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Start Button for Accessing Tools Sizing, Arranging, and Sorting Columns in Tools Macintosh® Platform — Differences in the MATLAB® Desktop Printing and Page Setup Options for Desktop Tools |
The MATLAB® Start button provides easy access to tools, demos, and documentation for all your MathWorks™ products. From it, you can also create and run MATLAB shortcuts, which are groups of MATLAB language statements.
Click the Start button to view a menu of product categories and desktop tools installed on your system. As an alternative, press Alt+S to view the Start button contents (except on Apple® Macintosh® platforms). In the following illustration, MATLAB is selected.
From the menu and submenu items, select an item to open it. Use the icons to quickly locate a type of product or tool — see the following description of icons.
For example, select Start > MATLAB > GUIDE (GUI Builder) to open that tool.
Icons in the Start Button. Icons help you quickly locate a particular type of product or tool. This table describes the action performed when you select an entry with one of these icons in the Start button.
Icon | Description of Action When Opened |
|---|---|
| Documentation for that product opens in the Help browser. |
| Demos for the product are listed in the Help browser Demos pane. |
| Selected tool opens. |
| Block library opens. |
| Document opens in your system Web browser. |
You can add your own toolboxes to the Start button. Select Start > Desktop Tools > View Source Files to open the Start Button Configuration Files dialog box. For more information, click the Help button in the dialog box.
When you use a tool in the desktop, its menu appears at the top of the desktop. When you work in a different tool in the desktop, you still use the menu at the top of the desktop, but the menu content changes to support that tool. When you undock a tool from the desktop, access its menu at the top of the undocked tool.
Many of the features in MATLAB desktop tools are available from context menus, also known as pop-up or right-click menus. To access a context menu, right-click a selection or an area, or press Ctrl+Shift+F10. The context menu for the selection or tool appears, presenting the available actions. For example, following is the context menu for a selection in the Command History window.
If a context menu does not appear, try right-clicking in a different part of the tool. When a context menu item is gray, the item does not apply to the current selection or area.
The toolbar in the desktop provides easy access to frequently used operations. Other tools also provide toolbars.
These are the major toolbar features:
ToolTips — Position the pointer over a button for a second or two and a ToolTip appears that describes the item.
Customizing — You can customize the toolbar to show or remove controls, and to rearrange the controls. Use File > Preferences > Toolbars; for details, click Help in the resulting dialog box.
Toolbars in Tools — Some tools also have their own toolbars, which are located within the tool's own window. For example, the Current Directory browser has its own toolbar. When you undock one of these tools, the undocked tool includes the toolbar.
Hiding Toolbars — To hide a toolbar, or to show it again after hiding it, use the appropriate toolbar item in the Desktop menu. As an alternative, right-click a toolbar or menu bar and select a toolbar from the context menu to hide or show it. For figure windows, use the toolbar item in its View menu.
Repositioning Toolbars — If there is more than one toolbar in a tool, you can move the position of the toolbars. For example, in the Editor, by default, the Editor toolbar is above the cell mode toolbar. To change the position of a toolbar, grab the toolbar anchor (at the left end) and drag the toolbar to a different location.
See also the Shortcuts Toolbar.
The current directory field in the desktop toolbar shows the current working directory in MATLAB. You can change the current directory using this field and any of these methods:
Type the new current directory directly in the field.
Use the drop-down list to change to a previously used current directory. To specify the number of entries maintained each session, use the History preference you access via File > Preferences > Current Directory.
Use the Browse for folder button ... to select a new current directory.
Use the Go Up One Level button
to move the current directory
up one level.
The same current directory field also appears in the Current Directory browser when the Current Directory browser is undocked from the desktop. Use the Current Directory browser to perform many additional file operations. For more information, see File Management Operations.
Along the bottom of the desktop is the status bar. It displays messages, such as when MATLAB is busy executing statements or when the Profiler is on. Some tools, such as the Editor, display additional status information, such as the current line number. Not all status information appears on the status bar — many MATLAB functions and tools provide status information that is not reported to the status bar.
