Selecting and Typing in Notebooks

The Wolfram Language has many special features that optimize the entry and editing of both ordinary text and Wolfram Language input in notebooks.

Making Selections

double-click select a word or function name

triple-click select a function and its arguments

repeated clicking continue expanding selection

expand selection within a cell or beyond

select a whole notebook

select all cells in a notebook with the same style ("Section", "Input", etc.)

Code & Syntax

match brackets

indent selected lines one level

outdent selected lines one level

toggle a comment around the selected code

toggle iconization of the selected code

Help Why the Coloring? find out why input is red or has other syntax coloring

Help & Command Completion

search for help on the name selected, or to the left

bring up a new instance of the help viewer

complete a command name, character name, etc.

Entering Styled Text

create a new cell of the same style as above

pick a style for a cell (4 for section heading, 7 for text, etc.)

enter a style to use for a cell

, toggle bold, italic

, make font larger, smaller

Entering Special Characters »

name enter hundreds of special characters by short names

Math & Tabular Input »

(  or  )  ▪  ()  ▪  ()  ▪  ...

move out of a script position

, create a 2D grid

, start, end an inline math cell in text, or text in math

Typing Shortcuts

delete next character

, extend selection back or forward

, skip back or forward a word

, extend selection back, forward a word

Cell Operations

, move down or up inside or outside of cells

, merge or divide cells

toggle to unformatted expression form of a cell

change cell style (4 for section heading, 7 for text, 9 for input, etc.)