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iTool User's Guide: Working with Styles |
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There are two ways a new Personal Style can be created. You can use the iTool's Style Editor or you can select one or more visualizations within your iTool view (or the view itself) and create a new style. Both of these options are discussed here.
You can create a new style by selecting one or more visualization objects within the view (or by selecting the entire view). A new style created in this manner will contain all property settings of the selected objects (or all objects in the view if nothing was selected).
The following example shows how to create a new style from all items in a view:
iPlot, RANDOMU(seed, 30)
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Note If multiple items of the same class are within a container (e.g. the axes container), the first one within the container will be used when creating the style. |
The following example shows how to create a new style from selected items within an iTool view:
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For details on applying a style to selected items or to all items within a view, or when launching an iTool, see Applying Styles. For information on modifying existing styles, see Editing Styles.
Note If nothing is currently selected, then the Visualization Layer within the current view will be used when creating the style. |
Within an iTool view, you can select one or more visualization objects or annotations (or a combination of the two) to be included in a new Personal Style. To select one object or annotation simply click on the item. To select multiple items, select the first and then, holding down the Ctrl key, click on the other items.
Changes to the properties of the object or annotation can be made prior to creating a new style (by double-clicking on the item and altering the properties in the Visualization browser) or after creating a new style (within the iTools Style Editor).
Note If multiply items of the same class are selected (say two axes), the first one selected will be used when creating the style. |
The Style Editor can be used to manually create a new style and specify the values of individual properties. Options are available in the Style Editor to duplicate existing styles, or to copy items from one style to another.
The following example shows how to create a new style using the iTool's Style Editor:
Note From the iTool window you can also select File ![]() |
Note To avoid confusion, styles should be given unique names. You may not name a style the same name as an IDL system style. |
Note For more information on how to populate the new style with properties, see Editing Styles. |
The Current Style contains the properties that will be used to create new visualizations in the current tool. The Current Style can be found in the iTools Style Editor. The Current Style can be modified by:
Note The Current Style is not saved between IDL sessions or between iTools. Because of this, one use of the Current Style can be as a practice area to define new styles. Changes can be made to the Current Style and then used to create your desired style. You can then save this new style under a new name. The new style can be set as the "Default style" in the Preferences. For more information on setting a default style, see Setting the Default Style. |
Any existing style can be copied within the Style Editor. This is useful when you want to change only a few style properties while maintaining the majority of a style's existing properties. Simply click on the style name and choose Edit Copy or Edit
Duplicate. Alternately, you can right-click on the style and choose Duplicate (or Copy and then Paste). A style named "Copy of style name" is then added in the My Styles folder of the Style Editor.
Note Styles may be named and renamed as you wish. |
IDL Online Help (March 01, 2006)