1) Using the WinMDI graphical window popup menu for setting Histogram markers, regions, bringing up Stat windows, copying bitmaps, etc., saves time and mouse movement. The popup may be brought up by clicking the left mouse button over any visible WinMDI graphical window canvas.
2) Histogram logical gates work faster than 2D Regions. Whenever you may effectively use a histogram gate in place of a 2D region gate, use it. This is because WinMDI uses the Windows 3.1 PtInRegion() subroutine to test if a point is in a region. See Gating Files for more on Histogram markers and gate regions.
3) WinMDI was developed on systems with 800x600 and 1024x768 pixel screen resolutions, so much of the default window sizes and general format characteristics are due to these resolutions. Print Screen on smaller displays will produce coarse graphics and text. The printers used during program development were either a 300dpi black and white PostScript laser printer, a HP PaintJet, a HP DeskJet 1200C/PS, or a 180dpi dot matrix printer. The Microsoft Windows 3.1 supplied PostScript, Hewlett Packard PaintJet, Citizen GSX 140, and Epson LQ-2500 printer drivers seem to work well with the WinMDI graphical routines. In order to get the best print quality, check "Printer Res." in the Print Dialog Box and WinMDI will draw on the printer device context. Scaling font sizes from the screen driver to all the various printer drivers is done by converting logical pixels/inch, so WinMDI currently tries to get close to WYSIWYG when drawing on the printer device context. Annotation text and other text may appear in slightly different places when printed. WinMDI tries to convert screen coordinates to printer device context coordinates by adjusting the font size based on device differences in logical pixels per inch. To get an exact copy of the screen, check "Screen Res." in the Print Dialog Box to print a copy of the screen bitmap.
4) WinMDI annotation text usually looks best with a different font than that used to label the axes. For example, if you have the Screen Font set to Arial 8 pt. for the axes, New Times Roman 12 pt. bold stands out well as the annotation font. In addition, there is a annotation rect cursor that appears if you move the pointer over any existing annotation text. By double clicking over the annotation rect with the left mouse button, a dialog box pops up allowing the user to Move or Delete the text. The annotation cursor appears as a small hand with the index finger pointing within the annotation rect. As noted above, while WinMDI tries to place any annotation text properly when drawing on a printer device context by calculating and converting point sizes, some errors may occur.
5) Statistical windows have an Append button that will append the current window text to the *.txt file shown in the adjacent combo list box. New *.txt files may be created with any text editor in the working directory. The combo box ought to pick up the new *.txt file names for selection. In addition, the Edit Menu in WinMDI works much like any text editor as far as Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo... etc., is concerned within the edit window of the Stat display. Use the Update button to fill the Stat window with the current statistics. The Update button is there to avoid waiting for recalculations each time the user changes a gate or region, since users often want to change several things before recalculating any statistics. WinMDI calculates the statistics by going through the listmode file for all 2D displays. The Owner button flashes the graphical window that owns the Stats window.