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Customizing DATAPLOT

Two Startup Files Can Be Used to Customize Dataplot Dataplot tries to provide reasonable defaults for most operations. Some sites and user's may want to provide different defaults. Dataplot provides two startup files that can be used to customize Dataplot:
  1. DPSYSF.TEX
  2. DPLOGF.TEX
DPSYSF.TEX Used to Set Site Wide Defaults The DPSYSF.TEX file resides in the Dataplot auxiliary directory (C:\DATAPLOT on most PC systems, /usr/local/lib/dataplot on most Unix installations). This is an ASCII text file, which can be edited using any standard text editor, containing Dataplot commands that is executed upon initiating Dataplot. It is provided to allow a site to set defaults for all users at that site. For example, if you want the Dataplot default to be that tic marks and tic mark labels appear on all four axes (as opposed to the left and right only), you could create a file containing the following lines:
    FEEDBACK OFF
    X2TIC MARKS ON
    X2TIC MARK LABELS ON
    Y2TIC MARKS ON
    Y2TIC MARK LABELS ON
    FEEDBACK OFF
If the DPSYSF.TEX file is not found (a default dummy file should be provided with the other auxiliary files), an error message saying the file could not be found is printed. However, Dataplot will run just fine anyway. There will simply be no start-up commands executed.
DPLOGF.TEX Used to Set Individual Defaults The DPLOGF.TEX (can also be called dplogf.tex on Unix systems) resides in C:\DATAPLOT on the PC, in your root directory for Unix systems, and in the directory that Dataplot was initiated from on other systems. This is also an ASCII text file that can be edited with any standard text editor. The DPLOGF.TEX is provided to allow an individual user to set his own defaults. For example, if you are running Dataplot on a Windows 95 machine with an attached Postscript printer, you may want to include the following commands in your DPLOF.TEX file:
    FEEDBACK OFF
    DEVICE 1 QWIN
    DEVICE 2 POSTSCRIPT
The DPLOGF.TEX file is optional. No warning or error message is printed if Dataplot cannot find the file. Dataplot reads the DPSYSF.TEX first and then the DPLOGF.TEX file. This means a user's individual defaults override the system wide defaults if there is a conflict. On the PC, where the site and individual user are typically the same, you can put your desired changes in either DPSYSF.TEX or DPLOGF.TEX.

Date created: 06/05/2001
Last updated: 04/29/2022
Please email comments on this WWW page to alan.heckert@nist.gov.