412 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
412 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
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<title>JMRI: DecoderPro</title>
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<meta name="author" content="Nigel Cliffe">
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<meta name="keywords" content="JMRI help DecoderPro">
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<h1>Introduction to DecoderPro</h1>
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<p><strong>THIS HELP FILE IS WORK IN PROGRESS</strong>. Please help JMRI by contributing to
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improve this help file !</p>
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<p>DecoderPro presents a list of your locomotives (the Roster) and provides access to tools
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for programming decoder configuration variables (CV's). Some stationary decoders can also be
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added to this database.</p>
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<h2>Description of DecoderPro Window</h2>
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<p>The DecoderPro Window is divided into five main sections from top to bottom.</p>
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<img src="../../images/Dp3Roster.png" width="509" height="265" alt="Roster Window">
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<ol>
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<li>
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<a href="#menubar">The Menu Bar</a>.
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</li>
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<li>
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<a href="#toolbar">The Tool Bar (or Button Bar). Containing buttons and controls.</a>
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</li>
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<li>The Roster Table. Containing a list of decoders in your Roster. An entry in the Roster
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can be highlighted with the mouse.</li>
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<li>The Decoder Information Area. This shows information about the highlighted entry in the
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Roster table.</li>
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<li>A status bar. This reports information in a single line. Error information is also
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posted here.</li>
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</ol>
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<h2>Main Tasks with DecoderPro</h2>
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<p>DecoderPro is designed for the management of DCC decoders fitted to locomotives. The
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locomotives known to DecoderPro are displayed in the Roster Table. The anticipated main
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tasks are: creating a new locomotive and changing the settings in an existing locomotive
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(programming).</p>
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<h3>New Locomotive</h3>
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<p>To add a new locomotive (or first locomotive, or stationary decoder), click on the
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"New Entry" button on the Tool Bar.<br>
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This will open a "Create New Loco" window, where the decoder can be either identified or
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selected from the list. To create the locomotive, having selected (or identified) a decoder,
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select the Programmer format (Basic or Comprehensive) and click "Open Programmer". A
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Programming window for the new locomotive will open, with the "Roster Entry" tab foremost. It
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is recommended to give the locomotive a name in the "ID:" field, and then click "Save to
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Roster". You can also proceed to program the decoder, giving it a DCC address (in the "Basic"
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tab), and set other values. On closing the Programming window, if prompted, save the results
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into the Roster.</p>
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<h3>Identifying An Existing Locomotive Entry</h3>
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<p>If a locomotive is placed on the Programming Track, the "Find in Roster" button will read
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details from the decoder and try to match it to an entry in the Roster Table. Some decoders
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only work with a limited range of programming modes, and it may be necessary to change the
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programming mode with the "Programming Mode" drop down list.<br>
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If a locomotive is correctly identified, it will be highlighted in the Roster Table, and its
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details will appear in the lower Decoder Information Area.</p>
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<h3>Using the Roster Table</h3>
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The Roster Table shows one row for each locomotive in your roster.
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There are several things you can do with the table entries:
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<h4>Change some fields of the entry</h4>
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You can directly edit the contents of some of the fields,
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such as the Owner, Road Number, Manufacturer, Model and Comment.
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Click in a field to show an edit cursor, then type your changes.
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Hit the Return or Enter key to save your changes.
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<p>
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The comment field and the user-added fields can accept multi-line
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text. To create a new line, type ctrl-Return or alt-Return.
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As usual, you hit Return or Enter with no modifiers when you're done editing.
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<p>
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<b>Note:</b> As of February 2026, the cell height doesn't expand to show
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the new lines you've typed with ctrl-Return or alt-Return until
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you've saved your changes by hitting Enter or Return.
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Unfortunately, you have to type your changes in blind and
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then hit Enter/Return to see them, and correct them as needed.
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We're working on a fix for this.
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<h4>Sort by Values and Rearrange Columns</h4>
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To sort by the contents of a column, click the heading at the top of the
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column. Click again to sort in the opposite order.
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<p>
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You can change the size of a column by pressing-and-dragging the line
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between the column headings. You can move columns around by pressing-and-dragging
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in the center center of the heading.
