Microsoft Word tutorial origin doc

Notes: 1. Throughout this discussion, “click” means a single click with the left mouse button; “double 
click” means two quick clicks with the left mouse button and right click means one click with the right 
mouse button.
 
 
2. One of the figures you are to produce is included at the end of this tutorial. 
 
A series of sequential selections from one or more sequential menus will be represented in italics as 
“Step1/Step2/Step3”, etc. in which the slash marks are separators and are not entered from the 
keyboard. For example, to open Origin click on “start/course software/science/chm/microcal origin 6.0” . 
User-added text, numbers, etc. are represented by bold type. 

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I. OPENING ORIGIN/ENTERING DATA 
The first time you use Origin, you must click on “start/course software/science/chm/Copy client files”
in sequence. To start Origin, click on “Origin 6.0 client”. For all subsequent uses, click on “start/course 
software/science/chm/Origin 6.0 client”.
When Origin opens on screen, you should see a “menu” bar (in light gray) and two rows of 
toolbars (to which we will refer as “toolbars”) at the top of the screen, a worksheet with two empty data 
columns, A(X) and B(
Y), and a toolbar near the middle or bottom of the screen we shall call the “plotting 
toolbar”.
To enter concentration data in Column A(X), click on cell A-1, type the first concentration value, 
click the “Down arrow” or “Enter” on the keyboard, type the second concentration value, and repeat the 
process until all concentration data are entered in column A(X). Repeat the process to enter absorbance 
data in column B(Y). 
It will be necessary to add columns for the other data in Table 1. To add a column, click on 
“Column/Add new columns/OK” from the menu bar at the top of the screen. Enter data from Table 1 in 
Columns A – E. 
Use 
“File/Save project” as options from the menu bar to save your worksheet onto a floppy disk as 
“File name” ORIG1_A.ORG. 
SUGGESTIONS: It is strongly suggested that you save your work on a floppy disk after major steps 
below. This will save you grief in case you accidentally lose a file and it will permit you to explore 
capabilities of Origin other than the minimum essential features described below.
 
II. PLOTTING DATA (Linear plot) 
Data for absorbance vs. concentration in Table 1 are used to illustrate how to plot data and format 
plots using Origin 6.0. 
A. Unformatted scatter plot 
To generate an unformatted “Scatter plot” (plot of individual data points) of Absorbance vs. 
Concentration:
a. Click on “Plot/Scatter plot” in the menu at the top of the screen. 
b. Click on “A(X)/<->X” in the drop-down menu to select concentration data in the A-column as the 
independent variable (X-axis). 
c. Click on “B(Y)/<->Y” in the drop-down menu to select concentration data in the B-column as the 
dependent variable (Y-axis). 
d. Click on “OK”; an unformatted or partially formatted scatter plot should appear with data in 
Column A on the abscissa (X-axis) and data in Column B on the ordinate (Y-axis). 
Notes: There will be two small icons in the upper left corner of the plot, one colorful one next to “Graph1” 
and one gray one below it with a number (probably “1”) in it. The colorful icon is called the “Hide/delete” 
icon herein; the numbered icon is called the “Layer icon”. 
 
e. Double click on the “Hide/delete” icon and note the options in the pop-up menu; Click on “Cancel” 
so that the figure will not be hidden or deleted. This function permits you hide or delete unwanted 
plots. 
f. Double click on the “Layer icon” and note the options; then click on cancel. This icon permits you 
to add other data (such as error bars) to a plot. 
g. The 
Screen-reader tool (small square with cross-hairs in it near the center of the screen) is used 
to read values of X/Y coordinates. With a plot in the foreground, click on the Screen-reader tool, 
place the cursor somewhere on a plot and Click the left mouse button. Numerical values of the 
X/Y coordinates should appear on the screen. Click on the Pointer tool to return to the normal 
mode. Help can be used to learn more about this and other tools. 

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B. Error bars 
It is always good practice to include error bars on data plots. The following procedure illustrates how 
to add the absorbance errors in Column D(Y) as error bars on your plot; a similar procedure can be used 
to add errors in any column to a plot. 
a. Double click on the “Layer icon”; click on “Plot association”. 
b. Click on (Select) “Data 1: A(X),B(Y)” in the bottom box. 
c. Click on “D(Y)/<->YEr/Replace/OK/OK”; the plot should reappear with error bars on it. 
Notes: For multiple plots in a window, click on the data for the plot to which error bars are to be added, 
click on “<->YEr” to add error bars in the Y direction (the usual case) or “<->Xer” to add error bars in the 
X direction.
C. Window control 
1. Screen layout. Origin permits a variety of window options controlled by the Window option in the 
menu bar. To examine some of these options, click on:
a. “Window/Tile horizontally”. 
b. “Window/Tile vertically”. 
c. “Window/Cascade”. 
Using the screen in the “Window/Cascade” format, click anywhere on the edges of the worksheet and 
note that it is brought to the forefront. Then click on the graph to bring it back to the forefront. 
2. Sizing figures/worksheets. To change the size of the graph display on the screen, move the cursor 
to the gray frame at the bottom of the graph until a double vertical arrow (
↓↑) arrow appears; Click and 
Drag the edge of the frame to increase or decrease the size of the graph. Adjust the size to your liking 
and proceed. 
3. 
Zoom/Suppress. The first three icons in the second row of the toolbar can be used to zoom in or 
out on a graph. To zoom in on the graph, click on the “eyeglass +” icon, place the cursor on the figure and 
click. Use the position arrows at the corners of the frame to view different parts of the figure. 
To restore to the normal view, click on the “full-page icon” (third icon in the set). To zoom out on the 
graph, click one or more times on the “eyeglass -” icon, then restore to full page using the “full-page” 
icon. 
D. Formatting figures 
Data plots should always have axes with tick marks on all four sides; the following stepwise 
procedure will help you format the figure plotted above. 
1. 
Abscissa. With the plot in the foreground, click on “Format/Axes/X Axis” from the
menu bar and: 
a. Choose 
“Scale/Horizontal” notecard and set: “From” to -0.25, “To” to 2.749, “Type” to linear, 
“Rescale” to manual, “Increment” to 0.5 “# Minor Ticks” to 1, “First tick” to 0. (This sets 
parameters for the X-axis.) 
b. Choose the note card “Title and format/Bottom axis” and: check “Show axis and ticks”,
Change”Title” to Concentration, set “Color” to black, “Thickness” to 1.5, “Major ticks” to In, 
“Minor ticks” to In. 
c. Click on “Top axis”, set “Major ticks” to In, “Minor ticks” to In and leave other settings as they 
are. 
d. Click 
“Apply /OK” to view the modified graph. 
2. Ordinate. Use a similar procedure (Steps a - d) to format the ordinate of your graph, replacing “X 
axis” with “Y axis”, “Horizontal” with “Vertical”, and ‘Bottom” and “Top” with “Left” and “Right”. The ordinate 
title should be Absorbance (au) the scale should be from –0.25 to 3.6.