Step #1

This screen should only require you to type in two parameters :

clone name template :
Type the name of your first clone on the gel and select a numbering method (switch tray gel clone naming on/off).
This first clone name is the template for all the following clones, which will have the same name base, but the last number will be incremented each lane.
gel number :
In order to keep track of where a particular clone came from, each gel is issued a number, which will be attached to each clone, when it's written to the database. This'll help users of the database to refer back to the particular gel, that a clone came from.
Make sure this number is a positive integer number.

Check below that the parameters are correct. If you have opened the gel for the first time, these numbers are taken from the the configuration file. If all gels for the current project use the same parameters, and so does this incoming gel, these parameters should be correct first time.

If you still need to change them, click on the text entry field of the parameter you want to change and correct the content using normal editing keystrokes. When you hit RETURN, while editing the parameters, the next text entry field will become active, so the cursor loops through these fields.

The standard file and the vector file can be set by clicking on the [file] button, which open a file chooser as a convenient tool to find and select files

If the parameters are correct

If you've just edited the gel number, just hit RETURN while this text entry field is active, or click on the [NEXT >>] button, which takes you to Step 2 of the editing cycle.

If this gel hasn't been lane tracked before, it'll run the lane tracker before entering Step 2. When you hit [NEXT >>], the button will go black and the program goes away thinking. Step 2 will come up as soon as the lane tracking has finished successfully. While the lane tracker runs the main window freezes and waits for it to finish.

However you can run this and all other processing functions as a background job. Just switch on the batch mode by highlighting the [batch] button at the top.

When you click on [NEXT >>] now, the display won't freeze - it'll submit the lane tracking as a background job and return to the first chooser screen, where the gel will come up locked, with a little circle in the lane tracking column.

When the parameters aren't correct

There may be a need to set the parameters on a per-gel basis. For example, if the number of lanes is different for this gel, or if perhaps the default parameters were set incorrectly, and this gel was started before they were corrected.

You can change any of the parameters. A description of all of the parameters is given in the help for the project defaults screen.