A Non-Description Tech's Guide
FAQ Table of Contents
Table of Contents maxLevel 3 minLevel 2
Introduction
This guide covers 16 of the most commonly asked questions by description and paleontology scientists about DESClogik. The guide is intended to assist technicians and scientists when the Description technician is unavailable.
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- Widen and shrink columns
- Hide and unhide un-hide columns
- Change the background colour
- Sort the sublist by most frequently used
as well by To do any of these changes: simply right click on a column header. Permissions are set by the DESC administrator, so some features may not be available.
NOTE: When right clicking, and choosing "Edit Visibility, checking and unchecking the list ", you can change the visibility of all columns . Data associated columns by checking or unchecking the column boxes. When hiding columns, data associated with it will not disappear; however, the column will just have to be unhidden in order to download data. These permissions are set by the DESC administrator, so some features may not be available. un-hidden to view downloaded data.
NOTE: Changes can be saved permanently or per session; a dialogue warning will appear after each action (Figure 6).
NOTE: changes saved will apply Changes apply to all users of the that template, and some might not like what one person has donethus make sure you and your team agree on the changes made.
Figure 6. Template Changes Warning
11. My data looks different then when I uploaded it/there are duplicate descriptions?
- If
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- your data looks different between uploading and downloading it, i.e your downloaded data comes back with different values, the template column definitions might be duplicated. The administrator must correct the issue, so please let them know.
- If there are duplicate descriptions
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- : it is likely
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- that data has not been downloaded and checked, before entering sample data. To correctly edit or add data to
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- an already described sample
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- , users must first download the data
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- . After downloading, you can enter new
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- information, cancel existing data or edit values. Duplicates can be removed by converging data to one of the samples, and then canceling the others. This is best left to the DESC admin.
12. DESClogik froze while uploading data, what do I do and how can I recover my data?
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- Good practice
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- is to have the user export an Excel copy (
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- question 8) before making any large uploads
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- .
- If they have not exported a copy, only a DESC administrator will be able to recover a snap shot of the DESC entry form at the time of upload.
- If DESC is totally frozen, then the program must be killed within the Windows Task Manager (Ctrl + Alt + Delete). After killing the program, reopen DESC and have the same user who was logged on at the time of the freeze log in again. The Autosaves upon upload is specific to each user, so if the user from a previous shift was still logged in, recovery would have to wait until they return (or you could try and guess their LIMS password!). For this reason, users are encouraged to log out at the end of their shifts and let the new shift log in. Once logged in, open the proper template, go to the "Recovery" tab, click on the "Last Autosave", and have an admin log in (Figure 7).
Figure 7. Recovery and Admin Login Screen.Now the admin Admins can browse autosaved files by timestamp. The last save is on the bottom of the list. Make make sure the entry screen is clear and select the appropriate file, and click "Load". The program will populate the template with all the entries at the time of autosave , (Figure 8). These entries will have to be uploaded to save them to the database, so click back onto the 'Spreadsheet Tools" tab. It's not perfect, and some entries might not be there. The user needs need to check what's there and upload when they are satisfied--just hit the Upload . Hit the "Upload" icon at the top of the window (Question 5.).
Figure 7. Recovery and Admin Login Screen.
Figure 8. Autosave File Browser and Loader.
13. DESClogik gives a warning message when I try to exit/clear samples?
- If a warning message appears when exiting DESC, or when clearing samples
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- (Figure 9), then the user has
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- un-uploaded data on their template sheet.
- Each template tab with un-uploaded data will have an asterisk next to its name.
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- Warning message gives the user
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- three options: 1) loose the changes and
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- close, 2) upload data and close, or 3) cancel the close.
- It is best practice to cancel
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- the form close, look for
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- un-uploaded data and either clear it manually or upload
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- changes.
- This should prevent unwanted removal of
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- data.
Figure 9. Error Message of Un-uploaded Data.
14. Do I need to describe the missing whole-round samples, like PALs and IWs, in DESC?
- NO
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- !
- It is best practice to only describe what you can see!
- It is also best practice to only enter data that is considered an observation, not an interpretation.
- Visual Core Description sheets (VCD's; Barrel Sheets) corrects for missing whole-round intervals, by plotting those sections with an appropriate sample symbol.
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- However: for scanning on the SHIL, users need to add a foam spacer (the same length as the missing interval) to the bottom of the section-halves
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- .
- You do not need to insert the foam spacer on the SHMSL.
15. Where are hand lenses, scrapers, smear slide sheets, etc.…?
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- Multiple resources are found in the blue
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- cabinet (
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- 3rd drawer down)
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- under the smear slide station.
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- These include: protactors, goniometers, grainsize cards, microscope
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- slides, paper description sheets, toothpicks,
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- and hand lenses.
- Stainless steel core scrapers and hand lenses are found in the "Special Curation Tools" drawer
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- in the splitting room
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16. I need to add a term to our value lists.
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- If you need anything or are having trouble finding accessories, please see the DESC admin or a member of the technical staff.
16. I need to add a term to our value lists.
- Terms can only be added by a DESC admin.
- Email the changes to be made to the template, observables or value lists to the DESC admin.
17. How do I add thin section images to the thin_section overview tab in the microscopic template?
- If you want to produce thin section forms with images, you will need to paste the "asman ID" into the thin_section tab in the microscopic Desclogik template (see figure below).
- You can search for your thin section images in LORE. Pull up the thin sections (TSIMAGE) report up (1), enter your expedition/site/hole (2) and copy the asman ID (3) from the table and paste it into the Desclogik template.
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