Layouts

The Insert menu can be used to directly insert symbols, the most common equation templates, as well as action templates and templates for matrices of any size.

The standard Layouts that can be inserted are:

Fraction -- inserts a fraction template.

Square Root -- inserts a square root template.

Radical -- inserts an "nth root" template.

Style Change -- inserts a style change template. Style change templates are used to set properties such as font or background color for an entire subexpression. Since the properties are set on the enclosing style change template, they will apply to anything you enter or paste into the template. Similarly, if you cut part of the contents of a style change template and paste it somewhere else, it will no longer reflect the properties set on the style change template. For this reason, properties set using style change templates are sometimes referred to as "non-sticky" properties. See Tutorial: Working with Math Properties for more details on sticky and non-sticky properties. Ordinarily, style change templates are inserted automatically as needed by Properties dialogs, so you rarely need to insert them by hand.

Text -- inserts a text template. Within a text template, the space bar always inserts true spaces and not invisible multiplication markers.

Expression Group -- inserts a grouping template. In MathML, this is an <mrow>. An expression group is an invisible template that serves to collect subexpressions together. Characters like parentheses stretch to the height of the group they are in, so it is frequently necessary to insert expression groups when creating parenthesized expressions. A very common mistake is to begin an equation by typing something like f(x)= and then inserting something tall like a fraction to the right of the = symbol. Suddenly the parentheses stretch to the height of the fraction, since they are all contained in a single expression group. Instead, the (x) should be enclosed in an expression group of its own. For this reason, it is generally a good idea to get into the habit of using the parenthesized expression template described below, which automatically inserts the extra expression group.

Parenthesized Expression -- inserts a parenthesized expression template. This is just an expression group with two parentheses pre-entered.

Borders and Strikethroughs -- adds borders, strikethroughs and other bounding objects (radical, long division, etc.) around data. For more information, see Borders and Strikethroughs.