Lucid Help
At the end of an identification click the Restart button 
located on the toolbar to reset the key for another identification. All Features will be unchecked and the Features Chosen and Entities Discarded windows will be emptied.
If the Subset option ‘Retain selected subsets on key restart?’ is unchecked, the Player will be restarted using the selected Subset defined by the key author. If this option is checked, the key will restart using the current selected Feature and Entity Subsets.
Many Lucid keys provide images and web pages for Features, States and Entities, to help make an identification easier and more accurate and to provide extra information on the items in the key. For example, web pages and images attached to Features and States may help you decide which State of a Feature to choose, or provide background hints and tips on difficult features. Similarly, web pages and images attached to Entities may provide descriptions and extra information on the entities in the key, both to add to the available information and to help you choose whether an identification is correct.
By default, items in the Features and Entities panels that have images attached will be preceded by the 
icon, while items that have web pages attached will be preceded by the 
icon.
Optionally, image thumbnails can be displayed in the Features and Entities panels for items that have images attached. To display thumbnails check either or both the Feature Thumbnails 
or Entities Thumbnail 
options located on the main toolbar.
With the Image Thumbnails checked, features or entities that have images attached will be preceded by a small thumbnail of an image associated with that item.
To view a web page or image attached to an item click on its icon or thumbnail.
Suppose you have used the Player to try to identify a specimen, and at the end of the keying session several Entities remain.
One way of trying to decide which of these is correct would be to access the information (photographs & fact sheets) associated with the Entities. This may allow you to discriminate the Entities further.
A better way may be to view a list of Features that differ between the Entities. You can access such a list by clicking the Differences 
button on the toolbar. This will open the Differences window.
The Differences window has two panels. The upper panel lists contains a dropdown list of Features that differ (that is, are not scored the same) for the remaining entities. When you select a specific Feature, the lower panel shows how the Entities are scored for the listed Features.
Differences in the upper panel are sorted by their utility for separating the Entities, therefore it is recommended you review the differences from the top down.
Subsets are groups of Features or Entities pre-defined by the author of the key.
For example, Feature Subsets in a key to beetles may allow you to restrict Features Available to display only wing features and head features, or all simple and easily observed features. Entity Subsets may allow you to restrict the Entities panels to display only the beetles in a particular taxonomic subgroup, or only common species.
Subsets are particularly useful for keeping Features Available and the Entities panels free of unnecessary items. For example, if you have a key to plants and your specimen has no fruits, it is useful to remove all fruit features using subsets. Functions such as Best will be more useful if you restrict Features Available to show only Features that it will be possible to address.
To choose a Subset (if the key’s builder has specified subsets in the key), open the Subsets list by clicking the Subsets button 
on the toolbar.
You may choose more than one subset.
If you are using subsets and need to keep the same subsets when you restart the key, make sure that the Retain selected subsets on key restart? option is checked. If this item is unchecked, subsets will be set back to show all features and entities when the key is restarted.
The Shortcuts function is similar to the Best function in that it may provide a quicker route to an identification. In Shortcuts the Player searches for Features that, if answered, would provide an immediate shortcut to an identification.
For example, consider a key to fish. After choosing a number of states, the list of Entities Remaining may have been reduced to 20 species. Some of those species may have unique features, or share a state with only one or two other species in the list. If you were to choose such a state, you would immediately shortcut to a single species or a very small number of species.
Shortcuts provides a way of finding such unique features. Find Shortcuts by clicking the View Shortcuts button 
on the toolbar.
A list of Shortcut Features will be opened. Scan the list for Features that match your specimen (of course, there may be no available shortcut, in which case the Shortcuts list will be empty or the specimen being identified will not match any listed feature). You may choose Shortcut Features by clicking on their score boxes in the Shortcuts dialog.
The Shortcuts function is similar to the Bingo function in previous editions of the Lucid Player.
During most Lucid identification sessions, Entities will be removed from Entities Remaining to Entities Discarded as a result of the Feature States you choose. However, you may sometimes find it useful to manually remove Entities that you know well and are certain do not match your specimen. Manually removing Entities that you know cannot match will make some functions (such as Best and Prune Redundants) work more efficiently.
