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	Product Overview Worksheet Features & Import Capabilities Inferential & Exploratory Statistical Analysis Data Visualization & Chart Types Thematic Maps & Map Projection Utilities Database Metaphor Dynamic Data Exploration Data Manipulator Regression/Curve Fitting Data Filtering Tools Graphic Export Chart Customizing Tools

Aabel™ 2.x Product Overview

Aabel 2 is a powerful and feature-rich Mac OS X Universal package that integrates functions of 3 full-featured applications, including statistical and exploratory data analysis, scientific graphing, and thematic mapping. Aabel provides:

A rich variety of statistical methods; the pipeline architecture of Aabel allows statistical analysis from multiple data sources without reordering data into a single worksheet
Dynamic data exploration beyond data brushing, tools that allow walking through hierarchies of numeric or categorical data, and interactive filtering based on data patterns
Multi-dimensional data filtering capabilities comparable to a database search for generating subsets of data
Native worksheets that provide numerous data management tools and utilities; they also act as a dynamic data sources for data analysis and visualization
Scientific graphing with over 200 styles of data representation, diverse data import and graphic file export support, Unicode support, and quartz quality graphics
Thematic mapping capabilities including map projection utilities, thematic map diagrams, and support for importing ArcView shape files, Arc/Info Ungenerate, Mapgen, Matlab, and Splus

Aabel Dynamics
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An Overview of Aabel 2.x Features

Ease of Use of Stats Analyzer
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Aabel's Dynamic Nature

Aabel employs a pipeline architecture that allows real-time, two-way interaction between charts and their source worksheets, and between charts in the same or in different graphic viewers. This unique design has many advantages.

It enables simultaneous data analysis/data visualization from multiple data sources using a single interface, without the need to merge the data into a single worksheet.
You can have real-time interaction with data, e.g., change variables, change chart types, etc., all from within a single interface, and the results will be dynamically updated.
Saved graphic viewer files are not static graphic files. They are dynamically linked to the data sources used to create the chart(s).
Data brushing can be used to highlight data interrelationships (see the image below). However, Aabel takes data exploration beyond data brushing:

Statistical Analysis

The Stats Analyzer is designed to allow different analyses without the need to create a different viewer for each method.

The Stats Analyzer is an integral part of the graphic viewer and has a modern interface that is designed to provide flexibility and ease of use.
The graphs and tables generated by statistical methods and multivariate data analysis will be displayed on the viewer page.
The viewer filters, if activated, will be available to Stats Analyzer.
Many methods allow storing the results in auto-generated worksheets that can be used for follow-up analysis, etc.
Aabel includes a wide variety of statistical methods, e.g., parametric and non-parametric tests, contingency analysis, correlations, regressions, logistic regression, multiple regression, PLS, polynomial surface analysis, survival analysis, ROC, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), factor analysis, cluster analysis, numerous statistical charts, etc.
For an overview of the methods available in the current version of Aabel, visit An Overview of Aabel 2.x Statistics.

Aabel Graphic Viewer

The graphic viewer is Aabel's interface for data visualization and charting and for displaying the graphical results of statistical analysis.

The graphic viewer can work simultaneously with multiple data sources, and has a real-time, two way interaction with data.
The graphic viewer toolbar provides tools for interacting with data, zooming, moving and resizing graphics, creating tables and single or multi-line text, drawings, and numerous customizing features.
The graphic viewer supports multidimensional data filtering for generating subsets of data based on data patterns.
Saved graphic viewer files do not store static blocks of data; they store references to the source documents containing the data.
The viewer palettes include data browsers and controls that allow interaction with data, dynamic data visualization and charting, arranging and ordering graphic sub-layers (i.e., multiple charts on the same page, imported images, drawings or text objects), and performing statistical analysis.
You can create color themes that are stored as part of the global parameters and can be accessed from any viewer.

Data Import Support

Aabel provides tools for importing:

Excel format: 95, 97-2004 workbook (.xls)
Delimited text data (tab, comma, semicolon, space, etc.)
Fortran formatted data
Delimited numeric matrix data
Binary numeric matrix formats (8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, and 64 bit data)
dBase (II, III, IV) formats
Arc/Info Ungenerate
Mapgen
Matlab
Splus
ArcView shape files

Graphic File Export Support

Supported graphic file export formats include:

Vector graphics:

PDF collage for exporting graphics, or copy & paste/ drag & drop into applications that support PDF (e.g., Microsoft Word and PowerPoint 2008, Adobe illustrator, Keynote, Pages, etc.)
PICT collage for backward compatibility (e.g., inserting or pasting vector graphics into Microsoft Word and PowerPoint 2001 and 2004).

