| iTool User's Guide: Working with Plots |

## Manipulating the Plot Display

The iPlot tool allows you many options to manipulate your existing plot displays. Once you have visualized your plot data, you may rotate, flip, translate, scale, and zoom as well as modify plot properties, scroll, and select plot ROIs. The following options are available for manipulating plots.

### Translating

Translation moves an object or group of objects in a specific direction. When an object is selected, a bounding box appears around the object. For information on translating objects, see Translation.

### Adding Annotations

The following types of annotations can be added to iPlot displays:

Table 13-1: Types of Plot Annotations

Table 13-1: Types of Plot Annotations
Plot Annotation Type | Description
--- | ---
Text | Single lines or multiple lines of text can be added to a visualization to provide a label or description.
Line | Straight line annotations can be added to a visualization to link labels to objects or to identify an object.
Rectangle | Rectangular annotations can be added to a visualization to identify rectangular areas.
Oval | Oval annotations can be added to a visualization to identify elliptical areas.
Polygon | Polygon annotations can be added to a visualization to identify areas bounded by a multi-sided polygon.
Freehand | Freehand annotations can be added to a visualization to identify an area.

For more information on creating and using annotations, see Adding Annotations.

### View Zoom

View Zoom allows you to zoom in or out on a specific area of the plot display area. To zoom in or out in View Zoom mode click Zoom on the toolbar. For more information on working with View Zoom, see Zooming.

### Canvas Zoom

Canvas Zoom allows you to increase or decrease the magnification of the entire display canvas (which may contain multiple views, depending on the layout) by a specified percentage. Canvas Zoom is available by selecting the pull-down percentage list from the top of the tool just under the Help menu. For more information on working with Canvas Zoom, see Zooming.

### Selecting the Data Range

In a two-dimensional plot, your data range can be manipulated in several ways. First, enter into the Data Range tool mode by clicking on the Data Range button on the toolbar. You can then manipulate your data range in the following ways:

- Clicking and dragging a selection box within the view. The selected range becomes the new data range.

- Panning in one direction or another along a single axis by clicking on the arrow manipulators.

- Zooming in or out by clicking on one of the plus or minus symbols. When isotropic scaling is in effect (the default for the iPlot tool), these symbols appear at the axis origin, and will impact both the X and Y ranges simultaneously.

Note Plots are clipped to fit within newly selected data ranges.

IDL Online Help (March 01, 2006)