SAS Companion for the OS/2 Environment |
The SAS windowing environment can be customized in several ways
by using commands, dialog boxes, and SAS system options.
To choose a different font or point size for text in SAS windows,
open the Fonts dialog box by selecting
Tools |
|
Options |
|
Fonts |
The fonts
that are available depend on which monospace fonts you have installed under OS/2.
For example, you might have the Courier font available. When you select a
font or point size, the Font Sample field displays
a sample of the font that you have selected.
Note: You cannot use Fonts to select SAS/GRAPH fonts.
- CAUTION:
- Beware of changing certain
display characteristics on
low-resolution displays.
If you select large
font sizes on some monitors, you may not be able to see all the text in your
SAS windows at one time. In some windows, such as the SAS/ASSIST window where
there are no scroll bars, large font sizes can cause some choices to be invisible.
For these types of displays, large font sizes are not recommended. This
same problem can occur if you change the OS/2 Appearance properties and select
a thick window border. On low-resolution displays, you should not use thick
window borders.
You can configure your SAS session to accommodate the way that you like to
work. For example:
- You can use a movable command window instead of
the command bar.
- You can set preferences for scrolling behavior
and window appearance.
- You can set a preferred Web browser to use when
viewing Internet Web pages or HTML output.
To set your preferences, type dlgpref
in the command bar or select
Tools |
|
Options |
|
Preferences... |
The Preferences
dialog box (shown in Preferences Dialog Box (Showing the General Tab))
contains different pages that separate the session settings into different
categories. Click on the tabs for each page that are located along the top
of the dialog box to navigate to the settings that you want to change, and
then select the options that you want. When you are finished, click [OK]. The settings that you select are saved from session to session
in the SASUSER.PROFILE catalog by their respecitve pages except for the Results page. The entries in the SASUSER.PROFILE are GENWSAVE,
VIEWWSAVE, EDITWSAVE, WEBWSAVE, and ADVWSAVE. The Results
page settings are saved in the SAS Registry so they are not moved to another
machine when the SASUSER.PROFILE catalog is copied.
Preferences Dialog Box (Showing the General Tab)
The
following sections describe each page of the Preferences
dialog box and how to use these settings to control your SAS session.
General Preferences
The General Preferences page lets you specify
the general
options that control how your SAS session works. These are the general options:
- Recently used file list
- specifies whether SAS retains a list of
the files that you have accessed. If this option is selected, you can specify
in the Entries field up to 30 files that you want
to retain. Show recently used file list on submenu
specifies whether the files will be displayed from the Recent
Files submenu that you access from the File
menu. If Show recently used file list on submenu
is not selected, the files are displayed in the File
menu. Each time that you access a file from a text editor window, the filename
is added to the list. You can then reopen the file quickly by selecting the
filename from the list.
- Confirm exit of SAS
- specifies whether you want the SAS System
to prompt you for confirmation before you end your SAS session.
- Save settings on Exit
- specifies whether SAS should automatically
save your settings when you exit your SAS session.
- Submit contents of file opened
- specifies whether you want to submit the
contents of all files that you open to the SAS System.
- Mail current window as attachment
- specifies whether the active window should
be automatically included as an e-mail attachment when you initiate electronic
mail from within SAS. If you select this option, then you can also specify
whether the attachment should be formatted as plain text or as RTF (rich text
format, which retains font and color information).
The
View page allows you to specify the options that control the appearance of
your SAS session. The view options include the following:
- Window
- specifies whether your SAS windows contain
scroll bars and a command line. You can also enable or disable a ScreenTip (the helpful hints that appear when you position your
mouse pointer over window controls).
- Show
- specifies whether to show certain aspects
of the SAS interface, including these options:
- Docking View
- specifies whether to display the docking
area on the left side of the main SAS window.
- Status line
- specifies which aspects of the status line
you want to have visible in your session. Display message lines specifies whether to display the message area of the status
line. Display current folder specifies whether
to display the SAS current folder area.
The
Edit page controls options that affect the SAS text editor include the following:
- Overtype mode
- specifies whether to insert text or overtype
on existing text when you type text in a SAS application window. You can also
toggle the overtype mode by pressing the INSERT key on your keyboard.
- Enable unmarking with navigation keys
- enables unmarking of text using the up, down, left, and
right navigation keys.
- Autosave every n minutes
- specifies whether to automatically save
the contents of the Program Editor, and how often to save it. The contents
are saved to PGM.ASV in the current active folder so that you can recover
your work if your SAS session ends before you save the contents of the editor
window.
