Preferences: Markers

Purpose

Use Markers preferences to customize names and appearance of your markers, as well as size and visibility characteristics.

Access Markers preferences from File > Preferences > Tracing > Markers.

Some of the options are also available when you right-click the Marker toolbar.

Markers

Marker size: Choose one of the following options for marker sizing:

  • In pixels = The size is fixed; zooming in or out, or changing the lens has no effect on the display size of the markers. This is the usual method for displaying markers. The minimal display size for a marker is 1px.

  • In micrometers = The size of the markers depends on the lens selected or the scaling of the image being viewed. The size of the markers is adjusted as you zoom. The markers are scaled along with the tracing.

    If a low power lens is selected, or you are zoomed out on an image, you may not see the markers since they are scaled as small as possible.

  • Intrinsic: The intrinsic size for each marker is defined by the diameter of the circular cursor when the marker was placed. The intrinsic setting allows each individual marker to be displayed at a different size. Since this size is defined in actual micron values, the displayed size depends on the lens selected or the scaling of the image being viewed. If a low-power lens is selected, or you are zoomed out on an image, you may not see the markers since they are scaled as small as possible.

Show marker summary: Check the box to show the number of markers placed for a given marker type in the marker toolbar.

Show marker name: Check the box to show marker names in the marker toolbar.

Show Marker Bar: Check to show the marker toolbar in the Main window.

Customize markers

Customize... Click to access additional options in the Customize Markers window.

You can change some marker properties directly in the table that lists all of the markers:

Marker: To change a marker color, double-click a marker symbol to access the color picker. Select the desired color, then click OK to assign it to the marker (or you can click Set Color).

Name: To change a marker name, highlight the name of the marker and type in the new name. The name of the marker is used in all subsequent reports. For example, if three markers are renamed to neuron, glial cell and blood vessel, instead of seeing the number of Marker 1, Marker 2, etc. in a report, the report states the number of neurons, glial cells, blood vessels, etc.

Hidden: Check the box to hide the marker type (see also Hidden objects).

  • When a marker type is marked as hidden, it will be grayed out in the marker toolbar.

  • If you have placed markers, then hidden the marker type, the hidden markers become invisible (until you unhide them by clearing the checkbox). You can also hide markers by right-clicking on the marker type in the Marker toolbar.

Buttons

All Visible All hidden markers are displayed.

None Visible All markers are hidden.

Set Color Highlight a marker type then click the button to change the contour color (or you can double-click the marker symbol in the table).

Default Colors Restores the default colors for all marker types.

Save Markers need description. It's in NL360, but don't know which other prods

Load markers need description. It's in NL360, but don't know which other prods

Also see Using Markers