The creative market researcher always seeks to go beyond the limitations of the source data and add value.   One way of doing this is to create new variables or data points from existing ones.

Consider a scenario where there is a desire to plot:

• market penetration, an existing variable (“Ever”) …
• against adoption rate, a new dimension created by dividing the result for “Monthly” by the result for “Ever”.

A typical workflow might be …

There are however potential problems with this approach:

1. If the output needs to be updated, for example when there is new data added, many if not all the steps need to be repeated.
2. If the output needs to be replicated for say different filters or scenarios, this too can involve repetition.
3. If the updates or replications are to be done by someone other than the original author, the need to find the right Excel Workbook and the right location within it can take up valuable time.

The Power of Having Everything Connected

These problems are instantly resolved by having your data, outputs, and workings housed and connected in one document, as you can do in Displayr.   Zooming out in this example we can see the following set up.

• A) Hidden tables for the two source questions, “Ever” and “Last Month”.
• B) A hidden calculation, dividing the results for “Last Month” by “Ever”, our adoption ratio.
• C) A Calculation Grid, extracting brands from A and B and linking data via cell references.
• D) A scatter-plot visualization linked to C.

There are also some filter controls top left and a dynamic date filter applied to all inputs so the analysis will always show the most recent quarter as the data is updated.

Hidden items (indicated by grey cross-hatch shading) means that the document editor can see the output but it will not be shown when published to a dashboard or exported to PowerPoint.

If someone comes to edit the document later the relationships are easily identified via Displayr’s dependency graph (right click on an item to find it).  The scatter plot is created from the summary table, the summary table is a combination of Q3 and the adoption calculation, and so on.  This addresses problem 3 noted earlier (difficulty in tracing workings when they are in a different place).

But the real benefits kick in when it comes to updating or replicating this output (problems 1 and 2).   It should be self-evident but watch in this video how seamless it is to create new versions of the framework via filtering and updating it with new data … even the footer descripting the sample date and size changes.

If you want to take a closer look and study the workings in detail, you can get a copy of this document here: Embedded Workings

Once you’ve tried embedding your workings in your report and have both linked directly to the source data, it’s very hard to go back to using external workbooks or sheets.

1:  Have a document with your PowerPoint template ready.

This will typically be in Standard (4:3 or A4) or Widescreen (16:9) format.   Decide what format your new Displayr template is to be in.

2:  Open a blank Displayr document

From the Document page, select +New Document, check that the tab at the top is set to your desired format, then select ’Blank’

3:  Go to the Page Master and edit the Displayr defaults

In addition to a “Blank” page (which requires no editing), there are default layouts for Title Only, Title Page, and Title and various Content Layouts.

This is the key step – you basically need to change the titles, text box formats and default chart colors to reflect your PowerPoint template and paste in any graphical elements from PowerPoint.

You can duplicate and edit any of these pages if you want to add more master pages.

4:  Save your template using the required file naming conversion and download a QPack.

Publish > Export Data > Download Document (*.QPack)

Name the *.QPack as per these conventions (this is required for it to be read in when uploaded, in Step 6).

• Widescreen templates: [Template Name].widescreen.template
• Standard templates: [Template Name].template

Be case specific for the "widescreen" and "template" terms

5: Create thumbnail images of some of the key pages (optional)

This step enables you to see a preview of your template in the gallery when creating a new document, so it’s worth doing. These are also used in Step 6.

The file-naming convention for the first image to show in the gallery is:

• Widescreen templates: [Template Name] 1.widescreen.template.png
• Standard templates: [Template Name] 1.template.png

For second and subsequent images, replace the “1”, with 2, 3, etc.  Note, apart tom the name text before the number, these terms are case sensitive and there must be a space between the template name and the number.

 6: Upload the template *.QPack and related *.png files to your Displayr Cloud Drive

The Displayr Cloud Drive is accessed via the Icon at the top right of screen:

Shortly after this step you will see your own template available from the gallery of options when you create a new document (as per the “Burger Chef” example here).

