Organizing Analyses

Q: I was wondering if there was a way in [MSC-]LIMS to make a sub-folder within a batch of analyses? I’m looking for an easier way to organize so I can find all my metals and/or sugars from one batch quickly versus looking through all the other results to pick out each metal/sugar. Is this possible?

A: Yes! Two techniques exist to organize your sample’s analyses. First, “requirements” are the closest analogy to the subfolders you describe. A requirement is a named list of analyses. Use the Requirements setup screen and, for example, add your metals analyses to a “Metals” requirement. You can then add that requirement to projects and samples to add all of its analyses. You will then see your metals analyses grouped under the Metals requirement name in the Results by Sample screen and on the Sample Summary report. Second, you can add your own numeric sort order to individual analyses and to requirements, so that analyses appear on screen and on reports in an assigned rather than alphabetic order. Use the [Analysis Sorting] button on the Analyses setup screen and the [Requirement Sorting] button on the Requirements setup screen to define your sort order. The numeric Sort Order field accepts values up to 32767. If you use this feature, remember to leave numeric gaps between the values you enter so you can easily add new analyses later. For example, if you want your metals analyses to appear before sugar analyses, you might assign sort orders for metals in the 1000s and sugars in the 2000s.