There is only 1 thing that you should do to ensure that QUAD-Plot works completely - drag the "QUAD-Plot Symbols" suitcase over your system folder. This will make sure that the symbols font is available during printing. You may also want to delete the PPC version of QUAD-Plot if you are using a non PowerPC machine (or vice versa).
INTRODUCTION
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QUAD-Plot is a shareware plotting program that is ideal for students, teachers and researchers at all levels. It takes any file of data in the form of ASCII text (Mac or PC) and allows you to very quickly produce high quality plots. At its simplest, producing a graph in QUAD-Plot can be accomplished by simply dragging a text file over the QUAD-Plot icon and selecting GO! from the PLOT menu!
QUAD-Plot is not meant to be a clone of more expensive plotting packages. It is a ``Quick and Easy'' method of displaying data as two-dimensional plots or histograms. It operates in just the way I have always found most useful: I don't want to waste time viewing the data as a table before it is graphed, and I usually want to do my own analysis seperately. QUAD-Plot is designed to let you look at the results of your own analysis IMMEDIATELY. The resulting plots are professional quality and DON'T look clunky and primitive, or worse still, misleading.
The number of points which can be plotted is limited only by the memory you allot to the program but is over 25,000 for the default memory allocation. Data sets can be cut and pasted from window to window in a familiar way. The resultant window can be printed as is, or can be placed on a page using the innovative new "View Page..." options. These allow you to snap the plots into a grid (eg. 2 plots by 3) which you specify, or to place a plot anywhere on the page by moving and stretching its rectangular outline. These two placement options make positioning and printing numerous graphs on a page a breeze.
More elaborate plots which include error-bars, colored lines/symbols or a variety of symbols and line styles can all be easily made. Individual datasets can be exported as text files. Whole plots can be copied and pasted into other applications or exported as high resolution PICT files to word processors and illustration packages. An on-line help system guides you through these features.
QUAD-Plot is a SHAREWARE program. We believe that it is extremely good value for money and useful for anyone who wants to view tabular data, whether for school, for business, or for professional research. In order to register your copy please follow the instructions in the "Registration" file.
Aims
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• A minimum number of keystrokes/dialogs in order to produce a high quality plot.
• Simple importation of SPACE or TAB separated text files.
• Import and view large datasets (limited by computer memory only).
• Intelligent default values for plot characteristics.
• Fast plotting of data, either XY-pairs or histograms.
• Convenience in viewing multiple plots on one screen.
• Easy and intuitive selection and modification of individual datasets on a plot.
• Ease in producing a high-quality printed copy of one or more plots.
Features
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Importation of data:
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1. SPACE or TAB separated files imported either by drag-and-drop or via. a standard file dialog.
2. The limit on the size of file is set by the available memory (>25,000 points by default).
3. Files may contain comments, preceded by a percent sign, or blank lines.
4. PC or Mac text files imported with no fuss.
5. File importation is faster than many other packages.
Plotting Graphs:
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1. Columns to be plotted are selected on menus.
2. Data can be drawn as (x,y) pairs or binned and drawn as a histogram.
3. Symbols can be chosen from a pallet of 25.
4. A range of line styles may be used to connect the data.
5. Lines and symbols can have one of eight colors.
6. Data can have error-bars easily attatched and modified.
Viewing Graphs:
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1. Intelligent defaults are used to ensure that a plot is immediately of good quality.
2. Windows can be re-sized and their plot re-sizes automatically to enable many windows to be viewed at once on the screen.
Editing Graphs:
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1. A dataset can be easily selected by clicking next to one of its points (or bins).
2. Cutting and pasting datasets is like working with text in a word-processor.
3. A dataset can be easily cut from one window and pasted into another.
Printing Graphs:
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1. Single or multiple plots can easily be positioned on a page for printing.
2. Hairlines can be used to take advantage of the high resolution of a printer.
Exporting Graphs and Data:
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1. Plots can be exported as PICTs.
2. The resolution of a PICT can be kept high for quality printing when included in another document.
3. Individual datasets may be exported as text files.
Speed:
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QUAD-Plot is faster than most other commercial packages at importing and plotting data. On a Quadra 660 it can import 25,000 points in just under 5 seconds, plot them for the first time in 30 seconds and subsequently update the window in 12 seconds.
For a small number of points (up to 1000) these times are all of order 1 second or less.
Part of QUAD-Plot's speed advantage lies in how easy it is to set up a plot.
No other plotting package that I have tried performs as well.
The PowerPC version of QUAD-Plot runs even faster still - typically 2 to 4 times faster than the emulated code!
Help:
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A convenient on-line help system can be read while you use the application.
REQUIREMENTS.
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QUAD-Plot will work on any Mac running System 7.0 or later with at least 768 kilobytes of free memory (1MB for the PPC version). The default memory allocation allows up to ~30,000 points to be plotted.
