SAS Talks features support.sas.com usage tips

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|May 21, 2012

~ Contributed by Melissa Perez, Marketing Specialist, SAS ~

As most SAS customers are well aware, there is a load of content on support.sas.com. But how do you know where to find that information? We created a demo to walk through the main sections of the site; the knowledge base, support, training & bookstore and community.

After all, SAS created the site for you, the SAS user. The site helps answer your immediate usage, programming, and software management questions. It offers problem-solving resources like samples, documentation, and technical papers. Use can also use the site to advance your career by using site educational resources like courses, tutorial, and books. The Customer Support Home page notifies you about new content, current releases of the software, and learning or money-saving opportunities from SAS.

Watch this short demo to get acquainted with support.sas.com including:

  • Navigational elements
  • Search features
  • Site tools
  • News sources
  • Feedback opportunities

The support site also contains and interactive community. This community includes our support communities (previously discussion forums). You can tailor the community with preferences specific to you! Read about the enhancements that were launched in April 2012.

If you are new to using SAS or an expert you may find our quick demo of the site very informative. We welcome you to discover you SAS resources.

If you have any questions, suggestions or help finding content, please contact us.

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Building great graphs with Base SAS

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|May 15, 2012

~ Contributed by Lelia McConnel, Technical Support Consultant, SAS ~

Base SAS 9.3 has made creating high quality graphics output easier than ever. Did you know that you can create great looking, high resolution graphs with Base SAS? The Customer Support Website provides sample code to help you create graphs from your data.  Take a look at this great-looking graph that was created using the Graph Template Language to define the bar fill colors.

You can create these graphs because ODS Graphics moved to Base SAS in SAS 9.3.  ODS Graphics includes

  • the Graph Template Language
  • the SG procedures
  • the SAS ODS Graphics Designer
  • the SAS ODS Graphics Editor.

Using these features, you can create (just to name a few)

You can also control the visual attributes of your data with attribute maps as described in Sample 44735 and Sample 44731.  But wait. ODS Graphics has a few more tricks for you to use when creating graphs with Base SAS.  The ODS Graphics Designer gives you the ability to design custom graphs using an interactive graphical application (view the video tutorial) .

For those instances when you want to make small changes to your graph, for instance add a title, change the axis label or even change the size, shape and color of graphical elements you can do all of these things with the ODS Graphics Editor.

 

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Get the syntax right

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|May 10, 2012

With your fingers poised over the keyboard and staring lovingly into the program editor, your mind goes blank. Panic sets in. Oh no.  What's the name of the statement I need ?  Oh right. The ODS Select statement. Maybe.

Lots and lots of SAS users write SAS programs every day, so I'm betting that all of us have experienced a situation like this.  Let SAS Documentation help you avoid your next syntax panic attack. Use the newly launched SAS 9.3 Syntax Index. 

Here are a few tips to get you started:

  1. Go to the index.
  2. Start typing the name of  language element for which you need help in the entry field in the left column. Notice that as you type more letters, the list box under the entry field continuously changes.  This feature is really helpful when you have an idea of the element name, but you can't quite remember exactly what it is.
  3. Select an item from the display box. Notice that all kinds of great information now appears on the right. You can get lots of information that will spark your memory and help you quickly get back to the program editor and complete that project. Panic avoided.
  4. Or, you can learn more about the procedure, statement or option by selecting Open this book to this page, which appears right under the page title. You are now in the book where this item in found. You can  continue your research by paging through the complete book.

 To get more help with SAS syntax, read the post Drilling Is Not Required.

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SASware Ballot has history, but still relevant

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|April 23, 2012

SAS has a rich history of working together with SAS customers to explore new ideas. Since 1976, we have been asking our customers what they would like to see in SAS software. The first SASware Ballot was released that year and has steadily grown along with the company.

I have been a SAS employee for a long time but not long enough to remember the first SASware Ballot.  However, I have heard the story many times over the years and I still love to hear the story anytime it is being told.  As happens with legends that are passed down, I'm sure that my version isn't complete.   Here's how I heard it.

During one of the very first user group gatherings, Dr. Goodnight asked a group of users a question like this:  "If you had $5,000 dollars to spend on development of SAS software, what would you spend the money on."  Those people who were in attendance created a development budget with their $5,000 to show what they thought SAS should focus on.  From that conversation, SASware Ballot was born.

Now, I don't know if it really went down like that or not. Maybe some of you were there and can add details. If so, please tell us what that early "ballot" was like.

Fast forward to 2012. The SASware Ballot is still going strong and SAS is still interested in what you think we should focus on in R&D. We can't easily ask each of you personally where you think we should spend our development time --- wait, yes we can. 

SAS just introduced the latest advancement in user feedback: the collaborative SASware Ballot.  The Ballot is now part of communities.sas.com.  Because we are leveraging the community software, we have made it easier for you to:

  • interact with other users who are voting for or against an idea
  • influence the direction of SAS
  • add clarification and details to a suggestion by adding a comment
  • track the progress of your favorite suggestion.

