iTOL annotation editor help

Help for the LibreOffice version of the editor

This page covers the usage of iTOL annotation editor for LibreOffice Calc, and only highlights the major differences from the Microsoft Excel version. Please also visit the main help page for detailed description of various datasets and other annotation options.

Prerequisites

  1. iTOL user account: if you don't have an iTOL account, please create it first. Upload the trees you want to annotate into your iTOL account. Annotation editor will not work if there are no trees available. See iTOL's tree management help page for details.
  2. API access enabled in iTOL: login to your iTOL account, and then click your name in the top right corner. In the popup menu, click 'User account page'. Find the API access section, and click the Toggle API access button (1. in the figure on the right). Copy the API key (2. in the figure on the right) which will be displayed in the popup window after clicking Enable API access.
  3. iTOL annotation editor ODS file: Download the current version of the editor and save it to your computer
  4. LibreOffice Calc 7.2 or later: you can download it from the LibreOffice home page. Support for Python scripting must be included in your installation (which is the default setting).
  5. Macros enabled in LibreOffice: make sure macro security is set to Medium. You can access the setting in : Tools -> Options -> LibreOffice -> Security -> Macro Security
api

Getting the iTOL API access key

Differences

There are only a few small differences, compared to the Microsoft Excel version of the editor :

  1. API key is used instead of your login information. See Prerequisites above for details.
  2. There is no login button. Simply click the Select a tree button to start.
  3. Instead of your iTOL login, API key can be stored in the cell C5. In that case, the editor will not prompt you to provide the API key. Make sure you do not make the spreadsheets with included API key available to others, as they could access your account.
  4. To use the Color picker functionality, an extra LibreOffice extension must be included. You can download the extension here: JePickers_iTOL.oxt

Video tutorial

Video tutorial demonstrates the usage of the Microsoft Excel version of the editor, but apart from the minor differences described above, all the functionality is identical. If you want to try the steps shown in the tutorial, you can download the phylogenetic tree and the example dataset and upload them to your iTOL account. Please check the iTOL help page if you need assistance with uploading, or contact me directly.