The Utilities Menu contains the commands "Multigraph", "Animate", "Derivatives", "Riemann Sums", "Parametric Curves", "Integral Curves" and "3D Graph". Choosing any one of these commands will take you into a closed environment, in which you can play with functions in a particular way. The usual menu bar will disappear, and its commands will be unavailable until you leave the utility environment by clicking on an Exit button. The menu bar will contain a single "Examples" menu. The screen will be taken over by a "dialog box" for the utility, containing various buttons, data-entry boxes, and areas for the display of graphs and tables.
The Multigraph utility allows you to type in an expression and see its graph immediately. You can draw the graphs of several functions on the same set of axes. Animate allows you to see a family of functions displayed in quick succession, so that they seem to be moving. Derivatives can display graphs of functions and their derivatives. It can also display formulas for the derivatives, and it can draw tangent lines. Riemann Sums allows you to approximate a definite integral using a variety of summation rules. With Parametric Curves you can sketch curves of the form (x(t),y(t)) as t varies over a range of values. Integral Curves draws the solution curves of differential equations of the form dx/dt = F(x,y), dy/dt = G(x,y). Finally, with 3D Graph, you can see the 3-dimensional graphs of functions of two variables.
Each of the utilities is described more fully in an individual entry in the Info Menu. All of the utilities have a few things in common: Each utility has an Exit button, a Clear button, and a button to get things going (to draw the graph, take the derivatives, etc.). Each contains at a text-entry rectangle in which you can enter an expression defining a function. In this expression, you can use all the standard built-in functions, and you can also use any user-defined functions from the function list window. Each utility also contains four rectangles marked xmin, xmax, ymin, and ymax. The values entered in these rectangles determine the maximum and minimum values of x and y on the graph. (By the way, the easiest way to move from one text-entry rectangle to another is with the TAB key.)
The Example menu at the top of each utility screen allows you to save and recall examples that you have created for that utility. The menu contains a list of examples that have been saved, if any, followed by the two commands "Save Current Example" and "Edit Example". When you save an example, you must give it a name to appear in the menu. You also have the opportunity to enter a short comment that will be displayed every time the example is recalled. The example will be added at the end of the list of examples in the menu.
If you choose the Edit Example command, you will be shown a list of the existing examples and asked to select one; just click on the example to select it. Once an example is selected, you will have several editing options to choose from.
Examples saved in the utilities are included in files that you save with the Save or Save As commands.
