Creating Evaluation Palettes
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg45596] Creating Evaluation Palettes
- From: Harold.Noffke at wpafb.af.mil (Harold Noffke)
- Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 06:05:11 -0500 (EST)
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
MathGroup: In the Mathematica 5.0 textbook, in the section titled "To create a palette that performs evaluations:", there is sufficient ambiguity in the instructions to produce defective evaluation palettes. The menu chain "Input > Create Button > Evaluate" seems to produce unexpected results. Instead of using this chain, use instead "Input > Edit Button" to bring up the "Edit Button" dialog box. Following are detailed directions on what to do. 1. Set up an empty palette using the menu chain "Input > Create Table/Matrix/Palette", or just press the chain's hotkey, "Shf-Ctl-C". You will first need to change the style of each button so that the button knows to evaluate the resulting expression when it has been clicked. To do this, select all the buttons in your palette template. Menu select "Input > Edit Button" to bring up the "Edit Button" dialog box. Then go to the "Button Style" pulldown menu and change the selection from "None" to "Evaluate". Exit this box by clicking "OK". 2. In your working notebook press "Home" to move the cursor to the left of your palette template, then press "RtArw" once to enter the palette. Now "Tab" to select the first placeholder. Start typing-in the name, say "N", of your first evaluation function. Typing characters will erase the placeholder, but this is precisely what you should do. Do not wrap your typed function, N[], around the existing placeholder. After you have typed "N[", type "Esc", "spl", "Esc". You will see a new placeholder appear. The reason you do this is because the old placeholder's name was just "Placeholder", while the new placeholder's name is "SelectionPlaceholder", which is what you need for function evaluation. 3. Finally, type the closing "]" to complete the "N[]" function. Then "Tab" to highlight the next placeholder, and construct the next function in your evaluation palette. Finish constructing evaluation functions by following this label pattern. 4. Last, highlight either the palette cell bracket, or the entire palette you have just constructed. Menu select "File > Generate Palette from Selection". This will give you individual, accurately working buttons in your evaluation palette. Regards, Harold