A very quick introduction to Jupyter Notebooks

There are many ways to code in Python. You could:

• Open a command window/terminal
• Use an Integrated Development Environment — Example Spyder comes with Anaconda. Pycharm is another popular option
• Write in any text editor, and run it as a script in a command window
• Use Jupyter

Jupyter’s main advantage is that it is an ‘all-in-one’.

Everything is in one document, code, results, charts …

Now for a quick orientation.

• Like any application, there is a menu bar right at the top where you can download the notebook, copy and paste etc. This is pretty much self explanatory.
• Further down, you have a line of icons to save, add rows, run and stop. There is also a dropdown that allows you to choose what each line in the notebook is being used for. ‘Code’ means you use it for coding. The other options (e.g. ‘Markdown’).
• The ‘Kernel’ refers to the Python environment that we will use here for running the scripts.
• Shortcuts. When you are coding in each row, there are easy shortcuts you can use. To use the shortcuts, you need to press ESC or click any spot on the page outside of the row:
• A, to add a row
• D, to delete a row
• M, to switch to text (i.e. not code)
• Y, to switch to code

The Jupyter notebook with the code, and some other useful tips is here