Mouse Interaction and Settings

Maestro supports the common mouse functions with the standard 3-button mouse:

  • The left button (button 1) is used for selecting: choosing menu items, clicking buttons and selecting objects. This button is also used for resizing and moving panels. In the description of mouse actions, "click" always means left-click.
  • The right button (button 3) is used for opening a shortcut (context-sensitive) menu, where these menus are available.
  • Shift-click is used to select a contiguous range of items in a list or table, and control-click is used to select and deselect a single item without affecting the selection of other items.
  • Dragging operations are supported. For instance, in the Workspace, dragging selects multiple objects. In the Project Table, dragging selected entries allows you to reposition the entries; dragging a column heading moves the column; dragging on the boundary of a row or column resizes the row or column.
  • The mouse wheel is supported for scrolling vertically in tables, lists, and text areas. In lists, scrolling is equivalent to using the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys. In tables, the table scrolls one line at a time, or with the Shift key, one page at a time. If you have a trackpad, the pinch gesture is the equivalent of the mouse wheel.

In addition, Maestro supports the use of the mouse in the Workspace to do the following tasks:

These button actions are described below. They are the standard actions in Maestro for these buttons. If you want to change the assignment of the mouse buttons and modifier keys to these actions, you can customize them in the Customize Mouse Actions Panel.

Left button: Select, Adjust

Selection is always done with the left button. In the Workspace, you can click on individual atoms or bonds or you can drag to select multiple atoms at once.

  • Click or drag to select. Deselects all other selected atoms.
  • Shift-click or Shift and drag toggles the selection of the relevant atoms without affecting the rest of the selection
  • Control-click or Ctrl and drag deselects all but the clicked or selected atoms

The left mouse button is used to adjust the dihedral angle for Quick Torsion. This allows the middle mouse button to be used for global rotations.

Middle button: Rotate, Adjust, Spot-Center, Zoom

Click and drag in the Workspace to rotate atoms globally or locally, or to adjust a bond or dihedral.

  • Click to spot-center the view on the atom you click on and set the rotation center.
  • Drag to rotate about the X and Y axes
  • Hold Shift and drag vertically to rotate about the X axis only
  • Hold Shift and drag horizontally to rotate about the Y axis only
  • Hold Ctrl (⌘) and drag horizontally to rotate about the Z axis only
  • Shift+Ctrl and Middle-drag to the right to zoom in
  • Shift+Ctrl and Middle-drag to the left to zoom out
Right button: Translate, open Shortcut Menus

The right button translates the structure in the Workspace and also displays context-sensitive shortcut menus.

  • Drag to translate the structure in the X-Y plane
  • Press Shift and drag vertically to translate along the X axis only
  • Press Shift and drag horizontally to translate along the Y axis only
  • Press Ctrl (⌘) and drag horizontally to translate along the Z axis only
  • Right-click: Displays a context-sensitive shortcut menu at the pointer position depending on where you click and what you have selected:
    • Sequence viewer: Perform operations on the sequence and sequence viewer.
    • Status bar: Hide the status bar.
    • Clipping planes window: Select objects to apply clipping to; hide the window.
    • Atom: expand or invert the selection, change the style and visibility of the selected atoms, fit, center or clip, set the element, mutate the residue, create an entry, move or delete the atoms or perform other edits.
    • Bond: change the bond order, adjust the bond length or dihedral angle, measure the bond length, or delete the bond.
    • Empty Space: configure the Workspace, save an image, save or restore the view, create an entry, clear the Workspace, control display of captions, highlights.

Shortcut menus are described in Main Window Shortcut Menus.

Middle+Right buttons: Zoom

Holding the middle and right buttons simultaneously allows you to zoom in or out on the structure in the Workspace.

  • Middle+Right-drag to the right to zoom in
  • Middle+Right-drag to the left to zoom out
  • Shift+Ctrl (⇧⌘) and Middle-drag to the right to zoom in
  • Shift+Ctrl (⇧⌘) and Middle-drag to the left to zoom out

See Zooming and Fitting for more details.

Wheel: Zoom, Adjust

If no other mode is active, rotating the mouse wheel zooms in or out on the structure in the Workspace. If a distance, angle, or dihedral is being adjusted, the mouse wheel alters the value of the distance, angle or dihedral.

  • Additional Resources

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