You can construct your own functions to provide status information. See the timer function, and search for other specific terms describing the status of interest.
Some desktop tools present information in columns, such as the Current Directory browser.
To change the column width, drag the separator bar between two column headings in a tool. When a column is too narrow to show all the information in it, position the pointer over an item and the full value for that item displays like a ToolTip.
To rearrange the columns in a tool, drag the column header to a different position. To sort the information by a particular column, click the column header. For example, in the Current Directory browser, click the Last Modified date to sort the items in date order. Some columns also allow you to reverse the sort order by clicking the column header again. A small gray arrow in the header indicates the current sort order — for example, an up arrow in the Last Modified Date column header indicates an ascending sort order, meaning the oldest files are at the top of the list.
In many desktop tools, you can select multiple items and then select an action to perform on all the selected items. Select multiple items using the standard practices for your platform.
For example, if you run on a Microsoft®Windows® platform, do the following to select multiple items:
Hold the Ctrl key and then click the next item you want to select. Repeat this step until you have selected all the items you want. To select contiguous items, select the first item, hold the Shift key, and then select the last item.
Now you can perform an action on the selected items, such as delete.
To clear one of multiple selected items, use Ctrl+click. To clear all selected items, click outside of the selection.
You can cut and copy a selection from a desktop tool to the clipboard and then paste it from the clipboard into another tool or application. Use the Edit menu, toolbar, context menus, or standard keyboard shortcuts. For example, you can copy a selection of statements from the Command History window and paste them into some MATLAB desktop tools.
Use Paste to move items copied to the clipboard from other applications. The Paste to Workspace item in the Edit menu opens the selection on the clipboard in the Import Wizard. You can use this to copy data from another application, such as the Microsoft® Excel® application, into MATLAB. For details, see the Using the Import Wizard.
When editing in the Command Window and Editor, to move text to a new location, select the text and drag it. To copy text, press Ctrl and drag the selected text to the new location.
To undo the most recent cut, copy, or paste command, select Undo from the Edit menu. Use Redo to reverse the Undo. For some tools, you can undo multiple times in succession.
See also the clipboard function.
You can also move or copy a selection from one tool to another by dragging the selection. For example, make a selection in the Command History window and drag it to the Command Window, which pastes it there. Edit the lines in the Command Window, if needed, and then press the Enter key to run the lines from the Command Window.
Another example is to drag a filename from the Current Directory browser to the Editor to open that file in the Editor. If you drag editable text, for example, text in the Editor, the text is cut rather than copied. Use Ctrl and drag to copy rather than cut editable text.
On Windows platforms, you can drag items from external applications into MATLAB. For example, dragging text from a document created using the Microsoft Word application into the Editor cuts and pastes it into the open file. Dragging an M-file from Windows Explorer tool to the Command Window runs the file. Similarly, you can drag selections from desktop tools to other applications. For example, you can drag text from the Editor to Word.
MATLAB on the Apple Macintosh platform sometimes uses GUI conventions for the Macintosh platform, which might be different from what is stated in the MATLAB documentation, but the intended action should be clear. For example, if you select File > Save on the Macintosh platform, the Save dialog box that appears presents the options Don't Save and Save. On Windows and The Open Group UNIX® platforms, the Save dialog box presents the options Yes, No, and Cancel.
The standard mouse for Macintosh platforms is a single-button device. Other platforms use a mouse with more than one button. MATLAB takes advantage of these buttons. The documentation does not usually present the equivalent instructions for the Macintosh platform. When the documentation instruction is right-click, use Ctrl+click on the Macintosh platform. When the documentation instruction is middle-click, use Command+click on the Macintosh platform.
You can print from all desktop tools except the Current Directory browser, but there are some differences in usage.
To print, select File > Print from the tool. A Print dialog box opens. The Properties button in the Print dialog box is enabled for the Web and Help browsers and the Profiler, but is not enabled for the other desktop tools.
