Until now we have focused on doing mathematics with Mathematica, either performing calculations or displaying results, textually or graphically. All of this has been out of context, although we have tried to give examples that relate to problems that might arise in your actual use of Mathematica. But writing mathematics is much more than just displaying a bunch of calculations one after the other. Good mathematical exposition reads much like a good story: there is a beginning, a middle, an end even a punch line. Care must be taken to introduce all the right ideas in just the right order, with unnecessary details left out. And special attention must often be given to notation, which should be sufficient to describe the objects at hand, but not so complicated as to overwhelm the reader. In presenting our work, the right organization and selection of graphics can make the difference between striking out or hitting a home run.

In this chapter we'll see how a Mathematica notebook can contain all the elements needed for a self-contained mathematical exposition. Notebooks can be organized just as books are, with chapters, sections, and subsections. They can not only contain the calculations that we have been learning to make, but also text and other graphics. In addition, hyperlinks can be inserted anywhere in a notebook that can lead elsewhere in the same notebook, or to other notebooks or even Web sites. Finally, notebooks can be used as slideshows for professional presentations.