Creating Graphical User Interfaces

Saving and Running a GUI

After writing the callbacks, you can run the GUI by selecting Run from the Tools menu or clicking the Run button on the GUIDE toolbar. If you have not saved the GUI recently, GUIDE displays the following dialog box.

If this happens, click Yes and then save the GUI files to a writable directory.

Note    GUI FIG-files that are created or modified with MATLAB 7.0 or a later MATLAB version, are not automatically compatible with Version 6.5 and earlier versions. To make a FIG-file, which is a kind of MAT-file, backward compatible, you must check the MAT-file Ensure backward compatibility (-v6) preference in the Preferences dialog box under General -> MAT-Files. Note that uibuttongoups and uipanels are introduced in MATLAB 7.0, and you should not use them in GUIs that you expect to run in earlier MATLAB versions.

If the directory where you save the GUI is not on the MATLAB path, GUIDE opens the following dialog, giving you the option of changing the current working directory to the directory containing the GUI files, or adding that directory to the MATLAB path.

Click OK to change the current working directory. GUIDE then opens the GUI as shown in the following figure.

Note    The name of the FIG-file saved by the Layout Editor and the generated M-file must match. See Renaming GUI Files if you want to rename files after first activating the GUI.

Next, select membrane in the pop-up menu and click the Contour push button. The GUI should look like the following figure.

Try experimenting with this GUI by adding another data set in the opening function, and a push button that displays a plot of the data set. Make sure to add the name of the new data set to the pop-up menu as well.

For more examples of creating GUIs with GUIDE, see the following sections:

• "GUI Applications
• Using GUIDE Templates

Using the Object Browser to Identify Callbacks

Laying Out GUIs and Setting Properties

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