This module covers some basic points of Connexions' MathML editor, now in beta testing. It is organized as a tutorial and will lead you through basic usage of the editor, though you can skip around the sections if you wish. The tutorial covers:

You will learn how to create the expression a⁢x2+b⁢x+c a x 2 b x c using keyboard input and also using the toolbar menus.

You will also learn about the basic layout of the MathML editor, the context of your cursor within the editing area, and how to select or highlight part or all of the MathML within the editor with key strokes or the mouse.

All of these aspects of the editor and more are covered in more detail in the MathML Editor: Manual.

Currently, the MathML editor is only supported in Mozilla Firefox. If you use Internet Explorer or another browser, you can download Firefox for free under the link.

When editing a module using Mozilla's Firefox browser, click on an element within the module to open a blue editing box.

Figure 1: Begin editing and in the top-right corner is a MathML Editor link

On the top-right hand side of the box is a "MathML Editor" link which will open up the editor.

Figure 2: Once clicked, a popup window will appear containing the Math Editor

The popup window can remain open while editing a module and can even stay open while editing several modules. At any point one can close the window, but the contents of the editor will be lost.

The editor has two main sections: the toolbar and the main editing area.

The toolbar consists of

The editing area is the main area for creating math. It begins empty, but math can be pasted directly in here from Connexions, or created on the spot by either typing in expressions or using the toolbars. See the section Inserting expressions into a module below for how to move math from Connexions to the math editor and back.

When you first open the MathML editor, the Editing area should have one blank box in it, called a "block". A block is an empty slot that can be filled with a number, variable, or longer expression consisting of at least one operator and its associated arguments.

Click inside of it to place your cursor inside the empty block.

There are two ways to insert math using the keyboard. The simplest way is to use keyboard shorthand notations for operators. These exist for simple algebra notations, and are similar to the buttons on a calculator (for instance, * for multiplication, - for negative or minus). A full list of Keyboard shortcuts is located here.

The MathML editor will correctly parse a sequence of text and numbers and keyboard shortcuts into operators and arguments. For instance, 3-4 will be interpreted as "3 minus 4", and 3/(x+9) will be interpreted as "3 divided by the quantity x plus 9".

The second way to create operations using the keyboard is to type out the MathML name. This is analogous to choosing the operation from the toolbar menus and is discussed in the same section.

x^2+b*x

If you have just created an expression and pressed Enter, tight now your cursor should be at the right edge of your expression. If it isn't, click somewhere within your expression, and press the right arrow key until the cursor no longer moves and the path no longer changes in the Path bar. In this position, the Path bar should display Path: / plus and the entire expression should have a light grey background.

Figure 3: The context of the cursor is the entire plus operation.

Press the left arrow key once. The cursor should still be on the right-hand side of the expression, but the Path bar should read: Path: / plus / times and now only the b⁢x b x term should have a light grey background.

Figure 4: The context of the cursor is thetimes operation.

Press the left arrow again. Now the x x should appear within a block and be selected. The path will change again to Path: / plus / times / ci The term ci represents an "identifier", in this case our variable x x .

Figure 5: The context of the cursor is the ci block.

Continue pressing the left arrow key across your expression to see what happens. Notice that once you reach the left side of the b b , the path should again read Path: / plus / times and the product b⁢x b x should have a light grey background. When you reach the far left side of the expression, the path should again read Path: / plus and the entire expression should have a light grey background.

( ( (x)^(2) ) + ( (b)*(x) ) )

Let's put our expression a⁢x2+b⁢x+c a x 2 b x c into a module we're editing.

The MathML editor won't automatically insert your MathML expression into a module. You will have to copy and paste the MathML code. You can paste it into any module you wish, not only the module that you first accessed the MathML popup window from. The popup window can remain open even if you edit several different modules, but once you close it all contents of the editor will be lost.

You can press Ctrl+A (or ⌘+A on Macs) to select your entire expression. You can also double-click in the white box outside of your expression to select it all. If you want to select only a portion of the expression, hold the Shift key down and use the left and right arrow buttons, or double click on the operator of just the portion you want to select (i.e. double click + to select everything within the plus operator, or double click on two multiplied objects to just select that product).

Copy your expression by pressing Ctrl+C (⌘+C). Open your module and click on a segment to edit. Press Ctrl+V (⌘+V) to paste the MathML code directly into your module.

There are several ways to delete part or all of your expression. You can either move your cursor to the context of the portion of your expression you want to delete, then push Delete, or you can select the portion of your code you want to delete, and press Delete.

To delete b⁢x b x from our expression a⁢x2+b⁢x+c a x 2 b x c , move your cursor until the context is only b⁢x b x . The b⁢x b x portion of the expression should have a light grey background, and the path bar should read Path: / plus / times.

Figure 6: The context of the cursor is the times operation.

Press Delete once, and that part of your expression should be highlighted in blue.

Figure 7: The times operation is highlighted.

Press Delete again and that portion will delete.

Figure 8: The cursor will move to the next argument.

You should be left with a blank block where the expression b⁢x b x used to be. By clicking Delete you have deleted the content of one argument of the plus operator, but not the argument itself. You can type in a different expression that will replace b⁢x b x , or if you simply want the expression a⁢x2+c a x 2 c , press Delete one more time to delete the block. Notice that the context automatically moves to the next argument, which in our case is the ci element c c .

The toolbar menus are only activated when something is selected within the editing box. This can be either an entire operator, like the expression b⁢x b x , or it could be just one argument of an operator, like b b or an empty block. Since the editing box contains only an empty block when you first open it, the block is automatically highlighted and the toolbar menus are accessible.

However, note that if you select a portion of your MathML expression and then insert an operator from the toolbar, the selected portion will be overwritten. The operator will not appear behind or in front of the selected expression. New users are often confused by this behavior. Essentially, keyboard input and the toolbar function in different ways.

Remember that each operator in MathML has a specific number of arguments that can be associated with it. For instance, the operator plus must have at least two arguments (as in x+y x y ) up to an unlimited number of arguments (as in 1+2+3+4+5+6 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...). The operator root has one required argument (the radicand, as in 3 3 ), as well as one optional argument for specifying which root power (as in 36 6 3 ).

When you insert a series of characters into the editor, the editor will correctly parse some of the symbols you enter as operators, and some as arguments of the operators. Furthermore, it correctly determines which operator you have typed in, and correctly associates the surrounding symbols as arguments of that operator.

The menu buttons in the toolbar will paste an operator over your highlighted expression, and insert blank blocks for all the required and optional arguments of the operator. This means that keyboard input and toolbar insertion are useful for different things.

The following sections will show you how to create an expression from scratch using mainly toolbar entry, and how to use part or all of your existing expression as one argument of a new operator.