving user input, and in response to the user input, causing: invocation of at least one rule in a pre-built application, the pre-built application included in the viewer module, and the invoked at least one rule related to editing the format of equation elements, wherein the at least one rule edits the format of at least one element in the displayed subset of the displayable equation elements to indicate a new format for edited elements; means for generating and displaying, based on the invoked at least one rule, the edited elements including the indicated new format; means for modifying the component description file in the live component to include the edited displayable equation elements; wherein the live component, after being modified, is executable on a server or downloadable to a local system to display a component with the content and the modified format of the edited displayable equation elements according the changed component description file, or to further edit the format of the live component using rules from the pre-built application module in the viewer module.
25. A computer system, comprising: at least a memory and a processor; means for receiving a live component comprising a viewer module and a component description file, wherein the viewer module and component description file define a set of displayable equation elements; means for displaying a subset of the displayable equation elements means for receiving user input, and in response to the user input, causing: invocation of at least one rule in a pre-built application, the pre-built application included in the viewer module, and the invoked at least one rule related to editing the format of equation elements, wherein the at least one rule edits the format of at least one element in the displayed subset of the displayable equation elements to indicate a new format for edited elements; means for generating and displaying, based on the invoked at least one rule, the edited elements including the indicated new format; means for modifying the component description file in the live component to include the edited displayable equation elements; wherein the live component, after being modified, is executable on a server or downloadable to a local system to display a component with the content and the modified format of the edited displayable equation elements according the changed component description file, or to further edit the format of the live component using rules from the pre-built application module in the viewer module. 29. The computer system as recited in claim 25 , further comprising means for positioning or repositioning, the displayable equation elements to a new position, the new position of the displayable equation elements defined relative to each other without constraint of a grid layout.