Basic Anasazi Proton NMR Tutorial
This is the bare minimum you need to know to run the NMR and generate a spectrum.
When W95 is running, you see a gray band at the bottom of the screen called the 'taskbar' which shows you which programs are currently running. The icons, names or descriptions of these programs appear as 'buttons' on the taskbar. Clicking on any of the program buttons switches that program to the foreground so you can see it, and it will overlay any other program windows on the screen. You can switch between PNMR and NUTS by clicking on their respective taskbar buttons.
An important point is that while a program window can be in the foreground -- it may not be the active window. The active window is the one with the highlighted or colored 'Title bar' at the top of the window. A window must be active in order to enter keyboard commands in it. The 'Alt-Tab' keystroke sequence may not always result in an active window, but clicking somewhere on the window you want will always activate it.
The taskbar also has a 'Start' button on the left end. The clicking 'Start' button opens a series of cascade or 'flap-jack' menus which list the installed programs. The mouse cursor highlights the programs as it moves over them. A program name with an arrow to the right of it has additional menus associated with it. Once you find the program you want, click the mouse on it. The program will start and a program button for it will appear in the taskbar. Clicking on the PNMR or NUTS icons in the first menu will start these programs.
The 'Start' button also has a couple of system options which will be helpful: 'Help' and 'Shutdown...':
1) 'Help' lets you search for help on W95 topics only; note that the PNMR and NUTS programs each have their own internal help sections,
2) 'Shutdown...' displays a menu of options. Most frequently used is the 'Restart the Computer?' option which shuts down W95 and then restarts the computer. Software bugs, power glitches and operator screw-ups can result in system hangs or error states that simply won't allow you to get good NMR data. Shutting down and restarting the computer gives you a clean slate.
Note that W95 protests if you try to shutdown without quitting the PNMR and NUTS programs. If you really need to reboot, quit these programs first.
Most other 'windowing' operations (moving, resizing, etc.) are similar to Windows 3.x or other 'windowed' environments so you should already be somewhat familiar with them.
One thing that is different, however, is the 'right-click' menus you get when you click the right-side mouse button. Clicking the left and right mouse buttons can perform different operations or
display different menus, depending upon the program. Unfortunately, you need to experiment
with this to see what happens. Specific operations in the NUTS program require right-clicking of
the mouse, so try to get used to doing it.
Keyboard syntax:
These are shorthand notation for keystroke sequences that perform specific functions in either W95 or the programs running on W95. Two examples are given below:
Alt_V_R
Press the 'Alt' key and release it, then press the 'v' key and release it, then press the 'r' key and release it. For example, this particular sequence activates the menu bar commands in the NUTS program, selects the View pulldown menu and invokes the Show All Reals command. There are many such keystroke sequences that allow you to run most program commands without having to use the mouse. These are usually called 'keyboard shortcuts' and allow you to access menu commands very quickly using only keystrokes. The keyboard shortcuts are given by the underlined letters in each menu name or each command name in the menus.
Alt-Tab
Press and hold the 'Alt' key, then press the 'Tab' key, then release both keys. This brings up a
menu that lets you switch between programs running in W95. Holding the 'Alt' key and
repeatedly pressing the 'Tab' key cycles through all of the running programs. Note that 'Alt-Tab' does not always result in an active window, but clicking on the window does.