Adding New Symbol
Teach Markup R-XP a symbol it did not pick up on its own. You tap a cell that contains the symbol you want to add, refine the matches the app finds, and save the result to your confirmed list.
On this page
- Why you would add a symbol manually
- Starting the workflow
- The new-symbol detail panel
- Refining the matches
- Apply to all pages and auto-save
- Saving or cancelling
- Tips and common questions
- What's next?
Why you would add a symbol manually
The automatic symbol detection that runs when you arrive on the Set Symbols step is usually fast and accurate, but it does not always find every symbol. Faint print, unusual shapes, or symbols that appear in only a handful of cells are the most common reasons something is missed.
When that happens, you add the symbol manually. The workflow is straightforward: tap an empty cell on the chart that contains the symbol you want to teach the app, refine what it finds, and save. From then on that symbol is in the confirmed list with everyone else.
Starting the workflow
You start adding a new symbol by tapping any cell on the chart that the app does not yet recognise. As soon as you tap, the right-hand panel switches into the Adding mode and shows the new-symbol detail view.
- Pan and zoom on the chart until you can see the cell you want clearly. Adding works one symbol at a time, so pick a cell whose symbol is unambiguous.
- Tap that cell. A coloured outline appears around the cell on the chart and the Adding detail panel opens on the right (or along the bottom in portrait).
- Look at the matches in the panel. Markup R-XP scans the chart for cells whose mark looks the same and shows them as a grid of thumbnails.
The new-symbol detail panel
The Adding panel is laid out in three vertical sections.
Refining the matches
The first list of matches is usually a good starting point but rarely perfect. The detail panel gives you several controls for tightening or loosening what the app considers a match. See the dedicated Filter, search and refine article for the full details, but here are the essentials.
- Tap any incorrect match in the results grid to remove it. A second tap puts it back.
- Drag the threshold slider at the top of the results to widen or narrow the search. Higher values match more loosely, lower values stricter.
- Switch between Icon-first and Colour-first matching with the chips at the top. Use Colour-first on coloured charts where the symbol shapes vary but the colours are consistent.
- Toggle the refine search on for a second, finer pass. Useful when the chart has two similar symbols that you want to distinguish from each other.
Apply to all pages and auto-save
Two toggles at the bottom of the Adding panel change how aggressively the new symbol is committed.
Apply to all pages
When on (the default), the matches are looked for across every chart page. When off, the search is limited to the current page. Leave this on for any symbol that appears on more than one page; turn it off when you want to teach the app a symbol that only appears in one place.
Auto-save on click
When on, every cell you tap is added directly to the symbol's match list without you having to confirm. Useful for quick clean-up where you know the matches are good. When off, you tap to preview the match and use Save to commit.
Saving or cancelling
When the match grid looks right - every cell in there is genuinely the symbol you are adding, nothing missing - you commit it.
- Tap Save to commit. The new symbol appears in the confirmed-symbols panel and the chart cells that were highlighted now flip to the saved state.
- Tap Cancel if you change your mind. The seed cell is unselected and nothing is added.
Heads up. If you try to leave Set Symbols (back, next, or jump) while an Adding session is open, Markup R-XP drops the in-flight symbol without saving. Always tap Save first if you want it kept.
Tips and common questions
Here are answers to the most common questions about adding new symbols.
Q: I tapped a cell that already has a symbol assigned. What happens?
Answer: Markup R-XP enters Existing mode for that symbol instead of Adding mode.
See the edit existing symbols article for the workflow from there. To return and add a brand new symbol, close the Existing detail panel and tap a cell that is currently unassigned.
Q: The match grid is full of cells that are not the symbol I picked. What did I do wrong?
Answer: Try lowering the threshold slider, or switching the search type.
A high threshold matches loosely - everything that even vaguely resembles your seed comes in. Drag the slider down until only the real matches remain. If the chart is in colour, try Colour-first matching.
Q: The match grid is empty even though I can see the same symbol elsewhere on the chart.
Answer: Try raising the threshold or switching to Icon-first matching.
A very low threshold rejects nearly everything. The default sits in the middle - drag it up a touch and the missing matches should appear.
Q: Why do I have to refine each new symbol? The auto scan should know.
Answer: The first auto scan finds the obvious symbols quickly; the manual flow handles the awkward edge cases.
You can rerun the auto scan from the tool chip's Scan pages button if you have changed the underlying detection parameters - see Build & erase.
Q: The cell I want to start from is on a different page. Do I have to scroll there?
Answer: Yes - pan the chart until that page is visible, then tap.
The Adding panel can include matches from any page (when Apply-to-all-pages is on), but the seed cell has to be one you can see and tap.
What's next?
Once your new symbol is saved it joins the confirmed-symbols list and behaves like every other symbol from there on. To inspect or change it later, see View and edit an existing symbol.
When every cell on every page is assigned, head back to the overview for the steps that follow.