<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
Each piece of information stored in a topology data file is called a
<i>packet</i>.  There are many different types of packets: containers,
triangulations, normal surface lists, text items and more.
<p>
Packets are arranged in a tree (displayed on the left hand side of the
main window), so each packet may store several other &quot;child packets&quot;
beneath it.  This allows you to keep large amounts of data together in a
single file in an organised fashion.
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
Changes that you make to a packet (such as a triangulation, a text
packet, a script, etc.) do not take effect until you commit them.
<p>
To commit your changes, press the <i>Commit</i> button at the bottom of
the packet editor.  If you close the packet editor or press the
<i>Discard</i> button, any changes since the last commit will be
discarded (you will be warned before this happens).
<p>
Note that some actions automatically commit your changes for you (examples
include several triangulation actions such as simplification, subdivision
and connected sum decomposition).
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
Regina comes with a full users' handbook, including an index of common
tasks.  You can read it by selecting <i>Regina Handbook</i> from
the <i>Help</i> menu, or by typing <tt>help:/regina</tt> directly into
Konqueror.
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
Regina ships with a number of sample files that give you an overview
of what Regina can do.  The file <tt>sample-misc.rga</tt> is an
excellent starting point.
<p>
These sample files are generally installed in
<tt>/usr/share/regina/examples</tt>,
<tt>/usr/local/share/regina/examples</tt>
or a similar path, depending on your distribution and how Regina was compiled.
<p>
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
Most user interface elements in Regina come with &quot;what's this&quot;
help.
<p>
To find out what a button, text box, list, menu item, etc. does,
select <i>What's This?</i> from the <i>Help</i> menu and click on whatever
object you are curious about.
</html>
</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
<html>
<p>
If you wish to remember what role a tetrahedron plays within a
triangulation, you can name it.
<p>
In the <i>Gluings</i> tab of the triangulation editor, double click
in the <i>Tetrahedron</i> column and start typing to give a tetrahedron
a name.  Regina will also assign it a tetrahedron number as usual.
</html>
</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
If you find it difficult searching through lists of normal surfaces,
you can create a <i>surface filter</i>.  A surface filter lets you
restrict a list of surfaces so you only see surfaces with particular
properties (for instance, all closed orientable surfaces with Euler
characteristic zero).
<p>
To create a new surface filter, select <i>New Filter</i> from the
<i>Packet Tree</i> menu.  In the dialog that appears, select <i>Filter
by properties</i> and then enter in your particular constraints.
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</tip>
<tip>
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<p>
Once a triangulation has a normal surface list or an angle structure
list beneath it, the triangulation cannot be changed (since changing
the triangulation would invalidate the normal surfaces and angle
structures).
<p>
If you wish to edit such a triangulation, try cloning it through the
<i>Packet Tree</i> menu.  The clone will not have any children beneath
it and may be edited freely.
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
If you wish to mark a particular normal surface within a list so that
you can find it again later, you can give it a name.
<p>
Simply double click in the empty <i>Name</i> field in the table of
surfaces and start typing.  Don't forget to commit your changes!
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
You can combine several surface filters using boolean AND or OR.
This is done using <i>combination filters</i>.
<p>
Select <i>New Filter</i> from the <i>Packet Tree</i> menu, and in
the dialog that appears select <i>Combination filter</i>.
This filter will then combine all of the filters immediately
beneath it in the packet tree.
<p>
So, for instance, to create a filter that captures 2-spheres and
tori, create a new combination filter that uses boolean OR.  Beneath
this combination filter, create two property filters: one that captures
closed orientable surfaces with Euler characteristic two, and one that
captures closed orientable surfaces with Euler characteristic zero.
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
Regina ships with several command-line utilities for manipulating data
files and running long census calculations.  See the
<i>Specialised Utilities</i> section of the users' handbook for details.
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
There are two ways of editing the gluings between tetrahedron faces.
<p>
Impatient users can use <i>direct edit</i> mode, where you type a
string such as <tt>1&nbsp;(201)</tt> directly into the table.
New users might prefer <i>pop-up dialog</i> mode, where you double-click
on a table cell to bring up a dialog box instead.
<p>
You can switch between modes through Regina's settings, by selecting
<i>Triangulation Options</i> and looking for <i>Edit mode</i>.
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</tip>
<tip category="Regina">
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<p>
If you use Regina's python interface and you find yourself writing the same
code over and over again, you can put this code in a <i>python library</i>.
<p>
A python library is simply a text file (usually containing function
definitions) that is executed at the beginning of each python session.
<p>
To add a new python library, simply open Regina's settings,
select <i>Python Options</i> and add your file to the list.
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</tip>
