Introducing Mesquite Using Mesquite How Mesquite Works Concepts Help Tutorial Projects and Files Managing Modules Menus Windows Scripting

Mesquite's Windows

(updated February 2001)

Windows in Mesquite have a consistent structure, with these components commonly appearing:

Here are brief descriptions of some of these:

• Information bar
• Mini -scrolls
• Tool palettes
• Annotation area
• Explanation area

---

Window information bar

Windows can have an information bar that allows you to access information about the window, its calculations, and the modules involved in them. If the information bar is not showing and you wish to see it, select "Show Information bar" in the Window menu. The information bar can be turned off by clicking the triangle at its left.

The tabs in the information bar choose the different modes of display of the window. The first two of these (the graphics tab, and the text version tab), cause the window to display its basic output (e.g., the spreadsheet data editor, the tree drawn in a tree window) in either a graphics form or a textual form. The remaining tabs give information of other sorts.

The window modes are:

• Grapical version of output — The standard output of the window showing results and analyses.
• Textual version of output — A textual version of the results and analyses.
• Parameters of modules — A list of the current settings and parameters of the modules involved in producing the window and its contained results.
• Tree of Modules — Shows the employee tree of all modules participating in the window
• Citations for modules — Gives citations for some of the modules participating in the window.

Mini scrolls

Mini scrolls are used to scroll among trees, characters and other items. The small blue button right of the text edit box, when hit, tells the scroll to enter and use the number within the edit box. Otherwise you can use the arrows to scroll forward or back. If the change is accepted, the arrow shows green; if you are already at the minimum or maximum value, the arrow shows red.

Tool palettes

In various windows are tool palettes that look something like this:

The current tool is shown darker. Usually in the explanation area of the window, an explanation is shown for a tool when you click on it. Some tools (whose buttons may show a small inverted triangle) when double clicked, right-clicked or control-clicked, show a menu in which options can be chosen.

Annotation area

The white annotation area shows footnotes or other annotations stored for taxa, trees, characters or other objects. These annotations are sometimes editable. At its left are two buttons, a minus and a plus arrow. These reduce and increase the height of the annotation area.

Explanation area

The explanation area, below the annotation area, shows explanations for tools, modules, objects in files, and so on.