Main Toolbar

Manifold uses a "quiet cockpit" design, reducing visual clutter and distractions.    The main toolbar adjusts to provide command buttons that make sense in the context of whatever window has the focus.

Maps, Drawings, Images, and Labels

 

The main toolbar provides the most frequently used command buttons.  Additional commands are found within the main menus, within right-click context menus that pop up when an item of interest is right-clicked, and within the Project pane, Layers pane, and Info pane and sub-panes.

 

For example, to add items to a project we use the File - Import, File - Link, or the various File - Create menu commands.

 

  

New - Close the current project and create a new, blank project.  Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.  See the Projects and .map Files topic.

Open - Close the current project and open an existing  .map project file.  After browsing to and choosing the new .map file to be opened, Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.

Close - Close the current project.  Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.  Closing the current project will leave the Manifold desktop with no project open.

Save - Save the current project in a .map project file.  If the project is a new project that has not yet been saved the usual Windows Save As dialog opens to allow specifying a name for the new, saved .map file.   If the project has been opened from an existing .map file or if it has already been saved to a .map file the Save will be silent and will simply update the existing .map file.

Back - Go back one view in the active window.  Not enabled until we have panned or zoomed at least once.

Forward - Go forward one view in the active window.  Not enabled until we have used the Back button at least once.

Zoom to Fit - Zoom so the contents of the active layer fill the window.

Zoom In - Zoom in one step.

Zoom Out - Zoom out one step.

Cursor mode - A drop down menu allows choosing the mouse cursor command mode.   Command modes are available based on the context.  For example, command modes for drawing and labels windows, as well as for maps when drawing or labels layers are active, include:

 

  • Default - Navigation: Pan, Zoom box, ctrl-click to select, alt-click to pick for editing and attribute viewing.

  • Create Area - Enabled for drawings and labels.   Create an area object or a label based on an area object.

  • Create Line - Enabled for drawings and labels.   Create a line object or a label based on a line object..

  • Create Point - Enabled for drawings and labels.   Create a point object or a label based on a point object.

  • Create Label - Enabled for layouts.   Create a text frame in the layout.

  • Draw Path - Make measurements and edit objects.

  • Edit Control Points - Add control points for use by the Register pane.

  • Snap Parameters - Specify parameters for Snap Modes.

 

Available modes will be different for image and layout windows.

Locations - Create a new Location or pan and zoom the window to an existing location.    See the Locations topic for details on location commands in this button.

 

Tables

When a table window has the focus, the main toolbar will provide commands for filters and selections.   The main toolbar for tables also appears when a results table for a query has the focus, with the addition of a ! Run button.  Additional commands for editing table windows appear in right-click context menus that pop up when various contents within the table window are right-clicked, and within the Project pane, Layers pane, and Info pane and sub-panes.

 

 

 

  

New - Close the current project and create a new, blank project.  Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.  See the Projects and .map Files topic.

Open - Close the current project and open an existing  .map project file.  After browsing to and choosing the new .map file to be opened, Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.

Close - Close the current project.  Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.  Closing the current project will leave the Manifold desktop with no project open.

Save - Save the current project in a .map project file.  If the project is a new project that has not yet been saved the usual Windows Save As dialog opens to allow specifying a name for the new, saved .map file.   If the project has been opened from an existing .map file or if it has already been saved to a .map file the Save will be silent and will simply update the existing .map file.

Filter - Reapply the current filter settings.   Used to refresh filters when the data in tables may have changed.   This is not a command to restore previous filters that may have been cleared.

Selected - Press to toggle: show only selected records in the table (blue), or to show all records (not blue).  Changing the selection using a command outside the table window, for example, by using a mouse selection move in a drawing, will not update the table window.  Toggle the selected button to update what the table window shows for selected records in the table.

Run - Appears when the focus is on a command window for SQL, to enable running the query.

 

Layouts

 

The main toolbar provides relevant command buttons when the focus is on a layout window.  These allow us to show or hide frame margins, to choose the cursor / command mode, and to choose alignment commands:

 

  

New - Close the current project and create a new, blank project.  Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.  See the Projects and .map Files topic.

Open - Close the current project and open an existing  .map project file.  After browsing to and choosing the new .map file to be opened, Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.

Close - Close the current project.  Manifold will prompt to save any unsaved projects and will provide an opportunity to cancel.  Closing the current project will leave the Manifold desktop with no project open.

Save - Save the current project in a .map project file.  If the project is a new project that has not yet been saved the usual Windows Save As dialog opens to allow specifying a name for the new, saved .map file.   If the project has been opened from an existing .map file or if it has already been saved to a .map file the Save will be silent and will simply update the existing .map file.