The steps in action

This video works through the key steps.

Anyone with basic PowerPoint skills can easily set their own corporate or client templates up in Displayr.  Once done, your analysis and report build can always be “on-brand”, saving you time and producing better looking reports

If you commonly use the more familiar Microsoft Chart types, once created in Displayr you can save them as a chart template and apply them to any similar analysis in the future.

• Simply select the desired chart and then choose: Chart > Save as Template.
• You can give the template a meaningful name.
• It will then become available to use for any selected charts: Chart > Apply Template.

If you are using Displayr’s Visualization function for more contemporary, customizable, and perhaps interactive charting, you can also easily replicate and reuse any formats that you are happy with. Once you have set up the desired format, simply:

• Make a copy of your chart using Home > Duplicate.
• Change the DATA SOURCE, the chart type, and other options for your new chart.

You can learn more about these features here:

https://www.displayr.com/how-to-reuse-chart-formatting-in-displayr/

But what if you already have templates set up in PowerPoint or other Microsoft Office tools and want to quickly export some data to those formats?  You can now do this with the help of the Displayr cloud drive.

Available (as an opt-in) to all licensed users, Displayr's cloud drive can be used for saving a variety of files. This includes things like images and logos (that you use regularly) and data sets (including data that is being regularly and automatically updated from another source). To this list you can now add Microsoft Office Chart Templates. These have a filename suffix “.crtx”.

Here is an example of a classic "Purchase Intent" chart, structured so that the positive responses are in generally what would be regarded as a positive color - blue, the negative responses are in a negative color - red, and neutral is in grey. The extremes of the scale are in a more intense tone of blue and red. This adds a nice visual element to the chart.

Assume we want to use this in a report for a new, similar study.  If you select the chart in PowerPoint and right-click, one of the menu options is “Save as Template”. From here you can name the template, save it, and it becomes available for later use.

To make this same template available as a template to export to in Displayr, all we simply upload it to the Displayr cloud drive. The cloud drive is accessed via the profile icon. Note: if you are a licensed user and cannot see “Displayr cloud drive” when you hover over this icon, you will need to contact Displayr support to enquire about enabling it: support@displayr.com)

All we need to do now is rough-in the analysis we need in Displayr, select the chart settings, and then export it to PowerPoint. Below is a default purchase intent chart for a new concept test study, created in Displayr in a few seconds.

We now select the chart, go to the “Properties” tab in the Object Inspector, and look for the POWERPOINT EXPORT options. When “Format” is changed to Microsoft Chart, “Export as” becomes active and if we select the drop-down, we can see our chart template is available at the top of the list.

To create a basic topline report, we duplicated this chart (with all its settings) and substituted the Row variable for another, “Purchase Intent – Priced”. All we need to do now is export the desired pages to PowerPoint:  Publish > Export Pages > PowerPoint > Selected Pages > Create new document. Here is my PowerPoint document, with a title page and the two slides containing the desired chart format.

So, while some reports may benefit from using Displayr’s inbuilt charting and visualization features, it is very easy to quickly leverage existing chart templates using the Displayr cloud drive.

Statistical analyses and items created using the Visualization menu are not available to explore.

There are seven sections of options in the Explore Mode ribbon:

Explore

The Copy and Delete buttons allow you to copy or delete your existing table/chart output. You can also use this to create a new table or chart and then change the variable sets used under Questions to show different data in the table or chart.

The Name field is the reference name of the table/chart that you've created. This can be altered as needed.

Questions

These two drop-downs allow you to select the questions (variable sets) that are used as inputs to the table/chart you've created. All questions in the project that haven't been hidden by the dashboard designer will be available as selections. The first drop-down is the question that goes in the rows/stub of the table and the second drop-down is the question that will go in the columns across the top of the table.

Tables

The Table button allows you to switch a chart output back to a table.

