The table is the main part of SciDAVis when working with data. For controlling and converting data the spreadsheet contains a highly customizable table: all colors and font preferences can be set using the Preferences command of the Edit menu. You can resize a table in terms of rows and columns using the Dimensions command command of the Table menu. On the left side of the table, the button can be used to develop the properties tags. This allows to customize the main parameters of the table.

In a spreadsheet, columns can have the following flags: X, Y, Z, X-error, Y-error or can be simple columns without any special flag. The X columns are abscissae columns while the Y columns are ordinates columns used when creating a 2D plot from data. The X-error and Y-error columns can be used in order to add error bars to 2D plots. These flags can be changed using the Set Column as command.

The tag which is selected in figure 1.2 is used to assign a type to columns: numeric, text, date or time. The format used to display the data can then be chosen, the format in tables is not used for plots (use the Axes command to define display format for axes labels).

Every column of the table has a label, this can be defined in the description tag (figure 1.3). This label will be used by default in plots for curve selection and legend display. You can use complex labels with spaces and special characters like "Vol (cc/g)" if needed. This command can also be reached by the Edit Column Description command of the Table menu.

The last tag of the properties dialog correspond to the command Assign Formula command of the Table menu (figure 1.3). It is used to fill the column with the result of a mathematic expression. Refer to the Assign Formula command for more details.

You can select all the columns of the spreadsheet (Ctrl+A) or only some of them by clicking on the column label while keeping the Ctrl key pressed, or by moving the mouse over the column label. This also allows you to deselect columns.

On the selected columns you can perform various operations:

All these functions can be reached by right clicking when a column is selected. Most of them can also be reached by using the Table menu.

You can cut, copy and paste data between spreadsheets or between a spreadsheet and another application (Excel, Gnumeric, OpenOffice Calc, etc).

You can import single or multiple ASCII files using the Import Ascii command from the File menu. This will create one or more new tables. You can also export the data from the spreadsheet to a text file using the Export Ascii command.

The matrix is a special table which is used for data which depends on two variables. This special table is used to store data for 3D-plots. The difference between a table and a matrix is that there is that columns are assigned to the abscissae x while rows define abscissae y.

The defaut size of a matrix is 32x32 cells. You can modify this size with the Dimensions command. Column and row numbers are named i and j respectively, ranging from 1 to the size of the matrix. You can specify an X-scale and an Y-scale with the Set Coordinates command, this define values of x and y for columns and rows (figure 1.4).

The values which are stored in a matrix can be obtained from a function of the form z=f(i,j) or z=f(x,y) with the Assign Formula command. They can also be read from a file with the Import Ascii command which allows to read a file in a table, then the table can be converted to a matrix with the Convert to Matrix command of the Matrix menu.

As in the case of tables, a property tag can be shown or hidden by clicking on the vertical button on the right.

Through the Matrix menu, several operations can be done on a matrix like transposition (Transpose command), mirroring (Mirror Horizontally command and Mirror Vertically command), inversion (Invert command), computation of the determinant (Determinant command). The data of a matrix can then be used to build a 3D plot with the commands present in the plot3d menu and in 3D surface toolbar.

The plot window is the one in which the graphic is plotted. The main container of the plot window is the layer. You can have several layers in a plot, which may be arranged as you want. Each layer can contain a plot, or another item like a label.

Each new plot can be inserted in a new layer of this plot window, it has its own geometry and graphic properties (background color, frame, etc). The figure 1.5 shows a graph with two layers which have different geometries. Inside a layer, the area in which the curves are plotted is the canvas.

Each layer can be activated by clicking on the corresponding gray button in the top-left corner of the window. The elements which can be accessed by a double click in a layer are:

All these functions can be reached through the Format menu.

A note can simply be used to insert text (comments, notes, etc) into a project, but is really far more powerfull than that. It can be used as a calculator, for executing single commands and for writing scripts.

You can also change the text input method. Simple Composing Input Method is the standard method to enter text in QT applications. Xim is the X input method, it is the legacy system of the X window environment to support localized text input. The default choice is the second one, it allows to enter special characters and accents from your localised environment.

The second use of notes is calculator. The evaluation of mathematical expressions and execution of code is done via a note's context menu, the Scripting menu or the convenient keyboard shortcuts. In figure 1.7, it is shown that you just need to place the cursor on an expression and use the Ctrl-Return command to evaluate the expression.

you can define variables and refer to them to build complex expressions, but you must evaluate each line with the Ctrl-Return command to fill the variable with its value. All variable are private to the note in which it is defined, and you can't refer to it in another note. With a right click, you access to the context menu which contains the list of all available mathematical functions.

For information on expression syntax, supported mathematical functions and how to write scripts, see the scripting section.

This window keeps a history of all analysis which have been done in the project. This panel contains the results of all the correlations, fittings, etc. It can be shown or hidden with the Results Log command of the View menu.

You can clear the content of the log window with the command Clear Log Information command of the Edit menu. If you load a project for which some analysis has been done, the computations will be done again and the log window will be filled with the results.

The project explorer can be opened/closed using the Project Explorer command from the View menu or by clicking on the in the file toolbar.

It gives an overview of the structure of a project and allows the user to perform various operations on the windows (tables and plots) in the workspace: hiding, minimazing, closing, renaming, printing, etc... These functions can be reached via the context menu, by right-clicking on an item in the explorer.

By double-clicking on an item, the corresponding window is shown maximized in the workspace, even if it was hidden before.

You can organize the differents objects in folders. When selecting a folder, the default policy is that only the objects contained in it will be showed in the workspace window. You can also display all the objects in the subfolders if you change this policy with the "View Windows" command to "Windows in Active Folder and Subfolders".