The JoveChart Editor allows you to do a very specific thing, that is, display, edit, and print files which were created with the JoveChart program written for the NASA sponsored Radio Jove program. You cannot use it to manipulate files written in other formats. If you do not have the JoveChart program you can obtain it from the Radio Jove site.
JoveChart files end in the extension "log". Right away there is a bit of confusion because when you open the JoveChart Editor's Load File screen you will likely see a file called St6unst.log. This is not a JoveChart file. It is a file which helps your computer uninstall JoveChart Editor if the need arises.
Your JoveChart files probably are located in the RadioJove directory under C:\Program Files\RadioJove or wherever you indicated that you wanted the Radio-Jove program installed. To load a file, click the Load File button and navigate to the appropriate directory, and double click on the correct file name.
After a few seconds, depending on the files length, a chart should appear in the stripchart window. The file will be displayed in its entirety.
The JoveChart data collection program allows users to change sample rates and include more than one observation in a single log file. JoveChart Editor will not handle log files properly that contain multiple observations. Use the editor only on log files which contain a continuous string of data points. In other words, if you start and stop JoveChart without creating a new log, you have created a file which will not be handled properly by the editor. You can still salvage these files for editor use my manually editing out the individual observations and saving them to separate logs. See JoveChart File format for more info.
In the upper left hand corner, right above the stripchart, you will see the words Mode: Plot Scroll-X etc. This is the toolbar. If it is not being displayed or if you want to hide the toolbar, press the Toolbar button at the bottom of the screen. The toolbar functions are fairly self explanatory, however, using them is not so intuitive. Lets say you want to scroll vertically. You would click on the Scroll-Y words in the toolbar and then place your mouse on the stripchart itself. Depressing the left mouse button, you then drag the image up or down. You use a similar method for most of the other functions. Two functions need a little more explanation:
The Zoom-Box function allows you to Zoom in on any portion of the stripchart presently being displayed. Click on Zoom-Box in the Toolbar, then place your mouse in the upper left-hand corner of the region you wish to zoom in on. Depress the left mouse button and drag to the lower right corner of the region. A box will appear (though sometimes with a little delay) as you draw out the region. When you release the button, the area in the box will expand to take up the entire screen.
The cursor function allows you to find the value of the data at any point on the graph. Click on Cursor in the Toolbar and then click on the graph at the point you are interested in. The values will appear above the graph for time and the data point.
In addition to the Scroll-X function in the Toolbar, you can use the arrow buttons to scroll left or right one half page at a time. This is sometimes a bit easier and faster than the dragging method available in the Toolbar.
Clicking the Full View command button will restore the stripchart so that it is displayed from beginning to end. If you get lost scrolling around, this is a quick way to re-orient yourself.
There are two text boxes positioned below the stripchart in which you may enter specific beginning and end times for the portion of the chart you want to display. After entering the times in hh:mm:ss format in each box press the Show This Range button below the time boxes. You must enter a valid range within the limits of the loaded chart.
You can save the portion of the stripchart displayed using the Save View button. Make sure you enter a new file name and use the log extension. You must reload this new log file in order for it to become the current file within the editor.
You can send the current view to a printer using the print button. The printout will be in landscape mode.
As you have probably already discovered, the About JoveChart Editor button takes you to an about screen where you can get to this help page, the Radio Jove website or the Radio-Sky Publishing website, if you have a web browser and on-line capability.
Questions regarding JoveChart and JoveChart Editor (should be addressed on the RadioJove discussion board. Please do not send questions on this topic to Radio-Sky.
While the JoveChart Editor is free for anyone to use it remains under full protection of copyright law to Radio-Sky Publishing. It may not be sold without prior permission of Radio-Sky Publishing.
This help page and the JoveChart Editor are © Copyright 2000 by Radio-Sky Publishing.
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