icometrics

• You operate the system by selecting options from menus that appear on the screen. The main menu is a horizontal bar at the top of the display that contains keywords that show the major subdivisions of the system. From the main menu, you work your way down into specific subsections of the software.
• When you move the pointer across an active option, the option changes color. To activate the option, click the leftmost button on the mouse (this is Button 1). A new menu will appear (don't do this yet).
• The menus are organized like the branches of a tree. At the end of each branch is a dialog menu, which will, in general, contain many different kinds of options. The dialog menus are where all the action occurs.

The dialog menus have several different kinds of menu fields, where you interact with the software. For example, by interacting with a dialog menu, you can supply numeric values for calculations, or the names of image files you wish to work on. The menu fields come in the following flavors:

Numbers

When you click on a numeric field, a little keypad appears so you can enter numbers without using the keyboard. Click on the numbers you want, then click on OK to terminate the number. If you prefer typing on the keyboard, that works too, and you can freely mix the two different input methods.

File names

When you click on a file field, a list of files appears. You can either select a file name from the list, or type in a new name if the name you want is not already in the list.

Text

Text fields are for general-purpose text entry. You have to use the keyboard to put data in these fields.

Colors

When you click on a color field, a keypad with the available colors appears. Click on the color you want.

Units

When you click on a units field, you get a list of the available units of measurement. Click on the one you want.

Toggles

Toggle fields contain either Yes or No. Clicking on a toggle changes it from one state to the opposite state.

The dialog menus also contain action fields, where clicking on the field causes some action to take place. These fields are distinguished by CAPITAL LETTERS. The general plan of the dialog menus is that you set up all the numbers, file names, and so on, then click on an action field to make the system proceed with processing.

Note that you can ask for help at any time by clicking on the HELP option at the top of the display. Getting help in this way will not have any effect on what you're doing; whenever you proceed after asking for help, the help screen is automatically removed from the display.

You can save what's displayed on a portion of the screen by clicking on SAVE_SCREEN at the top of the display. The system will ask you to define the rectangular area of the screen that you want to save with two clicks on button 1 of the mouse. It will then create a file called save_screen.s, and read that area of the screen into it. Such screen images can be plotted on hardcopy devices.

A good place to start if you haven't used the system before is the Display menu. The help for that menu describes the conventions of the user interface when you interact with images on the screen.