Hot Keys

You will notice that JMWork has very few menu commands. Like its predecessors MWork and XWork, it employs a lot of keyboard short-cuts, or "hot keys". Some command keys are applicable all the time, while others apply only when the cursor is inside one of the canvas windows. Note that the arrow keys -- both on the numeric keypad and otherwise -- are employed as global key commands. Therefore, they are NOT available for use in navigating over a table, list control, or dropdown combo box -- as is typical on a user interface.

These hot keys are available regardless the position of the cursor (for some actions, there are several alternatives listed):

• • N, down arrow, spacebar: Go to next entry in the (possibly filtered) data directory's file list. If the current file has been changed, it will be saved automatically.

  • P, B, up arrow: Go to previous entry in the file list. If the current file has been changed, it will be saved automatically.

  • L: Go to last entry in the file list. If the current file has been changed, it will be saved automatically.

  • F: Go to first entry in the file list. If the current file has been changed, it will be saved automatically.

  • Right arrow: Advance trace canvas viewport by the current viewport width (if possible).

  • Left arrow: Retract trace canvas viewport by the current viewport width (if possible).

  • End key: Shift canvas viewport to the end of the recorded timeline (if possible).

  • Home key: Shift canvas viewport to the start of the recorded timeline (if possible).

  • R: Remove all JMWork edits from the current data file.

  • V: Revert current data file to the state it was in when it was initially opened (this is done simply by re-parsing the data file as it is currently stored on the file system).

  • S: Perform automatic saccade cutting on current data file per current user preferences.

  • Q: Mark current data file as discarded, unless the "discard mark" is already present (mark added depends on the user's current "discard-mark style" preference).

  • U or Shift-Q: Remove the "discard mark" from the current data file (if present).

  • D: Mark current data file as discarded AND go to next file -- a shortcut for Q, N.

  • W: Write "accepted spikes" found by the spike sorter to the user's preferred sorted-spike train channel (this channel number is a user preference).

  • G: Write accepted spikes AND go to next file -- a shortcut for W, N.

  • Y: Write accepted spikes AND go to previous file -- a shortcut for W, P.

  • Ctrl-0 thru Ctrl-C: Write accepted spikes to sorted-spike train channel N, N=[0..12].

  • Ctrl-W: Raises a modal dialog to write accepted spikes to sorted-spike train channel N, N=[0..199]. (This hot key was added in v1.6.0, when support for an addition 37 sorted-spike channels was introduced. As of v1.9.1, a total of 200 sorted-spike train channels are available.)

  • Alt-0 thru Alt-C: Write DI<0> event times to sorted-spike train channel N, N=[0..12].

  • Alt-W: Raises a modal dialog to write DI<0> event times to sorted-spike train channel N, N=[0..199]. (Added in v1.6.0.)

  • M: Zoom in on (magnify!) the trace display canvas by a factor of 2.

  • Shift-M: Zoom out on the trace canvas by a factor of 2.

Hot keys applicable only when cursor is inside the trace display:

• • Z: Toggle zoom mode. In this mode (expand cursor), you can drag the mouse over a portion of the canvas to zoom in on that portion. Zooming occurs only horizontally (in time), not vertically.

  • Shift-Z: Reset viewport width. Does not work if you're in one of the special editing modes (except zoom mode).

  • A: Toggle adjust mode. In this mode (cursor is a green double-headed arrow pointing left and right), you can mouse-down on a mark1, mark2, or either end of a per-channel saccade cut to "grab" that mark and adjust its position by dragging it to a different spot. Note that arrow cursor turns reddish when you've successfully "grabbed" a mark.

  • C: Toggle saccade-cut mode. In this mode (cursor is pair of scissors), use a mouse-drag interaction to manually create saccade cuts in the HEVEL, VEVEL or HDVEL data channels only.

  • T: (as of v1.4.0) Toggle "define tags" mode. In this mode (cursor is a yellow flag), click on the trace canvas to attach a labelled tag at that point in the data file's recorded timeline. Upon releasing the mouse button, a small modal popup appears. Enter the desired tag label (initially, it is "A"). Valid tags must contain 1 and no more than 16 visible ASCII characters (ie, no whitespace or control characters; only alphanumeric characters or punctuation marks). If you type in a valid label and hit the Enter key, the tag label is updated and the popup is extinguished. If you type in an illegal label and hit Enter, the text field is restored to its initial state and the popup remains. Tag labels may also be edited in the Annotations table (formerly, the Cuts and Marks table).

  • X: Toggle delete mode. In this mode (cursor is a red X), click on any mark or per-channel saccade cut to remove it.

  • E: Toggle "spike edit" mode. In this mode (cursor is a up-arrow), one can manually add or remove individual spikes in a sorted-spike train OR select an individual spike in the spike sorter's results band to be highlighted in the spike sorter window.

Hot keys applicable when cursor is inside the spike sorter window:

• • C: Remove all constraint boxes currently defined in the spike sorter window.

  • T: If the cursor is inside a constraint box in the sorter window, pressing this key will toggle the constraint type. Otherwise, it has no effect.

  • X: If the cursor is inside a constraint box in the sorter window, pressing this key will delete it. Otherwise, it has no effect.

  • E: Toggle the draw state among four alternatives: (1) draw the rejected spikes, then the accepted spikes on top; (2) draw the accepted spikes, then the rejected ones; (3) draw only the accepted spikes; (4) draw only the rejected spikes. Note that the latter two draw states are affect the appearance of the current spike sorter output on the trace display.