Charts

The Charts drop-down allows you to select different chart types to turn your table into. This drop-down charting menu contains various chart types including bar and column charts, line charts, stacked charts pie charts, and more.

Statistics

The Statistics section allows you to select the statistics that are shown in the Cells of the table. You can also show column-level statistics using Below or row-level statistics using Right.

Format

In this section, the top two buttons are used to increase or decrease the number of decimal points displayed in the output, while the bottom two buttons are used to apply %-signs or $-signs to the data in the table.

Weight

In this drop-down, you can select any weights available in the document, and apply them to the data in the table.

Filters

On the far right side of the Explore screen, a list of available filters will also be provided. Selecting a filter will apply it to the current table/chart. It is also possible to create additional filters by selecting the cells in some table types (click the cell and hold down Ctrl or Shift keys to select additional cells) and then clicking Create Filter. The cases in the data from the selected cells will then be used to create a new filter.

How to Enable Explore

If your document requires password access, user groups with access to your document must have Explore mode enabled. To do so:

1. Click the user icon in the top right-hand corner when in Edit mode and select Account Settings.
2. Go to the Settings tab.
3. Scroll down to Groups.
4. Select a group that has been given access to the document.
5. Ensure the Users in this group can Explore box is ticked.
6. Click Save.

Note that only accounts with a login will be able to save work done in Explore mode. See the blog post How to Control Who Can View your Documents for more details.

If your document does not require password access:

1. Click the Export > Web Page.
2. Select the Anyone with the link option.
3. Expand the Advanced menu at the bottom.
4. Check the box for Viewers can Explore without password.
5. Click the Publish or Republish button.

In my first post, we covered the 10 advantages of creating PowerPoint reports in Displayr. The second post outlined the steps required to create a PowerPoint in Displayr from scratch and introduced how you can update an existing PowerPoint document.

Creating a report template and automating it for future reporting is a great way of saving time and working more efficiently. But more often than not that's not the end of it. In the vast majority of cases, reports evolve over time. Requirements change and reports need to be updated accordingly.

In this post, I will show you to use Displayr to make changes to your PowerPoint reports.

More specifically, this post will cover:

• How updating works in Displayr
• Add new slides to an existing PowerPoint report
• Add new objects to an existing PowerPoint slide, and
• Linking objects created in PowerPoint to Displayr

For the purposes of this post, an object refers to a chart, table, text box, or an image created in Displayr.

How updating works in Displayr

Updating in Displayr is based on GUIDs (Globally Unique Identifier code). Every object that can be updated from Displayr is assigned a GUID. The GUID can be found in the Object Inspector on the right of your screen under Properties > GENERAL > GUID. If you wish to copy the GUID, select the output and go to Copy > Copy GUID.

During the initial export (see Create a new document) the GUID of each object is recorded in PowerPoint in the Alt Text field.

This field is accessed in PowerPoint by right-clicking on an object and selecting Edit Alt Text...

When updating an existing PowerPoint document Displayr compares and matches GUIDs in the Displayr document to those in the existing PowerPoint deck. When matched Displayr updates the content of the object, while preserving the original PowerPoint design. For example, Displayr will update the data in charts and tables, it will update text within a text box, but not change its positioning, font size, or color.

In case Displayr can’t match the GUID number it won’t export the object. Displayr will only update the objects found in the PowerPoint document, without adding or removing any objects from it. You can also remove a GUID from a PowerPoint object in case you don't want it to update (e.g. a Title text box).

Add new slides to an existing PowerPoint report

To add a new slide to your report follow the below steps. For more details on how to create a PowerPoint report in Displayr see the previous post in this series.

1. Add a new page in your Displayr document by going to the Pages menu and clicking on the + button that appears when hovering the mouse over an existing page.
2. Create a page of results.
3. Export the page to PowerPoint by going to Publish > Export Pages > PowerPoint > Export Selected Pages > Create new document > Export.
4. Copy and paste the slide in the exported document to your initial PowerPoint document

A GUID has been assigned to all the objects on the new slide linking them back to the Displayr document. To reiterate, any objects not present in your PowerPoint report will not get exported when Updating an existing report.

