README December 31, 1990 INSTALLING EPI INFO, VERSION 5.01 If you do not have Version 5.00 installed, installation of Version 5.01 may be done as described in the Epi Info manual in Chapter 4. If you do have Version 5.00 installed in a directory called \EPI5, however, the following tips will make installation easier. If you have about 2.3 megabytes of disk space free and want to install Version 5.01 in a directory with a new name, such as EPI501, then simply give the new name when asked in the INSTALL program and proceed with the installation. If you prefer to replace your existing Version 5.00 with the new system, first run the batch file WIPE_E5.BAT on disk 1 of the system as follows: Place Disk 1 in Drive A. From the \EPI5 directory containing Version 5.00, give the command: A:WIPE_E5 This will erase many of the files in Version 5, but will leave all data and .QES files intact. Run the INSTALL program as described in Chapter 4 of the manual. When asked for the name of the directory, press . This will select the \EPI5 directory. During the installation, you will be asked many times is you want to "Overwrite (Y/N)." Unless the file is one you wish to keep in its Version 5.00 form, reply "Y." The Y key can be pressed a number of times in advance if you are sure you want to overwrite all of the files. New files that you have created since receiving Version 5.00 will not be harmed; the only hazard is to files with the same name as files distributed with the system. If you have enhanced HOUSE.REC to become your standard household survey form and have not changed its name, be careful not to let it be overwritten by the HOUSE.REC that comes with Version 5.01. When you have finished installation, the new system and your old datafiles should peacefully coexist. If you chose the first option of the two given above, you may decide to copy the data files out of the \EPI5 directory and into the \EPI501 directory and, when everything is working well, erase the files in the \EPI5 directory. Use EPED to print out the file called README on disk 1. This provides updated documentation if your manual is not dated November 1990 or later. Try out the new system, and see if any of the bugs you may have noted are gone. WHAT'S NEW IN EPI INFO, VERSION 5.01? More than 6000 copies of Epi Info, Version 5.00, have been distributed in more than 50 countries since its release in May 1990. As with any software product, widespread use has produced a number of suggestions and bug reports. The following improvements have been made in Version 5.01. GENERAL *The visibility of menus in several programs on monochrome screens has been enhanced. EPED *Prompts for type styles in EPED are now correct. EPED *.* from command line functions properly. *Running of EPED and CONVERT from another directory using a path setting is now possible. ENTER and CHECK *Cursor movement in CHECK has been corrected. *Searching for records in ENTER is now smoother, and a prompt to save the record appears if changes have been made. *Unexpected deletion of related records in ENTER has been corrected. *The program MAKEHELP.EXE is not supplied with Epi Info. The HELP function in .CHK files that displays messages from help files is not available. The manual should be changed to reflect this (see below). *AUTOSEARCH in .CHK files now works properly. *Comments are allowed at the beginning of a checkfile. *In ENTER, when a field is exited with the key, "Write data to disk (Y/N)?" now saves what appears on the screen. *Repeat fields far down in questionnaire produced garbled data in version 5.00. This has been corrected. *The screen no longer shifts up or down a line in ENTER. *Alt-F to display file names when editing related files in ENTER was not described in the manual. See below. *Relative screen locations for CHECK commands are now measured from the end rather than the beginning of the field in .CHK commands. * no longer allows entry of illegal values in ENTER unless " /over" is given as a command-line parameter when running ENTER. *The core record is saved automatically if a related record exists in ENTER *Commands placed in a BEFORE section in a .CHK file are executed before the first field is entered. This is useful for setting colors or default values of fields. ANALYSIS *The key now interrupts programs in ANALYSIS whenever a new line is displayed on the screen or sent to the printer. *Handling of negative numbers in ANALYSIS and MERGE is now correct. *European date handling in ANALYSIS is improved. The command SET EURODATE = ON is no longer necessary. *WRITE RECFILE in ANALYSIS performs more correctly. *Pie charts are now properly displayed on CGA screens. *Rounding down of defined variables in ANALYSIS no longer occurs. *dBASE IV files are accepted in ANALYSIS and IMPORT. *Statements containing NOT operator function correctly. *Substrings in date fields work properly. *It is no longer possible to ROUTE to the active dataset. *In graphs, the horizontal axis is now labeled properly when there are more than 20 values on the axis. *OUTPUT TABLES and OUTPUT FREQ can now append to an existing file. *#USES and #USESSUMS can be used in the same report. *Horizontal totals in multipage tables are now correct. *Printing of wide tables is improved. *Prompts in BROWSE mode no longer include for Delete. *Only correct values are accepted by SET BUFSIZE =. *NEWPAGE now works correctly with a wider variety of printers. Various Programs and Files *In CONVERT, SAS cardfile images have been changed to 74 character lines to accomodate mainframe editors *Handling of missing values in IMPORT and CONVERT is now correct. *Importing of boolean fields in dBASE files now produces Y/N fields in ANALYSIS. *The screen background color in Epi Menu is now 1 digit. *A new OSWEGO.RPT file is supplied. The one supplied with Version 5.00 did not calculate attack rates as described. *MERGE sometimes inserted extra bytes at beginning of file. This has been corrected. *Extreme values in 2X2 table no longer cause STATCALC to lock up. We are happy to note that most of the "bugs" reported by helpful users were of the type only noticed in specialized applications by a few users, and some only became evident on particular types of computers. Please continue to report difficulties to the Epi Info User Hotline (404)-728-0545, so that future versions can be even more useful. Suggestions for future enhancements should be directed to Andrew G. Dean, M.D., DSE, EPO, Mailstop G34, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, GA 30333, telephone (404) 639-3048, FAX (404) 639-2408. CHANGES IN THE EPI INFO, VERSION 5, MANUAL SINCE MAY 1990 If your manual was printed prior to November 1990, some or all of the following changes and additions will be relevant. Installation on floppy disk systems: *If you are using INSTALL.EXE on a system without a hard drive, you should give the DOS command SET COMSPEC=B:\COMMAND.COM (and press ) before running INSTALL.EXE. You should also have a diskette containing COMMAND.COM close at hand. Documentation for Additional Features: *In addition to the standard plotter driver, which is for Hewlett Packard 7470 compatible plotters, drivers are also provided for the HP7475 and HP7550 plotters. If you have one of these plotters the proper setup command in ANALYSIS is: SET PRINTER = HP7475 or SET PRINTER = HP7550 rather than SET PRINTER = PLOTTER, which is for the HP7470 only. *Adding the parameter /AUTO when running the ENTER program (see page 297) causes ENTER to skip automatically to the next record without asking the question, "Write data to disk(Y/N)?," after each record is entered. This is useful when entering large numbers of small records. *A menuing program called QUERY.EXE is included. This is illustrated in the menus for the RSURV system. Instructions for using the program can be seen by typing QUERY from the DOS prompt. RSURV.BAT is a menu program constructed using QUERY. Note that the RSURV menus are in color and eliminate the need for the many tiny batch files that are necessary for the more primitive menuing system in the \SURV directory. Changes in the HOUSE, PERSON, and VISIT example files and in RSURV: *The identification numbers in the HOUSE, PERSON, and VISIT example described on page 207 are now supplied automatically; you should make appropriate changes in the tutorial instructions on page 207 that refer to manual entry of these numbers. *The files DISEASE1.RPT and DISEASE2.RPT, referred to on page 346, have been combined in a single file called DISEASE.RPT. *The file USMEX.RPT has been removed from the RSURV system, and appropriate changes should be made on pages 221-227. The portion of the .CHK file printed at the top of page 223 no longer matches the manual, and the file GEPI.CHK should be examined instead. The filenames GEPI89.REC, HEP89.REC, etc. in this chapter are now simply GEPI.REC, HEP.REC, etc., and are understood to contain data from the current year. *During editing of related records in ENTER, pressing will display the filenames and allow selections. *Special blocks in a .CHK file called BEFORE and AFTER may be used for commands that are to be executed before or after all entries have been made in the questionnaire. *The first part of page 297 should read as follows: ----------------------------------------------------------------------_ Chapter 35 ENTER and CHECK Commands ENTER Parameters The commands in ENTER are described in Chapter 8. Running ENTER from DOS or from the EPI menu with parameters allows quick entry without having to specify file names within ENTER. It also allows running ENTER from other programs or batch files that are not normally part of the Epi Info system. The available parameters are as follows: ENTER <.REC file name> {<.QES file name>} {/WS} {/CONF} {/AUTO} {/OVER} /WS turns on a filter that removes non-ASCII characters in questionnaire files as a .REC file is made. Questionnaires made in WordStar should be processed with the /WS parameter to filter out the non-ASCII characters contained in WordStar files. /CONF stands for CONFIRM. If this parameter is present, the cursor does not leave an entry field until is pressed. This is useful when a questionnaire contains a mixture of long and short fields. /AUTO causes ENTER to skip automatically to the next record without asking the question, "Write data to disk (Y/N)?," at the end of each record. /OVER allows the cursor to escape from MUSTENTER fields with the key and will permit entering exceptions to legal values or codes with this key. If a .QES file name is given and the .REC file exists the .REC file is revised according to the .QES file. The .REC file is renamed to .OLD. General Features of CHECK Programs .CHK files are arranged in blocks. A block begins with a field name and ends with the word END. All commands must be within a field name block. Comments, preceded by an asterisk ("*") may be placed between, but not within the blocks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Errata: *The initials of the authors in the citation at the bottom of the title page should be corrected to agree with those at the top of the page. *On page 85, the subtitle should list as the key for automatic coding rather than . *On page 200, the DISEASE.RPT file on the disk differs slightly from the sections printed in the manual. The file is correct. *On page 205, the file OSWEGO.RPT has been rewritten. The file on the disk is correct, and the version in the manual should be disregarded. *The portion of the GEPI.CHK file displayed on pages 223 and 224 is not quite correct. Consult the actual file for the correct version. *Chapter 37 discusses Epi Info help files and states that the utility program MAKEHELP is included on the Epi Info diskettes. Because MAKEHELP is commercial, copyrighted software, and not freely distributable, it was not possible to include it with the Epi Info distribution. *The HELP command section on pages 304 and 305 should be replaced by the following: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HELP Syntax: HELP "" {KEYS=""} The HELP command displays text specified in the command within a window at the location specified on the screen. Pressing the key will restore the screen to its previous state. If KEYS are specified, any of the specified keys may be pressed. The standard variable RESULT is set equal to the number of the character in the sequence of KEYS. Thus, is the KEYS are "ABCD" and "C" is pressed, RESULT will be equal to 3. The value of RESULT may be tested for use in IF statements that follow. Example: IF MED = "TETRACYCLINE" AND (PREGNANT="Y") THEN HELP "Caution: This drug is contraindicated in pregnancy\nAre you sure(Y/N)?" KEYS="YN" (Note: The two lines above must be all on one line.) IF RESULT = 1 THEN GOTO DOSE ELSE CLEAR MED GOTO MED ENDIF -------------------------------------------------------------------- *On page 339, the last two lines should be: RECODE LVALUE TO LVALUE LO-79=HYPO\ 80-200=INTERMED 201-HI=HYPER *On page 340, the "+" signs in the REGRESS command should be replaced by spaces (although either will work).