Display the Expression (or Calculus) palette. See Show Palettes.

In the worksheet, click where the expression is to be inserted.

On the palette, select the template for the expression you want to enter.

Fill in the first placeholder by entering a number, a symbol, or an expression.

Press the Tab key to move the cursor to the next placeholder. Important: Ensure that your Tab key is set to move to the next placeholder and not indent. For details, see Using the Tab Key.

Continue filling all placeholders that apply to your expression.

When all of the relevant placeholders have been filled, press the Enter key.

If you select a math expression and click an item on the expression palette, then Maple either replaces the original selection or builds on it.

For example, consider this example:

Enter the following expression.

Select the entire expression and click the exponent button on the Expression palette.

The brackets are inserted along with a placeholder for the exponent.

Literal subscript: From the Expression palette, select (tooltip: a__n;). Literal subscripts, also known as subscripted variable names, are useful if you want to identify $x$ and $x_0$ as separate variables, for example.

Index subscript: From the Expression palette, select (tooltip: a[n];). The indexed name formed in this way refers to an element of a base, for example, $x_1$ is the first element of $x$ (which may be a list, for example).