Document Handling
Each time you start Match! (or select the "New command in the "File" menu, see below), a new so-called "document" is created. This document is equivalent to e.g. a Microsoft Word document; it contains all the data you have entered as well as the ones which have been derived from them. Only a single document can be opened in a Match! window at a time, however, you can open more than one Match! window if you would like to work on several phase analysis problems simultaneously.
Similar to e.g. Word, you can store ("save") the current document in a file on your hard disk in order to be able e.g. to continue your work at the point where you have stopped later on. It is also recommended to keep copies of your documents for backup and archiving purposes.
The following commands are provided in the "File" menu for the handling of Match! documents:
New
You can create a new empty document using this command. This is generally appropriate if you want to start with a new phase analysis. Only a single document can be opened simultaneously; hence, if you are currently working with Match! when you execute the "New" command, Match! will ask whether you would like to save the current document before the new one is created. The "New" command is executed automatically when you start Match!. In addition to the menu, it can also be executed using the corresponding button in the main toolbar at the top or by pressing the combination <Ctrl+N> on your keyboard (<Cmd+N> on the Mac).
Open
Once you have saved a Match! document to your hard disk, you can reload it later on using this command. Only a single document can be opened simultaneously; hence, if you are currently working with Match! when you execute the "Open" command, Match! will ask whether you would like to save the current document before the new one is opened. In addition to the menu, the "Open" command can also be executed using the corresponding button in the main toolbar at the top or by pressing the combination <Ctrl+O> on your keyboard (<Cmd+O> on the Mac).
Save
You can save the current Match! document in memory to the corresponding file on your hard disk using this command. The name of the corresponding file is displayed in the titlebar of the Match! window. If there is no corresponding hard disk file (e.g. if you have neither saved the document before nor loaded it from a file), the "Save As" command will be executed instead automatically, in order to let you select the destination directory and the file name. In addition to the menu, the "Save" command can also be executed using the corresponding button in the main toolbar at the top or by pressing the combination <Ctrl+S> on your keyboard (<Cmd+S> on the Mac).
Save as...
Use this command if you are working on a new document which has not yet been saved to hard disk before, or if you would like to save the current document to a file different from the one it has been opened from. A "Save As" dialog will be displayed similar to most windows programs where you can selected the directory for your file as well as its file name. In addition to the menu, the "Save as..." command can also be executed by pressing the combination <Ctrl+Shift+S> on your keyboard (<Cmd+Shift+S> on the Mac).
Note:
- A Match! document is sometimes also called "session" in the Match! documentation. These two concepts are equivalent.
- If you save your current document/session to a file, there is a small difference if you load it again later on compared to working continuously: The contents of the undo/redo buffer is not saved in the file. Hence, you can no longer undo changes you made before saving the document after reloading it.
- The file extension for Match! documents is *.mtd.