Quick Start Guide to using iLabber

Conventions used in this tutorial

Bold – a button

Underline – selection from a menu

Italics – Right mouse-click menu item

Some sample files used in the tutorial are attached to this pdf document. Save the files on your computer before starting the tutorial. It is easiest to print this file rather than try and read it on- screen together with iLabber.

Start iLabber and login with your user name and password.

You will now create your first experiment. Press Start New Experiment (in the centre of the screen) Select Start with a blank experiment and press enter or OK.

The experiment is created and you see it in the iLabber editor. Experiments are made up of sections. Your experiment starts with 6 sections. The top 3 cannot be changed.

You can type text directly into the body text section. Type in some text. (More on this section later.)

More sections can be added (below the highlighted section) by double clicking the section type in the section toolbox to the left of the screen. Different sections are used for different content. Add an Excel section as shown.

Change the section title by double clicking the title (Excel worksheet). The section properties window opens. Enter the new title ’Initial quantities’. OK.

We can import an Excel file or start with a blank sheet. Right click in the section and select New Worksheet.

Excel opens and you can enter some data. Select the cells that should be displayed in iLabber. Close Excel (or the worksheet).

The data is imported into the experiment. The Excel file is also saved in the experiment. The worksheet can be opened and edited by double clicking it or saved locally by Save worksheet. Try saving the worksheet on your computer and then opening it with Excel.

Images are best added using an image section. An image section can contain several images. Add an image section from the section toolbox.

Click the link Click here to insert an image. Select the file Couverture2-1.jpg An image compression window opens. Images are compressed to save space in the database. Click OK. Note: If the compressed image is not good enough, click Cancel to import the uncompressed image.

Give the section a new title and then try-out the image annotation tools. Text, arrows etc can be added and the image can be resized and cropped. More details can be found in the help menu under Inline annotations program.

Explore adding more images to the same section. Select the image and add image.

Add another image section. Paste an image from another program into the section. Control V can also be used. In the example, an NMR spectrum was pasted from a spectrum editing program. Change the section title as well.

Explore pasting more images in the same section. Select the section and paste (add) or select the image and paste (replace).

PDF files can be imported into experiments. Add a PDF Document section by double clicking in the section toolbox.

Click the link Click here to insert a PDF document. Select the file test.pdf The pdf document is saved in the experiment. It can be saved locally by Save PDF� All the text in the PDF section is searchable.

Now add another text section. Double click on Body Text in the toolbox.

Import a word document by Import document� and selecting the file effects.doc The text and images are imported. Note that any text in the section is deleted when a document is imported. We recommend that you compose your experiments in iLabber using the various sections rather than composing in Word and importing. Large sections can run more

slowly as more data is sent to the server following editing.

Add another Text Section.

Change the section title. Add some text. Experiment by adding a table (Table, Insert, Table) and a numbered list (Format, Bullets and numbering). Include some symbols in your text using Insert, Symbol or the Symbol toolbox on the left-hand side.

Now add a File Attachment section.

Click the link Click here to insert a file. Browse to the file GSM21610.txt and click open to import the file. Change the section title again.

Sections can be moved up and down within an experiment using the arrows on the toolbar. Try moving some of the sections.

Now go back to the top of your experiment. Scroll with the mouse or use the up arrow key. This is what you see when you first open an experiment. It is a good idea to have some keywords and indexing links here.

Enter an experiment title and select a project. Just type the first few letters of the project name and then click elsewhere.

Alternatively, click on to get a list of projects. Add a text field section under the project section (have the project section highlighted when you select text field in the toolbox).

Change the title to keywords and enter some text.

Now add a Related experiments section.

Then click on and search. You will see a list of the experiments you have permission to see. Double click one and OK.

It is possible to just type the experiment number

(AA4608) and then click elsewhere. This is a clickable link to the other experiment. Note: We have not needed to save the experiment. This is done automatically every 30 seconds. If you have a slow internet connection, the system may appear to freeze for a while when sending new data. Only sections which have changed are sent to the server. The use of several smaller sections is faster than a few large ones. Now that the experiment is complete, we shall submit it. Press the submit button or File, Submit Choose Entire Experiment. The system creates a PDF document of the experiment and sends it to the server. This may take a few minutes for a large experiment like this.

If you have requested countersigning (contact support@ilabber.com for this) you will be asked to select a witness. You are asked to enter your password if electronic signatures are active (contact support@ilabber.com for this). The sections are now locked (note the padlock on left hand side).

Now you have created and submitted your first experiment. The sections are locked but you can add new sections. Add a Body text section to the end of your experiment.

If there is an error in a submitted experiment, you can add an Errata section. Add an Errata section to your experiment. Click the symbol to the right of the section and select Alert (Invalid can also be selected). Add some text.

