At the bottom of each observation page three rows of functional buttons can be found. Those in the two upper rows will be described in section 5.2.4. But before doing so, here is a brief description of the functions offered by the keys in the lower row. These are: ''Copy Observation'', ''Add Time Details'' and ''Delete Observation''. For Mosaic observations, users should not copy, delete or add time constraints to the observations; any change requiring these buttons should be checked first with the SOC, via xmmpi@sciops.esa.int email account, specifying the proposal ID in the subject.
In many programmes which include more than one observation, the different observations are likely to be similar with respect to the observation details (such as, e.g., the number of exposures per observation, the prime instrument, the choice of filters, etc.). Thus, once all details of one observation (including all exposures, as described below) have been filled in, it can be used as a template for other, similar ones, to minimise the manual input and thus the amount of time spent filling out the proposal form sheets. Pressing the ''Copy Observation'' button, will allow to define the number of copies of the current observation that will be made, making easy, for example, to duplicate an observation a large number of times in one go, up to a maximum of 50 observations.
In case it should be easier to just type in the details of different observations manually, instead of copying, please first commit all data to memory before clicking on the ''Proposal'' directory in the navigation tree on the left (Fig. 5). This will take you back up to the top-level ''Proposal Details'' page where you can use the ''Add Observation'' function key to proceed from there (§§ 5.2 and 5.2.3).
Pressing this button, a whole observation, including all its exposures and associated time details (if any), is deleted. A verification request will appear before performing the deletion.
This button is only visible if ''Observation Type'' is set to ''Fixed''. Time-critical observations need additional entries to specify when they must be conducted. These entries are made in a special time constraints page (§ 5.2.3.2).