Section 5.3.3.1.7. The loop editor

The program has a useful spreadsheet-style editor for looped lists (Fig. 5.3.3.2). A particular benefit of this style of display is that the spreadsheet cells are arranged in a rectangular grid, so that visual scans can often detect deviations from a pattern of values within a column, thus making it easy to identify placement errors where values have been omitted or inadvertently conjoined. Such errors are not always obvious by direct visual inspection of a CIF, where the layout of a looped list need not follow any regular pattern.

Figure 5.3.3.2 | top | pdf | The enCIFer loop editor.

The buttons to add or delete columns allow for the straightforward addition or deletion of data items from the loop. If the user selects the `New Column' button, a small pop-up window helpfully provides a view of the associated dictionary (in the same hierarchical category-based tree view of the dictionary browser pane) to help the user select the required new data name. The `Insert Cell' and `Delete Cells' buttons are convenient tools for the realignment of rows and columns where values have been omitted or misplaced.

The loop editor is invoked from one of two buttons in the task bar, allowing either the creation of a new looped list or the modification of an existing one. As with the application as a whole, there is no dynamic validation of input; the new list must be saved and the entire CIF then manually revalidated.