How do I access help for a specific dialog?
Quick access to the Electronic Manual is provided via the question mark at the right side of the caption bar of every dialog box.
Click the Question Mark button (or press F1) to display a Help window containing the description of that dialog. Note that when you highlight a menu command, you can press F1 to display its Help window.
What are Microscrolls?
Numerical values in all dialogs can be changed by using the microscrolls controls.
Click the microscrolls to either increment or decrement the last digit. Right-click them to either increment or decrement the next-to-last digit (e.g., clicking the up microscroll increments .15 to .16, then .17, .18, etc., right-clicking the up microscroll increments 0.15 to 0.25, then .35, .45, etc.).
The following example illustrates how the microscrolls can be controlled with the left and right mouse buttons.
What are ToolTips?
ToolTips are small "balloon help tips" that are displayed when the mouse pointer is on a toolbar button. ToolTips help you to quickly learn the functions of all toolbar buttons.
You can control the display of the ToolTips for graph objects via the View - ToolTips on Graph Objects menu. You can toggle the display of all other types of ToolTips on the Options tab of the Customize dialog (available by selecting Customize from the Tools menu). If a more detailed description of a button is required, click the Context Sensitive Help toolbar button (the mouse pointer will change to an arrow with a question mark beside it) and then click the toolbar button. The appropriate Help topic will be displayed.
Can I Automate Commonly Used Procedures or Repeat Similar Tasks in STATISTICA?
Automation facilities in STATISTICA are available via STATISTICA Visual Basic. When you run an analytic procedure (from the Statistics menu) or create a graph (from the Graphs menu), the Visual Basic code corresponding to all design specifications as well as output options that you select are recorded. To display that code, select Create Macro from the Options button drop-down list (available on any analysis or graph dialog), use the Create Macro toolbar button, or select the particular analysis or graph from the Tools - Macro - Create Analysis/Graph Macro menu. This code can later be executed repeatedly or edited by changing options, variables, or datafiles and optionally adding user interface, etc. Programs can also be written from scratch using the STATISTICA Visual Basic professional development environment featuring a convenient program editor with a powerful debugger (with breakpoints, etc.), an intuitive dialog painter, and many facilities that aid in efficient code building. To display the SVB editor, select New from the File menu to display the Create New Document - Macro (SVB) Program tab.
Note that also Master Macros (logs of multiple analyses) and Keyboard Macros (context sensitive recordings of sequences of keystrokes) are also available.
Also, many procedures and graphs allow you to automatically repeat the same analysis for each of a series of variables (e.g., a DOE analysis run on multiple dependent variables) or each level of a grouping variable (e.g., categorized graphs).
How Can I Break, Stop, or Interrupt the Current Action?
The following facilities are available to stop, break, or interrupt the current action (depending on the operation performed by STATISTICA):
Analysis. Click the Cancel button on the Progress bar to interrupt the task in progress.
Printing. You can interrupt the printing of spreadsheets, graphs, reports, etc., by clicking the Cancel button on the Print dialog.
STATISTICA Visual Basic. You can interrupt SVB programs in many ways. First, click the Pause toolbar button to pause the currently running macro or click the Reset toolbar button to stop running (e.g., reset) the current macro. You can also press the ESC key or CTRL+BREAK in order to interrupt the execution of the STATISTICA Visual Basic program.
Brushing (in a graph). You can deactivate the brushing tool by clicking on the Selection Tool toolbar button.
How Can I Learn What Information Is Necessary to Start an Analysis (Variables, Grouping, Codes, Options, etc.)?
Click the Question Mark button or press the F1 key to display the relevant section of the Electronic Manual containing a comprehensive explanation of all options in the current dialog. However, all analysis definition screens in STATISTICA follow the "self-prompting" dialog conventions.
The OK button is never dimmed; whenever you are not sure what to select next, simply click OK and STATISTICA proceeds to the next logical step and asks you for specific input if it is necessary.
