MathSheet is a spreadsheet program designed specifically for use in undergraduate mathematics courses. Its operation will be explained in these notes. This spreadsheet is similar in many ways to that of well-known commercial spreadsheets, but it has several distinguishing features particularly well adapted to its role. Key features: It can be used over the Internet or as a standalone application; its graphing capabilities are designed for mathematical plotting; it deals conveniently with mathematical expressions. Eventually, it will incorporate simple programming constructs for even more sophisticated applications.

A running copy of MathSheet can be brought up by going to the site below. It will be launched in a separate window, so you can tinker with it while reading this.

• MathSheet applet

You do not need to read all of the documentation to get started with MathSheet. Read the first four sections carefully (through the examples) and then look at the section on graphs. Skim the section on formulas and appearance, in that order, just to know roughly what's possible. On a first reading you can skip the paragraphs that begin like this one does. Except this one!

MathSheet may be run in either of two ways--from within your web browser or as an application residing on your computer--and the behavior of some features is a little different in these two modes as noted in the documentation.

Contents

• Starting
• Entering data
• Cell references
• Examples
• Formulas
• Modifying appearance
• Graphs
• Saving and other file operations
• Computational Limitations
• Installation
• Problems
• Complaints