Tools

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3.3.1.4 Tools

Various tools—selectable as icon buttons at the bottom of the plotms window—can be used to zoom, edit, and locate data. The icon buttons can be seen at the bottom of Figures 3.1 and 3.2, and are, from left to right:

Zoom — The “magnifying glass” button (1st on left) lets you draw a box around a region of the plot (left-click on one corner of the box, and drag the mouse to the opposite corner of the desired box), and then zooms in on this box.
Pan — The “four-arrow” button (2nd from left) lets you pan around a zoomed plot.
Annotate — The 3rd button from the left is chosen from a drop-down menu to either Annotate Text (“T with a green diamond” button) or Annotate Rectangle (“pencil” button). In the Annotate Text environment, click on a location in the plot where text is desired; a window will pop up, allowing you to type text in it. When you click the OK button, this text will appear on the plot. Annotate Rectangle simply lets you draw a box on the plot by left-clicking and dragging the mouse. By clicking on the Annotator tab near the top of the plotms window, different fonts, colors, line styles, etc. can be selected for annotations.
Home — The “house” button (5th from left) returns to the original zoom level.
Stack Back and Stack Forward — The left and right arrow buttons (4th and 6th from left) step through the zoom settings you’ve visited.
Mark Regions — The “box with a green diamond” button (7th from left) lets you mark a region for flagging, unflagging, or locating. Left-click on one corner of the desired region, and then drag the mouse to set the opposite corner of the region. You can mark multiple boxes before performing an operation on them.
Clear Regions — Clicking on the “box with a red circle” button (8th from left) will clear all regions which have been marked using Mark Regions.
Flag — Click on the “flag” button (9th from left) to flag all points in the marked regions.
Unflag — Click on the “crossed-out flag” button (10th from left) to unflag any flagged points that would be in the marked regions (even if invisible).
Locate — The “magnifying glass on a sheet of paper” button (11th from left) will print out information to the command line about points in the marked regions.
Hold Drawing — If the “hold drawing” button (rightmost, or 12th from left) is depressed, and if new plot axes are selected from the Plots > Axes tab, these new data will be cached but not plotted. When the button is clicked on again and un-depressed, it will automatically plot the data that was last requested. This can be particularly useful when changing the size of the plotms window.

There are two relevant options under the Options tab near the top of the plotms window. The when changing plot axes, clear any existing regions or annotations checkbox determines when regions and annotation are deleted from the plot. The Tool Button Style drop-drop down menu determines if icons and/or text represent the buttons at the bottom of the plotms window.

It is possible to hide these icons by going to the View > Toolbars menu at the top of the plotms window and un-depressing the Tools option (except for Hide Drawing, which is hidden by clicking on View > Toolbars > Display). In addition, the above tools can also be accessed by clicking on the Tools tab near the top of the plotms window (just below the View menu).

The Tools tab also enables one additional tool, the Tracker. To use Tracker, click on the Hover and/or

Display checkbox, and place your mouse over the plot. Tracker will output the X and Y position of your mouse, either as text superimposed on the plot near your mouse (if Hover is selected) or in the blank window in the Tools tab (if Display is selected). Pressing the SPACE bar will copy the lines into the larger white box below to the right. This can be repeated many times and a log of positions and values will be created. The content in the box can then be easily copied and pasted into any other application that is used for data analysis. The Clear button wipes out the content of the box for a fresh start into new scientific adventures.

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