Menus are the main way to find calculator commands. A TI-84-style workflow uses menu selection, arrow navigation, shortcut menus and command pasting rather than spelling command names letter by letter.
How menus work
Pressing a menu key temporarily replaces the current screen with a list of commands. Choose an item by pressing its number/letter or by moving the cursor with arrows and pressing ENTER.
Important menu families
| Menu | Typical use |
|---|---|
| MATH | Fractions, roots, numerical derivative/integral, solver and number tools. |
| STAT | Lists, statistical calculations and regression. |
| VARS | Stored variables and function variables. |
| MATRIX | Matrix names, editing and matrix math. |
| DISTR | Probability distributions and statistics commands. |
Shortcut menus
Shortcut menus speed up common work. On TI-84-style calculators, Alpha plus function-key combinations open quick menus for fractions, functions, matrices and Y variables. These shortcuts are especially useful in MathPrint mode.
Catalog Help workflow
- Find the command. Open a menu or Catalog list.
- Open help when available. Use the calculator help prompt to view the syntax.
- Paste the completed command. Fill the arguments and paste the command to the active input line.
Why not type command names manually?
Many calculator commands are special tokens, not ordinary typed words. For example, matrix names and some function commands should be pasted from menus. This avoids syntax errors and hidden token problems.