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There are many pop-up menu options. The following three modules present selected options to give you practice in using pop-up menus.

Module 6: Pop-up Menus from Product Legends in the Large Display Pane

This module illustrates several options of the pop-up menu that are initiated over product legends in the large display pane only.

Objective 1 -Set the Magnification, Color, and Density of a Graphic

1. From the Scale option menu, select the WFO scale.

2. From the Surface pull-down menu, select the METAR Station Plot.

3. From the Toolbar, click on the |<< button to go to the first frame.

4. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 on the METAR legend to open the pop-up menu and select the Magnification cascading menu, continuing to press Mouse Button 3 to select the 2 value. Notice the font size has increased.

5. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 on the METAR legend to open the pop-up menu and select the Set Color cascading menu, continuing to press Mouse Button 3 to select the yellow color. Notice the METAR plots are changed from (default) green to yellow.

6. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 on the METAR legend to open the pop-up menu and select the Density cascading menu, continuing to press Mouse Button 3 to select the 2 value. Notice that several more METAR observations appear.

Objective 2 - Set the Line Width and Line Style of a Contoured Graphic

1. Clear the large display pane.

2. From the Scale option menu, select the CONUS scale.

3. From the Volume Pull-Down Menu, select the Eta Family. Eight predefined Eta fields are loaded, with the first two fields displayed.

4. From the Toolbar, click on the |<< button to go to the first frame.

5. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 on the 500 mb Height legend to open the pop-up menu. Select the Line Width cascading menu, continuing to press Mouse Button 3 to select the thickest line width. Observe how the height contours become quite thick.

6. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 on the 500 mb Height legend to open the pop-up menu and select the Line Style cascading menu, continuing to press Mouse Button 3 to select the dashed line. Observe how the height contours become dashed.

7. Keep these products displayed for the next objective.

Objective 3 - Load Contoured Graphic as an Image

1. From the previous objective, the Eta Family should be displayed.

2. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 on the Eta 700 mb Omega legend to open the pop-up menu, or step forward a frame. Select the Load as Image option. It is not necessary to toggle on the Eta precipitation graphic before displaying it as an image. Observe how the precipitation data become colored.

3. Keep these products displayed for the next objective.

Objective 4 - Unload a Graphic

1. From the previous objective, the Eta Family should be displayed.

2. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 on the Eta 500 mb Height legend to open the pop-up menu. Select the Unload option. This field is permanently removed from the display.

Objective 5 - Set Blinking Rate for a Graphic

1. From the Toolbar, clear the large display pane.

2. From the Scale options menu in the Toolbar, select CONUS.

3. From the Surface pull-down menu, select the METAR Station Plot.

4. Press Mouse Button 3 on the METAR legend to open the pop-up menu and turn on the Blinking Check Button. After a short moment, the graphic starts blinking.

5. Press Mouse Button 3 over the large display pane to open the pop-up menu, and open the Blink Rate cascading menu and choose the 2 second rate. Observe the graphic as it blinks at the new rate.

6. From the Toolbar, turn looping on while the graphic is blinking and observe that blinking is suspended while the graphic animates. Blinking resumes automatically when looping is turned off.

7. Repeat Step 5 several times and choose other blink rates. The No Blink option disables blinking.

Objective 6 - Set Blinking for a Single Image

1. From the Toolbar, clear the large display pane.

2. From the Scale options menu in the Toolbar, select CONUS.

3. From the Satellite pull-down menu, select the IR Window.

4. Press Mouse Button 3 on the IR legend to open the pop-up menu and select the Change Blinking... option. This opens the US IR Sat Dialog Box that contains the controls to set blinking for an image.

5. With Mouse Button 1 in the US IR Sat Dialog Box, drag the upper arrow along the color bar to -35.0C. Use the fine tuning buttons on either side of the color bar to adjust the placement of the arrow.

6. Now, with Mouse Button 1, drag the bottom arrow to -55.0C.

7. Press the Enable Range menu button. Within a moment, the chosen color range starts to blink.

8. Now, move the color bar arrows to select a second range from -65.0C to -75.0C.

9. Press the Enable Range menu button. Now two color ranges are blinking simultaneously.

10. Press the Disable Range menu button to disable the blinking of the color range selected in Step 8.

Note: The first range enabled in Step 7 is still blinking.

11. From the Blink Rate options menu in the US IR Sat Dialog Box, try several blink rates.

12. Select Reset to disable blinking.

13. Select OK to close the US IR Sat Dialog Box.

Objective 7 - Set Blinking for a Combined Image

1. From the Scale options menu in the Toolbar, select WFO.

2. From the kxxx pull-down menu (where kxxx is one of your dedicated radars), select 0.5 z/v combined product.

3. Toggle off the velocity by clicking Mouse Button 1 on the velocity half of the product legend.

4. Press Mouse Button 3 over the legend to open the pop-up menu. Select the image to control from the cascading menu next to Change Blinking... option. The Image Blinking Dialog Box opens containing the Reflectivity Color Bar.

