Main Window Toolbars

The main window has a number of toolbars, which can be displayed or hidden, and placed on any edge of the Workspace. The toolbars provide access to many of the commands that are on the menus.

To show or hide a toolbar, click the appropriate button on the Manager toolbar, or choose Window → Toolbars → toolbar from the main menu bar. The manager toolbar contains buttons for showing or hiding the other toolbars.
To hide a toolbar, you can right-click in the toolbar and choose Hide from the shortcut menu.
To move a toolbar, drag the handle at the top (or left) to the desired location. It can be dragged to either side or the top or bottom of the Workspace.

The appearance of the toolbar buttons can be customized. You can display the icon only, text only, text under the icon or text beside the icon. For an individual toolbar, right-click and choose an option from the Style submenu of the shortcut menu. You can change the style for all toolbars in the General - Appearance tab of the Preferences panel. You can also change the font for the toolbar buttons in the General - Application fonts tab.

The buttons that are displayed on each toolbar can be selected in the Customize Toolbars panel, which you open by choosing Customize from the toolbar shortcut menu, or by choosing Maestro → Customize → Toolbars.

There are several kinds of buttons on the toolbar. Some buttons perform simple tasks like the Fit to Workspace or Clear Workspace button. Other buttons open panels such as the Import panel. Buttons with a small arrowhead to the right are actually "split" buttons: the left part has the icon and perform the default action when you click on it, the right part, with the arrowhead, opens a menu. These are called "menu buttons".

Some of these buttons "remember" the last menu choice, and you only need to click the button to use that choice again. Some buttons have different actions depending on whether you click them or double-click them. Buttons that you can use for picking apply the action to the selected atoms if you double-click them, for example.

Menu buttons that apply an action to an atom selection can have a list of atom categories that you can choose for the atom selection. The complete list of categories follows. Menu buttons include the categories that are relevant, which might not be the entire list.

All—All atoms.
Displayed Atoms—The atoms that are displayed in the Workspace.
Protein—Atoms in all protein residues.
Protein Backbone—Protein backbone atoms.
Protein Side Chains—Atoms from protein side chains
Protein Near Ligand—Residues from proteins that are within 5 Å of the ligand (as defined in the Ligand Detection Settings dialog box).
Ligands—Atoms from ligand-sized molecules (as defined in the Ligand Detection Settings dialog box).
Waters—Atoms from all water molecules.
Ions—Atoms from charged molecules that have less than 10 non-hydrogen atoms.
Metal Atoms—All metal atoms (all elements to the left of B, Si, Ge, Sb, Po in the periodic table).
Heavy Atoms—All non-hydrogen atoms.
All Hydrogens—All hydrogen atoms.
Nonpolar Hydrogens—Hydrogen atoms that are attached to carbon atoms.
Nonpolar Ligand Hydrogens—Hydrogen atoms that are attached to carbon atoms in the ligand (as defined in the Ligand Detection Settings dialog box).
Polar Hydrogens—Hydrogen atoms that are attached to atoms other than carbon.
Membrane—Atoms that are part of membrane molecules (POP, POPE, POPC, DPPC, DMPC).

The buttons available for each toolbar are described in separate topics, which are linked below. Where there is a topic describing a button's action, the link is given. Equivalent menu choices and keyboard shortcuts are given where appropriate.

Main Window Toolbars

Related Topics