SPSS Output

Working with Output

When you run a procedure in SPSS, the results are displayed in the Viewer window in the order in which the procedures were run. In this window, you can easily navigate to whichever part of output you want to see. You can also manipulate the outp ut and create a document that contains precisely the output you want, arranged and formatted appropriately. You can use the Viewer to:

• Browse output results or show or hide selected tables and charts
• Change the display order of output by moving selected items
• Access the Pivot Table Editor, Text Output Editor, or Chart Editor for modifying output
• Move items between SPSS and other applications

The Viewer is divided into two panes. The left pane contains an outline view of the output contents. The right pane contains statistical tables, charts, and text output. You can use the scroll bars to browse the results, or you can click an item in the outline to go directly to the corresponding table or chart.

Suppose you want to copy the Descriptives table into another Macintosh application, such as a word processing program or a spreadsheet.

• Click the Descriptives table

• Select Edit/Copy
• Switch to target application
• From the menus in the target application you can choose either Edit/Paste or Edit/Paste Special...
• If you choose Edit/Paste Special... select the type of object you want to paste
• Edit/Paste Special... allows you to paste the SPSS output as an embedded object into the target application.

Manipulating Pivot Tables

Much of the output in SPSS is presented in tables that can be pivoted interactively. You can rearrange the rows, columns, and layers. To edit a pivot table, double-click the pivot table and this activates the Pivot Table Editor. Or click on the table you are going to edie, then click Edit/SPSS Pivot Table Object/Open . The pivot table will be ready to edit in its own separate Pivot Table Editor window. The second feature is especially useful for viewing and editing a wide and long table that otherwise cannot be viewed at a full scale.

Printing the Output

Once you are satisfied with your analysis you may want to obtain a hard copy of the output. You may print the entire output on the Viewer window, or delete the sections you do not want before you print. Or you can save the output to a diskette o r hard drive and print it later. In this case, let us print the entire output which is on the Viewer window. It is assumed that there is a printer attached to your Macintosh or you are working from a Student Technology Center. Make sure that you ar e at the Viewer window by selecting Output1-SPSS Viewer from the Window menu. If you open multiple Viewer windows, select the output you want to print: 

• Click File/Print
• Click OK

The contents of the output window will be directed to the printer.

To save paper, you can change the Length (choose the Infinite option) and page width (by changing Width option) before any data analysis. For some procedures, however, some statistics are only displayed in wide format.

• Select Edit/Options...
• Click Viewer from the SPSS Options dialog box
• Click Infinite for the Length under the Text Output Page Size parameter
• Click OK

You also can change paper size, orientation, margins, headers and footers, numbering, and printed size for charts through File/Page Setup from a SPSS Viewer window.