STATISTICA Blogs

Anyone else remember "green bar" paper? Or maybe you still use it? I first used it about 18 years ago because I had a very wide report to print. The "green bar" made it much easier to read across the 14 7/8 inch paper.

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You may have experienced a similar problem with STATISTICA spreadsheets. Maybe you have a hundred variables. You need to read across one line while scrolling. And you are having a tough time tracking one line with your eyes. 

 If you are using STATISTICA 9 there is a possible solution thanks to jthompson. You can execute a simple macro against your STATISTICA spreadsheet. I modified her macro slightly to produce a green highlight rather then gray. 

Sub Main

 Dim S1 As Spreadsheet
 Set S1=ActiveSpreadsheet

'add two variables
 Dim nvar As Integer
 nvar=S1.NumberOfVariables
 S1.AddVariables "origional order", nvar, , , , , , "=v0+1"
 S1.AddVariables "every other", nvar +1, 1, , , , , "=iif( v0/2=trunc(v0/2), 1,2)"
 S1.Recalculate
'sort data by every other
 S1.SortData(nvar +2)
'set cell formating to highlight yellow
 Set Cells=S1.CellsRange(1, 1, S1.NumberOfCases/2, S1.NumberOfVariables)
 Set CellFont=Cells.Font

'Grey
'CellFont.Background=RGB(200,200,200)

'Light Green
CellFont.Background=RGB(225,255,235)

'return data to origional order and delete variables
'updated sort function to keep formatting
S1.SortDataEx(nvar +1)
S1.DeleteVariables nvar +1, nvar +2

End Sub 

 If you haven't created or executed a macro before, here are some steps.

1. Select the macro text above and copy it (Ctrl+C). You are copying everything between Sub Main and End Sub.
2. Start STATISTICA. Don't have STATISTICA? You can download our free STATISTICA 9 trial.
3. Open the dataset that you are working with. You can also use any of the example datasets. To open example datasets:
   • select the File menu
   • select Open Examples
   • double click on Datasets folder and pick any file.
4. If you are using the Ribbon toolbar:
   • select the Home tab
   • select the New pull down menu
   • select Macro
5. If you are using the regular menu:
   • select the File menu
   • select New menu
   • select Macro tab.
6. Click in the STATISTICA's macro window. Make sure your cursor is positioned between Sub Main and End Sub. Now paste in the macro (Ctrl+V).
7. Select F5. This will execute the macro.
8. Look at your dataset and see the green bars.

/aw