How Can I Find a Particular Statistical Procedure?
If you are not certain where to find a particular procedure within STATISTICA, consult the Statistical Advisor by selecting Statistical Advisor from the Help menu. The Statistical Advisor asks you a set of simple questions about the nature of the research problem and the type of your data, and then it suggests the statistical procedures that appear most relevant and tells you where to look for them in the STATISTICA system.
You can also search for topics in the Electronic Manual using the Index or Search facilities. The Electronic Manual is always available by pressing the F1 key.
How Can I Copy/Print Result Summaries?
Located at the top of some results dialogs is a summary box. This box contains relevant summary information for the type of analysis (e.g., descriptive statistics, design attributes, regression results, etc.). Additionally, two buttons are provided with the summary box: an expand/collapse button that is used to expand or collapse the summary box and a copy button that is used to copy the summary results to the Clipboard.
You can copy a portion of the summary results to the Clipboard by selecting the desired text and clicking the copy button. To copy all of the text, simply click the copy button without selecting any text. You can then paste the text into a STATISTICA Report, Graph, or any word processing document (e.g., Notepad or Word) for printing.
Note that the copied text retains formatting information (such as font, color, etc.).
How Do I Select Items From Multiple-Selection Lists?
You can select items in a multiple-selection list in the following manner:
1. Click on an item to select (highlight) it. Click the OK button in the dialog to accept the selection.
2. Double-click on an item to select it and accept the selection (i.e., close the dialog).
3. In order to select a continuous list of items, you can (1) hold down the mouse button and drag the cursor over the items that you want to select or (2) select the first item and then while holding down the SHIFT key, click on the last item that you want to select.
In order to select a discontinuous list of items, hold down the CTRL key and click on the desired items.
How Do I Select Items in the Workbook Tree?
You can select one or more items in the workbook tree using the standard Windows SHIFT+click and CTRL+click conventions to select ranges and discontinuous lists of variables, respectively (see above). Additionally, you can select or deselect tree items using the keyboard navigation keys (e.g., HOME, END, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, and arrow keys). You can delete an entire selection by pressing the DELETE key. Pressing the INSERT key will display the Insert Item dialog for the currently selected item.
Note that only visible items can be selected; therefore, to select the contents of a particular node, you will need to expand the node (by clicking on the plus sign adjacent to the node).
How Is the Mouse Used in Other Operations?
Besides the standard Windows SHIFT+click and CTRL+click conventions described above, you can perform the following actions using the mouse:
Drag-and-drop. Provides mouse shortcuts for moving, copying, deleting, inserting, extrapolating, etc. a block of values in the spreadsheet.
Increase/decrease column width. Adjusts the spreadsheet column width by dragging the right column border to the desired width.
The variable header automatically expands, and the new width of the column is indicated by a dashed line (as shown in the illustration above).
Split scrolling (in spreadsheets). Splits the spreadsheet (i.e., split scrolling) by dragging the split box (the small rectangle at the top of the vertical scrollbar or to the left of the horizontal scrollbar).
Variable speed scrolling. Controls the speed at which you scroll (1 line at a time by moving the cursor a short distance away or one page at a time by moving the cursor further away) when you extend a block outside the spreadsheet.
Microscrolls. Enable you to increase or decrease the value in a numeric edit field incrementally, by either the last digit (click the up microscroll, e.g., 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, ...), or the last digit by a factor of 10 (right-click the up microscroll).
Toolbar configuration. Double-click on the space between the buttons of the toolbar to undock the toolbar, allowing you to place it wherever you want. To return the toolbar to a docked setting, double-click in the title bar of the floating toolbar.
Reordering items in a list. You can reorder items in a list by selecting one or more items (in a continuous or discontinuous list) and then moving the cursor, which changes to a Vertical Resize, to the desired position.
Clicking the mouse will then move the highlighted item(s) to the insertion point.
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