Graphical User Interface

Description

The graphical user interface provided by the viewerannotations tool is designed to provide access to common settings and actions used when annotating a displaypanel. The GUI contains buttons, which are broken into two main categories. There are three control buttons, at the top left of the GUI . They can be used to assign a mouse button to control of annotations, to move / rotate shapes and to delete shapes. The other buttons are all tools, which allow the user to create new shapes. After clicking on a shape, the user can position the shape on the displaypanel. The button on the far right, which is the marker tool opens a pop up menu when clicked on. This menu shows a list of available markers, which can then be placed on the displaypanel.

The other main section of the GUI is a expandable options section. By default the roll-up is ``rolled-up'', and hence the options are not visible. By rolling down the options section, the user has access to a context specific menu which shows options for the shape they have currently selected.

**Figure 1.8:** The Viewerannotations `tool`tool graphical user interface
$\begin{figure} \begin{center} \epsfig{file=vannotintro.ps,width=3in}\end{center}\end{figure}$

The figure above shows the annotation control GUI. Everything below the Options roll-up is context specific, depending on which shape you have selected. The control buttons, and also the tool buttons can be seen above the roll-up.

**Figure 1.9:** Manipulating annotations objects
$\begin{figure} \begin{center} \epsfig{file=vannoshapes.ps,width=3.25in}\end{center}\end{figure}$

The figure above shows annotations objects being edited. The selected object is shown using green ``handles''. The handles can be moved to change the size of the shape, and the shape can be moved by clicking and dragging inside the shape. Keyboard modifiers can be used to change the action performed by mouse events. Holding ``Control'' on the keyboard changes the effect of moving the handles to that of rotation, and the effect of dragging a shape to that of scaling the object (about its center). If more than one shape occupies a location on the screen, or if a larger object is covering a smaller object, the underlying objects can be accessed by repeatedly clicking in the same spot.

Note: All AIPS++ GUIs have a so-called popup help. Just rest your mouse cursor on top of a GUI element (e.g. a button) and a little frame will appear outlining the funtionality of this element. If you then press and hold down the right mouse button you will get a detailed description. The information given there should be sufficient to let you operate that GUI element.

Next: Events Up: viewerannotations - Tool Previous: General description Contents Index