Select File:Open and browse in the Sample Projects folder for Origin project files that highlight specific data analysis and plotting features.
Sample data files are provided with Origin, so that you can experiment with Origin's analysis and plotting options.  With a new worksheet active, click the Import ASCII button on the Standard toolbar and then select the Sample Data subfolder to access these files.
Visit Microcal Software's web site for up-to-date information on Origin.  To launch your web browser and display links to the web site, open the Contents tab of the Origin Help file and double-click on the "Links to Microcal Software Web Site" book.  
You can start Origin by dragging an Origin file (*.OPJ, *.OGG, etc.) or Excel file (*.XLS) onto the Origin program icon or executable file.  
You can use Project Explorer to organize windows into folders, control the display of windows, and control how your Origin workspace will view windows.  Right-click on a folder or window in Project Explorer to see what's available.  Alternatively, select Help:Search and search on the keywords "Project Explorer".  
If you have organized your windows into a number of Project Explorer folders, the Project Explorer's Find dialog box helps you locate windows.  Right-click on the Project Explorer folder that you want to start your search from and select Find from the shortcut menu. 
Add and remove buttons from any of Origin's toolbars by selecting View:Toolbars and clicking the Commands tab.  You can now drag buttons between toolbars, remove a button from a toolbar by dragging the button off the toolbar, or add a button to a toolbar by dragging it from the Customize Toolbar dialog box.  
Select all the columns in a worksheet by pointing to the blank space in the upper-left corner of the worksheet (so that the mouse pointer changes to an arrow) and clicking the left mouse button.
Nonadjacent columns can be selected for various analysis and plotting options.  To select nonadjacent columns, hold the CTRL key down and then click on each column name.
If you are planning on sharing your Origin project with a colleague who has Origin 4.1, you should not use the Text and Numeric worksheet column display type (Origin's default setting).  Doing so could cause a loss in data when the project is opened in Origin 4.1.  To ensure that all columns in all new worksheets are Numeric display type instead of Text and Numeric, select the Use Numeric as Preferred Column Type check box on the Miscellaneous tab of the Options dialog box.  
For worksheet columns set to Date display, the last two date options in the Format drop-down list are Origin's available custom date formats.  Customize these date formats by editing the Custom Date Formats group on the Miscellaneous tab of the Options dialog box.  
Click the Import Multiple ASCII button on the Standard toolbar to import multiple files into a graph or worksheet(s).  When you import multiple files into a graph, you can specify the plotting designations for each of the columns of data in each of the files.  When you import multiple files into multiple worksheets, you can select the associated worksheet template for each of the files.  
If you work with ASCII files with custom file name extensions, you can display these custom extensions in the Files of Type drop-down list and associated Look In view box when importing and exporting files.  Open the File Locations tab of the Options dialog box and edit the ASCII File Type controls.
Check if Origin runs a LabTalk script for a tool or menu command by opening the Script window and then pressing CTRL + SHIFT while selecting a tool button or menu command.  If Origin runs a script, the script types to the Script window, but does not execute.
If your graph window displays multiple data plots, you can control the drawing order in the graph layer by editing the Layer n dialog box.  Display a data plot "in front" by selecting it from the Layer Contents list and clicking the Down Arrow button to move it to the bottom of the list.  To learn more, select Help:Search and search on the keywords "Layer:reordering data plots".
You can drag selected data from a worksheet or Excel workbook and plot it by dropping it into a graph window.  Control the resultant graph type for this plotting method by editing the Drag and Drop Plot drop-down list on the Graph tab of the Options dialog box. 
Place a date/time stamp on your graph by clicking the Date and Time button on the Graph toolbar.  To find out how to modify the stamp's date/time format, select Help:Search and search on the keywords "Graph:adding date/time stamps".  
Enhance the redraw speed of a graph layer by editing the graphic image caching and speed mode controls on the Size/Speed tab of the layer's Plot Details dialog box.  
Display the outlines of the front planes in a 3D graph by editing the Front Corner controls on the Planes tab of the layer's Plot Details dialog box.  This option gives your graph a 3D cube effect. 
Customize the plotting range on the XY plane of your 3D graph - without changing the axis range - by editing the XY Clipping group on the Miscellaneous tab of the layer's Plot Details dialog box.  
Convert a single layer graph window (that contains multiple data plots) into a multiple layer graph window by clicking the Extract to Layers button on the Graph toolbar.  
Create an inset layer in your graph by clicking the Linked Inset button or the Linked Inset with Data button on the Add tab of the Layer tool.
Convert a multiple layer graph window into multiple graph windows with single layers by clicking the Extract to Graphs button on the Graph toolbar.  
Enlarge a region of a data plot (and change the axis scale range) using the Enlarger tool from the Tools toolbar.  
Add prefixes or suffixes to your axis tick labels on the Tick Labels tab of the Axis dialog box.  To learn how to display special characters, select Help:Search and search on the keywords "Text label:special formatting commands".
After plotting your data using a particular graph template, change the graph type by clicking a new graph type button on one of the plotting toolbars. 
Modify the display of an individual data point by holding down the CTRL key while double-clicking on the data point.  Remove the special formatting of the data point by clicking once on the data point and pressing DELETE.  
Create a custom color for a data plot by clicking on the color button in the Plot Details dialog box and selecting Custom, and then right-clicking on the Custom button.  
After adding data to a graph layer, reset the axes scale values by selecting Graph:Rescale to Show All or by clicking the Rescale button on the Graph toolbar. 
