JMP Essentials: An Illustrated Guide for New Users, Second Edition (2014)
Chapter 8. Getting Help
We designed this book to be a quick overview of the most commonly used features of JMP. As you begin to use JMP more frequently or dig deeper into its analytics, you will inevitably have questions or find places where you’ll want to learn more. This chapter is designed to help you navigate the extensive resources available to help you answer those questions. We begin with JMP’s wide range of built-in resources.
Within JMP lives a wide variety of documentation, tutorials, and other support materials. It is highly recommended that you learn about these, because they were designed to assist you while you are using the software. These tools offer the most immediate answers.
Should you need additional assistance, other resources include outstanding technical support, teaching resources, live and on-demand Webcasts, user groups, blogs, and even social networking initiatives. JMP hosts dozens of events each year, including its annual Discovery Conference. JMP training courses are also available through SAS Education; many books, ranging from elementary to advanced, are referenced in the bibliography at the end of this book.
8.1 The Help Tool
When you have any question about what you’re looking at in a JMP window, what a graphic or result is, or how it was generated, the Help tool (also known as the question mark tool or the ? icon) in the Toolbar or the Tools menu is a great place to start.
The Help tool provides a direct link to the documentation concerning the item in question.
1. Select the question mark from the toolbar and move the transformed “?” cursor to the item in question (see Figure 8.1).
Figure 8.1 The JMP Help Tool
2. Click on the item in question, and JMP reveals the specific place within the documentation that addresses the concepts or output at hand (see Figure 8.2).
Figure 8.2
8.2 The Help Menu
From the Help menu (see Figure 8.3), you can access specific help topics along with all of JMP’s documentation, tutorials, sample data, and shortcuts to every statistical routine in JMP. Let’s define each of these items in the menu.
Figure 8.3 The JMP Help Menu
Contents, Search, Index
Each of these first three items is designed for navigating the user documentation:
• Help Contents provides a Table of Contents view.
• Search the Help provides a hypertext search that allows you to search for all the content related to a topic or phrase.
• Help Index lists the key terms and allows you to find a topic in the user documentation.
Note: If you are an existing user who has updated your version, there is a handy summary of new features to the version you are using. Select Help ▶ New Features (see Figure 8.4).
Figure 8.4 New Features in JMP
Books
This menu links to PDF versions of each of JMP’s user manuals (see Figure 8.5). More than 4,300 pages of JMP reference material are right at your fingertips. You can search and print any of these manuals. Handy quick-reference cards that you can print are also included. TheDiscovering JMP book is a logical next step for the reader of this book, as it covers the basics in slightly greater depth.
Figure 8.5 Documentation Included with JMP
JMP User Community
This menu item links to the JMP User Community (Figure 8.6), which is a portal where you can access a wide array of resources such as the File Exchange, JMP Discussion Forum, the JMP Blog, Learning Library, Technical Support, and the Knowledge Base. This is also where you can connect with other users through user groups or learn about upcoming events.
Figure 8.6 The JMP User Community
• The File Exchange is a database of user-developed scripts, helpful tools, and custom add-ins.
• The JMP Discussion Forum is where you can ask the experts about perplexing performance.
• Web Resources includes the Learning Library where you can find brief guides for common statistical methods.
• The Knowledge Base where common issues and their solutions are posted is located in the Support section.
Tutorials
The tutorials cover the more commonly used statistical tools in JMP (see Figure 8.7). Each of these can be completed quickly to help you not only master the JMP steps, but also review the concepts involved. Each tutorial walks through the concept at hand, illustrating how to perform the analysis with JMP while explaining what each step does.
Figure 8.7 JMP Tutorials
Sample Data Index
The Sample Data Index contains all of the data used in this book as well as in the JMP documentation (see Figure 8.8). It provides a convenient place to access data sets that you might want to employ to see how JMP performs a specific method or type of problem, or to use for teaching purposes. It also contains other examples that might be of interest and provides a guide for how your data should be structured for a particular analysis.
Figure 8.8 Sample Data Index
The sample data contains over 400 data sets. Many of these contain scripts that will generate an appropriate analysis, including those illustrated in the JMP documentation. Click on a gray triangle to disclose the data tables under a category of interest. To generate an analysis using a script, open a data table and locate a script in the Data Table’s top left panel.
• Click on the red triangle next to a script and select Run Script (see Figure 8.9).
Figure 8.9 Running a Script from a Data Table
Note: The Open the Sample Data Directory and See an Alphabetical List of all Sample Data Files buttons in this window allow you to quickly locate and access a data table, including those used in this book.
Tip of the Day
JMP has summarized the most common and important FAQs into a collection of 52 Tip of the Day boxes (see Figure 8.10). Often these are somewhat hidden features, but worthy of special mention in this form.
Figure 8.10 Tip of the Day
After JMP is installed, Tip of the Day boxes will appear each time you launch JMP (see Figure 8.11). We encourage you to review these at least once, because many of them will save you valuable time and frustration in the long run. If you do not want these to appear at launch, you can remove this default by un-checking the box at the lower left corner of the window or by selecting File ▶ Preferences ▶ General and unchecking the Show the Tip of the Day at Startup.