Vote or comment

SAS wants to hear what you think.  To get started:

  1. Visit the new SASware Ballot Community.
  2. Log in using your SAS Web profile credentials or create a SAS profile.
  3. Review the list of items in the Newest Ballot Additions box or browse through the items in a particular category.
  4. See something you like? Select the up arrow to vote for that item. Add a comment to let other users know why this change or new feature would be helpful.
  5. See something that you don't like? Select the down arrow to cast a vote against the idea.  This is where your comments are really helpful.  Please take a moment to explain what about the suggestion seems like a bad idea. 
  6. Keep an eye on your favorite Ballot item by selecting the Follow button for that item.  Track the progress in your Communications stream.
  7. Repeat frequently.

Remember, your voice and your vote are important to SAS!

 

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Tell the community story in 20 seconds

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|April 20, 2012

April. What a month it has been and it isn't over yet.  At the beginning of the month, we launched a new and very different communities.sas.com.  Just yesterday, the SASware Ballot  moved from its traditional voting application to the community.  Now, in just a few days many of us leave for Orlando to attend SAS Global Forum 2012.  While at SAS Global Forum, I will have the pleasure of talking with many of you about support.sas.com and communities.sas.com.  I will also be honored to co-present with a true SAS rockstar -- Cynthia Zender.

I can't wait to tell you all about the new features offered in Communities on SAS. But what I really want is to hear what you think about participation in a community, why you do it, and what you think of the SAS-sponsored communities.sas.com website. We are offering you three ways to provide feedback on the site and encouragement to other SAS users:

What? A video commercial?

That's right.  A video commercial.  We'll give you 20 or 30 seconds of video time for you to tell other SAS users why they should check out Communities on SAS at communities.sas.com.  Here's how it will work.

Cynthia and I will be presenting "How to get the most from Communities" on Tuesday afternoon at 4pm in Northern Hemisphere A-3. (Shameless self-promotion. We hope you will join us!)  At 4:45pm the SAS video crew will set up outside the presentation space.  They will have a release form for you to sign and a few sample questions to get you started. Then you shoot a 20 second commercial for communities.  After all of the excitement is over and we have returned to Cary, we'll make a cool montage of all of your advice and we'll post it to the community site.

Be prepared

Below are a few questions to consider for your 20 seconds of fame:

  • The best advice I ever got from a community was....
  • The toughest question I ever tried to answer was....
  • The community saved my bacon once by....
  • I visit the community every day/week/month because....
  • The community is good, but it would be great if only....
  • I consider myself a casual visitor/ a teacher/  a councilman because....  (This is a reference to our paper. Join us to learn more about these personas.)

 

 

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Communities launch set for first week of April

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|April 1, 2012

5 .... 4 .... 3 .... 2.... 1 Launch!  We've set the launch date for the upgrade to Communities on SAS. 

At 2pm ET, Wednesday, April 4th, we will take communities.sas.com off line.  The site may be unavailable for as much as 36 hours.  We hope that the upgrade will go much faster but have allowed for the unexpected.

I know this outage will be an inconvenience, but I think the new features and great new look will be worth it. I hope you think so too.  I can't wait for you to see it!

UPDATES from the upgrade:

  • Things are coming along faster than we expected, which is really great news. 
  • The first thing that I did was to create a new collection community called SAS Support Communities.  This space will house all of the existing user support communities that are currently available.  You can use this space to post general questions.
  • The next task was to rename the Getting Started space. I'm going to be using it for community help, so I have renamed it  to Community Usage Tips, Information, and Suggestions.  I hope that people find that a better name. 
  • (Thursday morning) We're still working on the site.  We are down to optimization and working out the kinks of integrating so many new features and design elements into an existing site. We are close.
  • I just finished writing a few help articles in the Community Usage Tips, Information and Suggestions space. I hope you all will comment, edit and create more help along the way. Even seasoned community members may want to check out these tips.
  • I  just merged the SAS and Clinical Trials community into the SAS in Health Care Related Fields in hopes of building a stronger audience.
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Finding content, the new way

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|March 28, 2012

Do you ever wish that you could find that perfect piece of content again? It wasn't that long ago, but you can't find it anywhere.

Most of us head straight to a search box when we start hunting for content.  Search doesn't always work if you can't remember the words used by the person who created the content or you think you remember all of the specifics about a document or post.  There's no need to fret. The new and improved Communities on SAS will offer you three new or enhanced tools for keeping track of content and to help you get there fast.

The first of the three features is bookmarking.  You have always had the opportunity to bookmark content, but this feature has been slimmed down to just one click to save and one click to retrieve.  Here's how it will work:

Look to the right on any content page.  You should see a collection of four items (Follow, Share, Bookmark and Like).  Click Bookmark.  After you click the link, the list will look like the image on the right.   Notice the blue down arrow next to the word Bookmarked.  Click that arrow and add any notes that you want to the bookmark.  Add notes that help you remember why you liked this content in the first place or to store an idea about how you might use this information in your next project.

