Press the "ON" button to turn the calculator on. Make sure that the calculator has working batteries installed if the screen is blank after you turn it on.
Press the "6" key. Next press the "multiplication" key (*). Now press the "2" key. Note the expression 6*2 is displayed on the first line of the TI-83's calculator display. Now press "Enter" to calculate the product of 6 times 2. Note that the answer, "12," appears on the second line of the TI-83's calculator's display and that the cursor is now displayed on the third line.
Press the "Y=" key to enter a function that you want to solve and graph. Observe that the "edit screen" with four place-holders for four functions appears on the display. Also note that the cursor is positioned after the first function placeholder ":Y1=."
Press the X/T key, then press the "+" key and then press the "1" key. Note the function "Y1=x+1" appears on the TI-81's display.
Press the "RANGE" key to set the x values that will be used to plot the function y = x+1, and to set the x and y scales for the graph. Press the "0" key for the minimum x value and press the "9" key for the maximum x value. Leave the other values at their default values.
Press the "GRAPH" key to display the graph on the TI-81's calculator's display. Observe that a line is graphed that has a y-intercept of 1 and has a slope of 1.