Mathematica Tutor

Appendix: Use of Palettes

In Mathematica you may use palettes to simplify the entering of commands. There are several of these palettes; the one that you will probably use most often is the BasicInput Palette. Each of the palettes may be displayed by choosing the particular palette desired from the Palettes submenu of the File menu. We will illustrate their convenience by using them to enter and evaluate the integral of exp(-x²) from 0 to infinity.

Follow these steps in order.

1. Display the BasicInput Palette.
   
   
2. In the BasicInput Palette, click on the definite integral button. You will see a definite integral template with boxes at the places to enter the limits of integration, the integrand, and the variable of integration.
   
   
3. The cursor is positioned for you to enter the lower limit of integration. Type 0.
   
   
4. Press the Tab key. Notice that the cursor moves to the upper limit of integration. In general, the Tab key cycles you through the places in the template where entries are needed.
   
   
5. You are now ready to enter the infinity symbol. In the BasicInput Palette, click on the infinity button -- the fourth button from the left in the sixth row. Press the Tab key again.
   
   
6. The cursor is positioned for you to enter the integrand. In the BasicInput Palette, click on the exponentiation button in the top left corner. This is the button with a big box and a little box to its upper right. Then click on the e button (the second button from the left in the sixth row), press Tab, and type -x^2 on your keyboard to complete the integrand.
   
   
7. Press the Tab key one more time to go to the specification of the variable of integration. Type x. All of your boxes should now be filled in. Now, if you press SHIFT-RETURN, Mathematica will calculate the value of the integral.
   

As you can see, the palettes offer templates for integration, differentiation, and other operations and buttons for Greek letters and special math symbols. They also provide templates for entering common matrices. For each template, the Tab key cycles through the places where entries are needed.