The Edit Physical Constants and Edit Unit Conversions dialogs allow you to edit and arrange the entries in the Constants and Conversions menus. These dialogs are available as the first item in their respective menus. Both dialogs function similarly in that you can freely edit, add, delete, and rearrange the entries in both dialogs in the same way. Only the data being edited is different.
IMPORTANT: Although you can freely edit the Constants and Conversions menus, your changes will not be saved if you are not a registered user. The following paragraph applies only to registered users.
Data is saved to a file called 窶廚onstants & Conversions窶 in the same folder as CalcWorks itself. The information for the associated editing dialog is saved to this file every time the OK button is pressed in the dialog. In addition, any files that are saved in this manner can be opened from the Finder by double-clicking them. The entries in the new file then replace any and all entries currently in the menus, and this file becomes the default constants and conversions file, where all changes will be saved. You can easily manage several different sets of Constants and Conversions in this way. However, the file named 窶廚onstants & Conversions窶 is the default set and will automatically be loaded at launch if it is in the same folder as CalcWorks.
To edit an entry, click on any part of the line it appears on. The entry will highlight and its contents will appear in the editing fields at the bottom of the dialog. Click on the Delete button to remove the selected entry from the list. Once you change one or more of the editing fields, the Add and Change buttons will become available. Click the Add button to add the new edited entry to the list. Click the Change button to change the highlighted entry as it appears in the editing fields. Clicking another entry in the list ignores any changes made in the editing fields. To rearrange the entries in the list, simply click and drag an entry to its new position. Position indicator arrows will appear on either side of the list as you drag to indicate where the entry will be placed when the mouse button is released. To accept all changes made to the entries, save changes to disk (if registered), and update the corresponding menu, click the OK button. The Cancel button cancels all changes made to the entries, and leaves the corresponding menu unchanged.
The Edit Physical Constants dialog allows you to edit the constants' name and value.
The Edit Unit Conversions dialog allows you to edit the current units' and new units' name, the category name, and the conversion formula used to convert from the current units to the new units. The conversion formula consists of either one or two operations, which will be evaluated left to right. The operation (add, subtract, multiply, or divide) is selected from a popup menu, while the operand is entered into the editing field. 窶漏everse窶 operations (reverse operands before operating) for subtraction and division are also available for the first operation, allowing inverse (1/x) calculations such as 窶惑req (meters) = 300/wavelength窶. The operand can be longer than the editing box, and the full precision will be used in the conversion. A zero or blank operand will be ignored in the conversion. The category name can be used to sort the entries into specific categories, that appear as entries in the Conversions menu, with attached submenus that contain the actual conversions. You must have Topics turned on in Preferences for the categories to appear.
There is no need to enter the reverse conversion (a conversion in the opposite direction) as a separate entry, as the reverse conversion is performed automatically by CalcWorks if you hold the shift key as you select the conversion from the menu. You can also choose to show all reverse conversions explicitly in the menu, by selecting the Show inverse option in Preferences.
