The Symbolic Toolbar

As an alternative to typing keyboard combinations and keywords for symbolic operations, you can insert keywords using the Symbolic toolbar. To bring up the Symbolic toolbar, click the symbolic toolbar button keyword icon on the Math toolbar or select Toolbars > Symbolic from the View menu.

The Symbolic toolbar

To insert the symbolic equal sign or a keyword, click the corresponding button on the toolbar. For example, to evaluate 2x + 3x:

  1. Place the cursor at the end of the expression.
  2. Click the symbolic equal sign button on the Symbolic toolbar.
  3. Press [Enter].

    2x + 3x → 5 · x

As another example, to expand (x + y)3:

  1. Place the cursor at the end of the expression.
  2. Click "expand" on the Symbolic toolbar.

    expand keyword

  3. Press [Enter].

    (x + y)3 expand → x3 + 3 · x2 · y + 3 · x · y2 + y3

The Modifier Toolbar

You can use the Modifier toolbar to insert modifiers after keywords. Click the "Modifiers" button on the Symbolic toolbar to bring up the Modifier toolbar.

The Modifier toolbar

To insert a modifier, first create a placeholder after the keyword you want to modify, and then, with the cursor in the placeholder, click a button on the Modifier toolbar.

To learn what a button on the Symbolic toolbar or Modifier toolbar does, hover the cursor over the button until a tooltip shows the title.