Editing the appearance of individual sequences maps

Although we think that the default appearance of sequence maps in MacVector is very pretty, sometimes the defaults are not to everybody’s taste! If you think this way, then changing how maps look is very easy.

Rather than edit the appearance of all of your sequences it is far better to modify the default symbol set*. Then, when you create a new sequence, or import a Genbank file, its appearance will be exactly how you like it! Not only that but with the Auto Annotation tool there is an easy way of scanning your sequences against a template to ensure their appearance is the same.

However, sometimes you really do need to change how a single Map looks. As usual with MacVector there are many ways to quickly edit the appearance of a feature or multiple features. These all involve using the Symbol Editor. To do this:

  • Select the feature in the Map tab and go to OPTIONS > EDIT SYMBOLS FOR SequenceX
  • Double click on a feature, in the Map tab
  • Select multiple features in the Map tab with the cursor, then double click somewhere in that selection.
  • Double clicking on the feature in the Tree View in the Graphics Palette.
  • Select one or more sequences in the Tree View and click the EDIT button.
  • Editing Symbols

    Graphics Palette 2

    All of these options will open the Symbol Editor with the selected features highlighted. If you had selected multiple features, then some fields will be be shown in grey with a “mixed” symbol to show that the selected features had multiple values previously. If you enter a new value then all the selected features will be changed. However, if you leave that unchanged, then the symbols will be unchanged. This allows you to change just the colour, or some other attribute, of multiple features without changing all their other attributes.

    *Remember that you can restore the shipping defaults for a symbol at any time by clicking the Shipping Defaults button in the Symbol Editor. Also remember that to edit the default symbols for all new sequences ensure no sequence is open or hold down the OPTION key and go to OPTIONS > DEFAULT SYMBOLS… This will open the Default Symbols Editor which is difference in appearance to the Symbol Editor for sequences.

    This entry was posted in Tips and tagged . Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.