Knowledge Base

Edit the Trial List

Enter Values in the Trial List

Click a cell in the Trial List and enter the value you require, or select it from the list of values available. Filling the Trial List table is not mandatory. You can also enter those values in the data acquisition screen.

Delete Values from the Trial List

Select the appropriate cell and click Delete, or right-click the appropriate cell and select Delete. To delete trials, see Delete Trials or Clear Trials in the Trial List.

Copy and Paste Values

You can copy and paste part of the Trial List:

• To/from Excel. You can copy a list of trials from Excel, for example, when you have made your list of independent variables and its values. You can copy and paste multiple columns but make sure the columns are in the exact same order as in the Trial List.
• Within the same Trial List. You can copy and paste part of the Trial List to newly added cells, for example, when you have added new trials.

1. Select one or more cells in the Trial List or in the Excel worksheet.
2. Right-click one of the selected cells and select Copy, or press Ctrl+C.
3. Click a cell in the Trial List or in the Excel worksheet and either right-click and select Paste or press Ctrl+V.

You can also select multiple adjacent cells to copy to. Click the first cell of the range, hold down Shift and click the last cell, then paste. You can also select nonadjacent cells using the Shift and Ctrl keys. It is only possible to paste in such a selection if there is just a single value on the clipboard.

Drag and Drop Cell Values from Excel

You can also drag and drop cells from an Excel worksheet. Drag the cells to the first cell in the Trial List where you want the values to be copied, then release the mouse button.

Notes

• A value can only be pasted if the format of the value corresponds to the format required by the cell. For instance, it is not possible to paste a cell with a non-numerical independent variable to a cell with a numerical variable. If you do that, you will get a warning. The existing cell value remains unchanged.
• Check that the copied values of numerical independent variables are either within the predefined range or correspond to individual predefined values of numerical independent variables in the Trial List.
• You can change the order of variables by selecting a column and dragging it to the new position.

Skip Trials

Aim

To skip one or more of the planned trials because of unforeseen circumstances, for instance when a subject is no longer available.

You can skip:

• An entire trial. See the procedure below. For example, you track mice in an open field. For trial 5, the subject is no longer available. That means that after acquiring trial 4 you want to proceed with trial 6.
• One or more arenas within a trial. See Skip Arenas Within a Trial.

Procedure

1. Open the Trial List, and click Show/Hide > Variable > select Acquisition Status.
2. In the Acquisition Status column, select To Skip for the corresponding trial.
3. Proceed with acquiring your trials. If for any reason you want to acquire the trial set to To Skip, set it back to Planned in the Trial List and open the Acquisition screen.

Notes

• You can also skip a trial in the Acquisition screen. When the text on the video window shows the name of the trial that you want to skip, click the Skip Trial button. EthoVision is ready to acquire the next planned trial.
• If your trials include multiple arenas and you want to skip an entire trial, select To Skip for all the arenas in that trial. Otherwise you can skip specific arenas within a trial. See Skip Arenas Within a Trial.
• If you have recorded video and you want to skip trials or arenas before acquiring data, in the Trial List change the status from Postponed to Postponed To Skip.

Skip Arenas Within a Trial

Aim

To skip one or more of the arenas within a trial because those arenas are empty or the subjects there should not be tracked.

Example: You track fish larvae in a well plate with 24 wells. Therefore, each trial contains 24 arenas. When some wells are empty, it does not make sense to do tracking in empty arenas. Therefore, skip those arenas before acquiring the trial.

Background Information

• Before you acquire a trial which includes two or more arenas, all arenas are set to Planned. After acquiring the trial, they are all set to Acquired.
• The To Skip option in the Trial List allows you to skip some arenas in a specific trial, so you can proceed with tracking in the remaining arenas. For example, in Trial 2, Arena 2 is empty, so you want to skip Arena 2. After you acquire Trial 2, Arena 1 is set to Acquired and Arena 2 is set automatically to Skipped.

Procedure

1. Open the Trial List, and click Show/Hide > Variable > select Acquisition Status.
2. In the Acquisition Status column, select To Skip for the corresponding arena.
3. Proceed with acquiring your trials.

Notes

• When you skip arenas within a trial, only the subjects in the non-skipped arenas are tracked.
• You can clear a trial with one or more skipped arenas. After clearing a trial, all arenas are set to Planned (or Postponed if you chose to record video and track later).

Delete Trials

Aim

To remove the trial from the Trial List and the experiment. This includes:

• The track data
• The manually-scored data
• The Trial Control events
• The Hardware log
• The video file (when requested)

Delete Trials also removes the corresponding row from the trial list.

Procedure

1. Do one of the following:
   • Click the trial name in the list, press Delete.
   • Right-click the trial name in the list, select Delete Trials.
2. If the trial is associated to a video file recorded with EthoVision XT, you are asked whether you want to rename it for backup purposes, or delete it. Choose the option that applies and click Yes.

Notes

• A video file is renamed with a number 0001 appended to its original name. The renamed video file is kept in the Media Files folder of the experiment.
• With Clear Trials you can remove the tracks, keep the row empty and when necessary acquire that trial again. See Clear Trials in the Trial List and Redo a Trial.

See Also

• Clear Trials in the Trial List