To specify standard page setup options for your platform when you print from the Command History, Workspace browser, and Variable Editor, select File > Page Setup. A standard page setup dialog box for your platform opens.
MATLAB provides special page setup options for printing from the Command Window and Editor. The setup options are essentially the same for both tools, with minor variations. This section covers their use:
To specify page setup options, perform these steps:
In the tool you want to print from, for example, the Command Window, select File > Page Setup.
The Page Setup dialog box opens for that tool.
Click the Layout, Header, or Fonts tab in the dialog box and set those options for that tool, as detailed in subsequent sections.
After specifying the options, select File > Print in the tool you want to print from, for example, the Command Window.
The contents from the tool are printed, using the options you specified in Page Setup.
You can specify the following layout options. A preview area shows you the effects of your selections:
Print header — Print the header specified in the Header pane.
Print line numbers — Print line numbers.
Wrap lines — Wrap any lines that are longer than the printed page width.
Syntax highlighting — For keywords and comments that are highlighted in the Command Window, specify how they are to appear in print. Options are black and white text (that is, no highlighting), colored text (for use with a color printer), or styled text. For styled text, keywords appear in bold, comments appear in italics, and all other text appears in the normal style. Only keywords and comments you input in the Command Window are highlighted; output is not highlighted.
If you want to print a header, select the Layout tab and then select Print header. Then select the Header tab and specify how the elements of the header are to appear. A preview area shows you the effects of your selections:
Page number — Format for the page number, for example # of n
Border — Border style for the header, for example, Shaded box
Layout — Layout style for the header. For example, Standard one line includes the date, time, and page number all on one line
Specify the font to be used for the printed contents:
From Choose font, select the element, either Body or Header, where Body text is everything except the Header.
Select the font to use for that element. For example, select Use Command Window font for Body text if you want the printed text to be the same as the font that appears in the Command Window. This is the font specified in File > Preferences > Fonts > Custom for the Command Window.
Repeat for the other element. If you did not select Print header on the Layout pane, you do not need to specify the Header font. As an example, for Header text, select Use custom font and then specify the font characteristics — type, style, and size. After you specify a custom font, the Sample area shows how the font will look.
Some tools in MATLAB and related products display HTML documents in the MATLAB Web Browser. For example, after using the Editor's cell features to publish an M-file to HTML, you view the HTML file in the MATLAB Web Browser. Because the MATLAB Web Browser is a desktop tool, you can dock it and perform other desktop operations on it.
You can also use the tool to display Web sites and your own HTML files. To display an HTML document in the Web Browser, double-click the document name in the Current Directory browser. To open the browser without a document in it, select Desktop > Web browser. Go to a Web site or an HTML page by typing a URL or the full path to a filename in the Location field. The toolbar buttons and menu items in the Web Browser are similar to those found in the Help browser display pane. For more information, see Viewing Documentation in the Help Browser.
Like any Web browser, the MATLAB Web Browser might not support all of the HTML or related features used in a particular Web site or HTML page. For example, the MATLAB Web Browser does not support the display of .bmp (bitmap) image files. Instead use .gif or .jpeg formats for image files in HTML pages. As another example, it does not support HTML pages you generate directly from Microsoft Word and Microsoft® PowerPoint® applications.
Use the web function to open a browser in MATLAB, and optionally specify a URL or file to display. The web function supports arguments that display documents in your system browser, for example, the Netscape Navigator® browser, or in the Help browser. You can also use the web function in conjunction with methods that operate on a specified browser, such as a method to close a browser.
To specify a proxy server to connect from the MATLAB Web Browser to the Internet, use Web preferences. You might need to specify this preference if you have a firewall, for example. If you have a firewall and do not specify the proxy settings, links from the Web Browser to URLs will not work.
Select File > Preferences > Web. By default, the check box Use a proxy server to connect to the Internet is not selected. This is for when you have a direct connection to the Internet.
