Data Editor
GenEx has a Data editor that is fully compatible with Microsoft Excel. It can also read text files (comma and tab separated) and MultiD mdf-files. The Data editor makes pre-processing of qPCR expression data easy. To move a row or column within the spread sheet, drag-and-drop the column/row header to the new position. To sort the data by the elements in one of the columns, click on the column header.
The toolbar includes four drop-down menus. The File menu has options to Open, create New, Save as, Close, and Print data files, while the Edit menu has options to Copy, Paste and Cut data, Undo changes and to Select all data in the sheet. The default is that the Edit menu is show as buttons in the toolbar (see below). The Grid menu lets you Delete, Add, Insert and Duplicate both rows and columns, to Shift cells up, down, left and right, and to Merge files. The Merge option is suitable to create catenated and laminated data files. The Pre-processing menu offers several different options to pre-process the data.
The Load button creates a new project and loads the data into the new project in the Control panel. The Transpose button twists the sheet so that the first column becomes the first row, and so on. If the button is pressed twice, the data is returned to normal. When Edit labels is pressed, a dialog box opens that lets you change the labels of all rows (samples) in a systematic way. The labels are the identification name for each row so it is important that all labels are unique. You can also fill in the labels by hand. The Validate sheet button finds any cells with missing data. These cells are colored pink so that they can be easily identified, and a message box shows a list of these cells. The Missing data button (which is also available in the Pre-processing menu) opens a dialog box where you can handle the missing data in a number of ways. The Edit button toggles between activating and inactivating editing of the data. By default the editing is inactivated so that the spreadsheet is protected from accidental editing.
By default there are also buttons from the Edit menu in the Data editor. The Undo button undoes the latest operation and can be pressed several times. You can press Copy or Cut to store the information in selected cells, and then press Paste to collect the same information. Multiple selection of non-contiguous cells is possible by holding down the Ctrl or Shift key during selection, and the copied/cut cells will keep their orientation when they are pasted. The Select all button selects all cells which is helpful when e.g. you wants to copy the entire sheet.
In each of the other menus, there is an option of View toolbar which makes all the options in the menu easily accessible by showing them as buttons in the toolbar.