Sommario » Introduzione (in italiano) » Prism Windows 5.02 e Macintosh 5.0b » Nuove Caratteristiche versione 5 » Caratteristiche Generali » Requisiti di Sistema » Differenze tra la versione Macintosh e Windows

Quello che rende Prism unico non è tanto quello che fa, ma come lo fa.
Creato per i ricercatori di laboratorio e clinici, Prism guida l’utilizzatore privo di conoscenze statistiche attraverso il processo di analisi, supportandolo con tutto l’aiuto che necessita; è possibile così concentrarsi sui dati e non sul funzionamento del software.

Overview torna su

GraphPad Prism is a powerful combination of basic biostatistics, curve fitting and scientific graphing in one comprehensive program. More than 100,000 scientists in over 100 countries rely on Prism to analyze, graph and present their scientific data.

What makes Prism the program of choice for many of the world's leading universities, medical centers, research institutes and pharmaceutical companies? Prism certainly has all the capabilities you would expect from a top notch scientific graphics program, but what makes Prism truly unique is not what it does, but how it does it. Designed for the practical scientist, Prism does not expect you to be a statistician. It guides you through each analysis - giving you as much help as you need - and tracks and organizes your work like no other program available. You can concentrate on your data, not fight with your software.

What's new in Prism Windows 5.02 and Prism Mac 5.0b? torna su

Prism 5.02 (Windows) and 5.0b (Mac)  are free updates to Prism 5 owners. We call the updates 'minor' because they don't add many new features. But the effort required to create these updates was not minor. GraphPad works hard to maintain Prism, and these updates incorporate about five man-years of programming and almost that much in planning and testing. Please take a few minutes to update your Prism.

These updates fix about 200 minor bugs, and adds some versatility.

The most important improvements are:

Compatibility:

• Prism Mac now scrolls perfectly with trackpad and mighty mouse. 
• Prism Windows now runs on a display with a resolution as small as 600 pixels. This lets Prism run on new netbook computers, at least those that run Windows and have 600 pixels of vertical resolution (some are smaller). 

New features:

• Hold the shift key to select multiple data sets in the 'Data on graph' tab of the Format Graph dialog.
• Better Undo. You can use undo even after switching sheets and sections.
• Export as compressed TIF, even on Windows Vista.
• New constraint in nonlinear regression (mean X) to facilitate polynomial regression with centered X values.
• Built-in centered polynomial equations.
• You can now launch a Prism script saved in a .pzc file by double-clicking on that file.
• Plots point-to-point lines correctly when a point is off scale.
• /U command line switch to turn off automatic update checking (Windows only).
• Prism Mac can export clear backgrounds and plotting areas to PDF, TIFF, and EPS format.
• Prism Mac now can send to PowerPoint, as well as to Keynote. 
• New preference to choose whether background color should be copied to the clipboard with the graph (or layout).
• You can choose fractional percentiles (i.e. 97.25) in Column Stats.
• New preference to choose the default orientation (landscape or portrait) of new graphs (Windows only).
• When comparing the fits of two nonlinear models, Prism now gives you a choice (on Compare tab) about how to handle the situation where one fit is ambiguous. Pick the other model regardless of sum-of-squares? Or compare as usual?
• New Windows preference to save back to a temporary folder without prompting. 
• You can choose a Navigator font in preferences.

Regression fixes:

• Correctly computes R² from weighted nonlinear fits. 
• Improved nonlinear weighted fits by not applying the weights until the second iteration. 
• If you format a table for entry of mean, N and SD (or SEM) but leave the SD (or SEM) values blank, Prism now weights by N. If N is 3 that point is considered as if you entered it three times. In prior releases if SD or SEM was blank, Prism ignored N (so the point was entered into the calculations once). 
• Correctly reports number of analyzed points with robust nonlinear regression when you enter data as mean, error, & n. Robust nonlinear regression fits only the means and ignores the error and n values, but mistakenly reported the sum of n as the number of points analyzed.   
• Fixed order of parameter entry for some rarely used functions used in user-defined equations.
• Fixed the confidence interval of the X intercept (linear regression) which was too wide when data were entered with replicates.