Display characters in the Plot Details symbol gallery by selecting the Symbol Gallery Displays Characters check box on the Graph tab of the Options dialog box.  
Display custom bitmaps as symbols in your graph by editing the User Defined Symbols grid on the Graph tab of the Options dialog box.  
Control the fill behavior in a fill area data plot by editing the Line tab of the Plot Details dialog box.  
Prevent Origin from reformatting your custom pie chart labels by editing the Labels tab of the pie chart's Plot Details dialog box.  
Remove the boundary box around a pie chart by editing the Show Elements group on the Display tab of the layer's Plot Details dialog box.  
Use color to represent magnitude for XYAM vector graphs by editing the Plot Details dialog box.  On the Vector tab, click the Color button and select Color Mapping:MagnitudeColumn.  Edit the color and associated vector magnitude levels on the Color Map tab. 
Add a label to any contour line on your contour graph by right-clicking at the desired line location and selecting Add Contour Label from the shortcut menu.  
Re-position a label on a contour line in your contour graph by dragging it to the desired location.  
Create a text label displaying the X or Y values of a graph's data point using the following notation in the Text Control dialog box:  %(WorksheetName, ColumnNumber, RowNumber).  Select the Link to Variables check box in the Label Control dialog box.  Refresh the graph window to update the label.
After customizing the text in a graph legend's Text Control dialog box, rename the legend to prevent Origin from updating the legend during re-plotting.  Objects are renamed in their associated Label Control dialog box. 
Incrementally increase or decrease the font size of all selected text labels by clicking the Increase Font or Decrease Font buttons on the Object Edit toolbar. 
Create a vertical (or horizontal) line that is the length of the layer and is located at a specific X (or Y) axis value by using the LabTalk Draw command:  draw -l -v XAxisValue (for a vertical line) and draw -l -h YAxisValue (for a horizontal line).  For example, to create a vertical line the length of the layer at X=5, type the following text in the Script window:  draw -l -v 5  (ENTER)
Save time customizing a graph window by preventing the non-active graph windows from redrawing.  The "Percent of Page Uncovered to Redraw Page" text box on the Miscellaneous tab of the page's Plot Details dialog box controls the redraw criteria of the graph window when it is non-active.  
Set the resolution and size when exporting graphs by selecting the Show Export Options check box in the Save As dialog box.  If the image will only be displayed on a computer screen, keep the resolution set to 72 pels/in.  However, if the image will be used for desktop publishing, increase the resolution to Printer.  Note that the higher the resolution, the more disk space the image will use.  
When exporting graphs or layout pages for use on a web page, export in the JPEG format using 72 pels/in or lower.  A higher pels/in will not improve the quality when displayed on a computer screen.  
When a graph or layout page is exported in EPS format, a TIFF preview is added to the export file.  This preview section is in low resolution and is in black and white.  When the EPS file is inserted in a document in programs such as Microsoft Word, the TIFF preview displays on the screen.  However, when the document is sent for output to a printer which is capable of handling the PostScript language, the printer produces a printout with higher resolution and color. 
When exporting your graph or layout page to the Clipboard or a graphics file, control the size of the picture and its margin by editing the Copy Page controls on the Page tab of the Options dialog box.  
Use Origin's master page option to add your company logo to all your graph windows.  Rename your source graph window "Master" to add the logo to all graph windows.  Rename your source graph window "Portrait" or "Landscape" to add the logo to only portrait or landscape oriented graph windows.  For more information, select Help:Search and search on the keywords "Master page". 
Print a window or selected windows from a Project Explorer folder.  Select the window icons on the right side of Project Explorer and then right-click within the selection and select Print Window or Print Windows from the shortcut menu.  
Ensure that annotations are optimally placed on your graph before printing or exporting by previewing the graph (File:Print Preview) or by switching to Print View mode (View:Print View).
When you click on a data plot using the Data Reader tool, Origin searches for the nearest point using bisection search if the number of points is greater than the Bisection Search Points value set on the Miscellaneous tab of the Options dialog box.  If a search fails because the X dataset is not sorted, you can either sort the X column or increase the Bisection Search Points value so that it is larger than the number of data points.
Exclude ranges of data or individual data points from analysis using the Mask toolbar.  
Select the X dataset source for a fit curve created in the nonlinear curve fitter from the NLSF After Fitting dialog box.  Additionally, edit this dialog box to specify the output location for the resultant fit parameters.
Overlay distribution curves on histograms and box charts by editing the Data tab of the Plot Details dialog box.
Generate advanced statistics on your columns of data, such as percentiles, confidence levels, and Kurtosis.  After selecting Analysis:Statistics on Columns, select the Advanced Statistics check box on the statistics worksheet and then click the Recalculate button.
Raw X-Y pair data can be binned in two dimensions using the 2D Binning menu command.  With the Y column of data highlighted, select Edit:Convert to Matrix:2D Binning.  Specify the bin parameters for X and Y and Origin will create a matrix from the raw data by performing 2D binning in X and Y.
Threshold filtering allows you to filter noise from your data by selecting a threshold level and eliminating contributions from all Fourier components that are at and below the selected level.  Select Analysis:FFT Filter:Threshold when a graph window is active.
User Defined toolbar buttons provide a quick method for running script from a specified section of a script file.  These buttons can be added to a default or User Defined toolbar.  To find out how to create a button, select Help:Search and search on the keywords "LabTalk:buttons for running script:user defined toolbar buttons".