Maple has over thirty palettes containing an extensive collection of symbols, templates, and other features. These palettes are located beside the Maple workspace.

A template is an editable expression containing placeholders that can be easily overwritten. Use the Tab key to move to and highlight the next placeholder in a template, and Shift + Tab to move back to the previous placeholder. The How do I... section contains many examples where a template from a palette is used.

The Calculus palette, similarly to the Expression palette, contains buttons for constructing expressions—such as integrals, derivatives, dot derivatives, etc.

By default, not all palettes are shown; to show a hidden palette, navigate to View / Palettes / Show Palette, and select a palette. For more information, see the Arrange Palettes help page.

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One of the most useful features in Maple is the Context Panel, which offers context-sensitive options for the current selection. Together with inline evaluation, the use of the Context Panel is one of the fastest ways to perform a string of successive computations.

To access the context panel for a specific Maple object:

Before you proceed with the example below, be sure to familiarize yourself with entering simple mathematical expressions (see the How do I... subsection on entering a simple expression). Open a new worksheet in Document mode, and ensure that you are in Math mode.

Example: simplify and factor

Follow the steps below to simplify and factor the expression $\sin {\left(x\right)}^2\cdot x^2\+\cos {\left(x\right)}^2 \cdot x^2\+2 x\+1$.   Step Description Illustration 1 Click any part of the expression (within the dotted outline) and the context panel is displayed. Select Collect / Name / x. 2 Click on the resulting expression and in the context panel select Simplify>Simplify. Note If you were working with an equation, some of these functionalities would not be available. In such a case, you might be able to start by rewriting as an equation equal to zero and then working with the expression on the left-hand side.

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Command and symbol completion is a feature that automatically suggests a command to use as you enter a phrase in Maple. To access the command completion menu, press Esc after typing the phrase. A popup list displays commands that begin with the phrase typed. Maple lists symbols, commands, functions, and package names that match the entered text. To insert an item from this list, select it with the mouse or navigate to it by using the arrow keys and press Enter.

For example, to get the Greek letter $\mathrm{\ρ}$ (rho), type rho and press Esc.  Select $\mathrm{\ρ}\.$

This command completion list can include command completion templates.  These provide the full syntax of common Maple commands including arguments, so that these commands can be easily entered.  Simply choose the desired command completion template and replace the placeholders with the desired values.

For example, to get an integral, type int and press Esc.  Select int(definite)$\.$

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Equation Labels are automatically generated after executing a Maple command on a new line. The result returned is labeled so that you can refer to it later in the document. As an example, compute the reduced row echelon form of a matrix using equation labels. Maple's equation labels are automatically re-numbered in sequential order if any labeled result is deleted or moved.

Before you proceed with the example below, be sure to familiarize yourself with entering simple mathematical expressions (see the How do I... subsection on entering a simple expression). Open a new worksheet in Document mode, and ensure that you are in Math mode.

Computing the reduced row echelon form of a matrix

Follow the steps below to find the reduced row echelon form of the three-by-four matrix $\left[\begin{array}{cccc}1& 2& 3& 6\\ 4& 5& 6& 15\\ 7& 8& 9& 24\end{array}\right]$.   Step Description Illustration 1 Follow the instructions in either of the two examples given in the How do I subsection on entering matrices. Press Enter, and the resulting Matrix is labeled. 2 Type $\mathrm{LinearAlgebra}\[\mathrm{ReducedRowEchelonForm}\]$. 3 Now pass the Matrix as an argument to this procedure by typing a left parenthesis [(], followed by the equation label. To insert the equation label, double-click the label number of the matrix in step 1. Now type a right parenthesis [ ) ]. 4 Press Enter. The reduced row echelon form of this Matrix is displayed and labeled. Note An alternative way to enter the equation label is to use the shortcut key Ctrl + L and then type the label value into the Identifier field; in this case, since it is the first labeled result, the label value is $1$.$$ $$

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Maple has many interactive assistants that provide graphical user interfaces to various Maple packages and functionalities. Here are some of the assistants available in Maple.

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Maple's help system provides extensive help on topics and commands in Maple. Access the help system from the Help > Maple Help menu item or enter a query in the search box in the worksheet toolbar and then press Enter.

Tip: You can also put your cursor in a word and press F2 to get help on that word.

The Plotting Guide provides a visual guide to Maple's plots and a summary of plotting features.

The sample application worksheets provide demonstrations of solutions to specific problems.

To see a list of applications, see either the index of applications and examples or the Math Apps guide.

Maple provides a number of example worksheets to supplement the examples in the help pages.  Example worksheets demonstrate the syntax of popular commands and packages, such as solve, Calculus, and Linear Algebra, as well as more sophisticated topics such as lexical scoping. You can execute all the commands in the example worksheets.

To view a list of example and application worksheets, see the examples index.

Access the Maple User Manual and Maple Programming Guide within Maple.

The chapter opens in Maple as a worksheet that you can execute.

The Application Center offers thousands of Maple applications, Maplet applications, tutorials, Maple PowerTools, MapleSim models, and Maple packages for free download.

Maple Primes is a web community dedicated to sharing experiences, techniques, and opinions about Maple and related products, as well as general interest topics in math and computing.

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