The behavior you observe is due to the formatting rules associated with `Times`. Please start by reading my answer here: http://mathematica.stackexchange.com/q/7880/121. We can apply a similar technique here though the result is not quite as desired if we merely block `Times` during Box creation. We get: > $\left(1*\frac{1}{2}\right)*\left(3*\frac{1}{4}\right)$ This form is due to the internal format of `1/2` and `3/4`: Hold[1/2, 3/4] // FullForm > Hold[Times[1, Power[2, -1]], Times[3, Power[4, -1]]] One way to handle this is to post-process the Box form yield the format we desire: SetAttributes[hf, HoldAll] MakeBoxes[hf[args__], fmt_] := Block[{Times}, MakeBoxes[HoldForm[args], fmt]] /. RowBox[{"(", RowBox[{n_, "*", FractionBox["1", d_]}], ")"}] :> FractionBox[n, d] Now using `hf` in place of `HoldForm`: hf[1/2*3/4] // TeXForm > \frac{1}{2}*\frac{3}{4} Formatted: > $\frac{1}{2}*\frac{3}{4}$