A Guide to TI Connect

The Macintosh version of TI Connect contains features such as Macintosh Drag and Drop, and support for Internet search for updates to your software.

For a full reference to the underlying TI Graphlink software, refer to The TI Graphlink Manual

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Connecting to and displaying a directory from the calculator
• Getting a screen from the calculator
• Selecting all or a portion of a captured screen
• Setting the resolution of a captured screen
• Creating a new program
• Creating a list, matrix, or other type of object
• Creating a picture
• Using the Macintosh to edit an object on the calculator
• Creating a group window for storing objects on the Macintosh
• Renaming calculator objects stored in a group window file
• Copying objects from the calculator to the Macintosh
• Sending objects to the calculator
• Dragging from a Group window to other applications
• If objects have duplicate names
• Creating a Lab Report
• Viewing a Lab Report
• Printing a Lab Report
• Editing and Changing a Lab Report

Connecting to and displaying a directory from the calculator

1. Make sure the TI-Graph Link cable is connected to the calculator and the calculator is turned on before starting TI Connect.
2. On the menu bar, select Connection and then select your calculator model.
3. Select the port to which the TI-Graph Link cable is connected, and click Connect. If the connection is successful, a calculator window named "TI-xx" (where xx is the calculator model) lists the objects on the calculator.

Note: To connect automatically at startup, use Edit:Preferences:Startup to select Open Connection to Default Calculator. Use Edit:Preferences:General to select your calculator as the default; otherwise, a Connection Failure error will occur.

Getting a screen from the calculator

1. Connect the calculator as described in Connecting to and displaying a directory from the calculator
2. Either:
   • Select the calculator window and select Window:Get Screen, or
   • press Command+L, (Cloverleaf+L) or
   • Double-click the screen object in the calculator window.
   The calculator screen is displayed in a picture viewing window on the Macintosh.
3. To capture new screens,
   • press Command+L (Cloverleaf+L) or
   • select Window:Refresh or
   • click the circular icon in the picture viewing window.
4. To send a screen directly to a file, drag the screen object from the calculator window to the desktop.
5. To group multiple screens together, create a group window (see "Creating a group window for storing objects on the Macintosh" ). Repeatedly drag the screen object from the calculator window to the group window. After you capture a new screen, rename it (see Renaming calculator objects stored in a group window file and then capture the next screen.

Selecting all or a portion of a captured screen

By selecting all or a portion of a picture in a viewing window, you can drag or copy that selection. Two tool icons at the top-left of the window let you select whether or not to add a border to the picture.

To select the entire picture without a border, double-click the top (default) selection tool.

To add a border, double-click the second selection tool. You can also select Edit:Select All in the menu bar or type Command+A (Cloverleaf+A) to select the entire picture. The selection has a border if the second selection tool is pressed.)

To select a portion of the picture, click in the window (the cursor changes to a cross-hair), drag, and release. The selected portion is defined by a dashed-line box.

Note: When selecting a portion of the picture, click the selection tools once to add or remove a border from that portion. To deselect a selection, click once in an unselected area of the picture or in the area of the picture viewing window directly below the second selection tool icon.

Setting the resolution of a captured screen

Many graphic or desktop publishing programs use resolution (dots per inch, dpi) to determine how tall a captured screen will be printed. To set the resolution, use Edit:Preferences:Pictures.

For example, if a captured screen is 72 pixels tall, a resolution of 72 dpi will make the picture 1 inch tall. A resolution of 144 dpi will make that same picture 1/2 inch tall.

Creating a new program

1. Select File:New, or press Command+N (Cloverleaf+N).
2. In the New Window, if necessary, click the triangle to the left of your calculator model to display a list of objects (Program, Group, etc.).
3. Select Program, and then click OK.
4. In the box at the top of the window, type the program name as you want it listed on the calculator. If you leave the name blank, a default name will be used. If you use a name that is invalid on the calculator, an error will occur when you save the program. For example, you cannot name a program "cos".
5. In the program edit window, type the program. To select programming keywords from a menu, click the [fx] icon to open the Function List window. Select a keyword and drag it to the program edit window. To lock the program, click the [lock/unlock] icon so that it appears locked. An edit-locked program can be edited on the Macintosh but not on the calculator.
6. Select File:Save or File:Close or click the close box to save your program.
7. Specify a name for the file on the Macintosh. This filename is for the Macintosh only. It does not have to be the same as the program name. Untitled is the default filename.

Creating a list, matrix, or other type of object

1. Select File:New.
2. In the New Window, if necessary, click the triangle to the left of your calculator model to display a list of objects (Program, Group, etc.).
3. Select the type of object, and then click OK.
4. Type the appropriate information into the edit window. You can drag data from another application or text document, or use Cut, Copy, Paste, and Undo editing functions.
5. Select File:Save or File:Close or click the close box to save the object. Be sure to name the object according to any naming conventions on your calculator.

