Created attachment 98935 [details]
This is the result of the example in the description

In Math, common symbols when entered in the lower editing panel appear incorrectly in the main panel. e.g. a left bracket ( appears as a telephone, an equals sign as a floop disk synbol and a plus sign as an envelope symbol. They also appear inc0rrectly in the elements dock, but correctly in the elements window.

(a + b) ^{n} = sum from{k=0} to{n} C lsup{n} rsub {k} a rsup { k } b rsup{ n-k }

produces the attached screen shot

Libreoffice Version: 4.2.4.2
Build ID: 63150712c6d317d27ce2db16eb94c2f3d7b699f8

Windows 8.1 running on a