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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.
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.

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.
- 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.

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.

Because the editing process in Sym is significantly different depending on whether you are editing text or editing expressions, two different edit modes are used - one for text and one for expressions. You can switch between the two modes by double clicking on either text or an expression or by using the escape key. See Editing modes for more information.

To create text in a module:

In a Document module, double click anywhere in the module to insert an empty box. Press Escape to switch the edit mode to Text mode, the highlight changes from green to grey. Now start typing text. If you don't switch the edit mode to Text mode, you can still type text, but you are editing the name of an object rather than entering text and after type 2 or more characters, the autocomplete popup will appear to allow you to select an object.
In a Document module, the process is basically the same but you can't insert new objects by double clicking. Instead, highlight the empty box that is already placed in a new Document module, press Escape and start typing text. If there is already text in a document module, you can click on any text or expression in the module, press Escape if you aren't in Text mode, and then create text.

In both cases, expressions can be added to the content by pressing Enter and then Escape to switch back to expression mode. You should now have an empty box and you are ready to create an expression. See Symbolic Expressions - Overview for more details.

Indenting text

Text can be indented either by using the Tab key or by selecting the increase indent button in the tool bar at the top of the module. The Shift + Tab key will decrease the indent.

Bulleting or numbering text

Text can be bulleted or numbered using the bulleting and numbering buttons on the tool bar at the top of the module.

Applying styles to text

The font, font size and font style for text can be selected in the toolbar at the top of the module. Alternately, the style for text can be set by selecting a style in the style drop-down in the toolbar. The list of styles available in a document can be changed. See Styles for more details.