Once you have completed the "preparation" steps above you can start entering your findings. To activate the Findings data entry module, press F2=Data Entry on the main screen and select the "Findings" option. Using the "animal selection box" you decide for which animal findings should be entered and REGINA3 then displays the findings data entry screen. Please see the document "Guide for entering a study into REGINA3" for more details.

When the cursor reaches the "Slide number" field on the findings data entry screen, the default slide number is automatically generated according to the format you have defined and according to the information in the block list. However, this mechanism is activated only if the slide number field does not contain any information. The reasons for this behavior is quite simple and straightforward: The information in the slide number field can be edited, i.e. you can delete a particular slide number or you can add additional information (like the staining method, see below). To prevent overwriting the information you have entered when you later correct/modify a finding, the mechanism to automatically generate the slide number works only on an empty field.

Please note:

• If you are editing a finding and want REGINA3 to create the slide numbers for you again (i.e. you might have modified the block list), first delete all information in the slide number field and then press the F8 key.
  
  
• If you press F8 while the slide number field already contains information, the new slide number is appended to the existing information (REGINA3 never overwrites data!). This append feature might be useful if you have an additional slide (e.g. a special stain) for the current finding, since you do not have to type the slide number manually. Note that more than one slide number could be appended if you have defined more than one block number for the current organ.
  
  
• Instead of the F8 key you can also use the F9 key to insert or append the animal number (followed by a dash) into the slide number field.
  
  
• If you have defined more than one block per organ in the block list, REGINA3 creates the corresponding slide numbers for you: For example, if you have defined the block numbers "6a; 6b" for a particular organ and you are currently entering a finding for animal number 41, REGINA3 generates the slide numbers "41-6a; 41-6b". Please note that the slide numbers are also separated by a semicolon (;).
  
  
• If you have additional slides for a particular organ (e.g. for macro findings) and your lesion is on one of these, you have to enter the slide number manually. The same applies to re-cuts, step sections or slides with a special stain. Always separate slide numbers by using a semicolon (;). REGINA3 version 3.10 now also accepts the comma as separator and converts it automatically to a semicolon. Leading or trailing commas/semicolons are also removed automatically.
  
  
• It is very important to check whether the lesion you are entering is present on the slide for which REGINA3 has automatically generated the slide number. Several problems occurred in the past due to the fact that slide numbers were "accepted" but the lesion in question was not present. In such cases you should manually delete slide numbers (which were generated automatically by REGINA3) and/or add additional slide numbers (see above).
  
  
• If no blocking information has been entered for a particular organ, REGINA3 creates the slide number from the animal number and appends three asterisks to notify the user that the slide number is incomplete. Since in many studies in the past such "slide numbers" have not been corrected (i.e. the asterisks have not been replaced by the real slide number), REGINA version 3.10 does no longer allow asterisks as part of the slide number. An error message will be shown during data entry.
  
  
• Since the semicolon is used as a separator between slide numbers, it is possible to use space characters as part of the slide number.