WINKS Manual -- Chapter 1, part 1

WINKS Online Manual

Chapter 1 Part 1

An Overview of WINKS

WINKS is a statistical data analysis program. It is the Windows version of the DOS KWIKSTAT program and was designed by professional statistical consultants and researchers to allow you to quickly and easily use the most commonly needed statistical data analysis procedures and graphs.

Managers and researchers must make decisions. Data analysis is a tool that allows you to make informed decisions. Today's business graduates, scientists and researchers have been trained in the use of data analysis. However, the mainframe statistics programs they used in college are often not available on the job, or are difficult to use and understand. These programs often require programming expertise to use and a statistical expert to interpret. WINKS was created to provide access to data analysis in an easy to understand Windows format. It was designed with the decision-maker and researcher in mind.

Why Use WINKS?

WINKS allows you to:

select the appropriate data analysis procedure to use,
enter data or use data already in popular formats such as dBASE, 1-2-3 or ASCII or paste date directly from applications such as Microsoft Excel or MS Access
provide a complete analysis in one pass so the user does not have to run multiple programs to perform a single analysis, and
provide interpretation of the results to assist the user in making decisions based on the outcome of the analysis.

These objectives have been addressed by the program and supporting documentation:

1. WINKS provides a help procedure that guides you to the most appropriate analysis for your data. The manual provides a decision tree to help guide you to an appropriate analysis procedure. (See Appendix B, "How to Choose the Right Procedure.")

2. WINKS provides an easy to use data entry system as well as the ability to automatically read and write industry standard DBF (dBASE III and IV) files. In addition, WINKS can also import data from 1-2-3 and ASCII files.

3. WINKS is designed to anticipate your analysis needs and lead you to a conclusion, unlike many statistical programs that make you run each part of an analysis separately. For example, in the case of Analysis of Variance procedures, multiple comparisons are automatically performed to show you where specific pair-wise differences lie.

4. WINKS provides interpretation of analysis both on screen and in the printout. Interpretations may be in the form of warnings when common assumptions are not met and in suggestions about how a particular outcome could be interpreted. For most tests, an explicit hypothesis is stated to help you understand the exact intention of the analysis.

The following sections contain an overview of how to use the WINKS manual and program.

Installation

Place the WINKS distribution disk (disk 1 if there is more than 1 disk) in the A: (or B:) drive. Choose "Run" from the Start menu. Enter or select the command

A:\SETUP.EXE or (B:\SETUP.EXE)

Follow the installation instructions on the screen. When you begin WINKS for the first time, a dialog box will appear allowing you to choose some program options. Select options you want to change, or leave the default options in place and choose Ok. You can change these options at any time by choosing "Change Setup Options" from the Help menu.

WINKS Compatibility with DOS KWIKSTAT

WINKS data files are compatible with all versions of the DOS version of KWIKSTAT. If a file is created in WINKS, it can be used in KWIKSTAT, and vice versa. The only difference is that formulas entered in the WINKS data editor will not be used in the KWIKSTAT data editor.

Do the Tutorial First

The best way to learn WINKS is to do a few examples. We recommend that you go through the tutorials in this chapter, and do relevant examples in Chapters 3, 4, and 5 before performing your own analysis.

Definitions

The following definitions discuss some of the terms that will be used in this chapter and throughout the manual.

DATABASE - a collection of data records defined by common fields or information (such as survey results). A record (row) represents one complete entry in a database file. The field (or columns) represent individual elements (or variables) within a record (such as AGE, HEIGHT, etc.). WINKS uses the .dbf dBASE file structure for defining computer database files.

FIELD - a unique element (or variable) of a database record. A field may contain information that is numeric, character, date or logical. A field or variable is the name given a set of values or character descriptions (such as a grouping label for an ANOVA analysis.)

GROUP - a specific field intended to be used to classify data within the database (such as gender.) For example, a group field could be SEX, and contain the information F or M. If the SEX grouping field in the record contained an F, the data would be about a female. If the SEX grouping field contained an M, the data would be about a male.

LABEL - a database field containing information that will be used as labels on a plot.

STATISTICS - calculated values that summarize a collection of numbers. For example, the arithmetic average (also called a mean) is a statistic.

VARIABLE - same as Field. See Field above.

For more information, see Part 3, "A Review of Statistical Concepts."

Using the WINKS Menus

WINKS menus are similar to any Windows program, and are similar to the KWIKSTAT menu. In the documentation main menu items are shown in italics, such as File. Options on main menus appear in quotes, such as "New Database" Here is a brief description of each menu:

Using the File Menu

Before you can create a graph or calculate statistics, you must create a database and enter data. The options on the File menu are:

§ New Database - You must usually create a new database and enter data before doing an analysis or creating a graph. The program creates and reads dBase (.DBF) type file format databases.

§ Open Database - Open an existing database. A database must be opened so the program will know where the data is located.

§ Delete Database - Deletes a database file from your disk.

§ Copy/Backup Database – Allows you to make a copy of an existing database for backup purposes. We recommend that you keep backups of all important data.

§ Utilities - Imports information, creates reports, sorts database or outputs data.

§ Journal - Allows you to print, clear or edit the current contents of your Journal file.

§ Printer Setup - Allows you to choose which printer to use.

§ Exit - Ends the program.

Using the Edit Menu

The Edit menu contains options that allow you to enter new data into a database, or edit data currently in a database. See Part II "Using the WINKS Database" for more information on editing records.

Using the Analyze Menu

The WINKS Analyze menu allows you to choose which analysis module to run. The menu items on the Analyze menu are:

§ Descriptive Statistics

§ Graphs/Charts

§ t-tests and ANOVA

§ Non-parametric Comparisons

§ Regression & Correlation

§ Crosstabs, Frequencies, Chi Square

§ Life Tables, Survival Analysis

§ Simulations and Demonstrations

§ Advanced Tabulation

§ Advanced ANOVA (Professional edition)

§ Advanced Regression (Professional edition)

§ Multiple Comparisons (Professional edition)

§ Time Series Analysis (Professional edition)

§ Quality Control Charts (Professional edition)

§ Pareto Charts (Professional edition)

Using the Windows Menu

The Windows menu is used to select which menu will be displayed, when more than one menu is defined. An example of displaying two windows side by side is given in the tutorial in this chapter.

Using the Help Menu

The WINKS Help system contains items to help you operate the program. These include:

§ Help Contents - Contains general program help information.

§ Print Supplementary Docs - View or print supplemental documentation

§ Print Order Form - Prints Order Form for WINKS.

§ Change Setup Options - Default directory, hints, etc.

§ About WINKS - Program copyright information