Overview

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ASP Menu System
Displaying, Printing, And Saving Output
Selecting Cases
Selecting Samples
Shortcut Keys

ASP Menu System

You can access all of the data management, statistical, and other features of ASP through the menu bar and buttons at the top of the ASP opening screen/data editor:

ASP Opening Screen/Data Editor.

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There are seven options on this menu bar: FILE, DATA MANAGEMENT, STATISTICS, GRAPHS, AUXILIARY, OPTIONS, and HELP:

FILE. This menu allows you to access all of the file management options in ASP.

Options on this menu allow you to open and save ASP files, to import and export ASCII files, and to import data from the clipboard. In addition, it allows you to create a new data matrix, list and print the data matrix in the editor, and to exit ASP.

The FILE menu also keeps track of the last five files you have opened or saved by listing them at the bottom of the menu. You can open any one of these files by clicking on its name in this list.

DATA MANAGEMENT. This menu allows you to access all of the data management options in ASP. Options on this menu allow you to transform and recode variables and cases, sort and transpose data matrices, breakdown and combine variables, add and delete variables and cases, and to generate random and pattern variables to add to the data matrix.

STATISTICS. This menu allows you to access all of the statistical options in ASP. Options on this menu allow you to calculate summary statistics, probabilities, confidence intervals, correlation matrices, contingency tables as well as to perform hypothesis tests and undertake regression, time series, reliability, and factor analysis along with analysis of variance.

GRAPHS. This menu allows you to generate plots and charts. There are two options on this menu:

Character Plots provides plots made from characters and is the only option available on the Student Version of ASP.
Graphics Options provides high-resolution graphics and is available in the full version of ASP.

Both options allow you to create scatter, cumulative, horizontal sequence, quantile, probability, correlation, and frequency plots along with control charts. The Character Plots option also allows you to create vertical sequence, box and whisker, and stem and leaf plots. The Graphics Options option allows you to create pie charts and bar graphs as well as area, function, crosstab, and regression plots.

AUXILIARY. This menu provides supplementary routines to handle various computational chores. Options on this menu allow you to solve linear equations, invert matrices, calculate determinants, and solve interest rate and linear programming problems. (See Auxiliary Programs.)

OPTIONS. This menu has two options:

Change Number Of Digits In Output allows you to change the number of digits displayed in the output.
Change Missing Value Code allows you to change the value that is treated as missing in ASP.

HELP. This menu allows you to access the ASP help system. The options on this men allow you the access the ASP help file, access the ASP User's Manual, provides information on how to update your version of ASP to the latest version, and provides information about the ASP program itself.

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Displaying, Printing, And Saving Output

Whenever output is displayed in ASP you are given the option of printing the output, saving the output to an ASCII or an ASP data file that can be opened by a word processor or the ASP program, and/or of adding the output to the data matrix in memory. You also have the option of adding the output to the ASP Clipboard to be viewed, saved, or printed at a later time.

In saving the output to a data file you can save the output in a new file, add the output to an existing file, or overwrite an existing file with the output being saved.

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Selecting Cases

Whenever you are prompted to select variables for a particular routine you are also given the option of selecting cases. You have the option of selecting cases

Directly from the variables you have selected.
By consecutive row number.
If the cases in a specified variable stand in a specified relation (less than, greater than, equal to, etc.) to a specified constant.
If the cases in a specified variable stand in a specified relation (less than, greater than, equal to, etc.) to a specified variable.
By case label.
By random sample.

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Selecting Samples

Many options in ASP give you a choice as to how you can select samples from your data matrix. You can select samples:

From variables.
From the cases of a specified variable.
From the cases of a set of variables.
By breaking down one variable by the values of a second variable.
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Shortcut Keys

ASP follows the standard windows conventions in using shortcut keys in the Windows menu system. If a letter in the caption of an option in a Windows menu is underlined, you can access that option by pressing the letter alone if the focus is on the menu in which the option appears. If the focus is otherwise the ALT key plus the underlined letter must be pressed to access the option.

If a shortcut hotkey combination is available for an option in a Windows menu it is listed to the right of the caption for that option on the menu. You can use the shortcut hotkey combinations so listed to execute the corresponding option from the editor without first accessing the menu.

In addition, you can execute an option on an ASP form by pressing the underlined letter in the caption of the option without pressing the ALT key even if the focus is not on the option The exception to this rule is when you are editing names, labels, and other text. Since names, labels, and other text must be able to contain the underlined letters, the ALT key must be used to execute options when you are editing names, labels, and other text.

In addition, you can press ESC to exit and close any form in ASP that has a Cancel button.

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