5. With Mouse Button 1, drag the upper and lower color bar arrows to select a color range.

6. Select the Enable Range menu button.

7. Toggle off the reflectivity by clicking Mouse Button 1 on the reflectivity portion of the product legend. Select the image to control from the cascading menu next to Change Blinking... option. The Image Blinking Dialog Box changes from velocity to reflectivity.

8 . Drag the upper and lower color bar arrows to select a color range.

9. Select Enable Range. Both the velocity and reflectivity color ranges blink simultaneously.  (It is hard to see that reflectivity is blinking since it was turned off in Step 7.  It's in the color bar, but it's not obvious.)

10. From the Toolbar, open the Image Properties Dialog Box. Move the slider bar back and forth from Reflectivity to Velocityand notice how the radar data display and dialog boxes respond.  You can also use the keypad; press the minus key four or five times.

Module 7: Using Pop-up Menus Over Displayed Products in the Large Pane or the Four-Panel Display

Objective 1 - Use Continuous Sampling of Imagery and METAR Plots

1. Clear the large display pane.

2. From the Scale option menu, select CONUS.

3. From the Satellite Pull-Down Menu, select IR Window.

4. From the Surface Pull-Down Menu, select the METAR Station Plot.

5. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 anywhere over the large display pane (but not over the legends) to open the pop-up menu. Continue to press Mouse Button 3 to select the Sampling option.

6. Move the pointer slowly around the large display pane to sample both the IR satellite data and the METAR encoded reports.

7. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 over the large display pane and disable the Sampling option from the pop-up menu.

Objective 2 - Skip and Restore Frames

Being able to remove frames is useful when you have bad data.

1. Clear the large display pane.

2. From the Scale option menu, select CONUS.

3. From the Frame Count option menu, select 4.

4. From the Satellite Pull-Down Menu, select Water Vapor window.

5. Click on the >>| button to go to the last frame.

6. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 anywhere over the large display pane (but not over the legends) to open the pop-up menu. Continue to press Mouse Button 3 to select the Skip this Frame option. This frame of Water Vapor imagery is temporarily removed.

7. Repeat Step 6 to temporarily remove the first frame.

8. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 anywhere over the large display pane (but not over the legends) to open the pop-up menu. Continue to press Mouse Button 3 to select the Restore Skipped Frames option. The two frames you skipped have been restored.

Objective 3 - Change Map Background Colors

This objective incorporates the use of pop-up menus both from the product legends and over a product.

1. Clear the large display pane.

2. From the Scale option menu, select Regional.

3. From the Maps Pull-Down Menu, select Interstates, Cities, and RFC boundaries. (The selections in the Maps Pull-Down Menu are likely to vary from site to site. In this case, choose any three map backgrounds.)

4. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 anywhere over the large display pane (but not over the legends) to open the pop-up menu. Continue to press Mouse Button 3 to select the Show Map Legends option. Observe the map legends at the bottom of the large display pane.

5. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 over the RFC boundaries legend and change the color to light blue.

6. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 over the Interstates legend and change the color to red.

7. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 over the Cities legend and select the Set Color option, then select the Choose Color option. The color chooser dialog box appears. From it you can drag the Color Wheel Centroid to any color in the Color Wheel.

8. Click the Apply Button and observe the new color for the Cities map background. (Refer to Section 2.3, "Image Colors Editor," for further information on using the Color Wheel.)

Module 8: Use Pop-up Menus in the Small Panes

Most of the options in the Small Pane Pop-ups are the same as those in the large display pane, with few exceptions. The following objectives illustrate several of these exceptions.

Objective 1 - Sample, Loop, and Zoom in a Small Pane Using the Pop-up Menus

1. Clear the large display pane.

2. On the CONUS scale, load 12 frames of the IR Window Satellite into the large display pane.

3. Over the first small monitor pane, click Mouse Button 3 to swap the IR imagery into the Small Pane.

4. Press and hold Mouse Button 3 over the Small Pane to open the pop-up menu and turn on the Sampling and Looping Check Buttons.  Watch the animation and the continuous sampling of the IR imagery.  Note that we keep only eight frames in small panes.

5. In this same Small Pane, press Mouse Button 3 over the state of Illinois. From the Zoom cascading menu, select the 927 km.

6. Save these products for the next objective in this module.

Objective 2 - Unload Products from a Small Display Pane Using the Pop-up Menus

1. Over the small display pane from the previous objective, open the pop-up menu with Mouse Button 3.

2. Select Unload All Products and observe the Small Pane clearing.

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