Thank you for your Forum post...Microcal welcomes all customer feedback. An explicit attempt was made in Origin 5.0 to reorganize Origin's user interface (toolbars and buttons, menu items, dialog boxes, etc...) to make it more intuitive and easier to use than Origin 4.1. Toolbars and buttons were added, menu items were streamlined, and separate but related dialog boxes were collected into one tabbed dialog box for easier overall access. In many cases these changes resulted from user suggestions much like yours.

I believe that keyboard access to most features was maintained but in certain circumstances that might not be true. Specifically, you can open the Axis dialog box with the keyboard alone but you can not select individual tabs in the Axis dialog box by keyboard strokes. I think this is a valuable suggestion and I will submit it to our developers.

The Origin 4.1 File:Template submenu was removed but you can save templates (with keyboard access) using the Origin 5.0 File:Save Template As menu item. You can also open windows based on templates (with keyboard access) using the Origin 5.0 File:New menu item. However, it is true that the File:New menu item does require a mouse click to select the desired window type from the Window Type list box. The move to a list box of window types (rather than individual menu items for each window type) was required due to the fact that Origin 5.0 has more window types than Origin 4.1.

Finally, while the Template drop down list box in the File:New dialog box is 21 characters long I agree that we should accommodate longer template names and I will make this suggestion to our developers as well.

Sincerely,

You can switch axes while in the Origin 5.0 Axis dialog box by clicking on any of the large icons in the Selection list box (found on the left hand side of the Axis dialog box).

Also, I was not able to reproduce the layer frame selection problem that you mentioned. When I select a layer frame on my computer (by clicking on an axis) the layer frame becomes red where there is no axis and light cyan on top of axes. The highlight colors depend on the selected color of your axes (for black axes the selection color is red and red on top of black becomes cyan). However, no matter what axis color I selected I could not cause the axis scale to become hidden in any way.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding you....if so, please post a more detailed description of what you mean or contact your Origin dealer for technical support. I am sure this misunderstanding/problem can be overcome.

Sincerely,