Workspaces
A workspace saves your analysis, not your data: gates, hierarchy, compensation, axes, scales and layout, plus references to the FCS files it applies to.
- Ctrl+S — save
- Ctrl+Shift+O — open a workspace
What is in it
Section titled “What is in it”| Saved | Not saved |
|---|---|
| Gates and the hierarchy | A copy of your FCS files |
| Compensation | Anything derived you can recompute |
| Axes and scales per plot | |
| Layout and open files | |
| File display names |
Because it references rather than copies, a workspace is small and your data stays where your lab put it. The trade-off is the next section.
When files have moved
Section titled “When files have moved”If the FCS files have moved or been renamed since you saved, the app asks you to relocate them rather than failing or silently opening an empty analysis.
This is worth knowing before it happens, because it is the predictable consequence of referencing files: a workspace on a network share, pointing at data on a local disk, will not reopen on a colleague’s machine. If you need to hand an analysis to someone else, agree on a path both of you can reach.
Recent files and workspaces
Section titled “Recent files and workspaces”Both are in the File menu — the fastest way back into yesterday’s work.
Renaming files
Section titled “Renaming files”Double-click a file in the file list to rename it. This changes the label in the analysis, not the file on disk, which is useful when acquisition filenames are long, cryptic, or identical apart from a digit.
Practical habits
Section titled “Practical habits”Save before you batch. Batch analysis across many files is the point at which you least want to rebuild a strategy.
Save a workspace alongside every exported figure. A figure without the workspace that produced it cannot be revisited. See what makes a result reproducible.