There are a number of commands in the NIH Menu which allows a set of images (known as slices) to be displayed either in a tile or cascade format. Open the 1st six images in this folder. Arrange these images by using the tile and cascade commands found under the windows link on the NIH Menu bar

Under the stacks link on the NIH Menu bar there are two other commands which will help in animation. With the displayed six images, click on the Windows to Stack command. Once the windows are in a stack, reverse the command by clicking on Stack to Windows link. Play around with these four commands to help you determine their operations.

Another useful "trick" when a set of images are stacked, is the ability to add and/or remove individual slices within a stack. To remove or add a slice click the add/remove slice under the Stacks menu. To add another image from the original 24, open the seventh image in the file. Unstack the images in the original stack and then re-stack. The newly opened image will be incorporated into the stack. This new stack will indicate seen images.

One other useful command is the Montage command in the Stack menu. Once a stack has been developed, using this command, tiles all of the images, in order, into a single image. This technique is great when one wishes to print all the images as one. One caveat, these commands will not work unless all the images are of the same size.

After playing, make sure you end the procedure with all of the images in stack (Windows to Stack command). Once the images are all in a stack, the animate command will be activated under the Stacks command on the NIH Menu bar. Click the animate command, the six images should loop in a continuous animation. You can control the speed of the animation with the number keys on the keyboard, as well as stopping the motion by clicking on the image. If you look at the Info window you can determine the number of frames per second (fps). Video cassettes display their images at a rate between 29 and 30 fps. You can also step through the images one-by-one by using the > or < keys.

One great aspect of using stacks is the ability to mark a moving object by selecting it. The selection is then marked in each slice of the stack. This ability allows the investigator to track the same phenomena over time. Use one of the selection tools to select an area of interest and use the > or < to step through the slices.