Yes. Application navigation is simpler and more intuitive with the addition of an Office 2007-style ribbon bar. Frequently used functionality is quickly visible, and related functionality is easily found.
Note that the classic menus/toolbars will continue to be available, and you can switch between the two interfaces at any time.
Quick access to the STATISTICA Electronic Manual (Help) is provided via the question mark button at the right side of the caption bar of most dialog boxes.
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.
This Microsoft Windows security update (MS05-026) was intended to reduce security vulnerabilities in HTML Help. However, it interferes with the Help system for network versions of many applications (including the regular network and concurrent network installations of STATISTICA).
Fortunately, Microsoft has also issued instructions on how to correct the problem:
Numerical values in dialogs can be changed by using the microscrolls controls on text boxes. 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.
ToolTips are small "balloon help tips" that are displayed when the mouse pointer is on a toolbar button. ToolTips help you quickly learn the functions of toolbar buttons.
You can control the display of the ToolTips for graph objects by toggling the ToolTips on Graph Objects command on the View 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).
Automation facilities in STATISTICA are available via STATISTICA Visual Basic. When you run an analytic procedure (from the Statistics or Data Mining menus) 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), or click the Create Macro toolbar button, or select the particular analysis or graph from the Tools - Macro - Create Analysis/Graph Macro submenu. The code can later be executed repeatedly or edited by changing options, variables, or data files and optionally adding user interfaces, etc.
Programs can also be written 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 dialog, and select the Macro tab.
Note that 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., Design of Experiments uses multiple dependent variables) or each level of a grouping variable (e.g., categorized graphs).
The following facilities are available to stop, break, or interrupt the current action (depending on the operation being performed by STATISTICA):
Click the Help button or press the F1 key to display the relevant section of the STATISTICA 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 prompts you for specific input if it is necessary.
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 lists a set of questions about the nature of the research problem and the type of your data. Click the link for the most appropriate answer, and the next topic will be displayed, which will either list more questions or list suggestions of the statistical procedures that appear most relevant and where they are located in the STATISTICA application.
You can also search for topics in the STATISTICA Electronic Manual (Help) using the Index or Search facilities. Help is always available by pressing the F1 key.
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: a copy button that is used to copy the summary results to the Clipboard and an expand/collapse button that is used to expand (show) or collapse (don't show) the summary box.
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, click the copy button without selecting any text. You can then paste the text into a STATISTICA Spreadsheet, Report, Graph, or any word processing document (e.g., Microsoft Notepad or Word) for printing.
Note that the copied text retains formatting information (such as font, color, etc.).
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, (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.
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. 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 Workbook 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).
Besides the standard Windows SHIFT+click and CTRL+click conventions, you can perform the following actions using the mouse:
Clicking the mouse will then move the highlighted item(s) to the insertion point.