Saving plots

The name of a window can also be changed as part of the process of saving it, as a file external to the workspace: if the file is given a different name in the act of saving it, then that new name will also replace the existing entry in the Explorer tree. However, there is not the same need to save an individual data sheet, resemblance matrix, plot etc, that there was in the early versions of PRIMER (e.g. v5) because, as we have seen many times now, the full workspace can be saved in a single Save Workspace As operation, and this is a convenient way to pass data analyses to other users of PRIMER, for example. Nonetheless, there may be occasions when data (or resemblance) matrices need to be saved in an export format, as Excel *.xls(x) or text format *.txt files, or in internal v7 or v6 binary format – note that the v6 and v7 binary data formats differ – with extensions *.pri (or *.sid), perhaps so that they can be opened in a different workspace. More commonly, individual windows which are saved externally to the software are likely to be plot files.

From the current Bristol Channel zooplankton workspace, try saving the dendrogram Graph3, for group average agglomerative clustering, by highlighting it in the Explorer tree and taking File> Save Graph As>(Filename: BC zoo UPGMA) & (Save as type: PRIMER Plot Files (.ppl)). This *.ppl extension denotes PRIMER 7’s internal binary format for graphics, and it too differs in v7 and v6 – if a v6 format plot file is required (for those plot types existing in the earlier version) then it should be explicitly chosen by (Save as type: PRIMER 6 Plot Files (.ppl)). The main use of *.ppl format files is likely to be in passing plots to other PRIMER users, so note that, whilst PRIMER 7 will read the v6 *.ppl format (forward compatibility), PRIMER 6 will not read v7 *.ppl files (no backward compatibility), hence the need to save explicitly in v6 format, on the rare occasion where this might be required. (Neither format can be accessed by any other software – even PRIMER v5). Demonstrate such transfer by launching a parallel run of PRIMER 7 (e.g. on the Windows 7 or 8 desktop, double-click on the desktop icon or right-click on the task bar icon and select PRIMER 7 again), to generate a second PRIMER desktop with an empty workspace. Open this newly created plot file into it, with File>Open>(File name: BC zoo UPGMA). You will see that, in spite of the link to its original data and resem¬blance matrix being cut, the plot is complete in itself, and still capable of being modified. It even holds with it the background information on factors, inherited from the data file, so all the changes seen in Section 6 can be implemented: not just resizing, titling, suppressing the key or history box, zooming, condensing, rotating, etc, but also changing displayed symbols to a different factor. It is important to realise that any changes made here will in no way affect the same plot held in the first PRIMER workspace. There is no dynamic linking of any sort between different workspaces or between workspaces and files external to them; only an unlinked copy of any file is ever opened in, or saved from, PRIMER. It should also be emphasised that PRIMER 6 and PRIMER 7 can both be running at the same time and will not interfere with each other, so if both are installed you may wish to try saving the BC zoo UPGMA dendrogram again from v7, this time with (Save as type: PRIMER 6 Plot Files (.ppl)), and re-opening it in v6.