Frequently Asked Questions

Here, in question and answer form, are some situations that might arise when you are working in a Scientific Notebook document.

Q:
My screen has gotten cluttered with lines or marks that don't belong there (or I can't see something on the screen that I know is there). What can I do?

A:
Press ESC to refresh your screen.

Q:
I pressed the space bar (ENTER key) and nothing happened. What can I do to get more spaces?

A.
A setting under Tools + User Setup will allow you to enter multiple spaces (either horizontal or vertical) by pressing SPACEBAR or ENTER. Choose the Edit page, click Spaces or Enter, and follow directions on the menu.

Alternately, when you need space, you can use Insert + Spacing, choose Horizontal Space or Vertical Space, and choose an appropriate size space. If you check Custom Space, you can specify the width or height of the space.

If you are in mathematics, you may not need more space. Scientific Notebook automatically spaces mathematical symbols appropriately for most situations. To keep a mathematical expression meaningful for computation, be sure any added space stays in mathematics mode.

Q:
What can I do if I hit the wrong key and get out of a fraction (or exponent, or ...) before I want to?

A:
Click the position where you want to type.

Q:
What can I do if I type an expression in text mode that I meant to have in mathematics mode?

A:
Select the expression with the mouse or select the expression from the keyboard by placing the insertion point to the left of the expression and pressing SHIFT + RIGHT ARROW. Then click the Toggle Text/Math button itbpF0.3009in0.3009in0.0701intext.wmf to change it to itbpF0.3009in0.3009in0.0701inmath.wmf.

Q:
What can I do if I cannot see all of my work on the screen either horizontally or vertically?

A:
If a piece of mathematics extends beyond the width of the screen, you can scroll horizontally using the scroll bars at the bottom of the screen. To see more of your document on the screen at a time, you can reduce the size of the screen font. Click View and choose Working. Click Tools and choose User Setup. Change the percentage in the Working View box and click OK. (The 1x on the View menu gives 100% and the 2x gives 200%. The range for Working View is 50% (very small) to 400% (huge).)

Q:
How can I tell Scientific Notebook to save automatically, at specified intervals, when I am working on a document?

A:
Click Tools and choose User Setup. Click the check box by Automatic Saving Every (a number you set) Minutes if it does not show a check. Set the number of minutes between saves. Click OK.

Q:
Help! I just deleted something I didn't mean to delete! What should I do?

A:
Before you do anything else, click Edit and choose Undo Deletion.

Q:
I tried a computation and nothing happened (although my system does carry out other computations). How can I find out what I did wrong?

A.
First choose Maple + Define + Show Definitions to see if you have made a definition that is interfering with your computation. If so, apply Maple + Define + Undefine to the variable or function that is causing the problem.

If that does not solve your problem, click Maple, choose Settings, General page, and check the setting for Error Level. With a setting of 0, you get no response to errors. With a setting of 1, you get a warning sound with an error. With the higher settings, you get messages with information about the error—usually the error message generated by Maple. (Click Maple settingsDM1-3.tex#Maple error levels for more detailed information about error levels.)

Q:
I chose Find from the Edit menu and I am trying to search for a word. A response comes back immediately, telling me the search is completed and the pattern was not found. But I know the pattern is there. What can I do?

A:
Check to see if any portion of the document is selected. The Find feature searches only through the selected portion in this case. If something is selected, click to get a blinking insertion point, and try your search again. If you want to search the entire document, make certain nothing is selected.

Q:
I tried to take the absolute value of an expression and nothing happened. What is wrong?

A:
The symbols for absolute value are the vertical lines from the dialog box under Brackets itbpF0.2992in0.2992in0.0692infences.wmf. The keyboard vertical line will also work. Perhaps you used the vertical lines from the symbol panel of Binary Relations below itbpF0.2992in0.2793in0.0692inbinrels.wmf. Although they appear similar, they are not the same symbols and will not be interpreted as absolute-value symbols. The expanding brackets under the Brackets button itbpF0.3009in0.3009in0.0701infences.wmf, the expanding brackets itbpF0.3009in0.3009in0.0701inparens.wmf and itbpF0.2992in0.2992in0.0692inbrackets.wmf, and nonexpanding brackets from the keyboard are generally interchangeable, although there are circumstances in which the keyboard brackets do not work properly. In particular, the less-than and greater-than symbols on the keyboard should not be used as brackets. These two symbols, as well as the symbols on the panel below itbpF0.3009in0.3009in0.0701inbinrels.wmf, are binary relations and generally will not be interpreted as brackets.

Q:
How can I be sure exactly how Scientific Notebook is interpreting my mathematical expression?

A:
Select the expression and press CTRL + ?. Scientific Notebook will return the expression in an unambiguous form. For example, CTRL + ? produces

a/bc = $\displaystyle {\frac{{a}}{{bc}}}$            sin x/y = sin$\displaystyle {\frac{{x}}{{y}}}$             $\displaystyle \int$xy = $\displaystyle \int$xy d?

If the interpretation that appears is not the one that you intended, you can add parentheses or change the expression some other way to remove the ambiguity.



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