101 things you (maybe) didn’t know about MacVector: #7 – Copying the graphical appearance of a feature

Following on from the graphics tips of the last few posts, here’s one that can save you a lot of time if you are the sort that likes to keep the appearance of your features consistent between sequences (like me). Suppose you have downloaded a sequence from Entrez, or been sent a sequence in GenBank format by a collaborator, and you want to clean it up and make the graphics look nice. Here’s a boring plasmid with the default graphical appearance of a set of gene features;

BoringPlasmid.png

The first step is to select the feature you want to change – in the image above the AraC gene has been selected, but you can select multiple features so you can change several at one time. Now click on the Copy Feature Appearance button on the Graphics Palette;

CloneAppearanceButton.png

The pointer will change to an eye dropper. Position the pointer over the feature whose appearance you want to copy and click the left mouse button. The feature can be in the same window, or, as in the example below, it can be in a different window. There is no need to make that window the active frontmost window – just directly click on the feature;

CloneAppearanceWithDropper.png

The selected feature in the original sequence will then update to match the appearance of the feature you clicked on. Every aspect of the source feature’s graphical appearance is copied – the shape, colors, font, position on the map and even any meta tags associated with the label;

BoringPlasmidWithNiceAraC.png

This is an article in a long running series of tips to help you get the most out of MacVector. If you want to get notified every time a new tip gets published, follow us @MacVector on twitter (or check the feed for the hashtag #101MacVectorTips) or like us on Facebook.

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