CooRecorder is a general program to register coordinates for groups of points collected from an image. A short text (label) can also be attached to each such group. The program is mainly used within dendrochronology to calculate ring widths. Lately CooRecorder has been extended to also measure blue color from tree rings. This section will show various mechanisms and tools for registration and calculation on tree ring data.

To be strict, we do not register tree ring widths (!) with CooRecorder, instead we SAVE YOUR POINT COORDINATES which we then process. This implies that you can easily return to an old registration and adjust it - which is a great plus for this method.

Note: A common problem for new users of CooRecorder has been to select the correct data mode for their input of tree ring border points. Even when the right mode has been preselected, some users have selected a raw data mode or even the "Curve data" mode. After that setting, almost no tree ring measurement mechanism worked properly in CooRecorder.

To the left of the magnifying glass is a percentage indicator showing the current magnification of your image. 100% means that one pixel in  your image is shown as one pixel on your screen.

The magnification glass is a "zoom in" button. First click on the zoom button to select the tool. Then click on the appropriate point in your image. The view will zoom in an extra 50%. Click again to zoom more. You can set the magnification as a percentage number if  you click in the field to the left of the magnification glass in the tool bar. Click on the demagnifying glass to zoom out of the image.
The magnification and demagnification glasses are also available through the Z button and the Ctrl-Z button on your keyboard.

To drag the image across the screen, first click on the hand tool button (or click the H key). Then using the left mouse button, click anywhere within the image and keep the mouse button pressed down. Then move (drag) the mouse with the button still pressed.
Note: The hand tool is only enabled when the image is magnified so that all of it does not fit on the screen.

Start recording by clicking on points on your image. The recorded points will be marked with plus signs. When you set a new point it first looks bolded. This is to signify that this point is now "the Selected point".

The Asterisk point or The Youngest point. The first point you set within a new measurement series, will look as an asterisk (see point 0 above!). It is intended to indicate the youngest point in your point series, i.e. the outermost point in your sample. If you delete this asterisk point, you have to assign that "asterisk property/youngest point property" to another now outermost point.
To do this: First click the "Select a point mode (S)" button (that one with a big arrow), then click on the point to be selected, then click the Asterisk button! (I.e. Enter Select mode (S), click the outermost point, click the Asterisk button.)

The above image shows a straight line of measurement points. But usually it is not possible to follow a straight line...

Then you left-click on point 67:1 and on point 67:2. The group mode will switch back automatically to single point mode.

This is a very useful method when you have to make a jump in your measurements when ring widths are laying aslant on the picture.

Of course, if tree rings are not very concentrical you have to be careful when interpreting your data if you have moved your radii of measument within the stem!

There are basically two recording modes in CooRecorder and three commands/buttons for switching between them:

  One coordinate pair for each row of data written to the file. (Single point per ring mode.)

  A group of coordinate pairs for each row of data written to the file (data group mode)

  End of data group button

When measuring tree rings, CooRecorder automatically turns back to "single-point-per-ring" mode after you have set that extra starting point ("67:2" above).
Note: When working with e.g. BeeWings you have to register the coordinates of eight related points for each wing. In that case you have to click the End-of-data-group-button yourself when you are ready with those eight points of a wing. You may use the Enter key as a substitute for the End of data group button.

When necessary, you may switch between these two modes while recording. For fast switching, click the mouse right button while having your cursor on the image and keep an eye on the look of the corresponding button in the tools menu.

There are a number of buttons for editing (changing) what you have recorded:

A select button to select a certain point.
Click on the Select button, then click on the proper point. When a point is selected the editing buttons will be enabled. They are otherwise dimmed. They are shown enabled above, because a point is selected in the image.
You may use the S key on your keyboard instead of clicking on the Select button!

A replace button.
First select a point. Then click on the replace button (or press the R key) to enter the replace mode. Finally click at the new registration point in your image. This will move the selected point.

Note: From version 7.8 of March 2014 you may use the "Ctrl-arrow-key buttons" to stepwise move the selected point in any of four directions!

There is a delete button - the black cross.
This button will delete the currently selected point. If this point is part of a group, the whole group will be deleted. This is done so because deleting a point inside a group will probably make the order among the remaining points unclear. If you want to change some data within the group, either use the replace button to move individual points or use the delete button and then reregister the whole group.

There is a disable button - the red cross.
This button is used to disable single datapoints. When they are later written onto a .pos file a "D" will be written directly in front of the numeric coordinate pair. This is usable for dendrochronological data, where some visible tree-rings are not actual year rings. You may want to register such an unclear point though you want to have the coordinate pair disabled until you know more about the sample. You can open the coordinate file later, select the disabled point and then click again on the disable button to enable the point.

There is also a youngest point button or the Asterisk button.
Normally the first coordinate you click when recording is also the first coordinate to be written to your .pos file. Though when working with dendrochronological data you may want to register some extra even younger points later. Or you want to delete the original first coordinate pair from your data set. Then you have to indicate which point is the very first (outermost, youngest) point of your data set. This button is only enabled when you are working in dendro mode and when you have also selected a point with the Select button (the button with the big arrow). Click the Asterisk button to make the currently selected button your outermost point of your sample.

How to split a single point into a pair without loosing the original position (X). This is useful when you want to change the startpoint for the next series of points as you do not have to manually replace your last single point - you will just replace it automatically (using this button) with the first point of a new pair.

• You can make the helpline snap to (i.e. start at) the nearest point. This makes for better precision when it comes to placing points along a straight line.
• The AutoPlace helpline can be made to both snap to the nearest point and to stay on your screen after the AutoPlace points are set. This facilitates adding points missed by the AutoPlace mechanism as the helpline is still in place.

• The "set help line" command on key "P" has a twin "Q" to make it easy to reach this shortcut key with your left hand.
• When in D-mode, use Ctrl-Click to make a new point snap to the Helpline.

Settings menu: "When sorting points, do not swap e.g. 15:1 with 15:2 when 15:2 is more near to 14."

Old versions of CooRecorder have allways sorted also the pairs of a dendro group (=2 points) so that the one nearest to the previous point is placed first and that one with a longer distance to the previous point is placed second (after). That way of sorting sometimes became wrong when a sample was broken (so that you wanted to jump backwards) or when the sample was of oak. When measuring oak you sometimes want to step backwards into a neighbour beam in the wood to continue  measuring the ring sequence from that point. For pine that is not the very typical case.
When you have this option checked, the members of your pair will never be unexpectedly swapped.

When dragging an image across your screen, B-values and point numbers can now be suppressed to lessen flickering problems. This option can be turned on/off from the Settings menu, see "Settings/Show B- and PointNumbers when dragging with your mouse"

Get high precision when setting Seasonwood points (W) and crackMarker points (M-command, indicated by %gap):

• Seasonwood (W): Use Ctrl-Click to place a new seasonwood point and make it snap to an imaginable line between the two adjacent yearly border (latewood) points.
• CrackMarker (M): Use Ctrl-Click to place a new crackmarker point and make it snap to an imaginable line between the two adjacent yearly border (latewood) points.

• N-key turns on/off all point numbers and all year-numbers.
• L-key turns on/off all labels
• Ctrl-L-key turns on/off all blue values like B103.7 (this is turned on by a new blue data generation)

Thus the plus "point characters" can be made visible alone on an image!