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Software

Software Requirements

• Microsoft Office is required to open Microsoft Word (DOC) and Excel (XLS) files.

• Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files can be opened with Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader software. Adobe Reader is a free download that reads PDF files.

• These files may also be viewed online with free Google Docs (you must register for a free account).

• An image preview application or text editor (commonly provided with operation systems) is needed to view Graphics Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), and text (TXT) files; additionally, these file formats can usually be opened in Web browser windows.

Digitizing Methods

   The digitizing methods used to convert the hand-written core description sheets into digital data files are described in the Converting the Analog Data document (PDF) by Flocks (2004) and Dreher and others (2008). The scanned core description sheets (PDF) were digitized using a digitizing tablet (Wacom) and software (Golden Software: Didger 3). A macro-processing program (Flocks, 2008) was used to process the digitized core description sheets and convert the files into numerical and text information (XLS spreadsheets). Instructions on how to use the macro script are found in the Digitizing Processing document (DOC). The digitizing macro script provided below is an example only. The script may need to be modified to run on another system. Contact James Flocks (jflocks@usgs.gov) for more detailed information.

   The Digitizing Macro (XLS) captures all of the symbol, text, and quantitative attributes included on the description sheets using a translation process that relates the position of an attribute in defined two-dimensional space to the value that the attribute represents.  The relationship between position and data value is dependent on a key table that is customized to the type and format of data being converted. The digitizing macro is compatible with both PC and Macintosh operating systems with Microsoft Office Excel prior to version 7.

ArcGIS Project

   The map documents and shapefiles used to create the vibracore maps provided in this report can be found in the Arc_CI.zip file located in the ARC folder. This folder also contains a readme file that describes the GIS project in detail. Map documents were created using ESRI ArcGIS 8.3 software. Shapefiles provided may be viewed using other versions of ArcGIS, ArcView, or the public domain software ArcExplorer (http://www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/).