3.3: Menus and Icons in the Data Editor

The data editor has many, many options and menus. Here we'll look at the main menu items that you are likely to interact with. This is by no means a complete list of things SPSS can do, as that would take forever and would be meaningless for this course.

Below is a brief reference guide to each of the menus:

• File - This menu contains all the options that you expect to find in File menus: you can save data, graphs, or output, open previously saved files, and print graphs, data, or output.
• Edit - This menu contains edit functions for the data editor. For example, it is possible to cut and paste blocks of numbers from one part of the data editor to another (which is handy when you realize that you’ve entered lots of numbers in the wrong place). You can insert a new variable into the data editor (i.e., add a column), and add a new row of data between two existing rows.
• View - This menu deals with system specifications such as whether you have grid lines on the data editor or whether you display value labels. What value labels are will be discussed further later.
• Data - This menu is all about manipulating the data in the data editor. Some of the functions we’ll use include weighting cases by a variable and running analyses on only a selected number of cases.
• Transform - This menu contains items relating to manipulating variables in the data editor.
• Analyze - This is the menu item that contains most of the fun of SPSS. Why, because this is where all the statistical functions hang out. Below is a quick overview of the major procedures we'll use in this book:
  • Descriptive Statistics - This is used for computing descriptive statistics (mean, mode, median, etc.), frequencies, and general data exploration.
  • Compare Means - This menu is used to compute t-tests and one-way ANOVAs. I know that sounds like nonsense at the moment, but it will make sense later.
  • General Linear Model - Here we can access analyses of various types, most notably the two-way ANOVA. We can also do three-way and more way ANOVAs here, but likely won't go too crazy.
  • Correlate - Not surprisingly, this is where measures of correlation are located, including bivariate correlations such as Pearson’s r and Spearman’s rho (ρ).
  • Regression - This menu gives access to a range of regression analyses, including simple linear regression and multiple linear regression.
  • Nonparametric Tests - Chi-square, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and Wilcoxon are just some of the tests that one can find in this menu.
• Graphs - This menu is used to access the Chart Builder where you can create masterpieces such as bar charts, histograms, scatterplots, box–whisker plots, pie charts, and error bar graphs.
• Window - This menu allows you to switch from window to window.
• Help - Use this menu to access searchable help files.

Useful Icons

At the top of the data editor window, there are a number of icons that can make quick work of things. Here are some of the most commonly used:

This icon should look familiar to anyone who has ever used a computer. This is the Open File icon. Y'know, to open files. If you are in the data editor, this will look for SPSS data files.

Also a very common icon, this is the Save button for, uh, saving data files you are currently working on.

Yep, that's a printer. You can use this to print stuff.

If you're jamming along doing a bunch of analyses and you'd like to recall what you've been up to, click on this icon to relive your past glories. Well, more accurately, review previously used dialogs in SPSS.

Use this icon to open a dialog to go to a particular case in your data file.

What if you want to get to a particular variable in your set of data? Use this button.

If you would like to see a list of your variables and their characteristics, click on this button.

OK, so let's say you are poking around your data file and would like some quick descriptive statistics. Here's your button!

You ever use Find and Replace, or just Find? In SPSS, this is your icon.

There may be times when you want to split your data file into smaller files. If so, click here.

Use this button to select specific cases for manipulation of analysis.

This is a fun one. This button will switch the data view between the actual values and the value labels. Perhaps this makes no sense now, but it will shortly. Very useful.

Those are some of the most useful icons in the data editor.

Setting Default File Locations in SPSS

One of the best things you can do when setting up SPSS is to set up a default location for data files in SPSS. This can be anywhere you choose on your computer, but by telling SPSS where those files are, you can save a lot of mousing and typing. I often use a directory called something like "SPSS Data Files" or some other unimaginative name. You can call it anything. How do you set up SPSS for a default directory? Click on Edit and then Options... as shown below:

When the Options window opens, select the File Locations tab and the Specified folder button like so:

For the Data files: option, select the Browse... button and locate the directory you created for your data files. Select that directory and click on the Open button in the dialog. That will set the default data file directory. You can also set a default directory for Other files... as well. When creating, saving, or downloading data files for use, place them in the default directory you created and they'll be easy to find.