| iTool User's Guide: Working with Styles |

## Editing Styles

The iTools Style Editor makes it possible to edit your existing personal styles as well as copies of IDL System Styles. The Style Editor is shown in the following figure.

Figure 9-9: The iTools Style Editor

Figure 9-9: The iTools Style Editor

It is important to note that IDL's System Styles cannot be edited. These can, however, be copied as a new style and then edited. For information on copying styles, see Copying an Existing Style. The following section describes various editing tasks related to styles.

### Copying Properties Within Styles

You can copy properties from the Current Style, My Styles, and System Styles within the iTools Style Editor and paste these into any new or existing personal style. For example:

1. Select a style by clicking on it.

2. Select the style visualization object whose properties you wish to copy. The properties appear in the right panel of the editor.

3. Select a property by clicking on the property name and selecting Edit Copy or right-clicking and selecting Copy.

4. Select the style name of the style in which you wish to add the copied property. The properties will be copied to corresponding visualization object within that style.

5. Select Edit Paste or right click to select Paste. Your selected property is added to your selected style.

### Cutting and Deleting Properties within Styles

You can cut or delete properties from your personal styles but not from the Current Style or from the System Styles. For example:

1. From the iTools Style Editor, select a personal style and select a visualization object property you wish to delete.

2. Select Edit Cut or Edit Delete. Alternately, you can right-click on the property and select Cut or Delete.

Note Deleting a property from a personal style cannot be undone. Cutting a property places the property on the clipboard and the property may then be pasted within another style.

### Selecting Multiple Properties for Editing

Multiple properties may be copied and pasted (for all styles), and cut or deleted (only for personal styles) as shown for individual properties in the previous sections. To select multiple properties for these operations:

1. Select a style by clicking on it.

2. Select the style visualization object whose properties you wish to copy, The properties appear in the right panel of the editor.

3. Click on the property name and then, for the selection of multiple discontinuous items, hold down the Ctrl`` key while clicking on any other properties you wish to select. For continuous selection, hold down the Shift key while clicking on the final property you wish to select in your group. All selected property names should appear depressed.

4. With your cursor over one of the property names and all desired properties selected, right-click and select Copy. Alternately, with all properties selected, you can select Edit Copy.

Figure 9-10: The iTools Style Editor with Multiple Properties Selected to Copy

Figure 9-10: The iTools Style Editor with Multiple Properties Selected to Copy

5. You can now select the style name of the style in which you wish to add the copied properties and find and highlight the corresponding visualization object within that style.

6. Select Edit Paste or right click to select Paste. Your selected properties are added to your selected style.

IDL Online Help (March 01, 2006)