Add new objects to an existing PowerPoint slide

The process of adding a new object to an existing PowerPoint slide is similar to adding a new slide.

1. Create the object in Displayr, either by creating a new page or by adding to the page corresponding to the PowerPoint slide.
2. Export the page with the new object to PowerPoint by going to the Publish > Export Pages > PowerPoint > Export Selected Pages > Create new document > Export.
3. Copy and paste the new object to your initial PowerPoint report.

The exported object will have a GUID assigned which and can be updated at a later stage.

Linking objects created in PowerPoint to Displayr

In order to be able to link a PowerPoint object to Displayr the two objects need to match. For example, the layout of the data table within the PowerPoint chart will need to match the layout created when exporting a slide from Displayr. It might take a couple of tries to get it right.

1. Create an object in Displayr matching the PowerPoint object
2. Select the object and go to Copy  > Copy GUID.
3. In the PowerPoint document, select the object you wish to link, right-click > Edit Alt Text... > CTRL+V to input the GUID.

If you have any questions or need help you can always contact the technical support team by dropping them an email on support@displayr.com. 

In this post, I will share 10 advantages of creating PowerPoint reports using Displayr.

1. Charts and tables are created using respondent level data. This leads to efficiency and data accuracy gains as there is no need to copy and paste the data from tables. It also eliminates data entry errors and significantly reduces the time required to check data. Furthermore, it allows for more flexibility, taking only a few clicks to make changes such as creating a NET, applying a filter, etc.
2. The ability to export editable charts. Unlike most software that export outputs as static images, charts exported from Displayr can be edited. This allows the user to tweak both the content and the design of outputs in PowerPoint.
3. Updating existing PowerPoint documents exported from Displayr. Each output exported from Displayr is assigned a unique ID, called GUID. Displayr can use the unique ID as a reference when updating the PowerPoint outputs at a later stage. This feature is particularly powerful, but not exclusive, for updating tracking studies reports.
4. Preserving the changes made in PowerPoint. The user can make changes to the exported PowerPoint document, such as changing the chart design or even moving the chart to a different slide. It's worth noting that only outputs linked to Displayr will be updated when updating an existing PowerPoint report. The rest of the PowerPoint document will remain intact.
5. Export and update charts, tables as well as text boxes. Besides charts, Displayr can also update tables and text boxes (e.g. showing the current month) saving you additional time.
6. Add new slides, charts, and tables with ease. It’s very common for clients to agree to a report just to come back later asking for changes. Making changes in Displayr is a quick and easy process that can be done in-house by the researcher.  There is no need to involve a third party, such as data processing or software developers.
7. A one-step automation process. Displayr exports directly to PowerPoint without the use of needing to export the data into an intermediary software. A one-step process is faster and more robust.
8. Linking charts build in PowerPoint to Displayr. Besides exporting outputs from Displayr it’s also possible to link already existing PowerPoint charts in the opposite direction.  This approach is suitable to automate already built reports, without the need to build the report from scratch.
9. Export the same report using a filter. Only create one report and export it using a filter (e.g. country) and let Displayr do the rest. Displayr will generate one PowerPoint deck for each of the filter values. Why not take it further and set-up conditional images and automate country flags and logos in your report?
10. Use your own PowerPoint documents and chart templates. Displayr allows users to create templates that can then be exported to PowerPoint. However, if you already have a PowerPoint template set-up, you can link Displayr objects to your template as well.

To summarize, with Displayr you can create and export editable charts and tables to PowerPoint. You can use your own PowerPoint template and make changes to your presentation. You can use Displayr to update the data while preserving your design and any other changes made. And to top it off, it’s very quick and easy to make changes to the report, without having to involve other departments or third party providers.

The idea is to get the vast majority of analysis and data outputs created in Displayr before exporting the document to PowerPoint and finalizing the report. I will also show you an easy way to make changes and update your PowerPoint reports.

