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Text String Selection

Text that appears in plots will use a font that can be changed from the font selection panel obtained from the Fonts button in the Tools menu of the Tool Control window. This is the Fixed Pitch Drawing Window Font in the menu. This font can also be changed with the setfont command.

Most of the text strings in plot windows can be edited, and persistent text labels can be added. The possible manipulations are described below.

A string must be selected before it can be edited or otherwise altered. A string can be selected by clicking on it with the left mouse button (button 1). The selection is indicated by the appearance of a thick black bar to the left of the string, and a thin bar at the end of the string. At most one string can be selected at a time.

A string can be deselected by clicking in the plot window away from any string. Clicking on another string will move the selection to that string. When a string is selected, the left and right arrow keys will cycle the selection to other strings in the plot that can be modified.

Only a selected string can be modified in any way. With a string selected:

A drag can be initiated by pressing and holding button 1 over the selected string, and moving the mouse pointer. A ``ghost'' outline of the string will be ``attached'' to the mouse pointer. When the button is released, the string will be moved to the new location. If the Shift key is pressed while the mouse button is released, the string will be copied to the new location. Strings can be copied to other plot windows using this drag and drop technique, but the Shift key is ignored in this case.

While dragging the string, the left and right arrow keys cycle through left, center, and right justification of the string. The string outline box attached to the mouse pointer will shift to indicate the justification.

The selected string can be edited by using the Backspace key to remove characters from the right, and by adding new characters to the end of the string. The string has has a notion of ``termination''. Terminated strings can't be edited. When a selected string is terminated, the right-side indicator bar is black. If the string is not terminated, the indicator bar is red (by default, actually this is the first trace color). A string is un-terminated by pressing Backspace. Pressing Backspace additional times will remove characters from the right. Typed characters will be added to the end of the string. The string is terminated by pressing the Enter key, which causes the right-side indicator bar to turn black.

With no selection, or if the selection is terminated, typing characters into the plot window will start a new string at the mouse cursor location, which becomes the new selection. Terminate the new string by pressing Enter.

The strings, as modified or added, will appear in hard-copies generated from the Print button in the plot window. If a new plot is created by using button 3 to zoom in, the child plot will inherit the text strings of the parent plot. However, if the plot is saved to disk with the Save Plot button, the saved strings will revert to the original strings. The file data format presently does not provide for alternate strings.


next up previous contents index
Next: Trace Drag and Drop Up: The Plot Panel Previous: Zooming in   Contents   Index
Stephen R. Whiteley 2022-09-18