Basics
The Unit Converter was developed to compare and convert units. You can type in numbers, terms and fractions in an arbitrary unit, which are then converted to arbitrary other units. In this section you learn how to work with the Unit Converter.
Category, Display and Filters
In the upper part of the main window you can choose the category of units you will work with, you can set how the units should be displayed and whether you want to use a filter or not. In the upper box, you can choose the category of units like length, mass or speed. Custom categories of units will be listed in this box, too. A complete list of all units currently available, you can read on the page Units.
Under this box, you can choose how to display the values and units. You can either compare two or three units at the same time or you can show a table including all units available with or without a comparison unit. The compare units display let you compare directly two or three units and this kind of display is introduced in the next section whille in the table display you can compare and sort all units together. This kind of display is explained in the section under the compare units section.
In the last box on the top of the main window you can choose a global filter which reduces the range of units. You can leave this box empty to show all units that are available in the current category. In categories with a great number of different units, the filter can be a good idea to have a better overview. In the filter one or more words can be used and the words have to be separated by a comma (for example "inch,centimetre,point"). You can use arbitrary characters from the units or category and there is no distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters in the filter.
Comparison of two or three Units
If you have selected a comparison between two or three units in the box "Display", in the lower part of the window the two or three units will be shown and under them there will be a box you can use as a kind of clipboard.
The area of each unit consits of three boxes and two buttons. In the long upper box, you can select an unit. You can select an unit directly from the box or you can type in some characters from the unit or category to make it easier to find the right unit. Under this long box, you can select a prefix (for example "Nano) and you can type in an arbitrary value (for example "1", "1,2", "1/3", "2PI" or "1+2/3"). A list of all formatings you can use as values can be read in the section Format of Terms and Factors. Behind these two boxes, there are two buttons with which you can copy the values to the clipboard to use them in other software applications. The first button only copies the value while the second one copies the value as well as the name or the shortcut of the unit. In the menu "Settings > Options", you can choose the format in which the units will be copied to the clipboard. If you activate the option "Copy Values to Clipboard and to this Box" in the main window, the values and units will not only be copied to the clipboard but also in this box. With this function, you can collect some units in the box before working with them.
If you would like to convert a value from one unit into another unit, you have to select the unit in the long box. After that you can select a prefix (if you want) and type in a value. During changing a value, the other values will be updated automatically, so that you can immediately see how the value looks like in another unit. In a next step, you can copy the value with one of the buttons to the clipboard.
Table with all Units
If you have choosen the table as kind of display, you can see a table including all units available in the main window. Of course, you can use the global filter again to minimize the number of displayed units.
Every line of the table represents one unit. In the first column, there are the values, in the next column you can see the prefix of the corresponding unit (if you have selected one), in the third the shortcut of the unit (if there is a shortcut) and after that, the name and the system of the corresponding unit are display. The system makes it possible to order the units according to a sub-category like metric, country-specific, comparisons and so on. The table can be sorted ascending or descending to each of the columns.
Whenever you select an unit in the table, the corresponding unit is shown under the table, where you can change its value and settings. For example, you can set a prefix (like Nano or Milli) or you can change the value of the unit. After that, all values in the table will be updated, so that you can see how this value looks like in all of the other units. Under the table, you can find buttons to copy the unit in the clipboard with or without the name or shortcut of the unit. If you right click of one or a number of units in the table, there are also some options available, so that you can also copy more than one units to the clipboard at the same time. With the option "Hold Value" under the table, you can hold the current value of the box, so that this value is used for the units, you select in the table. For example, you can write "1" to the box and after that you can go through the table. With this, you can see how much is one of an unit in all other units.
The table display can be used with or without unit for comparisons. If you select the table display with comparison unit, a small box under the table will be shown, looking like the boxes in der compare values mode. Also in this box, you can change the values like you want. The box was build to have a continuosly fixed unit. For example, if you compare lengths of an unknown system of measurement, you can show the metre as comparison unit, so that you can see thee size of the units you are working on at the moment.