Entities are manually discarded by either dragging them from Entities Remaining to Entities Discarded panel head area. Or by using the right-click context pop-up menu.
Manually discarded Entities are indicated by red text. To restore manually discarded Entities, drag the manually discarded Entities back to the Entities Remaining windows. Or use the right-click context pop-up menu on the manually discarded entity. Manually discarded Entities will also be restored if the key is restarted.
After a number of Features have been chosen and the Entities Remaining list has been substantially reduced, some Features and States may be redundant for the identification.
A state is considered redundant if it applies to none of the Entities remaining, or to all of the Entities remaining (choosing such a State will either leave no entities or remove no Entities, so it is ineffectual to answer). A Feature is redundant if all of its States are redundant.
The Prune Redundants function will scan the Features in Features Available and remove any redundant Features and/or states for the remaining Entities. This may be useful to “clean up” the list of Features, to make it less likely that a choice will be ineffectual.
There is one circumstance in which apparently redundant states may be left in after pruning. Consider a two State Feature, one State of which would remove some remaining taxa, the other of which would remove none. The State that removes no taxa is not logically redundant in this case, and would not be removed since removing it would leave a character with only one State.
To activate the Prune Redundants function, choose Prune Redundants button 
on the toolbar.
Prune Redundants can be automated, so that it is recalculated after each feature is addressed. Choose the option Automate>Auto Prune from key settings page, if available.
If you need to choose several States from one feature when Auto-Prune is on, hold down the Control key when choosing the States – Auto-Prune will be paused until the Control key is released.
Once one or more States have been chosen and the list of Entities Remaining has been reduced, some Features may be more useful for the next step in the identification process than others. For example, some Features may be scored the same for all Entities Remaining, in which case choosing a state of that Feature would not contribute to the identification.
Lucid has a Best algorithm for determining which is the best Feature to address at any stage during an identification session. In general, a Feature that would, on average, cause the list of Entities Remaining to be halved is a good Feature to address.
Find Best will determine which is the best feature to address next, and jump to and open that Feature in Features Available.
Find the best feature to address next by clicking the Best button 
on the toolbar.
If the list of Entities in Entities Remaining changes after choosing a Feature as suggested by Best, it may be worth clicking the Best button again to recalculate the next best Feature to address.
Best can be automated, so that it is recalculated after each Feature is addressed. Choose the option Automate>Auto Best from the key settings page, if one has been provided.
If you need to choose several states from one feature when Auto Best is on, hold down the Control key when choosing the states – Auto Best will be paused until the Control key is released.
Chosen states in Lucid are checked with a tick in both the Features Available and Features Chosen lists. To remove a previously chosen state, simply un-check its checkbox in either list. Note that unchecked states remain in Features Chosen until the key is restarted – this allows them to be easily re-chosen, if necessary.
To change the value of a chosen Numeric Feature, click on its edit box in Features Chosen then change the values entered in the Numerics dialog box. To un-choose the feature completely, remove any values from the dialog box and click OK.
Un-selecting state can be done either via the Features Available panel or the Features Chosen Panel
For Numeric Features, you must enter a value rather than choose from a set of States. Length and width features, for example, may be treated in Lucid keys as numeric rather than multi-state Features.
Numeric Features are preceded by an edit box rather than a checkbox:
To enter details about a Numeric Feature, click its edit box. A dialog box will pop up into which you can type the appropriate value.
You can enter single values and ranges. Valid entries will be of the form:
It’s good practice when using Numeric Features to enter a range rather than a single value if possible. For example, if a key to plants has a Feature Leaf length, it’s better to choose several typical leaves from your specimen and to enter the range of leaf lengths found over those leaves (ignoring unusually small or unusually large leaves) than to enter the length of a single leaf.
The Lucid Player assumes an accuracy for numeric values based on the number of decimal places specified. For example, entering the value 10 (no decimal places) will be read by Lucid as meaning the range between 9.5 and 10.5; entering 10.5 will be read as the range between 10.45 and 10.55. Hence, if you enter the single value 10, an entity scored as having the value 9.6 will be regarded as a match.