2. Basic Program Operation


2.1 The MacWavelets Document

A MacWavelets document consists of a set of one or more windows. The actual number of windows in a document is limited only by memory. The name of the document is listed in the window's title, as well as an indication of the contents of the window.

The New item of the File menu will create a new document. The Open item will open an existing document. The Close item will close all the windows of a document. To close just one window of a document, click in the window's close box (upper left corner).


2.1.1 Opening a MacWavelets v1.00 Document

You can open MacWavelets v1.00 documents with the v2.00 software. However, when you do so you will see the following dialog:

If you click on OK, the document will be converted to the v2.00 format, and will be saved as such when it is next saved, overwriting the v1.00 document. Therefore, if you wish to keep the original v1.00 document, you should perform a "Save As..." and rename the new v2.00 document. MacWavelets v1.00 cannot open v2.00 documents.


2.2 The Window List

The Windows menu contains a hierarchical list of open documents and their windows. The first level of this menu shows all open documents, with a checkmark by the current document. The second level of the menu shows all the windows in a document, with a checkmark by the current window. Choose an item in the submenu to display a specific window (i.e. bring that window to the front). Choose an item in the main menu to display all the windows of a document.

Should you lose a window off the edge of the screen (by saving a document from a large monitor and opening it from a small one), the Reset Window item of the menu will bring the window back to the upper left corner of the screen. The Reset All Windows item will bring all windows to the upper left corner of the screen.


2.3 The 1d Wavelet Window

The Wavelet window contains and displays 1-d datasets. This window consists of:

The Wavelet window can be moved, resized, zoomed, and closed like any standard Macintosh window.


2.3.1 Naming a Window

To configure a Wavelet window, either double-click in the window or choose the Configure Window... item from the Edit menu. The following dialog will appear:

To rename this window, simply type a name into the name field of the dialog, and click OK. The name you give a window will override the default name showing its contents.


2.3.2 Changing the Scale

The Wavelet window can scale its data automatically or manually. When the scale mode button of the configuration dialog is set to Auto, the y-axis scale of the window is set from the actual maximum and minimum data values in the window. When the scale mode button is set to Manual, the y-axis scale is set to the numbers typed into the Y-max and Y-min fields of the dialog.


2.3.3 Zooming and Scrolling the Plot

To zoom into the plot (i.e. increase the magnification along the x-axis), click on the button. The plot will be redrawn at twice the current zoom factor. The current zoom factor is displayed beside the zoom buttons. A plot can be zoomed up to a factor of 2048, or up to the number of points in the plot, by factors of 2. To zoom out of the plot, click on the button. When the plot is zoomed at a factor of at least 2, it can be scrolled along the x-axis with the horizontal scrollbar.


2.3.4 Editing Data

The data in the table of a Wavelet window can be edited. To edit data:

  1. Click the mouse to select the cell you wish to edit. The cell will hilite.
  2. Type in the new value of the data point. The data can be edited in the standard Macintosh TextEdit way.
  3. Press either the return key, the enter key, the up arrow, or the down arrow, or click the mouse outside of the cell.
  4. If you have changed the data value, the plot will be updated to show the change.
  5. The selection field can be moved with the return, enter, or arrow keys without changing the value of data.
  6. The table of values will automatically scroll as you move the selection below or above the currently displayed values with a keypress.


2.4 The 2d Image Window

The Image window contains and displays 2-d datasets. This window consists of:

The Image window can be moved, resized, zoomed, and closed like any standard Macintosh window.


2.4.1 Naming a Window

To configure an Image window, either double-click in the window or choose the Configure Window... item from the Edit menu. The following dialog will appear:

To rename this window, simply type a name into the name field of the dialog, and click OK. The name you give a window will override the default name showing its contents.


2.4.2 Changing the Scale

The Image window can scale its data automatically or manually. When the scale mode button of the configuration dialog is set to Auto, the data scale of the window (colorbar at right) is set from the actual maximum and minimum data values in the window. When the scale mode button is set to Manual, the data scale is set to the numbers typed into the Y-max and Y-min fields of the dialog.


2.4.3 Changing the Drawing Mode

The Image window can draw its data as absolute or signed values. When the draw mode button of the configuration dialog is set to Absolute values, the absolute value of each data point will be taken before the value is displayed in the plot. When the draw mode button is set to Signed values, the data will be displayed as-is. This setting has no effect on the display or editing of the table, nor on any subsequent computations performed with the data. This setting affects the display of the plot only.


2.4.4 Changing the Pixel Aspect Ratio

The Image window can display data points as squares or rectangles. When the aspect mode button of the configuration dialog is set to Rectangular, each point is displayed as a rectangle, so that the entire image fills the plot axes (i.e. is stretched to the current size of the plot window). When the aspect mode button is set to Square, all points are drawn as squares. The size of each square is chosen so that the image will fill as much of the plot axes as possible, but the shape of the image is not distorted.


2.4.5 Zooming and Scrolling the Plot

To zoom into the plot (i.e. increase the magnification along both axes), click on the button. The plot will be redrawn at twice the current zoom factor. The current zoom factor is displayed beside the zoom buttons. A plot can be zoomed up to a factor of 2048, or up to the number of x or y points in the plot (whichever is smaller), by factors of 2. To zoom out of the plot, click on the button. When the plot is zoomed at a factor of at least 2, it can be scrolled along the x-axis with the horizontal scrollbar, or along the y-axis with the vertical scrollbar.


2.4.6 Editing Data

The data in the table of an Image window can be edited. To edit data:

  1. Click the mouse to select the cell you wish to edit. The cell will hilite.
  2. Type in the new value of the data point. The data can be edited in the standard Macintosh TextEdit way.
  3. Press either the return key, the enter key, the up arrow, the down arrow, the left arrow, the right arrow, or click the mouse outside of the cell.
  4. If you have changed the data value, the plot will be updated to show the change.
  5. The selection field can be moved with the return, enter, or arrow keys without changing the value of data.
  6. The table of values will automatically scroll as you move the selection below, above, to the left, or to the right the currently displayed values with a keypress. The table will wrap at the beginning or end of a row or column.


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MacWavelets 2.00 User's Manual.
"MacWavelets" is a trademark of Intergalactic Reality.
© Copyright Intergalactic Reality, 1996.
All rights reserved.