new user Maple interface setup
and getting familiar with the interface (in progress)

Maple does not need to be "taught" in the usual sense of programming or math subjects but the new user needs to get familiar with how the interface works and then slowly acquire experience in knowing which of the many top row menu choices and right click context sensitive menu choices are useful at the elementary level. It helps if an experienced user shows the new user the ropes, so to speak, so this document attempts to help serve that purpose when such guidance is not available, as well as to help instructors new to Maple.

Important! It is not necessary to study this overview page. Just reading through it gives you some insight into how the Maple interface works, and you can always refer to it again later as you play with Maple to acquire more experience. This should be fun if you like mathematics, not a chore.

Although one can hide Maple commands by using Document Mode which mixes text, math input and math output, Worksheet Mode is more structured and useful for beginners, and helps familiarize the user with basic Maple commands in order to not be afraid of using template worksheets requiring only editing of Maple command parameters (expressions, ranges, etc) to achieve a more interesting calculation. The top line menu choice File, Open allows a choice between these two modes. This 3 minute video on Clickable Math shows how to use palettes and right click menus in Document Mode, but also applies to Worksheet Mode; the only difference is that in the latter Maple inserts the Maple command into a new math input region and then gives the math output.

• palettes
• menus
• the Maple window
• context sensitive tool bar
• using Maple

Palettes

When Maple is opened for the first time, the user should rearrange the palettes shown on the left margin of the screen. They open and close by mouse clicking on the triangle in the palette title, and they can be reordered by left clicking on the palette title and holding, then dragging the palette up or down and  releasing. Start by closing them all, and from the View Menu, Palettes, Show Palette, choose "Calculus" which is not shown by default. Then move the following 4 palettes to the top in this order:

Expressions, Common Symbols, Calculus, Matrix
[See graphic screen shot of a blank worksheet with the closed palettes arranged in order.]

Then open Expressions, Common Symbols, Calculus so they are ready for use. Matrix is useful for linear algebra and systems of linear differential equations in MAT2705 and MAT3400 but can be opened when needed.

Expressions is the most useful for building up Mathematical expressions and equations. The top row of Common Symbols is useful for Pi, "e" and infinity, while at the bottom one finds the dot and cross products for vectors in multivariable calculus. Calculus extends the Expressions palette for multivariable calculus, as well as housing the limit icon on the first line.

Occasionally the Greek palette is useful for Greek letters. [You can show it as described above for Calculus.]

USE: A little experimentation shows how to combine palette icons together to create the mathematical expressions and equations needed for the extended calculus sequence. By using "Worksheet mode" instead of "Document mode" worksheets, one has a structured document of math inputs (with a math prompt ">" for inserting 2d math from palettes or typing) and math outputs. With the cursor anywhere in a math input region, the Enter key in Windows (equivalent for a MAC) executes the mathematical input to give an indented math output in blue, and placing the cursor on it allows one to choose from a context sensitive menu that gives options appropriate for the kind of math expression or equation or set of such objects separated by commas. The result leads to a new input line with the appropriate Maple command inserted, so that one can begin familiarizing oneself with the elementary Maple commands needed for calculus, and often easily edit that input line to adjust parameters. The placeholders in the palettes can be filled in with other palette icons or by typing simple expressions, using the tab key to move between multiple placeholders to overwrite them with your inputs.

One can drag the vertical border of the palette column left or right with the mouse to give more room to either the main Maple window or the palette column.

Menus (the minimal for elementary use)

There are multiple ways to accomplish various tasks, via the top window row of menus or by right click context sensitive menus, so that for most of the single operation activities (which of course can be fed into each other for multistep calculations), a little familiarity with a few indispensible Menu commands is sufficient.

• File:
  Open, New Worksheet (New Document hides right click Maple commands math output follows math input within text regions), you can open multiple files, each is a tab in the worksheet window
  Recent Files is very useful for immediately opening the most recent Maple files
  Save, the first thing you should do for any worksheet you care about, continue saving periodically
  Export As, PDF, gives you a frozen worksheet that anyone can read
  
• Edit:
  Delete Element deletes the component of the worksheet where the cursor is, needed for getting rid of that last "execution group" when you mouse-select a sequence of successive execution groups to delete with the backspace key
  Execute, Selection or Entire Worksheet is useful for executing a mouse-selected region or the entire worksheet
  
• View:
  Palettes, already discussed above
  Sections, Expand All Sections or Collapse All Sections. Sections are useful for organizing a worksheet into sections and subsections which are opened and closed by clicking on the triangle in the section title. They can be introduced by selecting a region of the worksheet and using the Indent Icon on the tool bar at the top of the worksheet under the Menu bar, or by Insert menu, Section or Subsection. Give the section a title, then input regions inside.
  
