ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The File page > Creating new experiments

Creating new experiments

When you first start ANY-maze, or when you have just closed a file the startup page is shown - details of how to create a new experiment from the startup page can be found here.

Overview

Before you can do anything in ANY-maze you need to create an experiment file.

Creating an experiment file is extremely simple, just switch to the File page and select New experiment from the menu shown on the left. This will cause a list of 'documents' to be shown on the right side of the page, the first of which will be titled New empty experiment; selecting it will create a new experiment.

Figure 1. To create a new experiment, select New experiment on the File page and then select the 'New empty experiment' document.

Creating a new experiment based on an existing protocol

As you probably know, all experiments include a protocol which tells ANY-maze everything it needs to know about how the experiment is to be performed (if you're not already familiar with protocols, then I recommend you read the introductory tutorial on protocols).

Typically, you will create a number of different protocols for the different types of experiments you perform, and most often you will simply load one of these protocols into any new experiments that you create. For example, you might have a water-maze, a plusmaze and a Y-maze in your lab. You'd therefore have (at least) one protocol for each of them. So, when you want to perform a plusmaze experiment, you'd first create a new experiment file and then load the plusmaze protocol into it. But wouldn't it be easier if you could simply tell ANY-maze that you'd like to create a 'New plusmaze experiment' - it could then create the experiment file and load the protocol all in one step. Well you can; indeed there are a few ways to do this:

Creating a new experiment using the documents listed on the New Experiment page

The simplest method is to select one of the documents listed on the New experiment page. These documents represent the protocols you have used recently, and so it's likely that the protocol you want will be listed. When you select a document, ANY-maze will create a new experiment and load the protocol into it.

Figure 2. Selecting a protocol document will create a new experiment and load the protocol into it.

As you can see in figure 2, the protocol documents include a graphic which is intended to make it easier for you to find a specific protocol. The graphic shown is specified when you set up the protocol itself; details can be found here.

If you want to remove a 'document' from the list of protocols (perhaps because you don't expect to use that protocol any more), you should right-click on the document and select Remove this protocol from the list from the menu which appears.

Creating a new experiment using some other protocol or experiment file

In fact, you can create a new experiment based on any protocol (or experiment) file, not just those in the recent protocols document list. To do this you should select the Browse computer for protocol... option (see figure 2). This will cause the Open protocol window to appear, where you can choose a protocol file. When you select a file, ANY-maze will create a new experiment and load the chosen protocol into it.

In fact, you're not limited to loading a protocol from a protocol file - you can also load a protocol directly from another experiment file. In this case you just need to choose an experiment, rather than a protocol, file. This is described in more detail here.

An alternative to selecting Browse computer for protocol... is to select one of the 'Places' listed on the New experiment page, such as Shared ANY-maze files. Selecting a 'Place' will list all the protocol and experiment files in it - making it very quick to select a file. You can learn more about 'Places' here.

Creating a new experiment by double clicking a protocol file in Windows

The ultimate shortcut method for creating a new experiment with a pre-loaded protocol is to double click the relevant protocol file in Windows. For example, you might have a protocol file on your desktop - if you double click it then:

Figure 3. Double clicking a protocol file is a convenient way to open ANY-maze, create a new experiment and load a protocol - all with one action.

Creating a new experiment from an experiment design file

Opening an Experiment design file will create a new experiment, load a protocol into it, and add animals to the experiment - i.e. everything required to set-up an experiment ready to be performed.

As the name suggests, the Experiment design file specifies which protocol to load and specifies the experiment's animals, it can also define various other options such as whether the protocol can be edited, whether tests can be 'undone' etc. Full details about Experiment design files can be found here.

See also:

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ANY-maze help topic T0055