# How do you format front end typesetting here in stack exchange?

When copying Wolfram language commands from Notebook front end to stack exchange how do you format here? For example,

\!$$\*UnderoverscriptBox[\(\[Sum]$$, $$\[Eta] = 1$$, $$\[Tau]$$]
\*FractionBox[
SuperscriptBox[$$\[Lambda]$$, $$\[Eta]$$], $$\[Eta]$$]\)


Should look like

At the very least how to do \[...greeks...]?

I copy and paste your expression into a notebook and it is like this,

Since this sum will evaluate, I wrap it in HoldForm and then apply TeXForm,

I copy this expression and wrap it in $$, like this $$\sum _{\eta =1}^{\tau } \frac{\lambda ^{\eta }}{\eta }


and on the main site, but not meta apparently, and it renders as

This lets me put a math expression in a stack exchange post. But if I wanted to post usable code that is also readable, I could replace TeXForm with InputForm:

which, when copied and pasted here gives

HoldForm[Sum[\[Lambda]^\[Eta]/\[Eta], {\[Eta], 1, \[Tau]}]]


This is already an improvement, but if you want to go a step further in readability, you can use the plugin described here (as pointed out by Rohit in comments), and get

HoldForm[Sum[λ^η/η, {η, 1, τ}]]

• Personally I prefer Ctrl+Shift+I. – xzczd Oct 9 '19 at 7:37
• @xzczd. Do you mean in a Mathematica notebook or on our main site? And what does it accomplish? I am not familiar with this keyboard shortcut. – m_goldberg Oct 13 '19 at 18:07
• @m_goldberg In Mathematica notebook. It accomplishes task similar to InputForm@Hold@\!$$\*UnderoverscriptBox[\(\[Sum]$$, $$\[Eta] = 1$$, $$\[Tau]$$] \*FractionBox[ SuperscriptBox[$$\[Lambda]$$, $$\[Eta]$$], $$\[Eta]$$]\), except that Hold is not needed. The following is a GIF shows its usage (I've just pressed Ctrl+Shift+I and Ctrl+Shift+N): i.stack.imgur.com/yHeT4.gif This is mentioned in tutorial/KeyboardShortcutListing. – xzczd Oct 14 '19 at 6:41
• @xzczd. I understand now. It's a little different on the MacOS version of the front-end, where it's Cmd+Shift+I. I use it too, but I usually just right click and get it off the popup context menu. – m_goldberg Oct 14 '19 at 19:42