• Insert:
  Text, when cursor is in a math input region, converts to text input
  Image, to insert a graphics image into your worksheet
  Table, to insert a table into your worksheet to put in some figures, or text by a figure side by side
  Execution Group, for new math input (icon "|>" on toolbar too)
  Section or Subsection, to give our document more structure, as in one section per problem, also achievable with the indent icon on the tool bar when a region of the worksheet is selected with the mouse.
  
• Format:
  This is for higher level users, like for inserting hyperlinks, converting to 1d math or inert form, etc,
  actually you can convert an integral to inert form to numerically evaluate it by bypassing the possibly very long attempt to find an exact result first
  
• Tools:
  Tutors.
  The most useful tutors are available for (click on the names for screen shots):
  Calculus, Differentiation Methods, Integration Methods, Approximate Integration, etc
  Vector Calculus, Space Curves
  Multivariate Calculus, Approximate Integration
  Linear Algebra, Linear System Solving, Eigenvectors (2x2)
• Help:
  When the cursor is on a word, it is fed into the search window for Help if you click on that line in the menu. Help pages on Maple commands have technical descriptions which should not be taken too seriously at first, scroll down to the examples to see how they work. The Help also is the gateway to lots of Maple examples and tools.
  
  Invoking a tutor leads to a popup window where various parameters may be set to explore an activity, but in 1d character mode, so that one needs to know Pi is the symbol for the number 3.14159, for example.|
  
  Load Package.
  Place the cursor in a text or input region and click on Load Package, which can be done by
  > with(PackageName)
  to see all the commands that are loaded (terminate with a colon ":" to suppress the listing after you have seen it).
  Plots is necessary for displaying plots together, and for implicit, contour and point plotting in 2d and 3d plots, for spacecurve for 3d plots, and finally animate and arrow for 2d and 3d plots which is not needed by calculus students though is useful for instructors.
  

The Maple Window

For a worksheet mode Maple worksheet file, a blank worksheet starts with an input line signaled by a prompt symbol ">" and a left square bracket (see screenshot) with encloses an "execution group" of Maple inputs which are simultaneously executed when the cursor is in the region and the enter key is pressed. Any such math input region can be converted to a text input region for documentation by using the Insert, Text menu selection, while the T icon in the tool bar inserts a new text region below the cursor. If more than one math input region is desired in a single execution group, one need only separate them by a semicolon or (to suppress the output that is long or not necessary to see) a colon. One can also separate math inputs on new lines by using "Shift, Enter".

When the output is a plot region (see screenshot), left clicking on the plot makes it "live" and one sees a border which can be dragged to reshape the window, smaller or larger. Right-clicking on the live plot window gives a menu of too many choices: only a few need attention.

2d plots

• When the Manipulator submenu choice is Point Probe, the default choice. With it, the Probe Info submenu choices for the Cursor Position or Nearest Point on Line to the cursor are pretty self-explanatory, try them.
• The Manipulator menu also offers Pan to move the graph around in the window, needed when Zooming In at the cursor position, from which you can Zoom Out or in Windows, Control Z to undo each Zoom (or Reset Window to the start plot). The plot activated tool bar also has icons for these. Check them out.
• In Point Probe or Zoom In mode, Shift, left click hold and drag the cursor enables you to select a rectangular region to zoom in on.
• Left clicking on a curve hightlights it, and then right clicking allows you to change color,  style or other properties.
• When the plot is "live", the context sensitive toolbar changes to one appropriate for plots. Explore the icons. The black grid icon toggles on or off the gridlines useful for putting the points in the plot into the context of number values. Different axis choices, or points versus continuous curve plotting, etc. can be played with.
• As for generating these plots, we can discuss that in the use of Maple.

3d plots

• The Manipulator defaults to Rotate by click and dragging the cursor  (see screenshot).
• One can also choose Zoom In or Zoom Out or Pan to recenter the field of view in so doing, easier to click on the icons on the plot tool bar when the graph is live.

Context sensitive tool bar

There are three types of regions in a worksheet mode worksheet: math input, math output and text (paragraph mode lacks the left square bracket delimiter). When the cursor is in one of these regions, the tool bar adapts to the appropriate options for that content. Hovering the cursor over the icons shows a brief indication of their meaning in balloon help.

In text mode, Maple has a complete and sophisticated word processing toolbar. One can introduce math input inside of text regions by the Math icon at the left of the toolbar, switching back to text with the Text icon.

In a 2d or 3d plot region, the toolbar switches to icons appropriate for these environments.

Using Maple

As you begin to use Maple, if there is any aspect of Maple you don't understand and the Help page is either not so helpful or there is no Help page (for much of the clickable interface, for example), you can consult the current Maple PDF user manual.

Every new user needs to be informed of some tips about basic aspects of the interface here. You don't have to read them all, but the top of the page is very useful.