How to Use

First Order Ordinary Differential Equations

by N. Scott Hoffner

Even if you are a beginning user of Internet resources, you will have no problem using this electronic book as it uses regular HTML hypertext links for navigation. Links are underlined and colored with a color you set in your web browser. When you click (once) on an undefined word, you will be whisked away to another location to view detail associated with that link. Several graphic images will also be hypertext links. You will know when one is a link by the cursor turning to a hand when it is over the graphic.

Samples of LiveMath notebooks that are part of the main discussion will display in a centered graphic on a white background with a blue border:

LiveMath example notebook screen-shots are one tab from the left edge:

Opening LiveMath Examples

If you own LiveMath, you can actually work the examples by downloading the LiveMath notebooks to your disk. You will have to own the full version of LiveMath to do this as the examples are not set up to use the Viewer application, or the Plug-in.

Depending on the platform/browser you are using, downloading these files requires you to do one of the following:

Mac:

In the big three browsers (Explorer,Netscape, Safari), for the most part, you do the same thing. If you have a two button mouse and System X 10.2xx, you can Right-click to see a dialog box that givs you the option to "Download Link". Once downloaded, you open the file in LiveMath.

Also, an Option-Click will either automatically download the file to your download folder, or give you a dialog "Save As" box asking you where you want the download to go. After the file is downloaded, open in LiveMath.

Windows

In Explorer, a simple Click opens a dialog box giving you the option of lownloading to your disk or opening with LiveMath.

In Netscape you must Right-Click to download to your disk. Choose "Save Link Target as" As (NOT Save Page).

If you try one of these methods and get a page with a bunch of giberish in it, you have downloaded the text file that LiveMath notebooks are made of. Just click your Back button and try again using a different method.

Back

To get back to the area you just left, just click on the Back Button at the top of the browser window or use the command key equivalent. For example, by clicking on the graphic below you will be sent back to the contents page.

Explorer

Netscape Back

At the bottom of each page there is one, or more graphic links. The link below is one of them. The others either go to the main contents or back to one of the main subject contents. For example, the button below will take you to the next subject, Definition and Classification. To get back here, click on the [up] link. Each page will have one of these [up] links to take you to the bottom of the previous page.

Viewing Methods

You can view this book with either the contents on the side of the window or you can use the whole window to view the subject matter. When the book opens it will automatically open with the contents on the side. To have the book take up the entire screen, click on the link "Full Page Contents" at the top of the side-column contents. To come back to the view with the contents in the side column, click on the link "Book with Contents on side" in the main contents page when you are in the full page content mode.

When you are in the full window mode, follow the links within the pages to go from subject to subject. To get back to the main contents, click on the "Contents" button at the end of each subject (the button just below). This button will also take you the full page mode when you are in the side column contents mode.