Useful Minitab Commands: Reading in A Minitab File
Useful Minitab Commands: Reading in A Minitab File
Useful Minitab Commands: Reading in A Minitab File
Here are a number of useful Minitab commands. As with most programs, some tasks can
be done in more than one way, so the methods presented here are not necessarily unique.
Reading in a Minitab file
The command is File Open Worksheet.
The underlined symbols give the keyboard shortcut. You can do this through
Alt-F, W.
Its easy to read in files that have been prepared through Minitab. These are *.mtw and
*.mtp files. Among the drop-down choices for file type is Minitab portable, meaning
*.mtp. Reading ASCII *.txt or *.dat files involves some other complications; these will
not be discussed here.
The command File Open Project is used for file format *.mpj. These are Minitab
projects, and they consist of one or more worksheets, along with all secondary output.
Layout of a worksheet
Minitab uses worksheet rather than spreadsheet. The are no material
distinctions.You can get basic information about any worksheet by clicking the
information icon
on the toolbar. This is available also as Ctrl-Alt-I. For each
column of the spreadsheet, youll get Name, ID (column number), Count, Number
Missing, Type (N=numeric, T=text, D=date), Description. (Descriptions are retained
only for projects, not for individual spreadsheets.)
Worksheet project differences
Open a worksheet with File Open Worksheet (Alt-F, W).
Save a worksheet (to space that you control) with File Save Current Worksheet
(Alt-F, C).
Save a worksheet (to space that you control) under a new name with File Save
Current Worksheet As (Alt-F, E).
A saved worksheet consists of nothing but the worksheet itself. No descriptions, no
graphs, no output.
Scatterplots
The term scatterplot refers to a two-dimension graph in which each data point is
pictured as a single dot. The command is Graph Scatterplot. Many options are
possible, but you should take the defaults the first time you use this feature.
You can get a scatterplot with the fitted regression line through the command Stat
Regression Fitted Line Plot.
Transformations
Suppose that you want to transform data column C5 by C5 500 . That is, youd like
to add 500 to each entry of C5, and then take the square root. Use Calc Calculator
(Alt-C, L). On the resulting panel you will see Store result in variable. If you provide a
new variable name or an unused column number, then the information will be placed in a
new column. If you use an existing name or number, then the information that appeared
in that column will be lost. You are permitted to use C5 in this context. You might notice
that you can use keyboard shortcut Alt-S to move to the Store result in variable: entry.
In the Expression box you should type SQRT(500 + C5). You might not remember that
SQRT is the Minitab name for the square root function, but you can extract the
information from the Functions box.
Data sorting. The command is Data Sort (Alt-A, S). The virtually all
instances of sorting you want to maintain the integrity of the data rows.
The appropriate response to Sort Column(s) is to list all the data columns
in the worksheet. The By column zones should be used to name the
column (or columns) on which you want the sorting to be done.
Unrecoverable data deletion. In some cases you will want to see what
happens if a data point is not used a certain computation. You can delete
data rows with Data Delete Rows, but the deleted information would
be lost forever. There are many strategies for dealing with this. Here are
two suggestions:
Save the entire worksheet into a new worksheet. Use the Project
Manager (the cascading windows icon) to give a name to the new
worksheet. Do the deletion work in the new worksheet. Save all
the work together as a project.
Copy columns, either by Ctrl-C - Ctrl-V or by Data Copy
Columns to Columns. In the copied columns, use * (the missing
data code) to replace the values you want to delete.