Results Preferences
The Results page allows you to configure how you
would like to
view your program output results. The Results page options include the following:
- Create listing
- specifies that the program output is to
be displayed in the Output window.
- Create HTML
- specifies that the program output is to
be displayed in HTML format.
- Style:
- allows you to choose the appearance of the
program output. For more information, see the topic on customizing the styles
used in HTML output in the SAS online Help.
- Folder:
- specifies a folder to store HTML output
files. You can either type a folder name or click on [Browse]
to search for a folder.
- Use WORK folder
- specifies to store HTML program output files
in the WORK folder. The WORK folder is a temporary folder that is deleted
when the SAS session ends.
- View results as they are generated
- specifies whether to update the browser with the latest
generated HTML output.
The
Web Preferences page allows you to specify the preferred Web browser for your
SAS session. These preferences are used whenever you issue the WBROWSE command
(either directly or by selecting a Help menu item
or toolbar button that issues the command). For more information about WBROWSE,
see WBROWSE.
The Web options that you can specify are
- Preferred browser
- specifies the preferred Web browser to use
when accessing Web information from within the SAS System. Type a path to
the Web browser or click on [Browse] to search for the path
to the Web browser.
- Start page
- specifies the default Web page to which
to navigate when you invoke the Web browser within the SAS System. By default,
the browser navigates to http://www.sas.com (the
SAS Institute home page on the World Wide Web).
Advanced Preferences
The Advanced Preferences page allows you to
specify options
that can affect your SAS session, including scrolling policy and other miscellaneous
behavior. The advanced options include
-
Scrolling Options
- For the Output window, if Scroll lines
is selected and the window is full, the window will scroll the number of lines
that are specified in the spin box. The default value is 0 (meaning that no
output is written to that window while statements are executing, providing
the best performance). When you select Scroll page,
the Output window will not display any lines until an entire page is written.
When Scroll max is selected, no output will be
written to the window until the procedure is complete.
The default Scroll lines value for the Log
window is 1. The advantage of keeping the scrolling setting of the Log window
at 1 is that the SAS System uses the Log window to notify you of the status
of the running program.
Scrolling can increase the length of time that the SAS
System takes to run your program. The less scrolling that is required, the
faster your program will run.
You can also set these values by using the Editor Options
window or the AUTOSCROLL command (described in the SAS online Help).
-
Hide
cursor in non-input windows
- specifies that the cursor will not appear
in windows that do not require text input (such as some SAS/AF programs and
SAS/ASSIST software).
- Disable scroll bar focus
- specifies that the scroll bar does not receive
window focus when you click on it. This eliminates flashing problems that
can occur in some SAS applications.
|
Customizing Your Windowing Environment |
You can use several commands to customize your SAS windowing
environment. This section illustrates how to use some of these commands.
Customizing Window Positions
In the default display configuration of an interactive
session (shown in The Main SAS Window)
the main SAS window displays the Explorer and Results windows as docked windows,
and the Log, Program Editor, and Output windows in the remaining SAS workspace.
Using the Window menu, you
can position SAS windows in the same manner as other OS/2 applications: Minimize (Restore) All Windows, Cascade, Tile,
and Resize. While the default
display configuration is sufficient for efficient SAS System use, you may
want to open a few more windows for easy access and rearrange the windows
on your display. For example, you may want the My Favorite Folders window
open, but minimized, with the windows arranged in a mosaic pattern so you
can see all of them at once. To accomplish this, you click on the minimize
button in the window title bar for the My Favorite Folders window and then
select Tile from the Window
menu.
For more information about SAS commands that have OS/2
dependencies, see SAS Commands under OS/2.
Changing the Window Colors
Changing the color of window components
is a shared responsibility
of OS/2 and the SAS System. You change the color of most standard window
parts by changing the Properties of the OS/2 desktop.
Note: For optimal color resoultion when running OS/2 in 256 colors,
check the "Workplace shell palette aware" check box in the System
Properties notebook 256 Colors tab. To open the System Properties notebook
from the desktop, double-click on the following icons:
OS/2 System |
|
System
Setup |
|
System |
Several window element colors are controlled by the
SAS System (such as the color of error message text in the Log window). To
change a window component that is controlled by the SAS System, either type
SASCOLOR in the command bar or select
Tools |
|
Options |
|
Colors |
The SASCOLOR
window allows you to choose the colors for specific elements. For more information
about the SASCOLOR window, see the SAS System Help for the window.
|
Customizing Your Windowing Environment with System Options |
Several SAS system options are available to control the default
windowing environment within the SAS System. The most commonly used options
are the following:
- AWSDEF
- specifies the location and dimensions of
the main SAS window when the SAS System initializes.
