Figure 8. Lib. Search tab

Just above the Lib. Search tab’s window is a button bar (Figure 9).

The Go button will launch a search of the highlighted spectrum in the Spec List. The button to the right of the Go button will launch a Structure search of the highlighted structure in the Spec List. The next button to the right (with the file folder icon) is used to import spectra from a text file. The last button, just before the drop-down list box, is used to display the Library Search Options dialog box. This dialog box is used in selecting libraries to be searched, search types, and other factors associated with the search of spectra and structures. The drop-down list box contains the Search History. A previous search’s display can be restored by highlighting an entry in this list. NOTE: the Program can be set to automatically clear the Hit List and/or the Spec List by selecting the Clear History on Exit check box in the Hit List tab and/or Plot/Text of Spec List tab in the Library Search Properties dialog box displayed by clicking the right mouse button and selecting Properties from the RMB menu. NOTE: MS Search v.2.0d uses different from previous versions index files for the Structure search in user libraries, therefore these files should be rebuilt using “Rebuild Structure Search Database” from the Tools menu. This should also be done for each new user library connected to the MS Search and every time spectra with structure were added, removed, or edited in a user library because the structure search index files are not updated automatically.

The button to the right of the Best matching only button is the View hit list search options button. Selecting View hit list search options button will result in the display of a dialog box that lists the parameters of the currently displayed search including library search, constraints, limits, and type of search (Figure 10).

The last button on the right, the View substructure information button, displays the Substructure Information dialog box. The Substructure Information dialog box contains a list of the probability of the presence and absence of substructures that may be associated with a compound that produced the searched mass spectrum along with additional predictions about this compound’s molecular weight and estimate of the numbers or atoms of chlorine and/or bromine that may be contained. This is especially useful with either a Neutral Loss or a Hybrid Neutral Loss “Similarity” search.