Saving data, renaming & deleting

The data sheet can now be saved (as can any item created in the workspace) from the File menu. File>Save Data As gives a standard type of Windows dialog box, shown below. This allows you to change to the desired directory, specify a meaningful name for the file (the default is Datan, where n just numbers each new data sheet in increasing order) and save it in PRIMER 7 format, with .pri extension, e.g. here in C:\Examples v7 and (File name: Test1) & (Save as type: PRIMER Data Files (*.pri)). This is the standard (binary) format for PRIMER 7 data matrices, which cannot be read by earlier PRIMER versions (including PRIMER 6) or by other software, but it is possible to choose to output in these earlier formats: PRIMER 6, 5 (Windows *.pri binary files) and 4 (the original DOS *.pm1 text file), plain text files (*.txt), and either the earlier Excel format (*.xls) with its restriction to 255 columns or the post-2007 *.xlsx format with no such constraints. On the same File menu there is an option to File>Rename the data sheet in the current workspace, or you can simply click once on the highlighted name box in the Explorer tree and overtype or edit the name. It is often a good idea to change the standard default names to something more meaningful in the context, so that you can find your way round the workspace more easily. Another option is File> Delete, which not only removes the specific data sheet from the workspace (though does not delete it in the original directory of course!) but also removes all the structure which leads immediately from that sheet (data sheets, results or graphs on the same branch of the Explorer tree, Section 7).