Tools Menu commands (2.4)

Useful settings and options to add more to your files

Applies to 2.4 only; most of these options are now on the Settings Menu 2.5

The Main Toolbar Tools menu and sub-menus group together commands and options for managing data refresh, language settings, 'brushing' or fading of unselected records, display of individual record-level details, links to related content and services outside the file, associating image sets with the file and many advanced configuration options.

Automatic refresh - when ticked, displays the Automatic refresh drop-down management menu and Hold button on the right side of the Main Toolbar.  See Using Automatic Refresh for more detail. Language - enables you to change the language of all the menus in Omniscope. See detailed section below. Enable brushing - greys-out (fades) non-selected records in all views simultaneously. To read unselected Table View records when greyed-out, disable brushing by unticking this option. Note: the brushing option is not Report Page specific. If Table View records become too sparse when brushing is enabled, try changing the Table View universe to the SELECTION universe to concentrate all the selected records. Record cycling - record cycling automatically shifts selection from one record to another, with a configurable time delay. Tick/untick to turn global record cycling on and off (including inside Details Views if the synchronise option is ticked). For more on using record cycling, see Viewing Details.

Tools > Show details using

In addition to using the Details View, there are various options for showing record-level details.

The default (whenever the Details View is not open) is to display details using the pop-up window. If Sidebars are visible, there are options to display details panels at the bottom of either one (but not both) of the Sidebars. For more information, see Viewing Details

Tools > Tooltips

Tooltips are temporary text displays that appear whenever you hover your mouse over a marker or other representation of one (or a group of) record(s) in the data set. Using the drop-down pick list, you can select which field values will be displayed whenever Tooltip displays are visible.

Tooltip displays are Report Page specific.  If you are in Reports Mode, the selections you make will be remembered and the selected values will appear in all Tooltip displays on that Reports Page. If you Exit Reports, the Tooltip displays will revert to the defaults you set for the file.  Note: Use Tooltips sparingly...selecting too many field values to display will can create large blocks of text values that obscure too much of the open views.

You can also choose to display associated image sets as Tooltips:

To learn how to associate image sets with your Omniscope files, see Tools > Images below.

Tools > Links

Links extend your file users' experience to include content not contained within the Omniscope file itself. By adding links, anyone can integrate related external content (documents, files and web pages) into their Omniscope files, with one-click access via their local network, and the open web.

You specify links and make them available for use within your Omniscope file using the Add web link, Add local link and Preconfigured links dialogs. For more information, see Tools > Links.

Tools > Web Services

Web Services are data processing services that use Internet standards to post data to a remote server, which usually delivers a response in web page format.  Popular examples of Web Services in action include submitting text to a search engine and receiving the results page, or submitting stock tickers to view price charts. (definition of Web Services).

Omniscope is a 'hybrid' web/desktop application that is easy to integrate with Web Services.  In addition to the preconfigured free web services (that accept a single value text string input) available on the Links menu, there is also a useful multi-record submit Web Service via HTTP POST available in Omniscope. The Tools > Web Services dialogs permit you to configure and edit Web Services that expect multi-record  input to work seamlessly with your Omniscope files. Accepting the defaults under Add web service will configure an 'echo test' service (hosted by Visokio) in which our server repeats back a list of references you have selected in your local Omniscope file. More information on configuring and using web services with Omniscope is available in Tools > Web Services and the Web View subsection on using Web Services.

Tools > Images

Before you can display images, you must associate one or more folders of images with the .IOK file as a named image set. Preparation for this involves saving a set of images in a single folder with a consistent naming convention, such that the same text values are present in one of the columns of your .IOK file (it may be a column included just to hold the names of the images). It is also possible for Omniscope to display multiple images per record, provided you have entered multiple 'tokenized' values in the image reference cell.

There are 3 ways to display image sets in Omniscope:

• For high speed and performance, images can be displayed from a separate local folder, assuming the Omniscope file is always kept in the same position relative to the image folder. 
• For more portability and publishing, entire image sets can be embedded into Omniscope files at selected sizes/resolutions to minimise the impact on file size. 
• It is also possible for Omniscope to display images obtained 'on-demand' from a remote server.

Once you have associated one or more image sets (each with single or multiple images per record) with your file, you can display these images in various views:

• Table View (View Tools > Column Options > Show images in cells- select column),
• Tile View (Tile View > Tile Contents > Show Images-select image set),
• Details View & pop-up windows (Details View > View Tools > Show > Images)
• Slide show pop-up windows (launched from most View Toolbars)

For more detail, see Adding Image Sets

Tools > Language

Omniscope can be used with any language. You can use existing translations, modify existing translations, or create your own translations files based on those that already exist.

Language selector - choose from the list of available translations

Use system language setting -  tick this option to start Omniscope with the language setting specified in the operating system. If a user selects a different language, it will override and untick this setting. That user's installation will open using the preferred language until reset using this command.

Edit translations - opens your local copy of the embedded EditedLanguages.iok translation file. You can make changes to the translations text in this file, being careful to follow the Guidelines in the Translations Guide. When you have finished editing, choose File > Save (not Save As) to save the edited file in its original location. In Tools > Languages, ensure your edited language is selected, then close and re-start Omniscope to see the changes you made via the edited file.

Use local translations file - if you open the embedded EditedLanguages.iok file to make and save changes, this option will be ticked.  To revert to showing the default translated text, untick this option and restart Omniscope.

Submit edited translations - if you would like your translations/edits to be included in the default for a given language, or added to the menu as a new language or variant, submit your EditedLanguages.iok file to us using this command.

Tools > Advanced tools

Additional Tools sub-menus are available from the Advanced Tools menus. Note: Some of these commands are only available in the Enterprise Edition.

For more detail on these and other Tools > Advanced tools sub-menu commands, see Advanced Tools