How to Use Menus on the TI-83 Plus - dummies

By C. C. Edwards

Most functions and commands you use are found in the menus housed in the TI-83 Plus graphing calculator. Each menu has its own key or key combination. For example, to access the Math menu, press [MATH]; to access the Test menu, press [2nd][MATH]. An example of a menu appears in the first picture, the Math menu.

Some menus, such as the Math menu, contain submenus. This is also illustrated in the first picture. This picture shows that the submenus in the Math menu are MATH, NUM, CPX, and PRB (Math, Number, Complex, and Probability). Repeatedly press


to view the items on the other submenus; repeatedly press


to return to the Math MATH submenu. This is illustrated in the second and third pictures.


How to scroll menus in the TI-83 Pus

After the number 7 in the first two pictures, a down arrow indicates that more items are available in the menu than appear on-screen. There’s no down arrow after the 7 in the third picture because that menu has exactly seven items.

To see menu items that don’t appear on-screen, repeatedly press


To get quickly to the bottom of a menu from the top of the menu, press


Similarly, to quickly get from the bottom to the top, press


How to select menu items on the TI-83 Plus

To select a menu item from a menu, key in the number (or letter) of the item or use


to highlight the number (or letter) of the item and then press [ENTER].

Some menus, such as the Mode menu that is pictured here, require that you select an item from a list of items by highlighting that item. The list of items usually appear in a single row and the calculator requires that one item in each row be highlighted. To highlight an item, use


to place the cursor on the item and then press [ENTER] to highlight the item.