Bio-Rad Microplate Manager Software - Manual (Page 13)

Chapter 1. Introduction
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Finally you take the reading. If you want to use the particular protocol you’ve created
again, you can save it as a file.
Once absorbances have been read, you can save them as a data file and display them
in a selection of reports. Your data can be viewed, printed, or exported to other
applications.
1.2 Types of Files
There are two types of files used by Microplate Manager. Protocol files contain the
settings for reading a microplate. Data files contain the data from the reading and any
formatting associated with that data.
Protocol Files
A protocol file contains the parameters of a reading. It includes such information as
mixing times and measurement wavelengths. Each of the three protocol types
(endpoint, kinetic, and multiple plate) is slightly different, to accommodate the
different parameters used in each type. File names for protocols have the extensions
.epr (endpoint reading), .mpr (multiple plate reading), or .kpr (kinetic plate reading).
The protocol file also includes a plate template. The template specified in the
protocol file is copied into the data file at the completion of a plate reading. If there
is no template specified in the protocol file, then the default template is copied into
the data file. Defining a template in the protocol file before a reading allows you to
create data files that contain all the information necessary to evaluate the absorbance
data and automatically generate the desired reports.
(You can edit or replace the template in the data file after a reading. However,
changes made to the protocol file template after a reading are not updated in the data
file.)
You may specify labels for reports; these are stored in the protocol file.
A list of reports to be printed and/or displayed at the end of a run are saved in the
protocol file.