Information about Taxa

This button provides access to descriptions and illustrations of taxa. Before pressing the button, you may select the required taxon or taxa in either or both of the "Taxa" panes; if no taxa are selected, the "Remaining" taxa are used. When the button is pressed, the "Information" dialog box is displayed. This initially shows the name of the first (or only) selected taxon, and lists the descriptions and/or images that are available for it. Any or all of these can be selected and displayed. The information for the other selected taxa (if any) can be shown by navigating the list of taxa by means of "Back" and "Forward" buttons, or by selecting from a drop-down list. A completely new selection of taxa can be made by means of the "Select new taxa" button. The information usually includes a diagnostic description, which aims to distinguish the taxon from all the others in at least a certain number of characters. This number is called the "diagnostic level". Intkey gives it a default value of 1, but a larger value may have been set by the author of a particular dataset. The diagnostic description includes messages showing the diagnostic levels that were actually attained. If an identification is in progress, the diagnostic description uses only characters that have not already been used in the identification. Images are scaled to fit the available area; to turn scaling off or on, click "Scaled" in the image"s "Window" menu. To view an image or description at the maximum possible size, press its "maximize" button. The "Remaining Taxa" and "Eliminated Taxa" lists behave as a single list when taxa are being selected. Clicking on a taxon selects that taxon and deselects all others. Multiple taxa can be selected in the usual ways, that is, by holding down the Shift and/or Ctrl keys while clicking.

  Differences between Taxa

This button displays the differences between selected taxa. Two or more taxa must be selected in either or both of the "Taxa" panes before pressing the button. Differences in free-text characters are not shown, and unrecorded or inapplicable attributes are not treated as being different from recorded attributes. The "Remaining Taxa" and "Eliminated Taxa" lists behave as a single list when taxa are being selected. Clicking on a taxon selects that taxon and deselects all others. Multiple taxa can be selected in the usual ways, that is, by holding down the Shift and/or Ctrl keys while clicking.

  Use a Subset of the Taxa

This button allows you to choose a set of taxa to be used in subsequent operates. If an identification is in progress, the attributes that have been specified are applied to the new set of taxa. N.B. The set of taxa persists until changed by using the button again. In particular, it is not affected by starting a new identification.

  Find Text in the Taxon Names

This button allows you to search for text in the taxon names in the "Taxa" panes. The authorities are also searched, although they are not normally displayed in these panes. The names found are selected, allowing them to be used in subsequent operations (for example, in requesting information about the taxa). By default, all the matching names are selected; "Next" and "Previous" buttons allow all the selections to be seen, if they cannot all be displayed together. Clicking the radio button "Select one" cause the names to be selected one by one; the "Next" and "Previous" buttons then move the selection to the next or previous matching name. By default, only the names in the "Remaining Taxa" (top-right) pane) are searched. Check boxes allow the search to be extended to the "Eliminated Taxa" (bottom-right) pane and to the synonyms (if available).