Building Reports: Scanning Data Files
You build SurveyMaker reports with the REPORTS
module, by scanning data files that contain
responses you've previously entered using the
DATA module.  In other words, data entry and
report generation are two separate steps.

First you select the data file you want to
work with.  Then you proceed to the workscreen
for building or getting reports.  You can scan
the file in two ways: one, to build a report
including all question items on the survey,
and two, selecting one comment item (if there
is one) and printing a report giving all of
the narrative responses to that one item.

After giving the go-ahead to scan the data
file, you will arrive at the work screen for
the data filter.  By setting the various
criteria in the data filter (usually by just
using tab keys or entering values), you can
tell SurveyMaker to screen out responses that
don't fit the profile of responses you want.
You can select a certain number of responses,
examine every n-th response, and set upper
and lower limits for answer values of up to
ten items.

Of course, you can always set the data filter
wide open and retrieve all of the responses
in the file.  See the help topic on the data
filter for more information.

After giving the go-ahead to proceed, you'll
see a window that shows the system's progress
in scanning the file.  You'll see the number
of responses scanned, the number evaluated
for a match, and the number that qualify
under the filter criteria.  Once the program
has completed scanning the responses in the
data file, you'll see the overview report.
By setting the data filter in various ways,
and by accumulating the results of each scan
(i.e. not discarding them each time you scan
a data file), you can scan a number of data
files and compile a report that merges
results from all of them.  SurveyMaker will
check to see that the number and type of the
items is the same for all of the files you
are merging, but you yourself must make sure
the data files are all for the same survey.