Statistics fixes:

• The Mann-Whitney test did not correctly adjust for tied values, when the ties were entirely within the second group. 
• One-way ANOVA post tests now work, even if an entire data set has been excluded.
• Fixed DF value in the narrative results view of two-way ANOVA.
• Fixed P value in Spearman correlation with perfect data so r = -1.
• Column statistics now reports results with same number of digits of precision as the data set being analyzed.
• Fisher's exact test reports correct p value for data where the two groups are identical. 
• Fixed initial value rules  in homologous competition equation, two-phase exponential association, and in association then dissociation equation.
• Fixed "K-Y" and "K/Y" transforms, which  did not work on data tables without an X column.
• Fixed crash in Wilcoxon test as part of column statistics when all entered values were identical.
  
• Confidence bands of survival curves extend to the last time point even if the last observation was censored. 
• Prism no longer crashes when a t test analysis is repeatedly (hundreds of times) updated with new data.

Notable bug fixes:

• Faster graphing, especially of bar graphs with many bars.
• Improved opening of damaged files.
• When you export to PDF or EPS, just the graph is now exported, not the entire page. And you can choose background color.
• You can click on a custom grid line to select it.
• You can use the %N loop variable in more script commands: copy; paste; wcell, wrow, wcol, wtrow, wtcol, import, importlink, insertdata, cleartable, insertdatalink, wtable.
• Two new color schemes
• When baseline is not zero, Area Under Curve analysis also reports the difference peak - baseline.
• Fixed problem with pasting column titles from Excel.
• Smarter pasting when comma is used as decimal separator.
• Embedding fonts in exported EPS files works.
• When pasting data into a data table, Prism now will only paste the top row as row titles if the cursor is in the row #1 of the data table.
• When you launch Prism by double-clicking on a Prism file, it will launch in Japanese if you use the Japanese Prism add-on.
• Angled axis labels are no longer clipped when the graph is sent to PowerPoint.
• Allowed printing projects, with no Print dialog, using "/P" key in the commandline or using "print" shell command.
• Fixed the rule for initial value in the "Association then dissociation" equation.
• Correctly paste values that include a comma,  using settings in the "International" pane in the System Preferences to determine if comma is denotes thousands or decimal point. Also allow commas in column titles.
• Minor ticks now work correctly on log axes with axis limits not at even log values.
• Survival curves. Fixed bug that prevented removing data sets and that caused extra line when X axis range limited extent of curve.
• Fixed ability to change range of two- and three-segment axes.
• Fixed scripting bugs with wrow command, and navigation to subsheets. Default folder for writing results is now the script folder (like Prism 4) not "My documents".
• Fixed problem of legends wrapping.
• Now shades area between two custom ticks, even if one is off scale.
• Automatically unchecks the 'log' option for minor tick spacing when you switch from log to ordinary axis.
• Fixed crash after cloning some graphs.
• Fixed displaced X axis labels on Grouped graphs with offset axes.
• Now imports long Excel files. With Excel 2007, earlier releases could only import one page of data.
• When you hook an info constant to a custom tick on an axis, it now correctly links the value of the constant, not its name.
• Update the name of linked sheets even if you only delete the first or last few characters of a sheet name.
• Properly opens grouped graphs with one row imported from Prism 4.
• Fixed tick numbering for graphs with origin at upper right.
• Scripts no longer stop when a Goto command goes to an empty section (which used to popup the Create new sheet dialog.
• Row statistics analysis now shows row titles.
• Graphs no longer move when data are recalculated.
• Fixed crash on copy/paste two line titles that included Greek.
• Fixed the problem when it was impossible to show column titles in axis labels in the "Separated bar graph", while the source data table had blank row titles
• Fixed the problem when the "Decimate" option in the Paste Special dialog did not work for the Row Titles
• Fixed the problem when Appearance of graph changed, when it was assigned to layout.
• Results tables embedded on graphs sometimes didn't appear properly on layouts.
• Info tables embedded onto layouts, saved on Mac, didn't open properly on Windows.
• Improved opening of Prism 1 files.
• If text object was being edited while graph was exported, the text was not exported.
• Fixed problem with axis numbering with tiny values in scientific notation.
• Sometimes graphs had too large a border in layouts. 
• Even when X numbers/labels are set to be row titles, they sometimes appeared as row numbers.
• After you delete all custom ticks, Prism mac no longer creates one at zero.
• If you hide an axis, Prism Mac now also hides corresponding custom grid lines.
• After fitting curves with confidence or prediction bands and then removing them using the Format Graph dialog, they no longer come back. With Prism Mac 5.0a, the confidence bands would reappear when the analysis was recalculated. 