To specify a proxy server, select the check box and specify the Proxy host and Proxy port. See your system administrator for the information you need to specify the proxy settings. As an example, 172.16.10.8 illustrates the format for host, and 3128 is the type of value you enter for port.
Fonts for Web Browser. To modify the font used in the Web Browser, select File > Preferences > Fonts. The Web Browser uses the font settings you specify for HTML Proportional Text tool. For more information about setting fonts, click the Help button in the preference pane for Fonts.
You can access popular pages on the MathWorks Web site from the MATLAB desktop. Select one of the following items from the Help > Web Resources menu. For most items, the selected Web page then opens in your default system Web browser, for example, the Netscape Navigator browser:
The MathWorks Web Site — Home page of the MathWorks Web site (http://www.mathworks.com).
Products & Services — MathWorks Products and Services page (http://www.mathworks.com/products/) with information about the full family of products.
Support — MathWorks Support page (http://www.mathworks.com/support) where you can look for solutions to problems you are having, or report new problems.
MathWorks Account
Login in or Create Account — Login page for MathWorks Account (http://www.mathworks.com/accesslogin/). If you are registered, your main account page displays. Otherwise, you are directed to a page where you register online. Registration allows you to view your product registration and license information and helps you stay up to date on the latest developments for MATLAB.
Get Passcodes and Manage Licenses — If you have a MathWorks Account, displays your Licenses page.
Get Product Trials — If you have a MathWorks Account, provides access to trial versions of products.
MATLAB Central — MATLAB Central Web site (http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/) for the user community for MATLAB. It includes contests for MATLAB and results, a screen saver with the logo for MATLAB, and these technical resources:
MATLAB File Exchange — Code library of files contributed by MathWorks customers and employees, available for free download and use with MathWorks products.
MATLAB Newsgroup Access — Provides access to the Usenet newsgroup for MATLAB and related products, comp.soft-sys.matlab, where you can post and answer questions, as well as view the archives.
MATLAB Newsletters — Access to online versions of News and Notes and MATLAB Digest. News and Notes is published twice a year and contains feature articles, technical notes, and product information for users of MATLAB. MATLAB Digest, an electronic bulletin consisting of technical notes, solutions, and timely announcements to the user community, is issued more frequently. See http://www.mathworks.com/company/newsletters.
You can use the licensing features to perform license management activities, such as activating your license, deactivating your license, or updating your license. You can also visit the License Center at the MathWorks Web site to perform other license-related activities.
To access the feature:
Select Help > Licensing.
Select the activity you want to perform from the Licensing menu. The following table describes the options. Depending on your license type, the Licensing menu on your system might not include all options. Some options require an Internet connection.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Activate Software | Starts the activation application. Select the license you want to activate. |
| Deactivate Current License | Deactivates the license you are using to run MATLAB. This process deactivates all releases associated with this license. You must exit MATLAB after deactivating. If you are not connected to the Internet, this option returns a deactivation string. To complete deactivation, go to the License Center at the MathWorks Web site and enter this string. |
| Update Current License | Contacts The MathWorks to see if your MATLAB installation has the most up-to-date License File. Retrieves the latest License File and overwrites the current License File on your system. You will then need to restart MATLAB. |
| Manage Licenses | Starts a Web browser, opening the My Licenses page associated with your account. You can use this page, called the License Center, to perform many licensing activities. |
Use Check for Updates to easily determine if more recent versions of your MathWorks products are available, and to view the latest versions of all MathWorks products.
To access the feature, you must have an active Internet connection. Then:
Select Help > Check for Updates. The Check for Updates dialog box displays.
Use Select View to show the latest version numbers for all MathWorks products installed on your system, or all MathWorks products. The latest versions are displayed.
Click any column heading to sort or reverse the sort order by that column.
Use the What's New column to access the release notes for a product, which document new features and changes, bug reports, and compatibility considerations.
To upgrade to the most recent version, click Download Products at MathWorks.com, which links to the Downloads area of the MathWorks Web site. Otherwise, click Close.
Access the terms of use and patent information for MathWorks products.
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