Quick Tour

Quick Tour

New to PlateEditor? Follow this guide to get started with the key concepts, design your first layout and analyze data.

1. Creating your layout and areas

PlateEditor user interface is divided in three sections: the [Menu Panel] on the left (A), the Layout Panel on top (B) and the Data Panel at the bottom (C).

From the [Menu Panel], use the options under the Plate group to create a new plate of the desired size (1). Then use the Areas options to create new [Areas], which will represent the samples and controls you want to add in the plate (2). Their name must be unique and at least 3 characters (3). Add as many samples and controls as needed (4), and click OK (5) when done.

Tips for the creation of areas
PlateEditor does the hard job of combining the area and concentration data together for you. In practice, this means:

• Concentrations data should be entered separately. Creating multiple areas for each concentration is not required. See the DRC examples on the [Examples] page.
• Combinations of sample in the same well is handled by [Layers]. Creating multiple areas for each combination is not required. See the Infection example on the [Examples] page.
  For multiple areas forming a collection of similar samples, you can use [Ranges] to make your layout easier. See the related page and the DRC, screening examples on the [Examples] page for more information.

2. Tagging areas and concentrations in the plate

Maintaining the left mouse button pressed down, select the wells on the plate layout by dragging the selection box on them (click-and-drag). For owners of touch-screen device, a similar effect can be obtained by touch-and-drag: keep the finger pressed down and drag it on the screen to select the desired wells. Wells in the selection are highlighted in yellow (1). Release the mouse button (or lift the finger) to select the wells (they are now marked with a blue border). Entire rows or columns can be selected by clicking or dragging on their headers (2). Maintain the CTRL key pressed to add wells to your previous selection (3). For users without keyboard, tick the "Multiple" option to achieve the same effect. For more information, check out the [Tagging] page.

Select the area to tag (4) and click the Tag button (5). Then tag the concentration data to the wells, as required (6) and repeat until the layout is completed. For more information on dose-response options, visit the [Concentration] page and refer to the DRC examples on the [Examples] page.
When completed, save your layout for later use. Use the Save button located within the Plate group of the [Menu Panel]. Click on the link and save the layout file on your hard-drive.

3. Attaching and visualizing data

Under the Results group of the [Menu Panel], click the Add Results button and follow these steps to import your data files.
Click the Browse button (1) and select files on your hard-drive (multiple selection possible), then click the Add button (2). When done, click Next (3). Review the parsing options using the preview output and click Done (4) when completed. For more information about the parsing features, visit the [Data Import] page. For examples of result files, see the [Examples] page.

The mapping form should now be displayed, allowing you to select the columns containing the data to display. First check that the automatic assignment of the Well ID column is correct. Then, select the columns containing the data to visualize by ticking the corresponding row of the Import column (1) and review that the data format (Numeric) is correct (2). Process similarly for all files and click Done (3) when completed. Let the validation complete and click Done (4). The validation will fail if no valid well data are found in the assigned column. In such cases, go back to the mapping to correct it. For more information, visit the [Results] page.

You can now see the heatmaps corresponding to the selected columns (referred to as Parameters) under the Data Panel. Colors can be customized and each heatmap displayed as a fixed jpg image or an html table (with the numerical values displayed), by clicking on the corresponding button located on the right of the parameter name. Visit the [Results] page for more details on the features available.
To finish, perform some analysis if needed. see the [Analysis] page and refer to the [Examples] for more details.