Back - Go back one view in the active window.  Not enabled until we have panned or zoomed at least once.

Forward - Go forward one view in the active window.  Not enabled until we have used the Back button at least once.

Zoom to Fit - Zoom so the contents of the active layer fill the window.

Zoom In - Zoom in one step.

Zoom Out - Zoom out one step.

Margins - Show or hide fine lines that indicate the margins of each frame and the paper margins of the layout.  Turning off frame margins provides a final look at the layout without virtual borders used in editing  getting in the way.

Cursor / command mode - The pull down menu shows options for the Cursor Mode   Sample frames are specialized frames used to create legends.

 

 Default - Switch back to default cursor mode.  Keyboard shortcut: Shift-Space

 

 Create Text - Add a text frame.  Add a text frame.  Click the Create Text command and then click into the layout.  Keyboard shortcut: Shift-T

 

 Create Color Sample - Add a color sample frame.  Keyboard shortcut: Shift-C

 

 Create Area Sample -  Add an area objects sample frame.  Keyboard shortcut: Shift-A

 

 Create Line Sample - Add a line objects sample frame.  Keyboard shortcut: Shift-L

 

 Create Point Sample - Add a point objects sample frame.  Keyboard shortcut: Shift-P

 

 Create Text Sample - Add a text sample frame.  Keyboard shortcut: Shift-X

 

 Create Legend - Automatically create a legend for the active frame.

 

Alignment commands - Align or adjust selected frames to the active frame.

 

 Align Left - Align all selected frames to the left edge of the active frame.

 

 Align Right - Align all selected frames to the right edge of the active frame.

 

 Align Top - Align all selected frames to the top edge of the active frame.

 

 Align Bottom - Align all selected frames to the bottom edge of the active frame.

 

 Stack Horizontal - Stack selected frames horizontally around the active frame, using the same stack order as the Z order shown in the Layers pane

 

 Stack Vertical - Stack selected frames vertically around the active frame, using the same stack order as the Z order shown in the Layers pane.

 

 Same Width - Resize all selected frames to the same width as the active frame.

 

 Same Height - Resize all selected frames to the same height as the active frame.

 

 Same Format - Applies the active frame's format to all selected layout frames, making it easy to format many frames in the same way.  This is especially useful with legends.

 

 Resize to Selected - Resizes and moves the active layout frame to fit selected frames.  

 

Locations - Enabled when a frame containing a map, drawing, image, or labels layer has been enabled for panning and zooming with a Ctrl-click.   Create a new Location or pan and zoom the window to an existing location.   See the Locations topic for details on location commands in this button.

 

Resize to Selected is typically used to resize and move a base legend frame so it wraps around legend frames that have been altered and moved about.  Note this command alters the active frame to fit selected frames, where the other alignment commands adjust selected frames as guided by the active frame.

 

See the Legends topic for information on the Create Legend command, and the Layouts: Create Commands topic for information on other Create... commands.   See the Layouts: Alignment Commands topic for examples of alignment commands.

 

Notes

Drag and Drop to Open - We can open a .map project file by dragging and dropping it from Windows File Explorer onto an open Manifold session.

 

Close - Closing a project without right away without using File - New to create a new project or File - Open to open another project will leave the Manifold desktop with no project underway.   Without a project there is not much we can do with Manifold but there are a few things: We can launch the Command Window and write and execute scripts, and we can scan raw text or binary files using the Tools - Scan... commands.

 

Closing without Saving - If a project has only local components then closing it without saving changes made will leave the original .map project file unchanged.    However, if we have linked in data sources and we have made any changes to those data sources, in general those changes will have been committed to those data sources at the time we made the changes.   Closing the project without saving will not "undo" changes already made to external data sources.    

 

For example, suppose we have a project that has both local tables stored in the project and which also has a data source that connects to an Oracle database.   Suppose we make changes to tables in the Oracle database and then we Copy data from those Oracle tables and Paste that data into local tables in our project.   Now we Close the project without saving changes.    What happens?    The changes already made to tables in the Oracle database will not be undone, because those have already been committed.   However, the changes made to tables saved in the project will disappear, since the next time we open that same project file we will be opening the original version of the project file that has not been altered by saving.   See the Example: Closing without Saving topic.

 

Overwrites detected - Attempting to overwrite an existing file in the Save dialog pops open a confirmation dialog, providing options to confirm the overwrite or to save data to a file with a different name, the default.  

 

View - Zoom to Native - A menu command not used anywhere near as often as the "big three" zoom command buttons on the main toolbar, but useful often enough to be worth a look.

 

See Also

Getting Started

 

Projects and .map Files

 

User Interface

 

Project Pane

 

Info Pane

 

Layers Pane

 

Cursor Mode