For many years I have used my own Style Set in Maple, mainly by adding a few extra heading styles (typically coloured headings). This has worked very well.

In Maple 2026, the default body text font has been changed to DejaVu Sans. Since the mathematical notation is still displayed in a serif math font (for obvious reasons), I feel that 12 pt DejaVu Sans appears noticeably larger than the mathematics because of its relatively large x-height. To my eyes, 11 pt gives a much more harmonious balance.

I therefore tried to change the built-in Text style from 12 pt to 11 pt.

However, I noticed something very strange.

When I open Style Management, select Text, and click Modify, the Character Style dialog already shows the font size as 11 pt (see the first screenshot). Nevertheless, when I switch to Text mode and start typing, the body text is still created as 12 pt, and the toolbar also reports a font size of 12 pt.

If I create my own custom style (for example, text11) with a font size of 11 pt, it works exactly as expected.

Is the built-in Text style intentionally overridden somewhere by the default Style Set, or is this a bug?

For comparison, I have also attached a second screenshot showing the visual difference between 12 pt and 11 pt body text. In my opinion, the 11 pt version blends much better with the mathematical notation.

When our students import data from an Excel file into Maple using Tools > Import Data, everything works as expected.

After doing some experiments, however, I realized that the data from the Excel file is not embedded in the Maple worksheet. That is probably a sensible design choice for large datasets. However, I also discovered that Maple stores an absolute path to the Excel file.

For example, suppose I have the files

importdata.mw
data.xlsx

in the same folder. If I copy that entire folder to another location, the copied Maple worksheet still refers to the original Excel file rather than the one located in the same folder as the worksheet. If the original folder is renamed or removed, re-executing the worksheet results in errors because Maple can no longer find the Excel file.

This makes it difficult to distribute teaching material to my students. Ideally, I would like to give them a ZIP file containing both files. After extracting the ZIP file, the worksheet should simply use the data.xlsx file located in the same folder. Instead, the students have to import the Excel file again manually, which is rather inconvenient.

My question is: Is there a way to make Maple use a relative path instead of an absolute path when importing Excel data?

I am happy to use a single line of Maple code if necessary, but I would prefer not to introduce several lines of code or programming constructs. We do not really teach Maple programming; our students mainly work with the graphical interface (tabs and ribbons).

I hope someone can help.

Erik

Dear Maple users

I am testing Maple 2026, which will be used at our school after the summer holiday. I see that AI have now found its way to Maple on a new level. AI can be used internally via the AI Assistant, but as I understand it will also be possible to let ChatGPT use Maple in order to provide an answer, instead of using it's own way to do math. I just cannot figure out how it is done. Having a school license for Maple means we take part in the Maplesoft Elite Maintenance Program (EMP). In Maple 2026 i have found Maple MCP on the "My Maple" båndet. When I click it I am however just referred to the main page of Maplesoft. My question: How can I make Maple MCP work for me?

Kind regards,

Erik V.

Dear Maple users

I can easily draw a sphere with the following command:

plot3d(1, t = -Pi .. Pi, p = 0 .. Pi, coords = spherical)

Let's say I want to change the number of latitude circles so that there is one for every 10 degrees? Longitude circles are given for every 15 degrees, which is appropriate - corresponding to one for every hour! But in general: Is there a way to change the number of circles of both types? Or maybe you need to piece together a plot of several kinds of plots?

Erik

Dear Maple users

Is there a way in Maple to create a sphere with a texture similar to that of the Earth (UV mapping maybe?). I plan to later add mathematically defined spatial curves to the sphere to study differential geometry aspects.

Erik