On Thu, 9 Oct 1997 11:14:20 CDT, Damon Rondeau <darondeau@HYDRO.MB.CA> wrote:

> >How to get the table to my co-worker as quickly as possible, given what I >know about his computer skills? Simplest thing is to drop the table into a >WordPerfect file or a 1-2-3 spreadsheet (our corporate standard word and >number digesters, respectively), attach resulting file to an e-mail, and >fire it off into LAN-space. So, can I point to the table, copy it to the >clipboard, and drop it into either of these programs? ABSOLUTELY NOT. >COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE. OUTPUT FAILS OR LOOKS SO TERRIBLE I WOULD >NEVER PUT MY NAME ON IT. NO EASILY ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION ON WHAT'S GONE >WRONG OR HOW TO FIX. (I'll turn the shouting off now.) > >To me (a user of SPSS in a variety of forms, on a number of platforms, in >academia and in the business world, for at least 15 years) this does not >speak well for SPSS. This is an absolutely basic, typical task in today's >workplace, and SPSS isn't cutting it with this kind of weird, >application-specific manner in which it forces the harried user to cope >with its output. In SPSS, I've got a tool that's the statistical >equivalent of a modern jet fighter, but in terms of it's ability to share >output with other programs (in a simple way, not in an esoteric way), I'm >reminded of the Mir space station..... Actually, that's not fair. Mir has >only had a run of bad luck; SPSS is designed to work this way.... > >I'm sure there are reasons for this kind of poor performance. It's >probably a user error: I'm sure I'm ignorant of scripting, output formats, >and the finer points of ActiveX. However, I'm also sure that I'm spending >far too much time just sending a crappy frequency table to a customer.... > >As far as I'm concerned, it's a travesty and it should be corrected as >quickly as possible. > >For now, I'll re-type the table myself and send it my customer. At least >that way I can be sure it'll get there before noon. > If you are using 7.5.2 (I think 7.5x supports this) you can change the look / feel of a pivot table by opening up the table and using Table Looks to change the appearance. I think SPSS Classic is the "old" look and should be able to be exported into word / wp etc. Also using cut / paste special I think you can get there using ODBC. If you have trouble e-mail me directly and I'll get with you via e-mail. BTW I've also, at first, been dismayed by the Output Navigator. I guess I've gotten used to it more now. Also the ODBC drivers are superior and work better. Also check out SPSS View (or something like that) on the web site. They have a viewer for SPSS files, I haven't looked at it but it might support pivot tables etc. I think the idea is similiar to Word's viewer (people who don't have the program can deal with files and do some manipulation on them).

J Johnson

jpjohn@ix.netcom.com