Inserting Formula

You can add formulas to your text notes. We support Maths, Chemistry and Physical Units.

In this Guide:

• Entering Formula
• Search for a formula by name
• What functions can I use?
• Help!

Entering Formula

Click the formula icon in any of the text boxes

(Or if you already have a formula, you can click that to edit it)

Then you'll see the Insert Formula pop-up tab:

Search for a formula by name

No KaTeX? No problem. Start typing the name of an equation, like "circle" or "quadratic", and Genio will show you a list of matching equations to choose from.

Press Return or click one to drop the correct formula straight in:

What functions can I use?

You can use any of the functions supported by KaTeX. See here for the full list of functions: https://katex.org/docs/supported

You can enter Chemistry Elements and Physical Units using our mhchem integration. See here for a full guide on what's supported: https://mhchem.github.io/MathJax-mhchem/

Help!

To create a formula, you'll need to use specific letters and symbols to give structured instructions on how to build the formula. Think of it like writing a simple recipe, where every symbol tells the system exactly what to do. See our examples below.

Basic Symbols:  x y 1234 + - = etc can all be used to build out formula

Functions: More advanced functions have an abbreviated name and you'll need to add a forward slash at the start so we know this is a function rather than a list of letters. For example: \sqrt \frac \rightarrow \sum etc

Curly brackets: To separate different functions or to specify exactly what is captured by a function use curly brackets. For example: \frac {top} {bottom}

Examples

Powers

To enter powers you'll need to add the ^  icon; this is usually SHIFT+6 on your keyboard

Try it yourself:  e=mc^2

To add powers with multiple digits you need to use curly brackets to let us know what's the power and what's not.

Try it yourself: x^{69}

What happens if you don't use the curly brackets?

Roots

Sometimes a symbol isn't enough to tell KaTeX what you need, so you'll need to use a named function. Eg "sqrt" for a square root, or "frac" for a fraction. To use these functions you need to add a forward slash first so we know it's a function and then add your content in between curly brackets.

To add a square root:

Try it yourself: \sqrt{2ac}

What happens if you don't use the curly brackets?

To add a different root use square brackets to add the root you want:

Try it yourself: \sqrt[3]{2ac}

Fractions

To build a nice looking fraction use the \frac function with curly brackets around your numerator {the top} and the denominator {the bottom}

Try it yourself: \frac {top} {bottom}

The Result

And then combine them all into something you'll hopefully recognise:

Try it yourself: x =  \frac { -b  ( \pm  { \sqrt{b^2-4ac}}) }{2a}

Chemistry Elements

To enter chemistry elements begin with \ce and add your content inside curly brackets.

(https://mhchem.github.io/MathJax-mhchem/)

Try it yourself: \ce{SO3 + H2O -> H2SO4}

Physical Units

To enter physical units begin with \pu and add your content inside curly brackets:

(https://mhchem.github.io/MathJax-mhchem/)

Try it yourself: \pu{2.16E-7 m/s2}