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<p>
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To hide or show columns, right-press or ctrl-press on a column heading.
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This will show you a contextual menu where you can check the boxes by the columns
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you want to see, and uncheck the columns you don't want to see.
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<h4>Add New Columns for User Data</h4>
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You can add additional columns if there's some other
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information you'd like to keep track of. For example,
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you might want to keep track of the driver layout (0-4-0, 2-6-2, etc)
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for a steam locomotive. To create a new column:
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<ul>
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<li>Select the first locomotive you'd like to
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add a value to.
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<li>Click "Labels & Media", then open the "Roster Media" tab
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<li>In the bottom part of that tab, there's a
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two column table. The last of the entries in the right
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column will be "...".
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<li>Click on that cell and type the name of your new column.
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Hit the Return or Enter key.
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<li>Click on the cell to the right of that and enter a value
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for this locomotive in this new column you're adding.
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Hit the Return or Enter key.
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<li>Click "Save" at the bottom.
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<li>Quit and restart DecoderPro
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<li>Your new column should show in the Roster Table. You may
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have to drag the content to the right to see it, or
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ctrl-click/right-click on one of the column headers to
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set it to visible.
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</ul>
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Once you've created the new column, you can edit the contents
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directly in the Roster Table, or by going back to the
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"Roster Media" tab.
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<h3>Programming an existing Locomotive</h3>
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<p>Once a locomotive has been selected, either by manually finding it within the Roster
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Table, or through the "Identify" button, a summary of its details will appear in the lower
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Decoder Information Area. Buttons to open the programmer are to the right of the Decoder
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Information Area.</p>
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<p>Select the type of programming required with the radio buttons, choose between the
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Programming Track, Programming on the Main Line or Edit the file only (no programming of a
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locomotive). Having selected the type of programming, you can open either the Basic
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Programmer (which allows change of locomotive address) or the Comprehensive Programmer (which
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allows changing of all locomotive decoder features known to DecoderPro).</p>
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<h3>Changing Throttle Labels and Roster Media</h3>
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<p>Throttle Labels are used by the JMRI on-screen Throttles and by the smart-phone throttles
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through the WiThrottle interface. They allow Function keys to have meaningful names such as
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"Horn", "Whistle", rather than "F2" and "F4". Their use is optional.</p>
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<p>Roster Media is where pictures of locomotives can be loaded into JMRI. These are displayed
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in the Roster, and can be used within Throttles. Their use is optional.</p>
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<h3>Roster Groups</h3>
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<p>Roster Groups are a means of filtering your entries in the Roster. For example, you might
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have "diesel locos", "steam locos", but also "Burlington Locos" and "Canadian Pacific Locos".
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Thus a single locomotive in the Roster could be a member of several groups. Roster Groups are
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used to filter the Roster View in DecoderPro, and select the locomotives offered in an
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on-screen Throttle.</p>
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<p>To create your first Roster Group, use the "Create Roster Group" command on the "Settings"
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menu. When you have created a Roster Group, a new drop-list is added to the Tool Bar in
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DecoderPro. Having created a group, it is initially empty. The next step is to add
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locomotives to the group. You can drag and drop a selected (highlighted line)
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locomotive from the table and drop it on the group you want to include it in.
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<p>If you want to add a number of locomotives to a group.
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the "Roster Group Table Association" command on
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the "Settings" menu is a convenient tool.
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With the "Roster Group Table" window, select the Roster Group in the
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drop-menu, and then place a tick alongside all locomotives requires in that group. Repeat for
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any other groups, and when finished close the window with the close-box in the upper
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right-hand corner.</p>
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<p>You can also add locomotives to groups one at a time using the
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"Add Roster Entry to Group..." entry in the "Settings" menu.
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Or you can right-press or ctrl-press on a selected line in the
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table to get a pop-up menu that contains an "Add to Group..." item.
