User Interface Tutorial

read the User Interface introduction

In these instructions, "Click" means to click with the left mouse button. Otherwise the mouse button will be mentioned explicitly.

Moving the slider

Click on the slider. Drag.

Moving the slider, sub-pixel movement

Left and right click on the slider (at the same time), drag.

or, right click and hold down the shift key. drag.

The slider will move much slower than the mouse pointer, allowing very precise "in between the pixels" movement.

Moving the cursor

Click on the cursor glass. Drag.

or, right click on the upper or lower margins of the window, and drag.

This second method is used for adjusting cursor marks when the cursor glass is offscreen due to a zoom.

Moving the cursor, sub-pixel movement

Left and right click on the cursor glass (or upper/lower margins) (at the same time), Drag.

or, right click and hold down the shift key. Drag.

The cursor will move much slower than the mouse pointer, allowing very precise "in between the pixels" movement.

these instructions are identical to moving the slider, the only difference is where you click to begin the drag.

Moving the visible portion of the entire slide rule, when zoomed.

Click on the stock. Drag.

There is no sub-pixel version of this gesture.

You can't reposition the slide rule when unzoomed - it is always stretched to the extent of its window, and centered there.

Flipping the entire slide rule over

Center-click (ie the middle mouse button or the wheel ) on the stock

or, position the mouse pointer over the stock, and hit the spacebar.

Taking out the slider and putting it back in upside down

Center-click (ie the middle mouse button or the wheel ) on the slider

or, position the mouse pointer over the slider, and hit the spacebar.

These instructions are identical to flipping the entire slide rule, except the mouse is over the slider instead of the stock.

Flipping just the slider is used, for instance, in non-duplex rules which have trig scales on the back of the slider, like the Griffenfly Rietz.

Zooming in and out

To zoom in, roll the mouse wheel away from you. Each roll zooms out more. After three rolls, the max zoom setting will be reached.

To zoom out, roll the mouse wheel towards you. Three rolls gets back to the unzoomed state.

The D and C keys also zoom in and out, (keys on right), as do the L and Comma keys.

See the keyboard layout section of the preferences tutorial.

Read the zoom tutorial for further discussion and examples.

Beckoning the cursor or left/right side of slider from offscreen

These gestures have their own page: here

Viewing scale auto-documentation

Hover the mouse pointer over the right side scale names.

Scale names are always visible, even when zoomed, so you can always get at this information.

Bringing up the Designer/Preferences panel

Click on the Griffenfly Logo at the very left of the slider. This is always visible, even when that end of the slider is shifted offscreen.

Resizing the slide rule

Click on the left or right window borders and drag, just like any other application.

The slide rule will stretch as wide as your screen, or scrunch down to a minimum of about 400 pixels wide.

You can resize the horizontal window borders, but it won't affect the layout of the slide rule, as well, several operations like load, scale modification, and large fonts, will reset the horizontal borders to the minimum height needed to contain the current slide rule.

Quitting the application

Close the window using the X in the upper right, or whatever passes for that X on your operating system/window manager.

exact current positions of slider and cursor are saved upon exit, as are all current preferences.