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Getting Started
Sym is a tool for creating and manipulating symbolic content. By symbolic content, we mean both mathematical expressions and other symbolic content (source code is one example). Almost anything that can be represented as a tree of symbols can potentially be content in Sym. The topics in the Getting Started section of the documentation cover installing Sym and starting to use Sym.
Documents
Every document has two main components; the document content that you create and the libraries that define the objects and functionality available in the document. Documents will nearly always have a reference to least one library. Without any libraries loaded there would be virtually no functionality available in the document.
Creating and Editing Content
Content is contained in modules and can consist of both text and expressions. The content of a document is primarily contained in Document Modules.
Exporting Content
Content in a Sym document can be exported to other formats including LaTeX and HTML. You can customize the export process and create your own functions that will export content to a custom format.

Getting Started
Sym is a tool for creating and manipulating symbolic content. By symbolic content, we mean both mathematical expressions and other symbolic content (source code is one example). Almost anything that can be represented as a tree of symbols can potentially be content in Sym. The topics in the Getting Started section of the documentation cover installing Sym and starting to use Sym.
- Installing Sym
  Sym includes a Windows installer. The installation requirements and info about the install destination are listed below.
- Using Sym
  To get started using Sym, you need to understand the basics of how documents and content are created and edited.
- Documents
  Every document has two main components; the document content that you create and the libraries that define the objects and functionality available in the document. Documents will nearly always have a reference to least one library. Without any libraries loaded there would be virtually no functionality available in the document.
  - Creating a New Document
    Documents are created, opened, and saved in the standard way from the File menu, or by using standard keystrokes such as Ctrl + S. The following section describes the procedures for creating a new document.
  - Libraries and References
    The functionality in any document depends upon which libraries are referenced. A reference is an entry shown in the Document Explorer that indicates that the specified library is loaded into the current document. Libraries serve as a container for definitions of objects, commands and functionality.
  - Adding and Removing References
    References determine which libraries are included in a document. The libraries included in the document define the list of objects and much of the functionality that can be used to create and manipulate expressions in the current document. For example, if you add a reference to the Calc.eql library to a document, then the Calc library along with the Trig and Math libraries will be loaded in the document and there will be definitions and functionality for objects like limits, derivatives, and integrals in current document.
  - Online Documents
    Documents that are located online can be opened in Sym. These documents can be edited like any other document, but you must specify a directory and file name when you first save a document that was opened from an online location.
  - Customizing the Screen Layout
    The locations of the windows that make up the Sym application can be customizable by the user. Windows can be undocked and left floating, or re-docked in the same or a new location. The window and document configuration is saved when the application is closed. When the application is restarted, the last configuration will be restored.
  - Creating and Editing Content
    Content is contained in modules and can consist of both text and expressions. The content of a document is primarily contained in Document Modules.
    - Editing modes
      Keystrokes can be used to edit names of objects, text, numbers or to invoke commands on highlighted expressions. In some cases, a keystroke could be interpreted in several ways. As a result, there are three editing modes in the Sym application. The current mode determines how keystrokes are handled. Sym uses three different highlight colors to indicate the current edit mode.
    - Positioning Content
      In a Document module, content (both text and expressions) can be placed anywhere in the module just by double clicking in the moduele and then creating whatever text or expression you need. Content can be dragged with the mouse to position it in a document module but content can also be connected to other content to create something that behaves more like what you would expect in a typical word processor.
    - Creating and Editing Expressions
    - Creating and Editing Text
      Text can be added to Document modules. Text can be indented, bulleted or numbered in the usual way, either using the button bar at the top of the module or by applying commands.
    - Creating and Editing Images and Graphs
    - Exporting Content
      Content in a Sym document can be exported to other formats including LaTeX and HTML. You can customize the export process and create your own functions that will export content to a custom format.
      - Exporting Expressions
        When an expression is copied to the clipboard, the expression is placed on the clipboard in at least two formats. The first format is custom to Sym, the second format is just plain text. This text can be generated from the expression using any of the existing exporters, like LaTeX and HTML.
- Commands
  Commands are used both to construct and manipulate expressions. Typically, single-character keystrokes are used to invoke commands. For example, the "s" keystroke normally runs the Simplify command on the highlighted expression.

Exporting Content

Content in a Sym document can be exported to other formats including LaTeX and HTML. You can customize the export process and create your own functions that will export content to a custom format.

To export a Document module, select File > Export module... from the main menu. You can also export from the Document Explorer by right clicking on a document module and selecting Export module... from the context menu.

In the Export Module dialog you can select the exporter that will be used and the file name of the export file. The list of exporters depends on the libraries that are loaded into the current document. If the exporter you want isn't in the list, you will need to add a reference to the library that contains the exporter that you need. See Libraries and References

An exporter is also used to generate the text that is put on the clipboard when you copy content in a module. Which exporter is used is set in the Document Options dialog. See Exporting Expressions