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Main Form

Figure 4.1: The Main form
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The Main form, also called the button bar, can turn most of the other forms on or off. It can also be used to start an HTML viewer to see the VMD quick help file, and to exit the program. The buttons with lights control which forms are turned on or off; if the light is on, the form is being displayed. Sometimes a form is turned on but is hidden behind other forms or windows. A quick way to bring the form to the top is to turn it off and then on again, as implemented for you using the Menu shortcut keys described in Table 4.3.

The Help button starts an HTML viewer (like Mosaic or Netscape) and displays on-line VMD help documents. The viewer is designated by the environment variable VMDHTMLVIEWER. Starting help multiple times will start multiple viewers. The default web browser is Netscape for Unix systems, and the built-in Explorer shell for Windows systems. Note, you may need to have Netscape or Mosaic up and running before successfully using the Help button. That is, if you obtain a message such as ``netscape: not running on display :0.0'', then you will have to start up the program yourself, after which VMD will be able to direct you to the correct page. The help button brings up the VMD Quick Help page, which contains links to the current User's Guide, FAQ, and links to various helpful information and programs.

Press the Quit button to exit VMD. This will bring up another form which verifies that you do indeed wish to exit. Press Yes to quit, or No to return to VMD.


next up previous contents index
Next: Mouse Form Up: Description of each VMD Previous: Description of each VMD   Contents   Index
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