Section 5.3.3.1.5. The dictionary browse pane

The upper left-hand pane in Fig. 5.3.3.1 illustrates the dictionary browser, an optional graphical view of the contents of the CIF dictionary against which the file is being validated. (The presence or absence of this pane is toggled from an icon in the task bar.) Box icons represent the contents of categories, and the tree of category containers may be expanded or collapsed as desired to show individual items within categories.

A dictionary view is generated for each separate data block in the CIF. Within the dictionary view of an individual data block, those data items present in the data block are shown in bold; other items defined in the dictionary but absent from the current data block appear in a lighter colour.

Within the dictionary browse pane, a user may select (with a click of the appropriate mouse button) a menu of three options which depend on whether the data name is present or absent in the data block. If present, one option positions the cursor in the editing window at the location of the selected data item. If the item is absent from the data block, the user is given the option to paste the data name into the editing window at the current insertion point. The other options (in both cases) are to copy the data name to the clipboard or to open the help window with the CIF dictionary definition of the selected item.