SPSS Tutorial

In this module we will cover SPSS' user interface and basic options you should use in every session. The next modules in this tutorial are:

1. Introduction: The SPSS User Interface
2. Reading and Documenting Data
3. Creating and Manipulating Variables

Part 1: The SPSS User Interface

There are three main windows with which you will work in SPSS: the data editor, the output window, and the syntax window. When you first start up SPSS, you will see the data editor:

Of course, you will need to get some data into the editor before you can start with your analysis. You can do this one of three ways: 1) Go to the File menu and select "Open", 2) Use the "Get" command in the syntax file (the best method), 3) double-click on the data file icon from a filelist. Once you have loaded your data this is what you will see:

By clicking on the "Variable View" tab at the bottom of the window, you will see a list of all your variables and other information about them (called "metadata").

Once you have run some commands, the output window will open, and the syntax window, where you will write your programs, can be opened from the "File" menu.

SPSS is a popular software package for people who have little experience in statistical software and/or programming because of its extensive "point and click" interface. Although this makes it unecessary to learn how to program in SPSS, we still strongly urge you to learn how to program and use the syntax window to do all of your work. One reason for this is that although you can do a great deal of your work with the interface, you cannot do everything with it. Also, once you have learned to program and use the syntax window, you can probably complete your work faster, especially if it entails many repetetive tasks like computing or recoding many variables. Finally, writing a program gives you a step-by-step record of what you did and provides a good way of redoing your work should disaster strike like you accidentaly erase your data file or it gets corrupted (when was the last time you backed up everything???).

So, to make learning how to program easier, you can set some basic options when using the GUI interface:

First, in any window, go to "Edit", then select "Options". You will see the "General" options window below. Be sure that the box for "Record Syntax in Journal" is checked (see the area outlined in red). You can change the name and location of the journal using the "Browse" button. You should change the name of the journal each time you use SPSS, but just in case you forget, let SPSS "Append" to the journal rather than "Overwrite" it. The journal is nothing more than a record of all commands, errors, notes, etc of your session. Although it may be a little difficult to learn how to program from it, you can always edit out the non-command information and use it as a program.

Here is a sample of a journal file:

The other options are simply a matter of taste, although you may find it easier to always use the "Regular" viewer (see the green box).

Next, click on the "Viewer" tab and you will see the options below. These are general stylistic options for the information that is displayed in the viewer (where all fo your results go). Here, you want to make sure that the box for "Display commands in the log" is checked (at the bottom of the red box). This will cause SPSS to display all the commands generated by the GUI interface in the viewer along with all of your other results. This is very useful in not only learning how to program, but as a record of what you did as you did it. One other option you may find useful is the "Infinte" selection under "Length" (in the green box). This will prevent you from having to re-size output boxes if they go beyond the limit set in "Standard" or "Custom."

Finally, click on the "Draft Viewer" tab to display the options below. Make sure that all of the options under "Display Output Items" (in the red box) are checked. Again, select "Infinite" for page length (in the green box).

Here is a sample of an output screen:

One more thing you can do is use the "Paste" button from any procedure dialog box:

This will automatically open a syntax window (if one is not open already) and paste the command generated by the dialog box to it. You then run the command from the syntax window rather than clicking on "OK" in the dialog. You can paste as many commands as you want and then run all of them at once, or you can highlight a command and run just that one command. To run a command, you either click the "Run" tool in the toolbar (highlighted in red below), or go to the "Run" menu and choose "Selection" (highlighted in green).

On to the next lesson: Reading and Documenting Data