Creating a picture

1. Select File:New.
2. In the New Window, if necessary, click the triangle to the left of your calculator model to display a list of objects (Program, Group, etc.).
3. Select Picture, and then click OK.
4. Paste or drag a picture from another program into the picture edit window.
5. Click the close box or select File:Close or File:Save to save the picture.

Using the Macintosh to edit an object on the calculator

You can edit objects such as programs, lists, and matrices, but not objects such as equations, GDBs, and Window ranges.

1. In the calculator window, double-click the object name to open it for editing on the Macintosh.
2. When you are done, select File:Save or File:Close or click the close box to save the object back to the calculator (not to a file on the Macintosh).

Creating a group window for storing objects on the Macintosh

You can use a group window to store multiple calculator objects on your Macintosh in one convenient location.

1. Select File:New.
2. Select Group from the list, and click OK. An untitled group window appears.
3. Place the desired objects into the group window. Drag objects from a calculator window to the group window, or from one group window to another. You can also use Copy and Paste. To remove an object from the group, highlight the object and then press the Delete key or drag the object to the Trash icon. To restore objects from the trash, drag them back to the group window.
4. Select File:Save or File:Close or click the close box to save the group window as a file.

Renaming calculator objects stored in a group window file

1. Select File:Open and open the file for the group window (or double-click the file on the Macintosh).
2. Click once on the name of the calculator object you want to rename.
3. Move the cursor off the highlighted object. The name becomes highlighted and editable (much as the names of files and folders do in the Finder when you rename files).
4. Type the new name and press the enter or return key.
5. Close the window and save the changes to make the new name permanent.

Copying objects from the calculator to the Macintosh

1. Open a calculator connection as described in Connecting to and displaying a directory from the calculator
2. In the calculator window, select one or more objects. (Use the [Name], [Kind], and [Size] buttons to control the order in which objects are sorted.) Use Command+click (Cloverleaf+click) to select multiple separated objects, or Shift+click to select contiguous objects.
3. Drag the selected objects to:
   • The desktop or any folder on the desktop to copy the objects as separate files on the Macintosh.
   • An open group window (see "Creating a group window for storing objects on the Macintosh" ) or a previously saved group window file.

Note: If you cannot drag and drop objects, see "If objects have duplicate names"

Sending objects to the calculator

1. Open a calculator connection as described in Connecting to and displaying a directory from the calculator
2. Select the objects to send. To send all objects in a group window, select the group window file itself or open the group window and select all of the objects. You can also select multiple group window files. To send one or more particular objects, select only those objects.
3. Drag the selected objects or files to the calculator window.

Dragging from a Group window to other applications

Picture objects: You can drag these objects to an application that supports dragging of pictures, such as a paint or drawing program. Many word processors let you embed a picture in a document.

Programs, equations, GDBs, matrices, and other objects generally displayed in a text format: These objects will be displayed properly when dropped into a text editor or word processor.

If objects have duplicate names

When objects with duplicate names (regardless of data types) are found, TI Connect displays a dialog box that lets you cancel the operation, rename the new object with a different name, or replace the original object with the new one. The default is to replace the original.

Creating a Lab Report

To creat a lab report, create and name a "TEXT" object on your TI-89, TI-92 or TI-92Plus, just as you normally would. This text object contains the bulk of your lab report, in the form of text, describing the report. This text object can also be created in TI Connect.

Create a new, empty "report" object using the File:New dialog, for the particular calculator you are working with. Drag the text object into the report, either from your calculator (where the text object can be in any folder) or from a file created in TI Connect (in which case the text object will, by default, be in the "MAIN" folder, which can be renamed in TI Connect).

All print objects in the text object (which are items with the "P:" marker at the front of each text line) should then be added to the report window, either by dragging in from other files or groups, or by dragging in from the calculator.

Note that this version of TI Connect does not automatically search the text object for print objects and automatically retrieve them from the calculator, as the TI-Graph Link 1.x software did.

Once all items are in the report window, save the report to a report file by selecting File:Save or File:Save As...

Viewing a Lab Report

If you wish to EDIT your lab report, see "Editing and Changing a Lab Report". These instructions only allow you to VIEW the lab report!

To view your lab report in a view window, open your report file. (It will appear just like the calculator window, or a group window, listing all folders and objects in the file.)

Find the text object containing the lab report format, and double-click the text object to open it into a view window. All the print-referenced ('P:') objects will be loaded from the report file into the view window in their correct locations, including any picture variables.

If the report is longer than a single window can show, the scroll-bar controls allow moving the viewing window through the entire lab report.

Printing a Lab Report

To print the lab report, first create it and view it as described above.

With the lab report view window highlighted, select File:Print... to print the lab report to your default printer.

Editing and Changing a Lab Report

A lab report can be reformatted and changed easily. Close the lab report viewing window, and drag the lab report text to the desktop. Double-click the resulting file to edit the text object of the lab report. To replace the old text object with the newly edited object, save the changes to the text file and drag the text file back to the report window. Replace the old text object with the new, and then double-click the text object to view the new version.