The Newsletter Coordinator has heard that users of TILIA and TILIA·GRAPH (Grimm, see Newsletter 4, July 1990) and PALYPLOT (Chumbley, see Newsletter 5, January 1991) feel lost when first trying to print their pollen diagrams. Sometimes it is easier to ask questions when you are not dealing with the expert who wrote the code. Therefore, if you mail or e-mail questions to Lou Maher (address on page 1), he will refer them to me for a quick answer. If I do not know the answer, I will refer the problem to Grimm or Chumbley for a definitive response. A few questions thought to be of general interest to the palynologist readers will appear in this column in future issues. But be warned, if you do not send your questions to Lou Maher, then he said he would "chop" my column without a moment's regret.
TILIA and TILIA·GRAPH
Dr. Triage: The TILIA spreadsheet capacity is 100 samples (columns) x 250 taxon variables (rows). I NEVER have that many taxa. How can I trade taxa for samples? HELP! Dear Help: That is Eric's way of shaming us folks who lump taxa. The solution is to select [I] Options from the main menu and then pick [B] Spreadsheet size from the next menu. You will be asked if you really want to change, and that if you do change dimensions you will lose your data. Say "yes" because at this stage you will not have loaded any data. You can then change the number of rows and columns. I use 90 rows and 135 columns because I am a lumper. You will be asked if you want to save the new settings. Say yes, and you will never see those 250 taxa again! D.T.
Dr. Triage: It would be nice to be able to access *.TIL files in directories other than the \TILIA directory. Can that be done? A floppy disk Addict. Dear Addict: Check the [I] Options category on the main menu. The [A] Working directory category of the next menu allows you to change directories. If the correct path and directory are shown, simply use the <Esc> key to back out. If you hit <Enter> alone, the directory you presently are in will be selected. Or you can call for a new disk and/or path. You will be asked if you want to SAVE the new path. If you say YES, it will then become the permanent one UNTIL you change it again. If you say NO, you will be put in the new directory, but it will not be remembered the next time you run TILIA. I generally use the NO choice if I want simply to deal with another directory temporarily. You can change to a directory to read a file, and after you work with it, you can change the working directory again to save it somewhere else. As you have probably found out, when you are asked for a *.TIL file name, if you simply press ENTER, you will see the *.TIL files in the directory you have chosen. So far this only works with a *.TIL file; you should jot down the exact names of data and dictionary files that you may need to load because you will not be able to call for a directory listing of non-*.TIL files. And if you think you can get around this restriction by calling up a "terminate-and-stay-resident" program like PCTOOLS to "go external" and use DOS commands, I would be very careful. Some TSR and cache programs can cause TILIA to trip up, act in unexpected ways, and sometimes DO BAD THINGS to your data. See Maher (Newsletter 5, January 1991, p.4) about setting up a separate environment when using TILIA. And by the way, if your computer locks up when you call for TILIA·GRAPH, you probably forgot that while TILIA will run without the GSS-CGI drivers being loaded by AUTOEXEC.BAT, TILIA·GRAPH will not. D.T.
Dr. Triage: The two-letter taxon codes used by TILIA which appear along the left side of its spreadsheet are too short to be meaningful. How can I remember what they mean? Forgetful. Dear FO: I NEVER pay any attention to the two-character codes. Just think of them as a SHORT label at the left of the spreadsheet. One can always see what they are, because if I am in row FO, I can see on the LOWER LEFT CORNER of my screen that the taxon name is Forgetful. Did you know that you can move easily around the margins of the spreadsheet by pressing the <End> key? A little square with four arrows will appear. Pressing the desired arrow key will move you to that margin. D.T.
Dr. Triage: When I run TILIA·GRAPH, "make" the diagram and "view" it, I often find I need to do some additional editing. After I make the changes and view the diagram again on the screen, nothing has been changed. Why? Secondly, when I "view" the diagram on the screen, it is often too small to see fine details; I notice these too late after I have spent time printing the diagram. Worried. Dear Worried: You must press [A] Make Diagram on the menu again after you do any editing. When you press [B] View Diagram and it starts to appear on the screen, touch the <+> key, and the diagram will be drawn larger. You can repeat the key after a moment and it will plot larger still. You can also touch the arrow keys to "move" around the diagram as it plots. Although you will now see the small details, you will no longer see the whole diagram; it is that "forest and trees" thing. After you check the details, press the <-> key one or more times until the whole diagram fits the screen again. D.T.
PALYPLOT
Dr. Triage: When PALYPLOT makes the batch file that I load into CADD5 with the Load Batch (LB) command, I sometimes find that there are small things I would like to edit; for example carbon dates too close together will be overwritten. When I try to Window Erase (WE), I find it difficult to erase the details without removing some nearby item that I wanted to keep. Is there a way? Fastidious. Dear Fastid.: Be sure you know about CADD5's UE, UU and OO commands to UnErase, Redo or UNDO what you just did! When you are working in tight places, use the "Layers" menu, and you will see PALYPLOT puts each taxon, title, y-axis label, etc. on a different layer. You can turn off the layers of the drawing near where corrections are being made, and they will not be affected. CADD5 has a very handy feature which allows you to MatcH existing styles. Type MH and you will be told to point at the item you wish to match. Put the cursor on the text, and press <Enter>. You will then be able to Place Text (TP) letters that will match the original's size, font, line width, and angle on the page! I write the new text near the original, Window Erase (WE) the original, and Window Move (WM) the new version where the original was. Then turn all the layers back on. D. T.
Dr. Triage: I am hopping mad! I tried to plot an influx diagram with PALYPLOT. I find it uses my carbon dates literally and gets the necessary sedimentation rate information by interpolating linearly between the dates. I have a lot of closely-spaced dates, and the laws of chance mean some younger dates will occur under older dates. PALYPLOT calculates negative sedimentation rates for these intervals, and you can image what this does to the plot! Worse yet, the program automatically labels the diagram "Pollen Accumulation Rates" when any reasonable person would say "Pollen Influx!" Dear Hopping: Relax. If you have a pet curve or function that you want to use to calculate a non-linear and positive sedimentation rate (centimeters per year) for each sample, then you can easily trick PALYPLOT to do your dirty work. PALYPLOT's *.PDT file for figuring Pollen Concentration and Influx has Sediment Volume, Marker Grains Added and Marker Grains Counted as the first three "taxa." Load the file into a text editor, and for the numbers in the Marker Grains Added category, multiply each value by the cm/yr you feel represents the sedimentation rate for that sample interval. Change the category title to "Markers Added times cm/yr" to remind yourself of your skulduggery. If you want the y-axis to plot its scale in your version of years, you might also replace the Depth (Cm) data with each sample's estimated age, and rename the category Years BP. (Note: Do not tell PALYPLOT you are doing this in its *.CTL file. Leave YUNITS = DEPTH rather than changing to AGE. If you use AGE, it will try to make linear fits to the carbon dates.) Save the file as ASCII text. Load it into PALYPLOT and tell it you want to make a POLLEN CONCENTRATION plot. It will not know you are lying to it. After it plots out the batch file and you get it into CADD5, use the editing tricks mentioned above to change the label "Grains/cm3" to "Grains/cm2/yr" in two places: along the base of the x-axis and in the label for the "TOTAL POLLEN IN THE SUM" curve. Finally, take the opportunity to replace the subtitle "Pollen concentration" - not with "Pollen Accumulation Rate" - but with the preferred "Pollen Influx." D. T.