Using Project Explorer to Manage Child Windows

Use the Project Explorer interface to organize and keep track of your Origin child windows -- your graphs, workbooks, matrix books, layout windows, notes windows and Excel workbook windows.

In addition to creating a folder structure to help organize child windows, you can also use Project Explorer to append a second project or to find windows within the current project file.

Creating a new Project Explorer folder

To create a new folder:

1. Right-click the project folder (or a subfolder) on the left side of Project Explorer.
2. Click New Folder in the shortcut menu.

Once you have created one or more subfolders, you can move child windows between folders by dragging and dropping them within the Project Explorer workspace.

Accessing windows in other Project Explorer folders

To access windows in other folders:

1. From the Origin menu, select Window: Folders: Folder Name to view the windows in the selected Project Explorer folder. The window list at the bottom of the Window menu updates to reflect the windows in the selected Folder Name folder.

Controlling the view of child windows in the project file

In addition to adding and moving folders, Project Explorer also lets you control the view of your workspace. By default, only the windows in the active Project Explorer folder display in your workspace. This minimizes workspace clutter.

To control the view of the windows in your workspace:

1. Right-click on a Project Explorer folder or right-click in a blank space on the left side of Project Explorer.
2. Select View Windows: View Mode to alter the view mode.

or

1. Select the Origin menu View: View Mode.

Note that you can also hide individual windows in the workspace.

Viewing windows and the Windows dialog box

If you have more than nine windows in your current Project Explorer folder and you want to view a window that is not currently listed in the window list at the bottom of the Window menu, select Window: More Windows. This menu command opens the Windows dialog box.

The Windows dialog box can be resized by dragging the edge of the dialog box. The dialog box displays the names (and/or labels), window type, and current status of all windows in the current Project Explorer folder, or the current folder and subfolders, depending on your Project Explorer viewing mode.

To activate a window:

1. Double-click on the window in the list box or click once on the window and click Activate.
2. Click Close to close the dialog box and view the active window.

To sort the windows alphabetically by name (or label) or by window type or state:

1. Click the respective button (column heading) at the top of the list box.

To minimize or restore a window:

1. Select the window from the list box.
2. Click Minimize Window or Restore Window.

To close a window so that it is no longer part of the project:

1. Select the window from the list box and click Close Window.
2. To verify closure, click Delete in the Attention dialog box.

To disable the display of the Attention dialog box, select the Disable Close Prompt check box.

Hiding a child window

To maximize the use of your workspace, you can hide windows from view without deleting them from the project.

To hide a window in the workspace:

• Right-click on the window icon in Project Explorer and choose Hide (also available from the window title bar shortcut menu).

or

• Double-click on the window icon in Project Explorer.

Either action removes the window from the workspace. This state is indicated by a "grayed out" child window icon and a View = Hidden tag in Project Explorer.

To restore the window to the workspace:

• Double-click on the grayed-out window icon in Project Explorer.

or

• Right-click on the grayed-out window icon and choose Show from the shortcut menu.

Finding a child window in the project file

If you've organized your windows into multiple Project Explorer folders, you can use Project Explorer's Find dialog box to locate windows in your project.

To open this dialog box:

• Right-click on the Project Explorer folder that you want to start your search from and select Find from the shortcut menu.

or

• If you are unsure of the window location within your Project Explorer folder structure, right-click on the main project folder and select Find.

Saving a portion of the project to a separate file

If you used Project Explorer to create a folder structure within your Origin project, you can save a folder and its subfolders to a new project file.

To save part of a project file:

1. Right-click on the Project Explorer folder that you want to save as a project file.
2. Select Save As Project from the shortcut menu.

In this example, the Linked Layers 2 folder and its Raw Data subfolder, all child windows in these folders, plus Results Log output specific to contained child windows, are saved to a new project file.

Opening multiple project files

You can only have one Origin project open in a given Origin session. If you wish to open a second Origin project file you can do one of two things:

• Run a second instance of Origin.
• Append a project file.

Appending a project file

The contents of a project can be added to the currently opened project by selecting File: Append or by right-clicking on a Project Explorer folder and selecting Append Project from the shortcut menu.

After you select the project to append, Origin displays a Reminder Message asking if you want to append the contents of the new project into a new Project Explorer folder or into the current folder.

If duplicate window short names exist between projects, Origin automatically changes the short name of the appended window by adding an "A" to the end of the name. For example, when a project containing a Book1 workbook is appended to a project that already contains a Book1 workbook, Origin assigns the appended window the Short Name of Book1A.

Creating a shortcut in other Project Explorer folders

You can add a shortcut to a window in another Project Explorer folder. Shortcuts allow quick access to windows not in the current folder.

To create shortcuts in other folders:

• In the Project Explorer, hold down the ALT key while dragging the window icon to the folder where you want to create a shortcut.

After adding the shortcut, you can easily go to this shortcut's original folder.

To go to the original folder:

• In the Project Explorer, right-click the shortcut icon and select Go to Original Folder from the context menu.

or

• In the shortcut window, right-click the window title and select Go to Original Folder from the context menu.

Adding shortcuts to favorites folder

Suppose that you have many windows in different project folders, but some are more important than others. Add shortcuts to the Favorites folder for easy access to these windows.

To add a shortcut to the Favorites folder:

• Right-click on the title bar of the window and choose Add shortcut to Favorites from the short-cut menu.

• Or, in the Project Explorer, right-click on the window icon and choose Add shortcut to Favorites from the short-cut menu.

Viewing graphs as slide show and exporting graphs to PowerPoint

Origin allows you to view graphs as a slide show and export to Microsoft® PowerPoint®.

To start a slide show of graphs in Project Explorer:

1. Right-click on the Project Explorer folder which contains the graphs.
2. Select Slide Show of Graphs... from the short-cut menu.

Origin also allows you to view all the graphs that are related to a chosen column (or several columns) as a slide show. To start a slide show of dependent graphs:

1. Highlight one or multiple worksheet columns and right-click.
2. Select Slide Show of Dependent Graphs from the context menu.

To send graphs to a PowerPoint file:

1. Right-click on the Project Explorer folder which contains the graphs.
2. Select Send Graphs to PowerPoint... from the short-cut menu.

For more information about viewing graphs as slide show and exporting graphs to PowerPoint, please refer to the X-Function help files: pef_slideshow, pef_pptslide, pemp_slideshow and pemp_pptslide.

Changing the order of the graphs

There is a column named Slide in Project Explorer's page list. This column is used to show the order of the graphs which is used when the graphs are exported to PowerPoint slide and viewed as a slide show.

To change the order of the graphs:

1. Click the header of the Slide column to sort the pages.
2. Drag the graph whose order is desired to be changed and drop it onto another whose current order is the desired order of the former. Then the former graph will be inserted in front of the latter and the graph orders are automatically updated accordingly.

Make a Folder Invisible in the Origin Viewer

The Origin Viewer is a free standalone application that allows viewing and copying of information contained in Origin Project files (OPJ files) and Origin window files (OGG, OGW, OGM files). It can be used on computers that do not have Origin installed.

When you make projects in Origin, you can restrict some folder from being viewed by Origin Viewer. Just do the following:

1. Right-click on the folder in Project Explorer.
2. Select Restricted in Viewer from the short-cut menu.

After you have selected Restricted in Viewer, the icon of the folder should be changed to

If you open this project with the Origin Viewer, you will find that you cannot see any windows in it. Note that the icon for this folder is different from that of a normal folder.