Working With Toolbars
The Mira user interface contains two types of toolbars: Top-level Toolbars and Window toolbars. These two types of toolbar operate commands at different levels of the user interface:
Top-level Toolbars attach to the main Mira window and work with data in windows of a particular type or execute functions that may not even use data viewed in a window. Some commands from top-level window open Window Toolbars.
Window Toolbars work only with data in their parent window and attach only to the border of their parent window.
If a Top-level Toolbar button opens a Window Toolbar for a specific window, the button will highlight whenever that window is top-most.
To close a Window Toolbar opened from a button on a Top-level Toolbar, click the highlighted button.
The screenshot below shows both top-level toolbars and a window toolbar.
Top-level Toolbars work with view windows such as an Image Window. The toolbar applies its functionality only to the top-most window. If a toolbar button is not associated with the type of data in the top-most view window, then the button is disabled. For example, if a Plot Window is made top-most, then most of the buttons the Top-level Toolbars will disable because their command does not work with a Plot Window. Those buttons will enable when an Image Window is made top-most.
All of the main toolbars, as well as the main menu, can be moved to different borders of the Mira application window. They can also be floated free of all borders. The picture below shows all of Mira's top-level toolbars displayed in vertical format along the left application border. In this example, all toolbar buttons are enabled (not grayed), meaning that they either operate a function for the image window shown, or they operate a global command that does not use an image window. If, for example, a Plot Window were the top-most view window, then most of these buttons would be disabled as they apply to commands for Image Windows.
The top-level toolbar configuration can be changed in several ways:
Top-level toolbars can be moved to dock on the horizontal and vertical borders of Mira's main window.
Top-level toolbars may be selectively displayed or hidden. To show or hide a toolbar, right click on the toolbar or the blank extended toolbar area of the Mira window frame, then select the named toolbar from the list.
Buttons shown in Top-level toolbars can be
manually assigned or removed from the toolbar. To change the button
assignment, click the configuration button 
at the end of the target toolbar, select
Add or Remove Buttons, then change the
button assignment.
In addition to manual button assignment, the buttons of top-level toolbars will automatically disappear or reappear as the toolbar shrinks or expands when the main Mira window is resized. In the picture below, the Palette Pane button appears at the bottom of the fully expanded toolbar on the left but disappears from the shrunken toolbar on the right.
If the toolbar is unable to show all buttons, a small double arrow appears on the expanded toolbar border as shown in the right toolbar fragment above. If a toolbar does not show all assigned buttons, you can enlarge the Mira window, reassign the buttons on the toolbar, or try dragging the toolbar between vertical and horizontal orientations.
Top-level Toolbars
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The Mira Tools toolbar is the main toolbar,
with commands that work outside of view windows (e.g., Image Windows). These
commands work even when no view window is displayed. For example,
the Open command
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The Image Tools toolbar has commands that
operate on images in Image Windows, such as Rotate |
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The Image Measurements toolbar has commands that open local window toolbars for making measurements, such as point and line collections. |
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The Image Plots toolbar has commands that generate plots (graphs) from data displayed in an image window. |
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The Cursor Tools toolbar has commands that work with theImage Cursor. These include commands for measuring, etc. |
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The Calibration Tools toolbar has commands that perform various types of image intensity calibration. These commands create master calibration frames, apply calibration frames, and repair image defects and artifacts. |
Buttons in a top-level toolbar operate several kinds of commands which have a user interface as described in the table below. These interfaces include simple button commands, docking panes, Window-level toolbars, drop-menus, and regular button commands. In general, it is not clear beforehand which kind of interface is associated with the button, but Mira provides guidance in a status message which appears when you hover the mouse over the toolbar button. Hovering over the button causes a short description of the button's command to appear in the status bar at the bottom of Mira's main window. Buttons that open docking panes have their own hint, as described in the following table:
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Command Interfaces opened from a Top-level Toolbar Button |
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Window Toolbars |
Many complex or multi-step commands are
organized into packages using their own toolbar which opens inside
a particular window. An example of a window toolbar is Labeling an image, in
which case the Image Labeling toolbar opens by clicking the
Clicking a top-level toolbar button opens the window toolbar in the top-most view window. If the command toolbar is already open in the target window, the button closes it. |
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Docking Panes |
All buttons that open a docking pane indicate that they are associated with a docking pane by showing a red border above or to the right of the toolbar button icon. An example is the To open the docking pane, click the button. The pane will dock along ht border of the top-most Image Window. If the pane is already open in the target window, clicking the toolbar button closes it. |
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Drop Menus |
Commands that have a drop menu show a command button icon plus a black down-arrow. Click the button to execute the standard function of its type. The drop-menu contains other related functions; to open the drop menu, mouse down on the arrow. Release the mouse on the selected menu command. |
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Toolbar Configuration |
The Toolbar Configuration button appears at the end of every top-level toolbar. Click this arrow to add or remove buttons from the toolbar or configure other aspects of the user interface. |
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Button |
A button that does not use the features described above is connected to a single command. Simply click the button to execute the command. |
Window Toolbars operate complex procedures, or "packages", that apply to a specific window. Most window toolbars are actually Docking Panes which may be shown, hidden, or tabified. Window toolbars are opened and closed using a top-level toolbar buttons and menu command. To shrink the docking pane toolbar to a tab ("tabified" configuration), use the stick-pin on its title bar. To close it altogether or re-open it, use the top-level toolbar button or menu command.
Window toolbars operate independently for each window. For example, the Aperture Photometry Toolbar operates the aperture photometry package, and multiple Image Windows may be open for doing aperture photometry independently in each window. Since these toolbars are window-specific, they dock to the border of their parent window. The screenshot at the top of this page shows the Region Measurements toolbar docked on the left border of an image window. Notice that the top button is highlighted, indicating that the toolbar is in active marking mode. A window having an active toolbar mode shows a unique mouse pointer to indicate that the mode is active. To disable an active mode and return to the normal mouse pointer, click the arrow button on the toolbar.
Mira Pro x64 8.72 User's Guide, Copyright Ⓒ 2024 Mirametrics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
opens files no matter
what type of window is top-most. The 
button at the right end of the main
toolbar opens a menu of global processing commands that allow
source images to be selected from folders, files, selection
templates, and windows and hence do not require the source image to
be displayed for processing. See 
.
button on the top-level