Using_the_Symbol_Palette_in_Overleaf

Table of Contents: 1 Introduction 2 Adding Symbols 3 Mathematical Mode 4 Packages 5 More

Introduction

This article explains how to add mathematical symbols to your document by using the symbol palette—a quick and convenient way to insert mathematical symbols into your document.

To open the symbol palette, click the Ω button at the top of the editor. It's available in both source and rich text modes.

The symbol palette contains some commonly used mathematical symbols. You can browse through them or search by entering their names or aliases in the search box.

All symbols included in the symbol palette are designed for use in mathematical content, which means they need to be inserted where the LaTeX document compiler is in so-called mathematical mode.

Mathematical Mode

Symbols from the symbol palette need to be inserted into your document in mathematical mode to compile correctly. This means they must be enclosed within special mathematical markers.

To place your equation in inline mode, enclose it in delimiters ( ) or you can also place it in a math environment \begin{math} \end{math}. To place equations in display mathematical mode, you can use [ ] or \begin{equation} \end{equation}. This also applies to symbols like subscripts (_), integrals (int), Greek letters (alpha, \beta, \delta), and modifiers (\vec{x}, \tilde{x}).

If you want to learn more about mathematical mode, we have a brief explanation here, and for a more comprehensive overview of writing mathematics in LaTeX, check out "Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes"—especially the section on adding mathematics in LaTeX. If you add these symbols outside mathematical mode, you'll see some errors when compiling the document. The errors you'll see depend on what else is in your document, but a common error when adding symbols outside mathematical mode is a missing inserted $.

Some symbols require you to use additional packages—if you hover over a symbol, the tooltip will tell you which package is needed.

For example, in this case, to use the iint symbol, you need to ensure that you have \usepackage{amsmath} in your document preamble, i.e., before the \begin{document} statement.