The QtiPlot Handbook
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# Chapter 3. Command Reference

The active items in the menus depend on the active window in the project. If the active window is a spreadsheet, then all the items linked to table functions are enabled and the others are automatically disabled.

# The File Menu

These commands can also be done by clicking on the New Project icon from the File Toolbar

File-> New ->

  New -> New Project (Ctrl-N)

    Creates a new QtiPlot project file. If a project is open and saved, it will be closed. If a project is open is not saved, a dialog will be open to ask if the current project has to be saved.

  New -> New Folder (F7)

    Adds a new folder to the project. The new folder is added to the current folder.

  New -> New Table (Ctrl-T)

    Creates a new spreadsheet into the project. This empty table will have 30 rows and 2 columns. This number of rows and columns can be changed with the Rows command and Columns command of the Table menu.

    The properties of each column (format of numbers, width, etc) can be modified by the Column Options... command of the Table menu. See the table section for more details.

  New -> New Matrix

    Creates a new Matrix into the project. The empty matrix will have 32x32 cells, these dimensions can be changed by the Set Dimensions... command of the Matrix menu

    See the matrix section for more details.

  New -> New Note

    Creates a new note window in the project. A note is a simple text window which can be used to add comments to the current project.

  New -> New Graph

    Creates a new empty 2D plot in the project. This default graph is just a framework in which you can add curves with the Add/Remove Curves... command.

  New -> New Function Plot (Ctrl-F)

    Opens a dialog allowing to create a plot by specifying an analytical function. See the 2D plot section of the tutorial for a general overview of this function.

    This function can be defined in cartesian, parametric or polar coordinates, see the Add Function... command for more details.

  New -> New Surface 3D Plot (Ctrl-Alt-Z)

    Opens a dialog allowing to create a 3D plot by specifying an analytical function. Only cartesian coordinates are availables. See the 3D plot section of the tutorial for more detail on this function.

File -> Open (Ctrl-O)

  Opens an existing QtiPlot project file (.qti). If your project has been save in a compressed format, you must select the .qti.gz file format.

  This command can also be used to open projects which have been built with the Origin software.

File -> Append Project... (Ctrl-Alt-A)

  Appends an existing QtiPlot project file (.qti) to the current project as a new folder.

  This command can also be used to open projects which have been built with the Origin software.

File-> Recent Projects

  Opens a list of the most recently used QtiPlot project files. You can open one of these files by selecting it from the list. If the file doesn't exist anymore an error message will pop-out and the file will be automatically deleted from the list.

File -> Close

  Closes current project, without quitting the application.

File-> Open Image File

  This command loads an image file in a QtiPlot project. This image can be resized and then inserted in another 2D plot. It is in this case similar to the Add Image command. This image can also be used to generate an intensity matrix (see the Import Image... command).

File-> Import Image...

  With this command, an image is loaded in the QtiPlot project and converted to an intensity matrix. For each pixel, an intensity between 0 and 255 is computed from the intensities of the three colors red, green and blue.

  This example shows the 3D plot which has been drawn from the matrix obtained with the QtiPlot logo.

File-> Save Project (Ctrl-S)

  Saves the actual project. If the project hasn't been saved yet ("untitled" project), a dialog will open, allowing to save the project to a specific location.In a project file all settings and all plots are stored in ASCII format.

  If the project include large tables, it may be usefull to save the project in a compressed file format. The free zlib library is used to build files in gzip formats ( .qti.gz ).

File-> Save Project as...

  Saves the actual project under a file name different from the current one.

File -> Open Template

  Opens an existing template QtiPlot plot file (.qpt). This command will create a new empty plot with the same graphical parameters (window geometry, fonts, colors, etc).

  The first figure is the initial plot saved as a template, and the second one is the empty plot created by the Open Template.

  You just have to add curves with the Add/Remove Curves... command, but the style used to draw the curves is not kept in the template.

File -> Save as Template

  Save the active plot as a QtiPlot template file (.qpt). In this template, the graphical parameters of the plot, together with the text labels (axis, etc) are restored, but the style used to draw the curves and the scales are not saved.

File -> Export Graph

  The plot can be exported into several different image formats. You can define some parameters to customize your image file by checking the show options check box. Depending on the chosen image format, the available options are not the same.

  For bmp, pbm, jpeg, xbm, pgm, ppm image formats, the only option is the quality of the image, this parameter between 0 and 100% defines the compression ratio. The higher it is, the best the quality is but the larger the file is. For png, tiff and xpm, you can choose to use a transparent background.

  For eps, pdf, psfile formats, the option dialog is different. The main parameters availables are: the resolution and the size of the paper which is used to draw the plot. of the paper sheet. The default value for the resolution is the screen resolution. If you increase this parameter, the quality of the graphic elements will be better (but the overall size of the plot will be unchanged).

  By default the plot is exported to its real size on screen, but if you want you can choose a different size, by checking the Custom print size box. In addition, you have the option to Keep aspect ratio of the plot. If you check this box and you modify one dimension of the plot, the other dimension will be automatically modified so that the plot aspect remains the same.

  When exporting the plot to LaTeX (.tex) you have two very useful options: Export font sizes and Escape special characters in title/axis labels. If checked, the first option allows you to keep the original font sizes. If not, the font size specified in the preamble of the TeX document will be used for all text strings in the plot. The second option specifies if LaTeX special characters should be escaped or not when exporting. If the title or the axis labels contain LaTeX syntax (like superscripts, subscripts, etc...) and you want them to be interpreted by the LaTeX compiler, you should uncheck this option.

  Export Graph -> Current (Alt-G)

    Here you have the possibility to save the active plot under different image formats.

  Export Graph -> All (Alt-X)

    Here you have the possibility to save all plots of the project under different image formats.

  File -> Create Open Document Presentation...

    Here you have the possibility to save all plots of the project to an Open Document Format file (.odf) that can be opened and edited with OpenOffice.

File-> Print (Ctrl-P)

  Prints the active plot. A print dialog is opened where you can select the printer, different paper sizes, etc.

File-> Print Preview

  Displays a print preview for the active window. You can also use this dialog in order to actually print the window.

File-> Print All Plots

  Prints all plots of the projects. A print dialog is opened where you can select the printer, different paper sizes, etc.

File -> Export ASCII

  Opens the Export ASCII dialog allowing to save the data from the active spreadsheet to an ASCII file.

File -> Import -> Import ASCII... (Ctrl-K)

  The options for the importation of ASCII data files are set by the Import dialog.

File -> Import -> Sound (WAV)...

  This allows you to import an uncompressed sound .wav file (PCM format).

File -> Quit (Alt-F4)

  Closes the application. You will be asked wether you want to save your last changes or not.

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