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<h2 id="menubar">Menu Bar</h2>
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<h3>File menu</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>New Roster Window</li>
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<li>Import Decoder File...</li>
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<li>Import Decoder URL...</li>
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<li>------------------</li>
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<li>Export Roster Entry...</li>
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<li>Import Roster Entry...</li>
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<li>------------------</li>
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<li>Export Complete Roster...</li>
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<li>Import Complete Roster...</li>
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<li>------------------</li>
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<li>Rebuild Roster</li>
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<li>Validate XML File</li>
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<li>------------------</li>
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<li>Open PanelPro Window</li>
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<li>------------------</li>
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<li>Close Window</li>
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<li>------------------</li>
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<li>Print Displayed Roster Table</li>
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<li>Print Roster ->
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<ul>
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<li>Selected entry</li>
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<li>Summary</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>Print Preview Roster ->
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<ul>
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<li>Selected entry</li>
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<li>Summary</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>-------------------</li>
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<li>Quit (on Windows and Linux; on macOS it's in the DecoderPro menu)</li>
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</ul>
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<h3><strong>Edit</strong> menu</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Cut</li>
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<li>Copy</li>
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<li>Paste</li>
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<li>-----------</li>
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<li>New Entry...</li>
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<li>Duplicate Entry</li>
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<li>Delete Entry</li>
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<li>-----------</li>
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<li>Preferences</li>
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</ul>
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<h3><strong>Settings</strong> menu</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Hide/Show Summary Pane</li>
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<li>Reset Window sizes</li>
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<li>Reset Column Widths</li>
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<li>Hide/Show Roster Image</li>
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<li>Hide/Show Roster Groups</li>
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<li>--------------</li>
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<li>Programming ->
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<ul>
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<li>Programming Track</li>
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<li>Programming On Main</li>
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<li>Edit Only</li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>--------------</li>
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<li>Create Roster Group</li>
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<li>Rename Roster Group</li>
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<li>Duplicate Roster Group</li>
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<li>Delete Roster Group</li>
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<li>--------------</li>
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<li>Roster Group Table Association</li>
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</ul>
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<h3><strong>Actions</strong> menu</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Program</li>
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<li>Labels and Media</li>
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<li>Edit Throttle Lables</li>
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<li>New Throttle</li>
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<li>Load default throtttle layout</li>
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<li>--------------</li>
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<li>Consisting Tool</li>
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<li>Turnout Control</li>
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<li>Power Control</li>
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<li>SpeedoMeter</li>
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<li>Single CV Programmer</li>
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<li>Multi-Decoder Control</li>
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<li>--------------</li>
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<li>Start WiThrottle Server</li>
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<li>Start Web Server</li>
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<li>--------------</li>
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<li>Recreate Roster Index</li>
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<li>Recreate Decoder Index</li>
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<li>Update Decoder Definitions</li>
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<li>--------------</li>
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<li>Run Script...</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Command Station Specific menu</h3>
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<p>A menu will appear for the command station connected to JMRI. The command station is set
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in the Preferences. The content of this menu will be specific to your command station type.</p>
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<h3>Window menu</h3>
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<p>Lists the windows that are currently active.</p>
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<h3>Help menu</h3>
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<p>Window Help opens this page.</p>
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The tool bar is initially at the top of the DecoderPro window.
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By grabbing the left end with your mouse, you can move it to
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other places on the screen as desired.
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<h2 id="toolbar">Tool Bar</h2>
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<h3>Help button</h3>
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<p>Opens this page.</p>
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<h3>New Entry button</h3>
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<p>Opens Service Mode Programmer Decoder selection Screen.</p>
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<h3>Find in Roster button</h3>
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<p>Attempts to identify the loco on the Programming track.</p>
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<h3>Print Table button</h3>
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<p>Prints the current contents of the roster table.</p>
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<h3>Programming mode drop down</h3>
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<p>Opens the selection of programming modes.</p>
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<h3>Roster Group Pane</h3>
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<p>The Roster Group Pane only appears if a Roster Group has been defined. It appears to the
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left of the Roster Table (if not hidden using the Settings menu). Further groups can be added
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using the "+" button, and groups can be removed with the "-" button. Locos can be dragged
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from the Roster Table to the Roster Group Pane. The Roster Group Pane can be hidden with a
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menu option (under Settings), or with the triangular shrink/expand keys in the frame border.
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Removing a loco from a Roster Group can be done using the "Roster Group Table Associations"
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pane, accessible from the "Settings" menu.</p>
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