docs: update webpage contents for recently merged changes; correct many typos

docs/guides/connectivity.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Connectivity files
 
 The horizontal grids used by E3SM's atmosphere component EAM, and sometimes the
-land component ELM as well, are cubed spheres. Since these are unstructed
+land component ELM as well, are cubed spheres. Since these are unstructured
 grids from ParaView's perspective, QuickView needs to know how to map data to the globe.
 Therefore, for each simulation data file, a "connectivity file" needs to be provided.
 
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ Future versions of QuickView will also support the cubed-sphere meshes used by
 EAM's dynamical core, i.e., the `ne*np4` grids (also referred to as "native
 grids" or "GLL grids").
 
-## Connecitivity file download
+## Connectivity file download
 
 A collection of connectivity files can
 be found on [Zenodo](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16908566). The archive is

docs/guides/install_and_launch.md

@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ quickcompare -p 0
 After some seconds, the Terminal window should indicate that the app has
 loaded various plugins, and then provide an URL similar to `http://localhost:50329/`
 (your actual number will likely be different).
-**Enter the URL into a web brower** to access the graphical UL.
+**Enter the URL into a web browser** to access the graphical UL.
 
 
 :::tip Tip: First execution on macOS

docs/guides/quickview/file_selection.md

@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ from the file system.
 The user can single-click a file name and then click the "simulation" or "connectivity"
 button in the bottom-left corner to clarify file type.
 
-Alternatively, if a filename starts with "connecitivity", then
+Alternatively, if a filename starts with "connectivity", then
 the user can **double-click** the file to have it automatically
 recognized as a connectivity file.
 Double-clicking a filename not starting with "connectivity" makes

docs/guides/quickview/index.md

@@ -55,10 +55,10 @@ The lead developer of QuickView version 2 is
 [Sebastien Jourdain](https://www.kitware.com/sebastien-jourdain/)
 at [Kitware](https://www.kitware.com/).
 Other key contributors include
+Berk Geveci, Dan Lipsa, Patrick O'Leary and Will Dunklin at [Kitware](https://www.kitware.com/)
+and
 Hui Wan and Kai Zhang at
 [Pacific Northwest National Laboratory](https://www.pnnl.gov/atmospheric-climate-and-earth-sciences-division).
-and Berk Geveci, Dan Lipsa, Patrick O'Leary and Will Dunklin
-at [Kitware](https://www.kitware.com/).
 
 QuickView is a product of an interdisciplinary collaboration supported by
 the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science’s

docs/guides/quickview/individual_views.md

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 
 ![pop-up panel](./screenshots/single_view_pop-up_panel.png){ width="60%", align=right }
 
-# Custimizing Individual Views
+# Customizing Individual Views
 
 Each view in the viewport (i.e., each contour plot shown on a global or regional map)
 can be customized individually by clicking the associated colorbar.
@@ -31,12 +31,30 @@ using a fuzzy search on their names. The x icon clears the filter.
 The second icon in the top-left corner is a toggle
 for inverting and resetting the sequence of colors. 
 
-## Linear and symmetric logarithmic scales {#linear-and-log-scales}
+## Linear vs. logarithmic scales {#linear-and-log-scales}
 
-![linear and log](./screenshots/linear_log_icons.png){ width="12%", align=right }
+![linear and log](./screenshots/linear_log_icons.png){ width="16%", align=right }
 
-## Automatic and fixed data ranges
+QuickView supports both linear and logarithmic color scaling to facilitate the inspection of variables that span multiple orders of magnitude.
 
+- By default, a **linear scale** is used, indicated by a staircase-style icon in the pop-up panel.
+
+- A click on the staircase icon changes the scaling to **logarithmic** to enhance the visibility of variations across multiple orders of magnitude.
+
+- Because standard logarithmic scaling is only defined for positive values, QuickView also provides a **symmetric logarithmic (“symlog”)** scale, which accommodates negative values and zero. The symlog scale behaves linearly in a small region around zero and logarithmically away from zero, enabling consistent visualization of fields that include both positive and negative values.
+
+## Continuous vs. discrete colormaps
+
+![linear and log](./screenshots/continuous_and_discrete_colormap_icons.png){ width="12%", align=right }
+
+QuickView supports both continuous and discrete colormaps, which can be toggled using the corresponding icon in the pop-up panel. A continuous colormap maps data values smoothly along a color gradient, so each value is represented by a unique color. In contrast, a discrete colormap groups values into a finite number of color bins, assigning the same color to all values within each bin .
+
+When a discrete colormap is selected, a text box allows the user to specify the number of colors.
+
+-  With a linear scale, this value is interpreted as the number of colors between two neighboring (automatically determined) colorbar ticks.
+-  With a logarithmic scale, it instead specifies the number of colors per order of magnitude.
+
+## Automatic vs. fixed data ranges
 
 By default, QuickView automatically fits the selected colormap over the entire range of values
 of the current variable in the current data slice.

docs/guides/quickview/miscellaneous.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Miscellaneous Features 
 
-This page summarizes several addtional convenient features in QuickView.
+This page summarizes several additional convenient features in QuickView.
 
