Most all of the menu items in Maple can be accessed through the keyboard. For example, the label for the File menu has the letter F underlined, which identifies the shortcut. To pop up the file menu from the keyboard, press and hold the key labeled Compose Character and then press F. Release both keys. The File menu should pop up. Now you can use the arrow keys to move up and down in the menu, highlighting the different items. Once you have the right item highlighted press the Return key to make your selection. For example, pressing the down arrow until the Open... item was highlighted and then pressing the Return key would bring up the Load Session dialog. However, there is another method for selecting a menu item. Just type the underlined letter from the menu entry you want to select. Do not press the Compose Character key this time. For example, once you've popped the File menu up, just type o or O to bring up the Load Session dialog.
Some menu entries have special shortcuts that bypass the menu altogether. For example, the text Alt+X appears next to the Exit item on the File menu. This means that pressing and holding the ``Alt'' key down and then pressing and releasing the X key will choose the Exit item from the File menu. On the DECstations, the ``Alt'' key is the Compose Character key.
The most useful shorcuts are probably on the Edit menu. For example, to insert a text block in your worksheet, press the Compose Character key and the T key at the same time.