- AWSTITLE
- specifies the text for the main SAS window
title bar.
- FONT
- specifies a font name and point size to
use as the default SAS session font.
- ICON
- minimizes the SAS window when the SAS System
initializes.
- REGISTER
- enables you to add applications to the SAS Tools menu so that you can execute them by clicking on their
names.
- SPLASHLOC and NOSPLASH
- specifies the location of the logo screen
(SPLASHLOC) to display at the start of a SAS session, or suppresses the logo
screen (NOSPLASH).
- USERICON
- specifies user-defined icons to be incorporated
into SAS/AF applications.
These options can be specified in your SAS configuration
file or in the SAS command when you start the SAS System from an OS/2 window.
Some are also valid in an OPTIONS statement. For details about the syntax
of these options and about where you can specify them, see SAS System Options under OS/2.
The
AWSDEF system option enables you to control the placement
and size of the main SAS window when the SAS System initializes. Suppose you
want your SAS session always to occupy the upper-left quadrant of your display.
To accomplish this, specify the following AWSDEF system option in your SAS
configuration file:
-awsdef 0 0 50 50
For more information about the AWSDEF system option,
see AWSDEF.
Changing the Title of Your SAS Session
By default, the main SAS title
bar contains the text SAS. If you want a different title, you can use the AWSTITLE
option. To set the title to My SAS Session, specify
the following option in your SAS configuration file:
-awstitle "My SAS Session"
Minimizing Your SAS Session
The ICON system option causes the SAS System to be minimized
at invocation. If you are running a batch job, you might want to use this
option to save space on your display.
The REGISTER
system option enables you to add names of
applications to the Tools menu of the main SAS
window. You can execute one of these applications by clicking on its name.
The REGISTER option takes as arguments a menu name and an operating environment
command or a path specification for an executable file. You can also specify
a working folder. For complete information about the REGISTER system option,
see REGISTER .
Here is an example that adds a command to print the
contents of the SASUSER folder:
-register "Contents of SAS"
"dir c:\sas"
When you select Contents of SASUSER
from the Tools menu, the output from issuing the
OS/2 DIR command is displayed in an OS/2 window.
Here is an example of adding an .EXE file to the menu
along with a specification of a working folder of C:\NOTEDATA:
-register "Notes" "notes.exe" "c:\notedata"
This adds Notes to the menu.
When you select Notes, the file NOTES.EXE is opened.
Note: The REGISTER system option is valid only as an
invocation option (that is, in a SAS configuration file and in the SAS invocation
command).
Displaying a Custom Logo Screen during SAS System Invocation
To display your own logo when the SAS System starts
- Create the logo that you want to display and either
save it as a bitmap (which has a .BMP file extension), or compile it as a
resource and build it into a dynamic link library (DLL).
- When you invoke SAS, specify the SPLASHLOC option
with the full pathname of the file that contains your bitmap. If the bitmap
is in a DLL, specify the resource number as well. The default resource number
is 1.
For example, suppose your logo screen is stored in C:\MYBMPS\SPLASH.BMP.
You specify the SPLASHLOC option like this:
-splashloc c:\mybmps\splash.bmp
If your logo were stored in C:\MYDLLS\OPENING.DLL as
resource 101, you would specify the SPLASHLOC option like this:
-splashloc c:\mydlls\opening.dll 101
For more information about the SPLASHLOC system option,
see SPLASHLOC.
Adding User-Defined Icons to the SAS System
The USERICON option
enables you to add your own icons to the
SAS System. These icons can be used in SAS/AF and SAS/EIS software. The
syntax for the USERICON option is as follows:
-USERICON icon-resource-file
number-of-icons
|
The icon-resource-file argument specifies
the full path to a dynamic link library (DLL) file that contains the user
icons. The number-of-icons argument specifies the number of icons
that are found in the resource file. For example, the following option specifies
that there are four icons located in an icon resource file named ICONS.DLL
found in the C:\JUNK folder:
-usericon c:\junk\icons.dll 4
The DLL that is used as the icon resource file must
be created using the OS/2 Software Development Kit (and must therefore be
32-bit). For more information about how to build a resource file, see the
documentation for the OS/2 Software Development Kit.
