Basic concepts

Drag and drop

The idea of drag and drop is that you can pick up one or more ILWIS objects from a Catalog or from Windows Explorer, move the object(s) to another position and release the object(s) at the new position, in order to perform a certain task without using any menu.

The drag and drop mechanism can for example be used:

to copy objects between Catalogs,
to add maps or annotation text objects to an existing map window,
to change the order of layers in a map window,
to add maps with their attribute table to a pixel information window,
to start an operation with a certain map or table,
to change the order of columns.

How to drag and drop:

Select for instance multiple maps in a Catalog or in Windows Explorer:

hold the Ctrl key down and select the maps by clicking them with the left mouse button,
when the selection is OK, you can release the Ctrl key.

Click the selection, hold the left mouse button down, and move the mouse for instance to:

another Catalog,
a map window,
a pixel information window,
an operation in the Operation-tree or the Operation-list,
a drop-down list box in a dialog box (drag).

Then, release the left mouse button (drop).

For more information on multiple selections, see below.

When to drag and drop:

The drag and drop mechanism can be used in ILWIS:

to copy objects between directories: drag one or more selected objects from a Catalog to another Catalog or to a folder/directory in the Navigator;
to add extra maps to an existing map window: drag a raster map or drag one or more polygon, segment, or point maps from a Catalog to the map window;
to add an annotation text object to an existing map window: drag the annotation text object to a map window;
to change the order of layers displayed in a map window: in the Layer Management pane of a map window, drag layers to another position;
to add maps and their attribute data to a pixel information window: drag one or more maps from a Catalog to a pixel info window;
to start an ILWIS operation with a certain map or table: drag a map or table from a Catalog to an operation in the Operation-tree or the Operation-list. The dialog box of the operation will appear, the input map or table is automatically filled out;
to use a certain map or table name as input for an operation: drag the map, table or any other object to a drop-down list box on a dialog box;
to change the order of columns when showing a Catalog in Details View: drag a column header to another position,
in a table window: change the order of columns by dragging a column header to another position; you can change the width of a column by positioning the mouse in between two column names (the mouse pointer changes into a double-sided arrow), and drag to the left or right. This decreases or increases the width of the left column.

For more information, see How to drag and drop.

Additional information: multiple selection

To select two or more objects in sequence:

click the first object you wish to select,
press and hold down the Shift key while you click the last object in the group,

click the first object you wish to select,
keep the left mouse button down, and
move the mouse pointer to the last object you wish to select,
then release the left mouse button.

To select two or more objects out of sequence:

press and hold down the Ctrl key while you click each object.

To cancel the selection of an object:

press and hold down the Ctrl key while you click a selected object.