This dialog box has two sub-windows (Taxa/Groups and Ungrouped Taxa), a panel bar between them containing a few buttons, and a command panel, with the lower part containing the Add, Delete, Close, and Help buttons.
Taxa/Groups sub-window on the left: It shows all the currently defined taxa and group names hierarchically. If a taxon has been assigned to a group, it will appear connected to that group. Groups may be displayed in a collapsed format (indicated by a + mark before their name). You can click '+' to expand the group to a listing of the taxa contained in it, and click ‘–‘ to collapse the group to only view the group name. Groups that do not contain any members do not have this box. Next is a checkbox indicating whether a given group or taxon will be included in an analysis. Following that is an icon indicating a taxon (single box) or a group (layer of boxes). Grayed out check boxes are used to indicate that some of the taxa in a group are selected and others are unselected. You can rearrange the order of taxa and groups using drag-and-drop. However, note that this order is not automatically used in the Data Explorer. To enforce this order, use the Sort command in the Data Explorer.
Ungrouped Taxa Sub-window on the right: This shows the names of all the taxa that do not belong to any of the groups to facilitate your ability to move taxa into groups. If this sub-window does not appear on your screen, then hold and drag the lower right corner of the dialog box to expand its width to unhide it.
Middle Command Panel: This resides between the above-mentioned two sub-windows and contains a splitter on its right edge. You can grab the splitter and move it to change the proportion of the space taken by the two sub-windows. In this panel left and right arrow buttons are used to add or remove taxa from the groups. Clicking the hand-with-a-pencil icon with a highlighted taxon or group name will allow you to edit that name.
Lower Command Panel: In the lower part of the Select/Edit Taxa/Groups window are buttons that are used to add and/or delete groups. The ‘+’ and ‘–‘ buttons are also present on the middle command panel.
Saving and Restoring Groups: You can save and restore which groups each taxa are stored in. This can prevent you from needing to setup the groups each time. Normally you would just save the session (using session saving). Although if you wanted to edit your data outside of MEGA then you would need to use a MEG file and use this to restore the groups.
Buttons |
Description |
Add |
Creates a new group. |
Delete |
Deletes the currently selected group. Any taxa that were assigned to the group will become freestanding. |
Ungroup |
Makes all the taxa in the selected group freestanding, but does not remove the group from the list. |
Close |
Closes the dialog box. |
Help |
Brings up help regarding the dialog box. |
How to perform functions:
Function |
Description |
Creating a new group |
Click on the Add button. Click on the highlighted name of the group and type in a new name. |
Deleting a group |
Select the group and click the Delete button. Any taxa that were assigned to this group will become freestanding. |
Adding taxa to a group |
Drag-and-drop the taxon on the desired group or select one or more taxa in the Ungrouped Taxa window and click on the left arrow button on the middle command panel. |
Removing a taxon from a group |
Click on the taxon and drag-and-drop it into a group (or outside all groups). Or, select the taxon and click on the right arrow button on the middle command panel. |
Include/Exclude taxa or groups |
Click the checkbox next to the group or taxa name. |