Bit images:

BMP, bitmap PICT, JPEG, Photoshop, PNG, QuickTime Image, SGI Image, TGA, TIFF)

For more information and examples, visit Exporting and Copying Aabel Graphics.

Aabel Charts

Aabel provides a diverse range of chart types with more than 200 styles of data representation:

General-purpose 2-D and 3-D charts, e.g., scatter (binary), scatter series, lines, matrix, vector, column, bar, area, high-low, O-H-L-C, pie, scatter pie, spider, ternary, ternary contour, XYZ contour, contour matrix, gridder, heatmap, bubble, 3-D scatter, 3-D spinning, 3-D contour, etc.
Special-purpose charts such as stereographic, rose, lineament, geospider, sequence alignment diagram
Statistical charts, e.g., histograms, probability, categorical histogram, Pareto, ogive, spine plot, box & whisker, box-percentile, univariate bar and line plots, diamond mean comparison plot, Kaplan-Meier survival chart, mosaic, ROC curves, control charts, etc.
For an overview of Aabel charts and examples, visit Data Visualization & Chart Types.

Thematic Maps

Aabel allows creating thematic map diagrams that can display spatial data interactively using different options and easy to use customizing tools.

Importing facilities enable users to import and arrange polygon data and create thematic maps that are suitable for their purpose.
Integrated map projection utilities (including 19 projection systems, the geographic coordinate system, and the state plane coordinate system) provide tools for cartographic coordinate transformations.
Thematic maps can display descriptive statistics or original values of associated data by color-coding.
Thematic grouping is a feature that allows combining a base map with a chart such as a bubble diagram to create thematic maps using point symbols, or with a scatter pie to display contribution of parts to a whole in different X-Y coordinates.
For more information and examples, visit Thematic Maps and Map Projection Utilities.

Curve Fitting and Regression Analysis

You can apply curve fitting (pre-defined and user-defined) to plotted charts, or perform regression analysis independent of charts.

Methods that can be applied to plotted charts include:

Linear (X on Y and thru zero)
Major axis and reduced major axis
Polynomial
Exponential
Logarithmic
Power
Cubic spline interpolation
User-defined non-linear regression

Regression analyses that can be performed in the Stats Analyzer include:

All above listed methods
Multiple regression
Partial least squares regression
Logistic regression

For more information, see Regression/Curve Fitting.

Error Bars

Adding error bars to charts allows a graphical display of the statistical probability of errors, the experimental and analytical errors, the data outliers, etc.

In Aabel, error bars can be applied to:

Binary and matrix scatter
Scatter series and line series charts (X-Y, double Y, double X, or double X-Y series)
Column and bar charts (including stacked and clustered columns and bars)
Area and stacked area charts

Error bars can be symmetrical or asymmetrical.
Error bars can be based on:

Standard error
Standard deviation
Fixed values or values of a variable (e.g., calculated errors, etc.)

For more information, see Applying Error Bars.

Aabel Worksheets

Worksheets are Aabel's data storage mechanism, and provide numerous data management functions and utilities. They also act as dynamic data sources for data analysis and visualization. Features include:

Tools for data management, quality control of numeric data, and the optional tagging of variables with their units of weights and measures
Diverse import capabilities
Support for numeric, text, date, time, trend, dip/plunge, azimuth, and cartographic coordinate data types (easting, northing, longitude, latitude)
Integrated map projection utilities for cartographic coordinate transformations, with 18 projection systems, and an easy to use projection system utility interface
A built-in formula editor
Tools for multidimensional data filtering for generating subsets of data
A notebook for storing notes (e.g., literature references and other information)

Data Management

Aabel worksheets provide many data management tools including:

Cross-interpolation
Sorting with a single as well as with multiple keys
Transposing
Merging with or without concatenating
Reordering rows and columns
Recoding text, or numeric values to categories
Producing pivot tables
Splitting data columns using a grouping variable
Splitting and recoding a categorical variable to binary variables
Stacking columns
Rearranging numeric or textual values of two or more columns into a single new column

Aabel Database Metaphor

The database metaphor is designed for organizing Aabel worksheets and acts as a dynamic data source for data analysis and visualization. Features include:

A container for organizing any combination of Aabel worksheets and folders containing worksheets
Tools for multidimensional data filtering for generating subsets of data

Aabel Data Manipulator

In addition to the formula editor in Aabel worksheets, the application provides a data manipulator that allows custom data processing from Aabel worksheets and database metaphors. The manipulator allows:

Building custom formulas and data processing
Multidimensional data filtering to enable data processing based on user-defined criteria

The results of data processing are dynamically updated on charts that are using the data.

