How to analyze data with Prism

What 'analyze' means in Prism

Prism uses the term analyze to include not only statistics and regression, but also for data manipulations such as transforming, removing baselines, and normalizing.

Step 1. Analyze dialog

1.	Start from any data table or graph, and click the Analyze button.

With many programs you first select a range of data to analyze. Not with Prism. You can choose to only analyze selected data sets on the Analyze dialog. It is not possible to choose a subset of rows to analyze -- Prism always analyzes them all. Prism completely ignores any selection you made before clicking the Analyze button.

2.	The analyze dialog appears. Make sure the drop down on the upper left is set to 'Built-in analysis'.

3.	Choose an analysis on the left side of the dialog. Analysis choices are grouped by the kind of data table they are usually associated with. But you can choose any analysis, even one usually used with a different kind of data table.

4.	Choose the data sets to analyze on the right side of the dialog. By default, Prism analyzes all data sets on a table, but you can uncheck some data sets to remove them from the analysis.

Step 2. Analysis parameters dialog

Each analysis dialog has its own parameters dialog. Read about individual analyses to learn about the choices.

If you are unsure about an analysis choice, click the Learn button in the dialog to go to the appropriate help topic.

Step 3. View the results

Prism places the results into new sheets in the Results section of your project. These results sheets are saved with the project. At any time in the future, you can view the results, review the analysis choices, and change those choice to update the results.

Some results are presented on several sub-pages. Choose a sub-page to view using the navigator (on the left) or the navigation toolbar (at the bottom).

Click the Analysis checklist button in the Interpret section of the Prism toolbar to review a list of questions that will help you interpret the results..