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CellGrouping default

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg15281] CellGrouping default
• From: "Ersek, Ted R" <ErsekTR at navair.navy.mil>
• Date: Thu, 31 Dec 1998 04:39:36 -0500
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Did you ever want to group together several cells using Mathematica 3.0?
First you select the cells you want to group. Then try to make the menu
selection: Cell->CellGrouping->GroupCells

But you can't.  The GroupCells selection is gray. Before you can group
the cells you have to make the menu selection:
Cell->CellGrouping->ManualGrouping

As long as ManualGrouping is on you will be able to group and ungroup
cells. It's as if the front end was protecting me from accidentally
grouping some cells.  Really, what are the odds?  What harm could there
be in changing the grouping of cells?  Notice even after you turn on
ManualGrouping input and output cells are still grouped together
automatically.

The frustrating part is that the Front-End has ManualGrouping off by
default each time you start a new notebook (via the menu selection 
File->New).  So if you like grouping cells you frequently have to turn
on ManualGrouping.

Well I finally figured out how to change the default selection for this
feature.
You can go in the Option Inspector (via the menu selection 
Format->Option Inspector).
Select "global" at the top of the dialog box. Find the option "Cell
Grouping" and change the selection to Manual.

OR

Evaluate the following in a notebook:
SetOptions[$FrontEnd,CellGrouping->Automatic];

Either way Mathematica will never again use "Automatic" CellGrouping by
default.
Contrary to the way the options for kernel functions work, you can
evaluate this once and the change is permanent.  You don't have to put
any such line in your init.m.


Cheers,
Ted Ersek