HELP_001 | eLabFTW step-by-step guide: Creating experiments

ELabFTW is used as an electronic laboratory book. For this purpose, the following aspects are mainly used (to be found in the top bar):

A. Experiments

Description of the performed experiment, so that someone else could reproduce it.

Important: As in a real lab book, entries (experiments) may not be removed, i.e. experiments may not be deleted (but editing is still possible)

B. Databases

Sometimes you refer in experiments to other data, these are often in databases.

E.g. in an experiment you can refer to a method from the database, so you don't have to repeat all details of the method and it is sufficient to list changes to the original method.

To create a new experiment, proceed as follows:

A1. Create new

First press the "Experiments" tab

(hold down "CTRL" at the same time, a new window will open and prevent closing this guideline).

Press the "Create" button.

A2. Editor

A window will open where you can enter information about the experiment.

The individual fields to which you can make entries are:

Keywords/tags: are used to categorize the experiment
Date: the date of the experiment, default is the current date
Status: indicates if the experiment is still running or if it was a failure or success
Experiment: similar to Word you can describe your experiment here
Attach a file: here you can drag and drop data or access the smartphone camera

If you want to insert pictures in the text, attach them first and then you can insert the pictures at the cursor position

Steps: here you can list single steps and check them off like in a to-do list
Linked elements: here you can link to databases that are related to the experiment

Tip: if you want to link experiments within the text at a certain position, you can enter "#" and the first letters of the data set and you will get suggestions for linkable items

A3. Save changes

Press "Save and go back" to save changes!

A4. Templates

You can also create templates of experiments.

Click the arrow on the left side of the create button.

All your existing tempaltes are listed here.

Click Manage templates to create a new one.

You can also use the templates of your colleagues.

Go in the top bar to TEAM.

Select a template in the drop down menu.

Click on the "..." button to proceed.

B1. Database

How we create a database you will see in the next tutorial.