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<Root level> Windows |
The RATS Editor allows you to work with several windows and files at a time. For example, you might want to have several different program files open, or you might want to view and compare two data files or two files of RATS output. You can also view graphs and text simultaneously.
The information below describes how RATS uses various types of windows to display information and accept user input. See the Working with Data for more complete details.
Window Types
RATS uses several different types of windows to display information:
A standard text−editing window. Used to edit or view text, execute RATS instructions, and display output.
Graphs are displayed in "graph windows." Although you cannot directly edit the contents of a graph window, you can move and re-size the window in the usual manner, and print, save, or copy to the Clipboard the graph displayed in the window.
These display a list of the series. These are used to display a list of all the series in memory (generated by selecting the View—Series Window operation), and lists of the series stored on a RATS format file (generated by opening an existing RATS format file using File-Open or by creating a new file using File-New).
You can view and edit the contents of series displayed in these windows by double-clicking on a series. You can generate graphs and summary statistics for the series using toolbar icons or View Menu operations.
RATS uses a special type of window editing or create data series stored on RATS format data files.
These are spreadsheet-style windows used to display information generated by instructions like REPORT, for displaying arrays using the MEDIT instruction, and for other similar types of information.
Working with Windows
You can use the operations on the Window menu, or a mouse, to control how the open windows are displayed, and to switch from one window to another.
To switch to another window (make a different window active), you can:
1.Click on the desired window with the mouse.
2.Select the desired window from the list at the bottom of the Window Menu.
3.Hit <Ctrl>+<F6>, or choose "Next" from the control menu of one of the document windows (not the RATS application window). You open a control menu by clicking on the control-menu box of the desired window.
Also, if a text window is active, the File—Print and File—Save As... operations (and the corresponding toolbar icons) print or save the text in the window. With a graph window active, these print or save the active graph. Similarly, the Edit—Copy operation will copy either the selected text or the active graph to the Clipboard.
Drag and Drop
Some windows support using the mouse to "drag and drop" items from one window to another. For example, you can copy series from memory to a RATS format file by dragging and dropping series from one Series List Window to another.
Contextual (Pop-Up) Menus
Right-clicking (Ctrl+clicking on the Macintosh) on a window or object in RATS will display a pop-up menu with operations that can be applied to that window or object. You can then simply click on the operation from the pop-up menu. For example, clicking on a block of selected text displays a pop-up menu with the same operations available on the Edit—Cut and Edit—Copy. Clicking on a graph window displays a menu you can use to copy or print the graph, export the graph to a file, or switch between black and white or color representations.
Copyright © 2025 Thomas A. Doan