Finding your way around the window

The Toolbar

First of all, locate the toolbar at the top of the window.  On Windows, it looks like this:

Other operating systems have a similar toolbar.

Every time you work with maple, you will use a "worksheet".  The worksheet is the big, blank area in the middle of the screen. You may have more than one worksheet open at a time.  The following toolbar buttons let you work with the worksheet.

	The first five buttons on the toolbar, in order, do the following: open a new, blank worksheet; open an existing worksheet; open a hyperlink; save the current worksheet; and print the current worksheet.
	The next three buttons are the standard cut, copy, and paste functions.
	The next two buttons let you "undo" and "redo" your last action.
	The next three buttons let you manage what "mode" Maple is currently in.  The standard mode is represented by the capital Sigma button. This means that anything you type will be considered to be mathematical input.  If you click the capital T, Maple switches to Text mode. Anything you type will be considered as text commentary, and Maple won't try to treat it as math.  To switch back to math input mode, click the [> button.  Notice that the prompt in the worksheet window changes to let you know what mode you are in.
	The next two buttons let you un-indent and indent lines in your worksheet.
	The next button has a stop sign on it.  It is used as a "panic" button.  If you start a computation and you would like to stop, click the stop sign. (Cntl-C will also do this.)
	The next three buttons control the amount of zoom.
	The next button displays non-printing characters in the worksheet.
	The next button expands the active worksheet to fill the available space.
	The last button clears all variables of their values. It is the same as typing the maple command restart;

The Kernel

The kernel is the part of Maple that does the actual calculation. The kernel is invisible, but you do need to know about it.  You talk to the kernel by typing mathematical statements and commands at the Maple prompt.  Here is an example.

If you're using a graphics-enabled browser, you'll notice that input appears in red.  Output from the kernel appears in blue, with variable names in italics.

The Maple prompt looks like [>.

The kernel will execute when you press the Enter key.  The kernel decides what to execute by looking at the current execution group. An execution group is a set of input lines connected (along the left-hand margin) by a long, thin [.  When you press Enter anywhere in the execution group, the entire group is executed.  By default, each input line (along with its output) is an execution group unto itself.  You can join execution groups together using the F4 key, or split them apart using the F3 key.

Execution only occurs when you press the Enter key, or if you choose Edit->Execute->Worksheet.  Execution does not occur when you open a worksheet.

Worksheets

The worksheet is the basic unit of work in Maple, like a document in a word processor.  A worksheet stores every line of input and every line of output.

To save your worksheet, choose File->Save As.

To open a worksheet, choose File->Open.

You may have more than one worksheet open at a time.  However, they all share the same kernel.  So any work you do in one worksheet is accessible from another open worksheet.  This can lead to confusing results.