Displaying Supporting Data in Worksheet Header Rows

In addition to the Long Name, the Origin worksheet header area allows display of other supporting information that might be associated with the dataset. By default, the workbook template that ships with Origin shows only the Long Name, Units and Comments row headings.

In some cases -- for instance, when importing data files in which header information has been pre-defined -- these optional worksheet row headings and the supporting information, as pre-defined in the import file, will display automatically. The information contained in these header rows then becomes available for plotting and analysis operations.

Note, however, that once an optional header row has been displayed, you can manually enter information in any header row cell by double-clicking in the cell and typing directly. Data in these fields do not have to derive from file import operations in order to display or to be used in any of the enhanced worksheet and plotting operations that make use of header row (column heading) data. Note, too, that text and numbers in these header rows -- like text and numbers in data rows -- can be formatted using the Style and Format toolbar buttons.

For information on the worksheet column Long Name, see Origin worksheet column naming conventions.

Also, be sure to see Using the Worksheet Cell Auto Fill Feature.

Displaying supporting information in the worksheet header

To display other header rows:

1. Right-click in (a) the upper-left corner of the worksheet or (b) the empty space to the right of the worksheet columns (but inside the workbook window), choose View from the shortcut menu (see the picture below) and make your row heading display selections.

Note that you can show or hide each individual column heading rows by clicking on each shortcut menu item -- Long Name, Units, Comments, Parameters, etc. -- or you can show or hide their labels in aggregate by enabling or clearing Row Labels for Column Label Rows.

Units

The Units row stores the units for the worksheet data columns. Origin can make use of this information annotate graphs. For instance, if the Long Name and Units are specified, they can be used to automatically label the X and Y axes of a 2D graph.

Another possible use for the Long Name and Units information is in the graph legend.

Comments

Each worksheet column can have one or more lines of Comments. Multiple comment lines can be typed into the Comments cell by pressing CTRL + ENTER at the end or each line. If you are importing files in which you've pre-defined multiple lines of comments, these are preserved and placed in the Comments cell.

Parameters

The optional Parameters rows are useful for tracking and displaying supporting data such as temperature, pressure, humidity, wavelength, etc. Generally, this information will be pre-defined in an imported data file but you can also manually add this information to the worksheet.

To manually add a single parameter to the worksheet:

1. Right-click in the upper-left corner of the worksheet and select View: Parameters from the shortcut menu
2. Enter parameters directly in the Parameters row cell(s).

To manually add multiple parameters to the worksheet:

1. Enter the parameter information directly into the upper-most rows of data (Insert rows, if necessary).
2. Select the row headers of the rows that you intend to mark as containing parameters, right-click and select Set As Parameters. The parameters row headings are applied with each successive parameter being enumerated by 1.
3. Enter parameters directly in the Parameters row cell(s).

For an example of how worksheet Parameter information might be incorporated into an Origin graph, see Customizing Waterfall Plots.

Sampling Interval

In an effort to reduce file size, some data files -- particularly those consisting of data collected at regular intervals -- may exclude the independent variable (X column). When this is the case, the Sampling Interval row will display the sampling (X) interval. You can see a quick demonstration of how this works by dragging and dropping a .WAV file into the Origin workspace.

Sparklines

In many cases, a simple XY plot can provide a succinct view of the dataset. The Origin worksheet now has the ability to display a simplified XY profile, minus the X and Y axes, axis labels, graph legends, etc. This is an adaptation of the sparklines concept as described by Edward Tufte.

One use of this feature is to provide a quick view of a set of related datasets contained in the Y columns in a worksheet. This is much easier than creating individual graph windows for each XY plot and then attempting to arrange them in the workspace so that they can all be viewed simultaneously. Note that each sparkline object is, in fact, an editable embedded graph which can be opened by double-clicking on the sparkline object (see the picture below) above each column of worksheet data. Additions to the graph are stored -- though not necessarily displayed -- in the embedded object.

See the section on Embedding Graphs and Images in Worksheet Cells.

User-Defined Parameters

In addition to the six standard column heading rows, you can add your own user-defined parameter rows and give the parameters any name that you want.

To add a user-defined parameter to the worksheet header:

1. Right click on any column label row, select Add User Parameters from the context menu.

or

1. Activate the worksheet and select Format: Worksheet from the menu. This opens the Worksheet Properties dialog box.
2. Click the Edit Column Label Rows button to open the Column Label Rows dialog box.
3. Right-click in the empty space below the labels and choose Add User-Defined Parameter from the shortcut menu.

   

4. Double-click on the word "UserDefined" to edit the label.
5. Use the Show boxes to control which labels to show or hide.
6. Drag the grid cells (see the picture below) to the left side of the Labels column to rearrange the label order in the worksheet header rows.

   

Edit Column Label Rows

The right-click menu of the column label rows offers controls to edit these worksheet headers.

To append one or more rows to column Long Name or Comment:

1. Right-click on one or more rows (column label rows or data rows), select Append To Comment/Long Name from the context menu.

   

To rename the row label for column label rows:

1. Right click on the column label row, select Rename? from the context menu.
2. Enter a new name in the Rename dialog.

Note that if Long Name, Units and Comment are renamed, thery will change into a user-defined parameter automatically.

To set one or more rows (column label rows or data rows) as three of the standard column headings (Long Name, Short Name and Units), system parameters or user-defined parameters, right-click and select Set As Long Name/Units/Comment/Parameters/User Parameters from the context menu.

Right click on the column label row and select Edit? from the context menu, it will open the Column Label Rows dialog. In this dialog, you can hide/show a column label, reorder label rows, add a user-defined parameter, and specify the height for each label row.