Stat Computing > SPSS > Installing, Customizing, Updating

Customizing SPSS

This page shows some tips on how to customize SPSS for Windows. 

How do I show the syntax in the output window ?

Edit
  Options...
     Under the "Viewer" tab, in the lower left corner, click in the box to "Display commands in the log."

How do I have SPSS show the variable names instead of the variable labels in the list of variables?

Edit
  Options...
     Under the "General" tab, in the upper left corner, click on the radio button to change from showing the
     variable labels to showing the variable names.

How do I have the variables displayed in the order in which they are in the data file instead of in alphabetical order in the lists of variables?

Edit
  Options...
     Under the "General" tab, in the upper left corner, click on the radio button to change from showing the
     variables in alphabetical order to showing the variables in the file order (see also the screen shot above).

How do I have SPSS show small values in decimals instead of in scientific notation in tables in the output?

Edit
  Options...
     Under the "General" tab, in the upper right corner, click on the box "No scientific notation for small numbers in
     tables" (see also the screen shot above).

How do I have SPSS show the names and labels of variables in tables in the output?

Edit
  Options...
     Under the "Output Labels" tab, use the pull-down menus to select "Names", "Labels" or "Names and Labels"
     for each of the items.

How do I change the century cut-off date for two-digit years?

Edit
  Options...
     Under the "Data" tab, in the upper right corner, click on the radio button "Custom" under "Set Century Range
     for 2-Digit Years", and then input the year that you want for the beginning year.

Why do I have difficulty scrolling to the bottom of my SPSS data file when it is large?

To help conserve computer resources, the SPSS data editor has a display limit of 100,000 cases.  This is only a display issue; SPSS can handle much larger data files.  While you can scroll past that limit without making any modifications to your default SPSS settings, it is difficult to do this for the first time.  After you have done it once in the current SPSS session, the limit is no longer in effect.  To change the default setting to allow more cases to be easily displayed (at the cost of using more computer resources), you can run virtualr.exe, which is located in the SPSS installation folder.  When you double click on this application, you will see the following dialogue box.  Here you can change the threshold to whatever you like.

How can I get rid of the grid lines in the SPSS Data Editor?

View
  Uncheck "Grid Lines"

How can I customize the tool bars in the different SPSS windows?

View
  Toolbars...
    Customize...
      From here, you can make whatever changes that you like to the toolbar.

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