Figure 8.11 Tip of the Day with JMP Launch
Statistics Index
The Statistics Index is the next item on the Help menu. Select Statistics Index when you know which statistical method you need but not where to find it in JMP (see Figure 8.12).
Figure 8.12 Statistics Index
This feature provides the following information:
• A comprehensive and alphabetical index of statistical tools included in JMP.
• Brief definitions of statistical terms with links to more comprehensive information through the Topic Help button. In some cases, an Example button is available to illustrate the technique.
• A direct shortcut to the JMP window or platform which generates a desired statistic. Select Help ▶ Statistics Index ▶ [choose statistic] > Launch (see Figure 8.13).
Note: When using the indexes as a shortcut, you need to first have your data open or follow the prompts to open it.
Figure 8.13 Launching a Platform from the Statistics Index
A Scripting Index follows the Statistics Index which provides a comprehensive library of JMP scripting functions with links to examples and help. The Scripting Guide (Help ▶ Books ▶ Scripting Guide) is an excellent resource for learning how to create custom applications using JMP Scripting Language (JSL).
8.3 The JMP Starter
The JMP Starter window provides an alternate means to navigate JMP along with a useful way to learn about the software. As discussed in Chapter 1, this book focuses on the native menus which appear at the top of the JMP window. For some users who may be familiar with traditional statistical software, the JMP Starter may be a helpful and natural interface to JMP. For these users, we cover the JMP Starter essentials in this section. The JMP Starter consists of 13 categories with corresponding topics within each category.
• Select View ▶ JMP Starter (see Figure 8.14). Click through the items in the Click Category box on the left and see the corresponding topics within each category to the right. Notice that it organizes topics slightly differently and provides a description of the graphs and techniques within each option.
Figure 8.14 The JMP Starter
• Click on one of the topic buttons and a corresponding window launches to generate that output (similar to the Statistics Index in the Help menu).
There is extensive overlap with the native menus we’ve been discussing to this point, but the JMP Starter provides a little more description of and within each topic.
8.4 External Resources
When you can’t find answers within JMP’s built-in resources, there are many external resources available. JMP has a very useful website, provides exceptional technical support, and offers many events (including the annual Discovery Conference, regional user groups, and free webcasts). Comprehensive JMP training is available through SAS Education at SAS Regional Training Centers, at company sites, and through the web. In this section, we introduce you to some of these resources.
The JMP Web Site
Think of the JMP website as the source for the latest information and a portal to the resources we discuss in this section. The website is a gateway to the JMP User Community which was described earlier, white papers, blogs, webcasts, and to downloads, such as maintenance upgrades. To learn about the latest JMP events and information, go to: http://www.jmp.com
JMP Webcasts
JMP webcasts are offered each week for new users of the software at no cost. JMP also provides less frequent webcasts on more advanced features of JMP. These are live events hosted by JMP systems engineers and developers. Recorded or “On-demand” versions are also available for your convenience. Go to: http://www.jmp.com/about/events/ondemand/
JMP Technical Support
JMP Technical Support provides support to registered users from e-mail and phone. JMP Technical Support is staffed by experts who not only know the software, but who are also well-versed in the methodology itself.
Tech Support by e-mail: support@jmp.com
Tech Support by phone: 1-919-677-8008
JMP Japan Tel: +81 3 6434 3782
JMP China Tel: +86 21 61633088
JMP Germany Tel: +49 6221 / 415 – 200
JMP France Tel: +33 (0) 1 60 62 12 12
JMP Italy Tel: +39 02 8313 4460
JMP UK Tel: +44 (0) 845 402 9907
You can also find many Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and known issues at the Knowledge Base: http://www.jmp.com/forms/knowledge_base.shtml
SAS Training for JMP
SAS Education offers several courses on JMP ranging from basic to advanced. These courses are offered at SAS Training Facilities throughout the world, at customer sites, and through the web. The courses offered at the time of publication include:
• Applied Statistics for Engineers
• ANOVA and Regression
• Categorical Data Analysis
• Analyzing Multidimensional Data
• Data Exploration
• Applied Statistics for Scientists
• Introduction to Categorical Data Analysis
• Analyzing Marketing Data: Going Beyond Tabs and Bar Charts
• Predictive Modeling Using JMP Pro
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Project Leader
• Quality by Design (QbD)
• Statistical Process Control
• Measurement System Analysis
• Modern Screening Designs
• Design and Analysis of Mixture Experiments
• Classic Design of Experiments
• Custom Design of Experiments
• Custom Designs for Industrial Experiments
• Product Reliability
• Analysis of Dose-Response Curves
• Stability Analysis
• Introduction to the JMP Scripting Language
• Application Development Using the JMP Scripting Language
For more information about these courses or to register, go to: http://support.sas.com/training/.
User Groups
There are several regional user groups that have regular meetings. User groups are a convenient way to connect with other JMP users and to learn about some of the software’s latest developments. For more information, go to http://www.jmp.com/about/events/usergroups/