Accessing Tools with the Start Button

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Accessing Tools with the Start Button

The MATLAB Start button provides easy access to tools, demos, and documentation for all your MathWorks products. From it, you also can create and run MATLAB shortcuts, which are groups of MATLAB language statements.

Viewing Products and Tools with the Start Button

Click the Start button to view a menu of product categories and desktop tools installed on your system. As an alternative, press Alt+S (except on Apple Macintosh platforms). In the following illustration, the Start button shows MATLAB selected.
From the menu and submenu items, select an item to open it. The icons help you quickly locate a type of product or tool—see the icon descriptions in the following table.

For example, to open plot tools, select Start > MATLAB > Plot Tools.

Identifying Icons in the Start Button

Icons in the Start button menus 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.

Adding Your Own Toolboxes to the Start Button

About Adding Your Own Toolbox to the Start Button

When you provide a collection of files for use with MathWorks products to other users, it is called a toolbox. You can provide access to your toolbox from the Start button. (For background information about the Start button, see Accessing Tools with the Start Button.)

MATLAB determines the information to display on the Start button using info.xml files that are in folders on the search path:

Create an info.xml file for your toolbox that contains tags for all the subentries you want on the Start button.
Provide the info.xml file to your toolbox users, along with your toolbox files.
With the info.xml file in a folder on their search path, users can access your toolbox from the Start button.

If you also want to include help files for your toolbox in the Help browser, put the Help browser and Start button information into a single info.xml file.

Procedure for Adding Your Own Toolbox to the Start Button

The example file, startinfo.xml, accompanies the following instructions. It adds the SpecSim (Example) Toolbox to the Start button. Use the example as a basis for creating an info.xml file for your own toolbox.

Create or choose a folder for storing your info.xml. You have write access to the folder.
Add the folder to the search path. The folder cannot be the current folder when you add it to the path.
Copy the example file matlabroot/help/techdoc/matlab_env/examples/startinfo.xml to the folder.
Rename the copy of startinfo.xml to info.xml.
Refresh the Start button so it can locate your info.xml file. Perform this step whenever you change the info.xml files for your toolboxes.
1. Select Start > Desktop Tools > View Start Button Configuration Files.
  The Start Button Configuration Files dialog box opens.
2. Click Refresh Start Button.
View the example info.xml file in theStart button. For the example, select Start > Toolboxes > SpecSim (Example).
Get the info.xml file to edit it. A convenient way to get the file is from the Start Button Configuration Files dialog box:
1. In the dialog box, select the info.xml file that you want to edit. For the example, select SpecSim (Example).
2. Click Open.
The info.xml file for your selection opens in the Editor.
In the Editor, change the entries in the info.xml file so that they pertain to your toolbox. For details, see the sample code and table shown after the last step.
For more information about the info.xml file structure, consult its schema, which is at matlabroot/sys/namespace/info/v1/info.xsd.
In the Editor, save the changes to info.xml by selecting File > Save.
Refresh the Start button so it can see the changes to the info.xml file. See step 5 for details.
MATLAB automatically validates your info.xml file against the schema. If there is an invalid construct, MATLAB displays an error in the Command Window. For more information, see Validating info.xml Files You Provide.
View the updated entry in the Start button.

Description of info.xml File for Adding Your Own Toolbox to the Start Button

This table provides details about the example info.xml file.

Line	XML Tag	Value for Example	Notes
`6`	`<matlabrelease>`	`R2008b`	Release of MATLAB. Not currently used.
`7`	`<name>`	`SpecSim (Example)`	Name of the toolbox.
`8`	`<type>`	`toolbox`	The product type. The value determines where the entry appears in the Start button. SpecSim (Example) appears under Start > Toolboxes Allowable values are `matlab`, `simulink, toolbox`, `blockset`, `links_targets`, `other`. Within a type, entries appear in alphabetical order.
`9`	`<icon>`	`$docroot/techdoc/matlab_env/ examples/specsimicon.gif`	Shows an icon for your toolbox. You can specify a relative path, that is, relative to the location of the `info.xml` file. In this example, `specsimicon.gif` is in the `examples` folder provided with the documentation.
`10`	`<help_location>`	None	Location of HTML help files you provide for the toolbox. For details, see Providing HTML Help Files. Specify a relative path, that is, relative to the location of the `info.xml` file. In this example, there are no help files, so the entry has no value.
`12 to 15`	`<list><listitem><label>`	`SpecSim Viewer (Example GUI)`	Name of a tool in your toolbox. You must have at least one `list-listitem-label` set of tags for the toolbox to appear in the Start button.
`16`	`<callback>`	`specsim_viewer_example`	The function that runs when you select the item from the Start button. You must have at least one `callback` for the toolbox to appear in the Start button. In this example, `specsim_viewer_example` is a function that starts the SpecSim Viewer GUI when you select Start > Toolboxes > SpecSim (Example) > SpecSim Viewer (Example GUI). (This example file is not provided.)
`17`	`<icon>`	`$docroot/techdoc/matlab_env/ examples/guiicon.gif`	Shows an icon for your `callback`. You can specify a relative path, that is, relative to the location of the `info.xml` file. In this example, `guiicon.gif` is in the `examples` folder provided with the documentation.
`21`	`<label>`	`Demos (SpecSim Example)`	For the examples you provide with the toolbox.
`22`	`<callback>`	`specsim_demos_example`	The function that runs when you select the item from the Start button. In this example, `specsim_demos_example` is an example that runs when you select Start > Toolboxes > SpecSim (Example) > Demos (SpecSim Example). (This example file is not provided.)
`23`	`<icon>`	`$docroot/techdoc/matlab_env/ examples/demoicon.gif`	Shows an icon for your demos. You can specify a relative path, that is, relative to the location of the `info.xml` file. In this example, `demoimicon.gif` is in the `examples` folder provided with the documentation.
`27`	`<label>`	`Web Site (SpecSim Example)`	For a link to your toolbox Web site.
`28`	`<callback>`	`web http://www.specsimexample.com -browser;`	The statement that runs when you select the item from the Start button. In this example, select Start > Toolboxes > SpecSim (Example) > Web Site (SpecSim Example). The Web site for the SpecSim (Example) Toolbox opens in the system browser. (This URL is intentionally invalid.)
`30` to `34`	`</listitem>` `</list>` `</productinfo>`	None	Designates end of `list` and `productinfo` entries in the Start button for the toolbox.