You can incorporate icons into your SAS/AF and SAS/EIS
applications by using a FRAME entry. For more information, see the SAS online
Help for SAS/AF and SAS/EIS software.
SAS assigns several commonly used commands to the toolbar buttons for your
convenience. You might find that the commands that you use most often are
different from those that are assigned to the toolbar by default. Or, you
might want to create a toolbar to use with a specific application window or
SAS/AF program. This section describes how to customize the toolbar settings.
You customize all toolbar settings using the Customize
Tools dialog box. To open the Customize Tools dialog box, either type tooledit in the command bar or select
Tools |
|
Customize... |
You use the Toolbars page for general toolbar settings and the
Customize page to define tools on the toolbar.
The
Toolbars page has
settings that control the behavior and appearance of the toolbar. Tools options
include
- General
- specifies toolbar button appearance and
Help options. These options include
- Large icons
- specifies whether to use the set of large
buttons on the toolbar. This is especially useful for high-resolution displays.
- Show ScreenTips on toolbars
- specifies whether to display a short button
description when you place the cursor over the toolbar button.
- Toolbars
- specifies whether to display the toolbar
and command bar. These options include
- Application Toolbar
- specifies whether to display the toolbar
for the active application. When this option is enabled, you can select Display as box for the toolbar to display in a separate window.
Otherwise, the toolbar is docked to the main SAS window.
- Command Bar
- specifies that the command bar is to be
displayed and the options be enabled in order to use the command bar.
| When Display as box is enabled,
the command bar displays as a separate window. |
| When Use AutoComplete is
enabled, SAS remembers previously entered commands and completes the command
once you start typing the command. |
| Select Sort commands by most recently used to display commands in the command bar drop-down list
in the
order of the most recently typed command. If this setting is not selected,
the drop-down list commands are ordered by the most frequently used. |
| In the Number of commands saved box,
type the number of commands to save to display in the command bar list box.
Valid values range from 0 and 50. The default is 15. |
When you have
configured the Toolbars page, either click
on Customize to complete your customization or
click on [OK] to close the dialog box.
Customizing a Toolbar
The Customize page allows you to add, delete, and modify
commands on the toolbar. Customize Page of the Customize Tools Dialog Box
shows the Customize page of the Customize Tools dialog box.
Customize Page of the Customize Tools Dialog Box
You
may recognize some buttons as standard OS/2 commands,
such as OPEN and SAVE. The following section explains each of the buttons
(commands) and fields.
- The three toolbar buttons that act on the file that
contains the toolbar definition are, from left to right:
-
- the open button opens a toolbar file.
- the save button saves a toolbar
file.
- the restore button restores a toolbar to the default
settings.
- Title
- displays the title text that appears in
the title bar when the toolbar is undocked.
- Commands to define a toolbar, a series of eight buttons
from left to right:
-
- Add a tool
- adds a tool or a separator space to the
toolbar. To add a tool or a separator, click on the button and select either Blank tool or Separator. Windows
that already define an action set will have a selection for Action.
- Remove tool
- deletes a highlighted tool in the list box
from the toolbar.
- Change button
- opens the Bitmap Browser to select a new
icon for a tool button.
- Move tool up
- moves a tool up one position in the list
box.
- Move tool down
- moves a tool down one position in the list
box.
- Cut
- deletes the currently selected button from
the list box and places it on the clipboard.
- Copy
- places a copy of the selected button on
the clipboard.
- Paste
- copies a button from the clipboard to the
highlighted command in the list box.
- Command
- displays the command for the highlighted
tool in the list box. You can then either add or modify the command in the
text box.
- Help Text
- displays the Help text that appears in the
message area of the status bar when the cursor is placed over the button in
the toolbar. You can add to or modify the Help text in the text box.
- Tip Text
- displays the tip text that appears under
the button when the cursor is placed over the button in the toolbar. You can
add to or modify the tip text in the text box.
- Toolbar list box
- lists the buttons, commands, Help text and
separators that are defined in the toolbar.
To close the dialog box, click on [OK].
Adding a Tool to the Toolbar
To add a tool to the toolbar, follow these steps:
- Do one of the
following:
- Click on the Add tool button and select Blank Tool to add a blank tool to the toolbar list box. Type
a SAS command in the Command field.
- For windows that have a predefined set of tools,
such as the SAS Explorer window or the My Favorite Folders window, click on
the Add tool button and select Action. From the
Add Action dialog box, select an action. This adds a new action to the toolbar.
You can type multiple commands separated by semicolons.