New Features torna su

We think you'll love Prism 5. We've added literally hundreds of new features.
Here are some of the highlights:

New look and feel
Prism 5 lets you work much more efficiently. The new toolbar buttons offer easy access to every feature. No more searching through pull down menus to find what you need. Also try the new right-mouse-click menus for quick and easy editing. And we've added many new tools to help you stay organized in a large project.

Prism Magic

Have you ever wanted to make one graph (or many graphs) look just like another one? Prism Magic (Make Graphs Consistent) makes it easy. Select the graphs you want to change, choose your example graph from any Prism project, and preview your selected changes. When you are happy with the preview, click OK and you have a set of matching graphs.

More powerful curve fitting

These are just some of the hundreds of improvements in Prism 5.

General Features torna su

Curve fitting

Nonlinear regression is an important tool in analyzing data, but is often more difficult than it needs to be. No other program simplifies curve fitting like Prism. In fact, you can usually fit curves in a single step. Just select an equation from the extensive list of commonly used equations (or enter your own equation) and Prism does the rest automatically -- fits the curve, displays the results as a table, and draws the curve on the graph. Even better, Prism will automatically fit all related data sets at once. You don't have to repeat commands for each experimental condition.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity. Prism also gives you many advanced fitting options - automatically interpolate unknown values from a standard curve (i.e., to analyze RIA data), compare two equations with an F test or Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC), and plot residuals. Prism also lets you fit curves to a family of data sets at once, sharing the best-fit value of selected parameters to find one best-fit value that applies to the entire family, rather than individual best-fit values for each data set.

Statistics

Prism offers a more comprehensive set of tools to analyze your data than any other scientific graphics package. While it won't replace a heavy-duty statistics program, Prism lets you easily perform basic statistical tests commonly used by laboratory and clinical researchers. Prism offers t tests, nonparametric comparisons, one- and two-way ANOVA, linear and nonlinear regression, analysis of contingency tables, and survival analysis.

Unlike other programs, Prism provides statistical help when you need it. Press "Learn" from any data analysis dialog and Prism's online documentation will explain the principles of the analysis to help you make appropriate choices. Once you've made your choices, Prism presents the results on organized, easy-to-follow tables. If you need help understanding the statistical terminology in the results table, Prism's unique analysis checklists take you to analysis explanations and help you check to make sure you chose an analysis appropriate for your experimental design.

The Prism documentation goes beyond anything you would expect. More than half of it is devoted to thorough explanations of basic statistics and nonlinear curve fitting, to teach you what you need to know to appropriately analyze your data.

Scientific graphing

Quickly create publication-quality graphs of your data and easily customize every detail. Prism makes a wide variety of 2D scientific graphs, giving you all the features you need - including automatic error bars, log axes, discontinuous axes, Greek letters and much more - to create the look you want. Use Prism's toolbar buttons to instantly send your completed graphs to Word or PowerPoint, or export graphs in a wide variety of formats including high-resolution tif and EPS (Prism 5 only), suitable for publication in any journal.

Once you've created several graphs, arrange them on a page in Prism's unique page layout section. Start with a built-in page layout template, or create your own arrangement using special tools for aligning axes, creating insets and resizing graphs. You can even include analysis results on the same page to summarize your entire experiment for presentations and publications. Prism layouts can be printed at up to 30" x 40", so you can organize and print your poster right from Prism.

Organizing experiments

Prism brings you a completely new approach in scientific graphing software. Designed by a scientist for scientists, Prism works the way you do. Prism understands the links between data and analyses, and stores your related data, analysis results, graphs, layouts and notes in one efficient project file. Even your most complicated projects stay organized and easy to manage. Unlike other scientific graphics programs, Prism stores all your analysis results along with your data and graphs. And more importantly, Prism remembers exactly how you analyzed your data, even if it required several steps. When you open a Prism file, you can retrace every step of every analysis. Read on to learn more about how Prism can save you valuable time and effort.

Automatic error bars.

Protocols often require replicate measurements (i.e., triplicates). Most programs make it too difficult to calculate and plot error bars. Not Prism. Simply enter replicate values and Prism calculates and graphs error bars automatically. Choose from SD, SEM, 95% CI or range. With Prism there's no wading through a maze of unnecessary dialogs to make error bars.

Simultaneous analysis of related data sets.

Experiments typically compare several experimental conditions. With other programs, you must go through many tedious steps to analyze each data set - one at a time. Click one button and Prism analyzes and graphs several experimental conditions at once.

Efficient analysis of repeated experiments.

