Documentation
Publicon
User Guide
Advanced Features
Editing and Formatting Notebooks
Entering Mathematical Formulas
Entering Mathematical Formulas
Overview
Publicon enables you to to enter typeset equations of any complexity. The simplest way to enter equations is by using the Typesetting palette, accessible from the Window menu. This palette contains subpalettes for entering a variety of mathematical notation. Clicking any of the buttons inserts the selected equation template as display math into a new "Equation" style cell when the cursor is between cells. Other equation styles can be selected from the document palette to initiate a new cell or change an existing cell. If the cursor is inside an existing cell when an equation template is selected, inline math is inserted into the text of the cell as an inline cell. There are subtle differences in the way inline and display math is rendered and significant differences in the underlying structure, so care should be taken to use each approach appropriately. Pure text within a cell can be converted to inline math by making a selection and clicking the Convert to Math button under the Other Math Templates tab.
You can also enter mathematical expressions quickly and easily by using the keyboard with one of the following techniques:
• Names for special characters. Most of the special characters in the Typesetting palette can also be typed into the notebook directly from the keyboard. Each special character is assigned a name composed entirely of keyboard characters. Typing "\", followed by the name of the character enclosed in square brackets, inserts the character into your notebook. For example, the Greek letter 
can be entered by typing \[Alpha] and the integral symbol by typing \[Integral].
• Keyboard aliases. Many of the special characters can be entered using keyboard aliases consisting of special keys such as 
and 
, combined with ordinary letters and numbers. For example, the Greek letter has the alias a and the integral symbol 
has the alias int . The and keys also provide a way to enter mathematical formulas involving subscripts, superscripts, square roots, powers, and fractions.
Note:The key is represented by the symbol in a notebook.
The following sections contain several examples to illustrate how you can use these methods, singly or in combination, to enter input of many different types.
