Too many otherwise excellent statistical programs lack this function and have very poor indexing. The search function within the Help menu was refreshingly sophisticated, and the use of quotes will find only those word strings containing everything between the quotes. The introductory tutorial is strongly recommended and will have the first-time user up and going within an hour. The e-mail turnaround, however, is wonderfully rapid (less than one hour on my first attempt).

It is unfortunate that there is no phone support, as both novice and experienced user can get maximal mileage from one well-researched phone call. The system downloaded quickly from the internet (“quickly” being dependent upon one’s computer and Internet connect) and installed with no problems on the Vista system.Īs there are no manuals, the GraphPad folks have supported the new user with an extensive and easy-to-search Help menu, an on-line FAQ and problem database, a really nice tutorial (either as a video or written text), and an e-mail tech support address. Spreadsheet table limits are: unlimited rows by 104 columns. Screen resolution is 1024 x 768 with at least 16 bit color. It will not run on earlier versions of Windows. Version 5 runs on Windows 2000, XP or Vista and on the Macintosh. The software has very modest requirements on the modern computer, needing only 30 MB of hard drive and a minimum of 128 MB of RAM. How well did they succeed? Read on… Ease-of-use They have done away with paper manuals and tried to make the on-line help and tutoring as painless as possible.

They have attempted to make the learning curve short and gradual and generate results from minimal keystrokes with maximal understanding of the statistical principles being invoked. The developers have attempted to make this a simple and intuitive exercise and, for the most part, have succeeded. It was originally made for biological studies, but now includes several sophisticated non-linear capabilities as well as scientific graphing that would be useful to other scientists and engineers. Prism is statistical software for those analysts needing powerful yet not exhaustive routines. Remarkably easy to learn and use, this statistical software offers many advantages in its price class

Prism graphpad online