You rarely perform an experiment just once - you repeat it to verify results. With Prism you can analyze a repeated experiment in one step. Just plug in the new data, and Prism handles all the graphing and analysis steps automatically. Every file you save can be a template for a repeated experiment. This powerful feature can save you hours of repetitive work. And, if you need to analyze a large series of experiments, Prism's easy-to-use scripting language will automate importing the data files and exporting the results. It just doesn't get any easier.

Effortless corrections.

Even the most careful scientist can make a data entry mistake. With other programs, a simple mistake can cost you hours of wasted time. Not with Prism. That's because Prism data tables are linked to analyses, graphs and page layouts. When you fix a data entry mistake, your data are automatically reanalyzed and your graphs updated.

An organized record of work.

Science requires rigorous record keeping. Your data files should help you document your work.

Prism lets you enter unstructured notes and structured data (notebook number, experimenter, lot number, concentration, etc.) onto Info sheets. It's an ideal way to keep each part of your experiment organized and on target. Each info sheet can be linked to a particular data table or be general for the entire project. You can use info constants as constants in transforms, as constraints in nonlinear regression, and as graph titles and legends.

System Requirements torna su

Prism 5 for Windows runs under Windows 2000, XP or Vista. Prism 5 does not run under Windows 3.1, 95, 98 or Windows NT. Some features with Prism for Windows require Internet Explorer 6 and Flash Player 7 or higher.

Prism 5 for Macintosh is a Universal application that runs on Intel – and PowerPC-based Mac computers using OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.5 (Leopard).

Your screen must have a resolution of 1024 x 768 (XGA), and be able to show at least thousands of colors (16 bit).

Prism requires 60 megabytes of space on the hard drive.

Differences between the Windows and Mac versions of Prism 5 torna su

We work hard to keep the Windows and Mac versions of Prism very similar. You can switch back and forth between platforms easily, and files created on one platform can be opened on the other. But there are a few differences.

Features in Windows but not Mac:

• Object linking and embedding. This means you can paste a Prism graph into another program and double-click to edit in Prism.
• Excel linking and embedding. This means you can paste Excel data into Prism, and double click to edit within Excel.
  
• Audio notes embedded on graphs or layouts.
• Import and export EMF and WMF images.
• Send to Word or PowerPoint with a single click.
• Automatically check for program updates.
• One click to post a graph or layout on a web site.
  
• High contrast printing, with no grays and no colors.
• Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) commands to launch Prism and start a script.
• Find Prism files using Google Desktop Search.
• Export in the older PCX format.
  
  

• Spell checking of text anywhere in the project
• Antiaiiasing. This makes the on-screen graphics look better, but doesn't affect exported or printed quality.
• Quick Look. Lets you preview graphs within Finder (Leopard only).
• Color eyedropper. While setting any color, click the magnifying glass tool, then click on any color on any window to select that color.
• Send to keynote with a single click.
• Use an Automator action to launch Prism and run a Prism Script;
• Choice of color model ( RGB, CMYK, or Grayscale) when exporting JPEG.
• Choice to compress when exporting tiff at high resolution.
• Ability to open one project on display and another project on a different display monitor.
  
• Export in PICT format.

Differences between Prism for Windows and Prism for Macintosh

The main difference is that the Mac version does not support Object Linking and Embedding (OLE):

• When you copy and paste a graph created with Prism Windows into another program such as Word or PowerPoint, you can embed an entire Prism object or paste a link to the Prism file. You can then double-click on the graph from within Word or PowerPoint to edit the graph with Prism. Since the Mac OS does not support Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), you can only paste a picture of a Prism graph into another program. Double-clicking on the pasted graph does not launch Prism.
  
• Prism Windows can embed objects (for example, equations) created by other programs. You double-click on an object to edit with the program that created it. Prismfor Macintosh, however, does not support Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). With Prism Mac, you can copy and paste pictures from another program, but you need to go back to the original file in order to edit with the other program.
  
• When you paste Excel data, Prism Windows can embed the entire workbook within Prism, or maintain a link between Prism and the Excel file. With Prism Mac, you simply paste the values from Excel. Prism Mac cannot maintain a link to the Excel file.
  
• With Prism Windows, you can press one button to send a graph (or layout) to PowerPoint or Word. We were not able to build these buttons into the Mac version, so instead you need to the steps sequentially: copy the graph to the clipboard, switch to PowerPoint, insert a new slide, and paste. However you can send to Keynote with one click.