 ## Choosing map projection and extent
 
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ or animations for presentations and manuscripts, etc.:
   After the scan is finished, a file `quickview-animation.zip` gets downloaded to the local computer.
   This file is a zipped folder that may contain multiple files.
 
-Note: as of version 2.6.0, the animation export downloads
+Note: as of version 2.6.1, the animation export downloads
 images of individual frames to the local computer, and the user needs to use a tool to combine
 the images into an animation (or animations).
 Direct download of animation files will be provided soon.

docs/guides/quickview/screenshots/quickview-state_animation_download.json

@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
+{
+  "origin": {
+    "user": "huiwan",
+    "created": "2026-04-29 15:22:02.256346",
+    "comment": ""
+  },
+  "files": {
+    "simulation": "/global/cfs/cdirs/m4359/www/huiwan/vis/202601_group_compare/amicphys_r8_prog.eam.h0.2010_2019.ANN.nc",
+    "connectivity": "/global/cfs/cdirs/m4359/www/huiwan/vis/202601_group_compare/connectivity_ne30pg2_TEMPEST.scrip.nc"
+  },
+  "variables-selection": [
+    "AODALL",
+    "AODBC",
+    "num_a1",
+    "num_a2"
+  ],
+  "layout": {
+    "aspect-ratio": 0.5,
+    "grouped": false,
+    "active": "auto_layout",
+    "tools": [
+      "adjust-databounds"
+    ],
+    "help": false
+  },
+  "data-selection": {
+    "crop_longitude": [
+      -180,
+      180
+    ],
+    "crop_latitude": [
+      -90,
+      90
+    ],
+    "projection": [
+      "Mollweide"
+    ],
+    "animation_track": "lev",
+    "lev_idx": 0
+  },
+  "views": [
+    {
+      "type": [
+        "time",
+        "ncol"
+      ],
+      "name": "AODALL",
+      "config": {
+        "preset": "BuGnYl",
+        "invert": false,
+        "color_blind": false,
+        "use_log_scale": "linear",
+        "discrete_log": false,
+        "n_discrete_colors": 1,
+        "order": 1,
+        "size": 6,
+        "offset": 0,
+        "break_row": false,
+        "override_range": false,
+        "color_range": [
+          0.01264046598225832,
+          1.01161527633667
+        ],
+        "color_value_min": "0.01264046598225832",
+        "color_value_max": "1.01161527633667"
+      }
+    },
+    {
+      "type": [
+        "time",
+        "ncol"
+      ],
+      "name": "AODBC",
+      "config": {
+        "preset": "BuGnYl",
+        "invert": false,
+        "color_blind": false,
+        "use_log_scale": "linear",
+        "discrete_log": false,
+        "n_discrete_colors": 1,
+        "order": 2,
+        "size": 6,
+        "offset": 0,
+        "break_row": false,
+        "override_range": false,
+        "color_range": [
+          0.0006716852076351643,
+          0.08890804648399353
+        ],
+        "color_value_min": "0.0006716852076351643",
+        "color_value_max": "0.08890804648399353"
+      }
+    },
+    {
+      "type": [
+        "time",
+        "lev",
+        "ncol"
+      ],
+      "name": "num_a1",
+      "config": {
+        "preset": "BuGnYl",
+        "invert": false,
+        "color_blind": false,
+        "use_log_scale": "linear",
+        "discrete_log": false,
+        "n_discrete_colors": 1,
+        "order": 3,
+        "size": 6,
+        "offset": 0,
+        "break_row": false,
+        "override_range": false,
+        "color_range": [
+          37851584.0,
+          432790592.0
+        ],
+        "color_value_min": "37851584.0",
+        "color_value_max": "432790592.0"
+      }
+    },
+    {
+      "type": [
+        "time",
+        "lev",
+        "ncol"
+      ],
+      "name": "num_a2",
+      "config": {
+        "preset": "BuGnYl",
+        "invert": false,
+        "color_blind": false,
+        "use_log_scale": "linear",
+        "discrete_log": false,
+        "n_discrete_colors": 1,
+        "order": 4,
+        "size": 6,
+        "offset": 0,
+        "break_row": false,
+        "override_range": false,
+        "color_range": [
+          89625480.0,
+          12674042880.0
+        ],
+        "color_value_min": "89625480.0",
+        "color_value_max": "12674042880.0"
+      }
+    }
+  ]
+}