Output

The results of your data analysis basically come in two forms: As tables or as graphical displays. With "tables", I do not only refer to the output of the "crosstabs" or the "tables" command; rather, the SPSS output is more or less "orderly" and different sections often are separated by vertical and horiztontal lines. The output can be "exported" to other programs, most notably to a word processor. This is possible with the usual "cut and paste" procedures. Note, however, that usually the SPSS display format is not suitable for publication; the output may have to be reformatted and changed in other ways to a considerable degree. It may still be advisable to export the output to your word processor in order to avoid mistypings of numbers etc.

Note that in older versions of SPSS (up to Version 6, I believe), the output file simply is a text (or ASCII) file. That is, the output file may be saved within SPSS and then opened with your word processor. With newer versions, this will not yield meaningful results.

By default, the commands that have produced your output are not repeated in the output file. It is advisable to change this. Click on "Edit" (in German: "Bearbeiten") in the menue and then on "Options". In SPSS version 10, you have to click on "viewer" and then tick "Befehle im Log anzeigen" (which in English should be something like "show commands in log file"). In older versions, the procedure may be different, but usually looking for "Options" in the "Edit" menue is a good start.