THE MICROSCOPE



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A Quick and Useful Note......                       

Use the arrow keys, and the (i/o) or (+/-) keys 

to quickly manipulate the microscope view.

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In addition to conveniently being in the shape of a square, Darwin Pond is also different from other ponds in that it comes equipped with its own microscope.  And the Pond has also been miraculously squeezed into the size of a microscope slide! (don't ask for details).  



The microscope allows you to zoom in or out for different magnifications of the pond.  It also allows you to move the view left, right, up or down.  Standard Windows 95 scroll bars can be used as well as the microscope tools.  At any given time, you are looking at some subset of the pond with the microscope, as shown in the illustration below.  At no time can you see any of the area "outside" of the pond.  



The Microscope Tools



1) Zooming in

When you zoom in, you close in on local areas of the pond and can see swimmers up close.  To zoom in, use the button with the "+" sign magnifying glass icon.  



2) Zooming Out

When you zoom out, you essentially bring more of the pond area into view.  The swimmers appear smaller because they are "farther away".  To zoom out, use the button with the "-" sign magnifying glass icon.  



3) Moving the View

When you move the view, you slide the microscope along to "pan" across the surface of the pond.  When the edge of the microscope hits the edge of the pond, it stops.  To move the view, use the button which has the icon with the hand.  You can also use the scroll bars at the right and bottom of your screen.  



4) Resetting the View

When you reset the view, you essentially do a "zoom out" on the microscope view instantaneously.  So, in the illustration above, the smaller square basically expands to the same size as the pond itself.  When you are zoomed out all the way, you cannot use the Move View tool because there is no space to move the view anymore.  To reset the view, use the button with the icon with the 4 outward radiating arrows.  



Keyboard Shortcuts

Since you'll probably find yourself using the microscope a lot, you can use the following keys as quick substitutes to the tools:  



+              zoom in   (you can also use the i key )

-               zoom out (you can also use the o key )

arrows      move the view up, down, left, or right

r               reset the view



View Settings 

By selecting the View menu, you can control a few aspects of the microscope.  These are listed below:  



Full Screen 

When you select Full Screen, you toggle on or off the full screen mode.  In Full Screen, the entire specimen area, tools, and graph disappear, and the Pond takes over the whole screen (except for the scroll bars and the standard Windows bars at top).  In Full Screen mode, you give up controls and information, but you gain a bigger picture of the Pond.  Full screen mode can also be toggled on and off by pressing the F key.  



Autotracking 

Often you will find yourself zoomed in with the microscope and moving around to catch up with interesting activity as swimmers move around in the pond.  There is a special feature which takes over the microscope controls for you and does this for you - the autotracker.  



The autotracker can be turned on by going to the View menu and choosing Autotracking.  You will notice that the magnification will move to a fixed distance, and the view will start moving around in an attempt to center itself on a cluster of swimmers.  While autotracking is on, you can still use the microscope controls to shift the view to an area that you are interested in which the autotracker is ignoring. 



The magnification of the autotracker can be set to something else by going to the Options menu and selecting Preferences, and then selecting Autotracking Magnification.  



Track Selected Swimmer

If a swimmer is selected, this causes the microscope to center on that swimmer.  



Locate Selected Swimmer 

When you select Locate Selected Swimmer (if there is currently a swimmer selected), the microscope centers itself on that swimmer so that the swimmer appears in the middle of the microscope view.  