Notice the Alert symbol at the top of the experiment. You will also see this in lists of experiments.

Now we have used all the section types and seen how an experiment can be built up. You can save time by copying sections between experiments, cloning experiments and using templates. Make a clone of your experiment File, Clone Experiment. A new experiment is created. The new experiment is the same as the previous one except for the Experiment number, Author and Date started. The title is also blank.

Delete some sections. Modify the Excel table (double click to open in Excel). Add some new sections.

Now you have two experiments, try copying and pasting from one experiment to the other. Highlight a section (blue frame) and then Copy (Control C). Highlight a section in the other experiment and Paste (Control V) and the new section is pasted below.

You can have many experiments open at the same time (your own and your colleagues).

Templates can save time and can also add structure to experiments.

Click the template button on the explorer bar. Press the Create New Template button (or File, New Template)

Give the template a name and description. OK.

The template editor opens. This works in exactly the same way as the experiment editor. The yellow band down the right hand side shows you are working on a template.

You can add sections as before. They can be empty or pre-filled. Add some sections to the template.

A section which we have not used yet is User Defined Reference. Add a User Defined Reference section to your template.

This section is used for lists of predefined values.

Give the section the title Instrument and the click on

. Now you can add the allowed values. Enter Waters Add, Bruker Add etc. OK.

Double click on the title again. As well as changing the title, we can make a section mandatory (must be filled in) and locked (can’t be deleted). Select Locked and Mandatory for this section. OK.

Save the template File, Save (or Control S).

Close the template. Return to My Lab Notebook (left hand button on the explorer bar). Start a new experiment.

Choose to Create experiment from a template. Browse to your template. OK.

The new experiment is created.

Try out the instrument section you added. Click the button at the left of the section. Choose a reference. Select, OK.

Your colleagues can also contribute to your experiments. Click the Properties button on the toolbar (or File, Properties). On the Sharing tab, select Share this experiment. Update users. Search for your colleague and then >> to add them. Save and exit. OK.

Your colleague will now see your experiment in their list of current experiments.

When your colleague opens the experiment they must press the Edit Experiment button (or File, Edit Experiment) to take control of the experiment. Only one user can edit an experiment at a time.

The contributor then adds their sections. When they are finished, they click the Release link. The experiment can then be submitted by the author.

Now we have finished creating experiments and templates. One of the great advantages of an electronic lab notebook is browsing and searching.

First – try browsing through your experiments. All experiments are sorted into folders by user, project and date. At the left hand side of My Lab Notebook, you can browse through these folders.

Remember you can see all you experiments from the link View contents of the entire notebook under My Lab notebook.

Move back through the folders using the blue-grey address bar. F5 refreshes the view.

Click on a folder to get a list of the experiments. The list can be sorted by clicking a column in the table title bar.

Now click on the ELN library button. Here you can browse through all the experiments sorted by author and project.

To search for experiments, press the Search button on the explorer bar. For ‘Google™ type’ searching, enter some text in the search window and Go.

A list of experiments is returned. You can choose to search in your own experiments or all experiments. Note: Experiments are indexed every night. You will not find experiments until they are indexed. Look at the help file (F1 or Help, Help) under simple search and advanced search for details on using Boolean logic and the advanced search options.

My sections allows you to save a section (your own or a colleague’s) in your toolbox for future use. This could be an Excel sheet that you frequently use but is not part of a template. It could be a reaction section with certain reaction conditions. All sections can be saved in My Sections.

Open an experiment. Select a section and right-click Save in Toolbox.

Click on My Sections in the Toolbox on the left-hand side. The section has been saved. It gets the same name as the section title from the experiment.

It can be renamed by Rename. The name is highlighted and the name can be edited in the same manner as a filename in Windows. Note that sections can also be deleted from the toolbox.

Now you are ready to start documenting your own work. More information can also be found in the help file (F1 or Help, Help). Good luck!

Quick Start Guide to countersigning (if activated)

When a colleague submits an experiment and chooses you as the witness, it will appear in your reminder lists under the heading Received experiments waiting to be countersigned by you. Click the experiment link to start the countersigning workflow

The experiment opens in the countersigning window. Scroll down to read the whole experiment. Add any comments in the comments area. Click on the Countersign button.

Enter your password and enter (Sign).

I you are unhappy with an experiment, click Reject (comments are required) and the experiment is returned to the author. The author sees it in their reminder lists under the heading Sent out experiments rejected by the witness.

If you are the author of a rejected experiment, click on the experiment link.

You will see the countersigner’s comments. Click on Unsubmit, the experiment opens and is returned to your current experiments. To change the witness, click the Modify link in your reminder list under Sent out experiments waiting to be countersigned by the witness.

Click Witness and select a new witness. Add a comment and then click Assign. Note you can also choose Revoke on this window to ‘unsubmit’ an experiment.