|
This comprehensive word processor contains enhanced special features to make it an ideal laboratory notebook.
The notebook can contain many kinds of objects, including analysis results. Text wraps around notebook objects and can be used to discuss experimental results just as in a paper lab notebook. Arrows and other graphic objects can be placed in the notebook to highlight critical points, like the peaks on the transmembrane helix (TM Helix) plot in Figure 1. Different backgrounds can be defined for output objects and frames (with or without shadows) can be added. Even scanned images (like the gel in Figure 1) can be placed into the notebook for reference.
The notebook can be used to track experiments and discuss results and also can be used to design posters using its graphics abilities. The notebook layout can be changed to any dimension containing any number of text columns per sheet so your experimental results can be readily converted into a poster, slide, or manuscript figure.
Output from the various analyses in Gene Inspector are placed into the notebook as they are run, showing you the results and allowing you to annotate them as illustrated in Figure 1. The green arrows were drawn with a notebook tool and the descriptive text colored to match. All Gene Inspector analyses are interactive and can be used to rerun the analysis with a different sequence and/or different parameters. Complete formatting of title text, axis labels, axis numbering, and graph plot colors and patterns allows you to customize the output. Using style sheets, you can store the style of a complete graphic object and apply it to future analyses.
Navigation in the Gene Inspector Notebook
Navigation in the Gene Inspector notebook is achieved through the use of bookmarks and aliases. Bookmarks can be named and attached to any object and then used to return to the object from any location in the notebook. This makes it easy to find locations of interest, such as a specific discussions or your current or previous experiment. Aliases work as they do in the Finder. An alias can be created to any notebook object and placed anywhere in the notebook to provide a quick way of navigating. Clicking on an alias will take you to the original notebook object, even if the object is in a different notebook!
Appendices can be created from any Gene Inspector notebook object. An appendix appears in a separate window and can be accessed by name from the Appendix menu or through an alias to the appendix placed in the notebook. Appendices can be used to hold information to which you want easy access but do not want to take up large amounts of notebook space – such as annotated sequences, restriction maps, sequence alignments, experimental protocols, and buffer recipes.
In addition to standard graphic tools like lines, rectangles, and circles, you can create tables in the Gene Inspector Notebook to contain standard data like buffer recipes, gel lanes, assay results, or any other information that would benefit from a tabular format. Tables provide a convenient way to present different kinds of information that might be difficult to format in the background text.
|