   

When you are ready to retrieve your bookmarked content,  look in the header next to the search box and click on the bookmark icon.  Notice that a list of your bookmarks is displayed, allowing you to quickly access your content.

The second new locator feature is the Browse Content page.  You can access this page by selecting Browse > Content from the header of any page.   The Browse Content page offers filters just for you: options to view just the content you have participated in; content that you recently viewed, followed, or authored.  Just look for the menu on the left side of the page.   In addition to the personalized filtering in the left column, the Browse view includes filter boxes that includes type-ahead search or filter technology on the fly, which can quickly help you hone in on what you want.

The final option is your browsing history. The history feature is available from the clock icon next to the bookmark icon.  Your browsing history sticks with you, even across browsers and devices. So, if you visited something in the office and want to get back to it at home, History will get you there.

 As soon as the new system is up, start using these features and never miss your favorite content again.

 

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SAS communities are growing and changing

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|March 25, 2012

I don't have first hand experience with painful growth spurts because it seems to be a phenomenon experienced mostly by boys in their early teens. I've heard stories about kids who are visibly taller in the morning than they were when they went to bed the night before. When you hear these stories, they always include tales of pain and embarrassment.  (You can actually feel your legs growing. And if there was doubt, all of your pants are too short in the morning.)  But what you never hear are complaints about being taller.  That tells me that change -- even painful change -- can be rewarding and exciting.

Over the next couple of weeks, Communities on SAS will experience a growth spurt.  I won't lie to you, this is the kind of growth that is exciting and maybe a little painful. I'll do my best to help you experience all of the excitement and only a little of the pain. With a little planning and communication, I believe that we can ensure that our pants are never too short in the morning.

What can you expect -- the good

The upgrade to communities.sas.com brings hundreds of new features and enhancements, new topics, and new navigation. The new platform offers a set of features called "What Matters".  These features make it incredibly easy for you keep track of the people and information in which you are interested.  There are three main parts to What Matters:

  • Activity
  • Communications
  • Actions

Access to these features are available from the top of most community pages 

What Matters: Activity shows you what is happening across your community or among people you follow. You can interact directly with updates within the activity stream.

What Matters: Communications captures and tracks important communications, such as direct messages, replies to content you've created, or places where someone mentions you, so that you don't miss them.

What Matters: Actions tracks things you need to do. On communities.sas.com, most of your actions will be related to friend and follow notifications.

What can you expect -- the bad

Because we are restructuring to allow for more community topics, the URLs to your favorite communities will change.  You'll have to update any bookmarks or links that you have to a community.  (Links to individual threads or documents will not change.)  In addition to changing URLs, the RSS feeds that you currently subscribe to will likely stop working.  If you want to continue to receive updates via RSS feeds, you will have to subscribe to feeds again.

More to come

I'll explore these and other features in additional blog posts all week.  Watch the Announcements area on communities.sas.com for more information about features and outages.

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Reset your SAS Profile Password and update your information

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|January 8, 2012

~ Contributed by Marci Russell, Project Manager, SAS ~

The SAS Profile application is very important to the business of knowing our customers and providing you the information you need about SAS. Today, you create a Profile for actions like subscribing to SAS e-newsletters, downloading software, viewing your e-learning and participating in our Discussion Forums. In the future, we want to expand on your SAS Profile benefits.

Help us ensure that we have accurate contact and interest information for you and that the information is secure. Beginning on Monday, January 9, 2012, some of you will be prompted to change your password when you log in to a SAS Website.  If you’ve created a SAS Profile account in the past year, you’ll see no change.

However, if your SAS Profile information is more than a year old, you’ll see a message that your password has expired. When you try to log in to support.sas.com or www.sas.com, you’ll be prompted to change your password. To complete the task of changing your password, you will need access to the email account that is associated with your SAS Web profile.  If you no longer have access to the e-mail address you used to create your SAS Profile, create a new SAS Profile using your current e-mail address.

By resetting your password, we know that we have your valid e-mail address and an updated, secure password. This updated information will help us provide you with a better user experience and prepare your account for future functionality on the site. 

And, while you’re thinking about your SAS Profile, take some time to update your subscription and preferences information: https://www.sas.com/profile/user/contact.htm. This information will allow SAS to provide you with e-newsletters and relevant information about webinars and software releases as soon as they are available.

Thank you for letting us know you better through the SAS Profile.

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Performance help for customers running SAS on AIX

Renee Harper
Renee Harper|December 22, 2011

Back in September, I shared performance help for SAS 9 users who run on Windows 2008.  At that time, I promised more insights from Margaret Crevar.  Your next installment has arrived!

For all the SAS customers running on AIX (5, 6, or 7), please note that SAS and IBM have been working together on “living” documents that capture AIX tuning parameters in short white papers that you can share with your AIX administrators.  Enjoy the read and let us know if you have any questions.

Read this post if you are interested in performance help for SAS 9 on Windows 2008.

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