Selecting a Class
The Main KeySet can display the names of members of any class listed in the main window. For example, 1.0_Integrated-I, 1.0_Integrated-II, 1.0_Integrated-III, 1.0_Integrated-IV, and 1.0_Integrated-V are the names of the members of the Map class which comprise one view of the Arabidopsis genome.
Clicking twice on the class name Author in the main window changes the appearance of the Main KeySet, which will now show the items that are members of the Author class. This is shown in the figure below. The clicking is done using the leftmost mouse button. The first click will highlight Author, showing that this class has been selected. The second click on Author changes the Main KeySet. The time interval between the first and second clicks is not critical, unlike on the Macintosh.
In this example a large number of authors are available - too many to fit into the Main KeySet window. To see them use the Page Down button at the bottom of the window to move a page at a time through this long list. With over four thousand author names, this could take a while. Fortunately, there are alternative methods available that we will introduce a little later.
At the top of the Main KeySet notice that the number of separate items in the list is given . These names do not actually correspond to that number of unique people. Alternate spellings are fairly common for names in the Author class. For example, Abdullaev, K. A., Abdullaev, Kh., and Abdullaev, Kh. A. are probably the same person. If you look closely, you will see other cases of alternate spelling. We will say more about alternate names in the following pages.
When the other class names in the main window are double-clicked the Main KeySet will show the items in that class. Each time you do this, the contents of the Main KeySet will change - a new Main KeySet window will not appear. In general, ACeDB reuses windows to conserve the memory resources of your computer. However, multiple windows can be maintained if you need to compare their contents side-by-side. This is discussed in more detail later.
Hotspots and the Mouse
Earlier we mentioned that the major method for accessing information in ACeDB is by pointing and clicking with the mouse. If a part of a window is "hot" - i.e., it is connected to additional information - clicking on it will open a new window showing that information. Generally, text that is in bold characters indicates a hotspot. Every class name in the main window is a hotspot that can respond to the mouse by opening a new window. Furthermore, almost every entry in the Main KeySet will have the same property.
Some classes contain a very large number of members, and at times only a subset will be of interest. The procedure for limiting what is seen in the Main KeySet is discussed on the following page.