Help on table display
The result of a database query is normally displayed as a table with several named columns and one or more numbered rows. The table is often bigger than the window, but scrollbars allow you to move around without losing track of the column names or row numbers. You can use the mouse to select text in the main text area and paste it into some other window; note that the values on a given row are separated by tabs. Also note that row numbers are assigned to the records returned by the query for display convenience only, and bear no relation to the organization of records in the database.
You can select a column by clicking on the column name, and deselect by clicking again. Selected columns can be resized or "hidden" (shrunk to minimal width) to help you arrange for all the values you are interested in to be visible at the same time. (Use the "Hide" button or Alt-h, etc.; you can also double-click on a column name to toggle its hidden/shown state.) The full name of the selected column is shown above the table, even if the column is hidden or is too narrow to display the whole column name. If a value is too wide for the current column size, it is truncated; a red plus sign is appended to indicate that truncation has occurred.
You can select a row by clicking on the row number, and deselect by clicking again. When a row is selected, there are generally some "Cross-ref" buttons and/or menubuttons below the table which become active to let you find related information stored in other database tables. In some cases, these buttons immediately execute a query and display the results in a new window; in other cases, they bring up a "build query" window, with some qualifiers already set, which you can further modify (e.g. by limiting the search to a given time interval) before submitting a query. (If a button or menu item stays gray when a row is selected, it is because the displayed table does not contain the column(s) needed to perform that cross-reference.) Double-clicking on a row number creates a new window listing the column-name/value pairs for that row.
Clicking in the table itself with the left mouse button selects text in the usual manner. Clicking with the middle mouse button pops up a little white box over the value you clicked on; the box may contain the value itself (in its entirety, even if the current column width is too narrow to display it) or some other useful information, such as a GPS time re-expressed as a UTC date/time string. The popup box disappears when the middle mouse button is released.
The source filename and query (if applicable) are shown at the bottom of the screen. If the query is wider than the window, then you can scroll it by dragging with the middle mouse button, or display it in a separate window by clicking on the "Full" button. You can save the table contents, either in the original format (normally LIGO_LW) or as text (with various formatting options) using the "Save as..." button.