There are many options for moving or copying part or all of an expression within the MoboMath window. To see some examples of moving and copying in action, check the video tutorials in the MoboMath Help menu or on the Enventra web site.
For information on moving expressions between MoboMath and other applications, see the section on working with other applications and the descriptions of the Export menu and the drag and clipboard operations.
The easiest way to move or copy a subexpression within the MoboMath window is to drag it. Hold your pen down on the part of the expression you want to move or copy and then drag it to the target location without raising the pen. You will see a line appear as you drag, but it will be erased automatically once the drag is completed. If you are moving a subexpression containing multiple characters, you must select them first. Single characters can be dragged without being selected.
The drag takes effect after a brief pause. If the ink remains on the screen, undo your drag and try again.
The target of the drag can be any of these:
| • | An empty place away from other regions on the display. In this case your operation creates a new region with a copy of the subexpression you dragged. |
| • | An empty place inside another formatted expression. You might do this to fill an empty matrix entry or add an exponent to an expression. |
| • | A character or subexpression in a formatted text expression. Your source material replaces the target. If the target is larger than a single character, you need to select it first. |
Dragging within the same expression moves characters to a new position, but dragging outside an expression copies whatever you are dragging.
MoboMath tries to correctly interpret merged expressions. If you drag "c + d" onto the b in "ab". The result is "a (c + d)", while a direct text substitution would have yielded "ac + d". If you were looking for the second version in this case, you could delete the brackets.
Here are some examples. In the first case, the beta is dragged to the right to copy it. In the second example, the 2 is dragged from an exponent position to the beginning of the expression. The third example shows a gamma being dragged into a region to replace an alpha, and the fourth shows the gamma being inserted in the region.
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Moving subexpressions between subscript, factor, and exponent positions is a common special case. You can make these changes with short up or down strokes starting in the subexpression. These operations are called promotion and demotion.
Menu operations
The Edit menu and the context menu have traditional Cut, Copy, and Paste entries which you can use to copy or move expressions. These are useful in working with other applications, or if you want to move material between tabs in MoboMath.
The Edit menu also has Promote and Demote entries which operate on the selected subexpression of the current region.