SAS Companion for the Microsoft Windows Environment

Basic Operation of the SAS System

The basic operation of the SAS System under Windows has been enhanced as follows:

Silent (unattended) Setup

Improvements to Silent (unattended) Setup allow it to be used for remote, unattended installations.

multiple-user support

To facilitate multiple users on the same computer, the Setup program allows users to use separate SASUSER locations. Since these folders are placed in locations that are separate from the main SAS System image, network installations can be shared more easily.

CD-ROM browser

The Auto-run program that launches when the SAS System CD-ROM is inserted has been enhanced. It now provides a custom Web view of the SAS System CD-ROM. Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 (or above) users will also see a custom Web view of the SAS CD-ROM that facilitates its use with Internet Explorer.

multiple-installation support

Setup now handles separate invocations. A single uninstall action correctly removes all previously installed SAS System files.

Setup dialog box selections

The Setup dialog boxes have been reorganized so that Personal, Client, and Server installations can be more easily selected and performed.

network performance

SAS configuration information has been better organized so that performance across a network is improved.

enhanced configuration file processing

Multiple configuration files are now allowed as well as embedding the CONFIG system option within a configuration file. In addition, the SAS System will automatically search several locations for configuration options.

printing enhancements

Printers are now identified using the printer name, and you can print to any printer defined to the Windows Print Manager. You no longer need to specify a port name. Additional improvements to printing include new options that provide programmatic control of settings that were previously available only in interactive dialog boxes.

Enhanced Editor

Using the Enhanced Editor, you can now use color coding to differentiate SAS statements, check the syntax of your SAS System programs, as well as edit multiple files simultaneoulsy.

Program Editor enhancements include

The CTRL+DELETE key deletes the current word instead of the whole line.
Using the ALT key when you hold the mouse button selects a rectangular block of text.
The SHIFT key in combination with the mouse button extends the selection of a text area.
When you are copying text to the clipboard, the text stays selected after the copy.
When you are pasting text into the Program Editor while text is highlighted, the highlighted text is replaced with new text.
The Sasfont bitmap font displays faster and looks better on the display, so it is the default display font. The SAS Monospace font looks better in printed output and scales to many point sizes, so it is the default printer font and RTF clipboard font.

Rich Text Format support

The contents of a text window can be saved as an RTF file using either the Save As dialog box or the WRTFSAVE command.

dialog boxes

For dialog boxes such as the Open or Save As dialog boxes, file types and filenames are associated with the window that invokes the dialog box. These changes allow the window that invokes the dialog box to set the default file type and filename.

The DLGOPEN command has been enhanced to extend support for complex filters, which include filters with spaces and single quotation marks.

font scripting

The capability to specify the script (codepage) to be used with a font is a new feature. With this feature, you can use fonts that have codepages other than the default codepage currently used by the SAS System. Font scripting is useful for international SAS users who use more than one character set at a time. For example, users can now create SAS/AF FRAME entries that use a Cyrillic, Greek, and Western European font at the same time.

OLE enhancements

The OLE automation server can access data that exists on a remote machine using Distributed COM Configuration Properties.

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