Multidimensional Data Filtering

Aabel provides easy to use tools for data filtering, comparable to a database search. Data filtering can be used in worksheets, database metaphors, the graphic viewer, and data manipulator.

You can simultaneously use multiple criteria that can span multiple variables for generating subsets of data from Aabel worksheets and databases, not only when working with those documents, but also from the graphic viewer and data manipulator windows.
You can save the filtered results in auto-generated worksheets.
For more information, see Aabel Data Filtering Tools.

Customizing Tools for Data Representation

The Graphic Sublayers Manager

Each chart pane or other graphic object created is placed in a transparent sublayer of the current viewer page. The graphic sublayers manager allows creating multiple charts on each viewer page, overlaying X-Y charts, creating thematic groups, changing the stacking order of graphics, hiding/showing graphic objects, locking/unlocking objects in specific positions on the viewer page, modifying the transparency of fills, lines and markers, and more.

User-Defined Templates

Templates can be created for each chart category and can include properties that do not have any data-dependency.
Examples of attributes that can be saved and used as templates are axis lines (thickness and color), chart axis label and title fonts (font type, size, color), the pre-set variable markers, series lines and fills, chart pane size, etc.
A saved template can be loaded into any viewer. The properties defined for any chart in the template will override the corresponding attributes of charts.

Viewer Color Themes

Aabel graphic viewers use (by default) a white background with black drawings of chart axis, ticks and grids, axis labels and titles.
You can create and store color themes, where for each theme you can define a background color (or import an image) for the viewer, and define colors for chart axes, ticks, grids, for labels and titles, for regression lines, confidence belt outlines & fills, etc.
Each color theme you create is stored as part of the global parameters that can be accessed from any viewer.

Customizing Chart Axis Attributes

Flexible customizing tools are available for modifying the chart axis attributes, e.g., linear or logarithmic scale, forward or reverse, the axis range, changing extended date or numeric display formats, or modifying the attributes of axis lines, titles, labels, etc.
Aabel provides eleven types of chart customizing dialogs with the controls required for different aspects of axis customizing to cover all chart categories available in the application.

Markers and Lines for Data Representation

Aabel markers: A palette with 175 marker symbols, each of which can be scaled from 50 to 200% of the initial size (100%) in 20 steps.
Line attributes: Controls for selecting different line types, thickness, and color.
Unicode glyphs/symbols: See Unicode support below.

Unicode Support

A palette that holds 176 Unicode characters/symbols/glyphs is available for data representation. Each item in this palette can be replaced by a Unicode character/glyph from the System character palette, and can be scaled from 50 to 200% of the initial size (100%) in 20 steps.
Aabel supports Unicode for storing data in worksheets, for graphing data, and for creating tables, text lines and text frames.
Ranking of categorical data is based on the US English writing system to ensure consistency in statistical outputs, independent of the machine language settings.

Customizing Regression Curve Attributes

Flexible customizing tools are available for modifying regression lines, and confidence belt or the major axis ellipse fill and line attributes.

Managing Transparency

The transparency manager allows separate control of transparency of fills, lines, and markers.

Customizing Fill Attributes

Many chart categories such as column, bar, area, pie, or stacked spider charts use fill attributes to differentiate between different data series or data objects.
Color palettes and color editing tools are available for customizing color fills.
Quartz patterns (vector drawings/stencil patterns) are available for customizing fills and are designed for use with the Quartz graphic system and PDF.

Color Management

Aabel presents the user with several methods for color coding data and customizing charts. The color palettes and color gradient palettes in Aabel are represented using default colors. However, you can freely change the items of a palette or create new color gradients from simple, complex, or pure colors, with a few clicks of the mouse.
Aabel viewer color themes provide an interactive means of changing the themes required for different purposes. Each color theme you create can be stored as part of the global parameters that can be accessed from any viewer (new or existing).

Customizing Chart Legends

You can hide/show the legends.
A chart legend font size and style can be changed using the Text menu or shortcuts.
You can edit directly or use a grouping variable for changing the legend text items (the edited names are proxies, i.e., they will not be propagated to the source worksheets).
Reordering chart legend items is permitted for items that display Information regarding variables or data object groups.
Specific tools are available to customize attributes of color scale legends representing data ranges.

Displaying Object and Value Labels

You can optionally display object or value labels on many Aabel charts.
Value labels can display a 3rd dimension on an X-Y chart, a 4th dimension on a ternary, bubble, contour point, or 3-D scatter chart, and a 5th dimension on a bubble, ternary contour, or 4-D scatter chart.

For more information regarding Aabel features, visit the links displayed on the banner at the top right-hand side of this page.