- Click on the Add tool button and select Separator to add a separator to
the toolbar.
- Click on the Bitmap Browser button. Select a button
in the Bitmap Browser dialog box and click on [OK].
- Type text in the Help Text
field that will appear in the message area of the status line when you select
the tool from the toolbar.
- Type text in the Tip Text
field that will appear under the button when you place the cursor over the
button.
- Position the tool in the list box by clicking
on the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
- When you are finished, click on the Save button.
In the Save Tools dialog box, type the library, catalog, and toolbox names.
Then click on [OK].
Removing a Tool from the Toolbar
To remove a tool from the toolbar, select the tool in
the list box that you want to remove and click on the Remove Tool button.
When you are finished, save the toolbar by clicking on the Save button.
Follow these steps to customize a toolbar for use with
a particular application or window:
- Click in the application or window to make it the active
window.
- Customize the toolbar by adding and removing tools
as described in previous sections.
- When you have finished customizing the toolbar,
click on the Save button. The Save Tools dialog box appears.
- The SAS System completes the LIBREF, CATALOG, and
ENTRY fields. Select
the
Save tools for window
check box, where window
is the active window, and then click on [OK].
When you select the
Save
tools for window
check box, the toolbar
is associated with the particular application or window by using the same
library, catalog, and entry name as the PMENU entry for the application or
window. The SAS System first looks for toolbox entries in SASUSER.PROFILE
before searching the application catalog.
If you save the toolbar so that it is associated with
a particular application, SAS automatically loads the tools when that application's
window is active.
You can use the TOOLLOAD command to load your custom
toolbar manually. For more information, see TOOLLOAD.
To reset the tools to the default settings, click on
the Restore Defaults button. The SAS System asks you to confirm that you
want to reset the tool settings. When you click on [Yes],
the tools are reset to their original settings (the settings that are in place
when the SAS System was installed).
If a SAS System application defines a default toolbar
for its application window, clicking on the Restore Defaults button restores
the settings for that toolbar.
Examples of Useful Tools You Can Create
To create a tool that opens the SAS online documentation
(SAS OnlineDoc) follow these steps:
- In the Tool Editor dialog box, click on the Add
tool button. This creates a template for a new tool in the list box.
- In the Command field,
type
sasdoc onlinedoc
, which invokes the SAS OnlineDoc product. For more
information about SAS commands that are specific to OS/2 and their options,
see SAS Commands under OS/2.
For information about portable SAS commands, see the SAS online Help.
In the Help Text field, type
Open
the SAS OnlineDoc
. In the Tip Text field,
type
SAS OnlineDoc
.
- Click on the Bitmap Browser button. From the
Bitmap Browser dialog box, select a bitmap that is appropriate for the Help
action (such as PC with text bitmap) and click on [OK].
- Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to move
the tool to the location that you want on the toolbar.
- Click on the Save button to save the tool with
your default tool configuration.
The following are some other tools that you might find
useful to create.
- PGM; CLEAR; INCLUDE C:\SAS\MYPROGRAM.SAS
- includes into the Program Editor window
for editing a program that you use often.
- PGM; FILE C:\SAS\MYPROGRAM.SAS; CLEAR
- saves a SAS program after you finish editing
it and clears the Program Editor window.
- PGM; CLEAR; INCLUDE C:\SAS\MYPROGRAM.SAS; SUBMIT
- includes and submits a SAS program that
you use often.
- PGM; CLEAR; INCLUDE C:\SAS\SIGNON.SAS; SUBMIT
- includes and submits a SAS program to sign
on to a remote system. For example, to sign on to a remote MVS session, the
SIGNON.SAS program might contain the folowing statements:
options comamid=ehllapi remote=mytso;
libname remtdata 'mylib.mydata.monthly';
signon;
For more information about signing on to remote sessions, see SAS/CONNECT User's Guide.
- PGM; CLEAR; INCLUDE C:\SAS\DOWNLOAD.SAS;
SUBMIT
- includes and submits a SAS program to download
a data set from a remote session. Assuming that you have already signed on
to the remote session, DOWNLOAD.SAS might contain the following statements:
proc download data=remtdata.june;
/* where libname 'remtdata' is */
/* already defined */
run;
For more information about signing on to remote sessions, see SAS/CONNECT User's Guide.
- TOOLLOAD BAR SASUSER.PROFILE.MORTOOLS
- loads a different toolbar (that you created)
that contains another collection of tools.
Copyright 1999 by SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. All rights reserved.