Center all lines in formula

I have a formula in LO which is too long to fit on one line. If I break it along the sum of two different components everything looks fine

f(x) = g( x ) newline + h( x )  

the + h(x) is centered on the line below. However if I break along the product of two components or another operator in the same way

f(x) = g( x ) newline * h( x )  

I get a red question mark in front of the h(x) and no *. If instead write

f(x) = g( x ) newline %* h( x )  

everything shows up correctly but the second line is left-aligned rather than centered. How do I split up formulas like this and keep things centered?

Pretty sure it’s because + can be a unary operator (just indicating that the number is positive) and * cannot be. In any case the same behavior shows up if you enter a line with just “*h” and another with just “+h”. Only the +h is accepted. (The ? means there is a missing numeral.)

Well, if you need to begin/end a line with an operator that expects something that is on different line, then you need to put an empty entity instead, like this:

f(x) = g( x ) newline {} * h( x )

Here the curly braces pair {} stands for empty entity (“nothing”).