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Answer |
The Chart Highlighter setup options may be found in the
"Setup: Preferences: Charts: General" window. When the chart highlighter
is turned on, it has 3 different modes: "Single Chart", "Multi-Chart
(All)", and "Multi-Chart (Mutli-Link)". The Highlighter has color
options including "Custom", "Automatic", "Gridline", and "Background".
Single Chart Mode
When the highlighter is on in Single Chart mode, the bar over which the
cursor is placed will be clearly highlighted across all panes, as if a
highlighting pen was used to draw a line from the top to bottom of
chart. As the cursor moves to a new bar, the highlighter will follow.
This allows the user to quickly line up bars and data across multiple
panes, and to clearly see which bar the pane title is providing
information on. As the cursor moves to a new chart, the highlighter
again will follow. In Single Chart mode, the highlighter will only be
visible in one chart at any one time. If the cursor is not over a chart,
no highlighter will be visible (and this is true for all modes).
Multi-Chart (All) Mode
When the highlighter is on in Multi-Chart (All) mode, the highlighter is
no longer limited to a single chart. If the cursor is pointing to a
5-minute bar in a 5-minute chart, not only will that 5-minute bar be
highlighted, but in a neighboring 1-minute chart, all the 1-minute bars
(5) contained within that 5-minute bar will also be highlighted.
Similarly, the daily bar that contained that 5-minute bar would also be
highlighted in a daily chart. If the cursor is over a daily bar in a
daily chart, not only would that daily bar be highlighted, but in a
neighboring 30-minute chart, all the 30-minute bars contained with that
day would also be highlighted. And if a weekly chart was also open, the
weekly bar that contained that day would also be highlighted. The
highlighter allows you to easily line up periods of time in multiple
charts of multiple periodicities in Multi-Chart (All) mode, in addition
to helping to line up bars and data over multiple panes within the same
chart.
Multi-Chart (Multi-Link) Mode
When the highlighter is on in Multi-Chart (Multi-Link) mode, it works in
much the same way that Multi-Chart (All) mode works, with one key
difference. The charts that are highlighted will be dictated by the
rules of the Multi-Link colors of the chart. Those rules essentially
work as follows. We'll call the chart over which the cursor currently
resides the "cursor chart". Also, and color referred to should be
assumed to be the "Multi-Link" color of the chart. When the cursor chart
is white, all other open charts will be highlighted except those with a
color of black. When the cursor chart is black, no other charts will be
highlighted. When the cursor chart is any color other than white or
black, any other chart with a matching color, or a color of white, will
be highlighted. In Multi-Linking, black essentially means "exclude from
multi-link" while white means "multi-link all colors". This mode gives
the user the ability to highlight specific groups of charts together.
Custom Color
When "Custom" color is selected, the user will be able to choose any
color desired from a color control. That color will be used globally as
the highlight color for all charts.
Automatic Color
When "Automatic" color is selected, Investor/RT will automatically
compute a highlight color which works well with the background color of
the individual chart. If each chart has a different background color,
then each chart will also have a different highlight color.
Gridline Color
When "Gridline" color is selected, the highlight color of each chart
will be set to the gridline color of that chart.
Background Color
When "Background" color is selected, the highlight color of each chart
will be set to the background color of the chart. This is by far the
most "subtle" of the color options. Since a slim border is drawn around
the highlighting, the effect of this background color option is just a
slim border around the highlighted bar or bars. The effect is more of a
subtle border than a highlight.
Chart Buttons and Keyboard Shortcuts
The highlight feature can be easily turned on/off (toggled) by creating
a chart button or keyboard shortcut. To create a chart button use the
button purpose "Execute a Toolbar Button" and select "Toggle
Highlighter" as the toolbar button. You can also use Setup: Preferences:
Keyboard Shortcuts to define a function key to toggle the highlighter.
When you toggle the highlighter using a keyboard shortcut or a chart
button, a message will appear in the main toolbar message area stating
that the chart highlight is now on (or off).When the highlighter is
turned off, it can be quickly turned on temporarily simply by depressing
the shift key. The highlighter will then remain on for as long as
the shift key remains depressed. In order to turn on both the
highlighter and the crosshairs together, hold down both the shift and
ctrl keys. The highlighter can also be quickly turned on or off at
any time using the popup menu by right-clicking in the status message
area of the main toolbar
A new checkbox in the "Options" tab of the preferences for a specific
chart instance can be used to exclude the chart from the "Chart
Highlighter". Check the box titled "No Highlighting for this Chart" if
you wish to keep the chart highlighter on, yet exclude one or more
specific charts from having their bars highlighted. Note that when you
move the mouse in a window that has been excluded, the highlighter may
very well continue highlighting corrresponding bar(s) in other chart
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