This approach can be used to create one-off reports quickly and efficiently, but it's particularly powerful for setting up and automating projects that require regular reporting, such as tracking studies or multi-country projects.

Depending on the design requirements you can either create a new Displayr template or use an existing template. Alternatively, you can skip this step and instead use a PowerPoint template. In the below example I will use the latter approach. All you need to get started is a Data Set and a PowerPoint document template.

Step 1: Create a new document

• Create a new Displayr document
• In the Ribbon, choose Insert > New Data Set and select the data file you wish to use.

Step 2: Create a page of results

• Create a page of results

In the example below I created a page containing demographic information. I created three different charts for Gender, Age, and Region.

Step 3: Change the PowerPoint export format settings

By default, charts will be exported to PowerPoint as static images. However, once exported to PowerPoint I want to be able to edit the charts.

• To change the default setting and export all charts as editable charts, I need to change the export settings by selecting the chart and going to the Object Inspector > Properties > POWERPOINT EXPORT > Format and selecting Microsoft Chart.
• Next, I want all the charts to be exported using the style of charts selected in Displayr. I can do this by changing Export as under Properties > POWERPOINT EXPORT > Export as to Match Displayr.
• To apply the change to all charts in the document, I selected Set as default.

Note, if I selected a specific chart type, such as 3D Pie, from the Export as menu and then clicked Set as default, all charts in the document would be exported to PowerPoint as pie charts.

Step 4: Export to PowerPoint

• Select Publish > Export Pages > PowerPoint > Create new document > Export.

Displayr will export the page as a PowerPoint document placing each page of the Displayr document on an individual slide. In this case, I have exported only one page, resulting in one PowerPoint slide. The slide consists of the text box and three editable charts.

Step 5: Transfer the slide to your PowerPoint template

The exported PowerPoint document matches the design and layout of the Displayr document. However, I wish to use a different PowerPoint template. As mentioned earlier, it is possible to set up a specific template in Displayr, but for the purpose of this post, I want to show you how simple it is to use a pre-existing PowerPoint template, such as your company’s or your client’s template.

To do that, I opened my PowerPoint template and copy-pasted the slide from my exported document to my template. By default, PowerPoint inserts the slide using the Destination Theme Paste option – applying the template design. In our example, the chart colours changed.

Step 6: Modify the slide in PowerPoint

For this particular example, I have resized and moved the charts around. I also removed the question text and base information, hiding the ‘Less than 18 years’ data series, and changing the Chart Type designs in PowerPoint.

Whilst I could have done most of these changes in Displayr, the aim of this example is to show that this can also be done in PowerPoint without losing the ability to update the charts at a later time and keep the design intact. My PowerPoint slide now looks like this:

Step 7: Making changes to the PowerPoint report

Now, let’s say that we wish to make a change to our report and show Region and Age split by Gender. I could do this by going to my data tables, finding the data, and manually adding it to the PowerPoint chart. After all, we can edit the chart exported from Displayr.

But there’s a better way: I can make the change in my Displayr document and Displayr will update the report for me.

To make the change, I returned to my Displayr document, selected my Region chart, and added Gender by going to the Object Inspector > Inputs > DATA SOURCE > Columns.

I then repeated the same process for my Age chart to get the below output.

I also updated the title text, adding the words by Gender, to reflect the updated charts.

Step 8: Updating the PowerPoint report

To update the PowerPoint report, go to Publish > Export Pages > PowerPoint, but this time instead of creating a new document I selected Update existing document. I then dragged and dropped my PowerPoint document created in Step 6 into the blue box and clicked on Export.

Displayr updated the document and a pop-up window appeared containing information on the changes made.

In this example, Displayr updated the text box and three charts as per the below. The updated document reflects all the changes we made to our document during the previous step.

The approach outlined above has a wide range of uses from running analysis and creating a single PowerPoint report to full-scale automation of PowerPoint reporting.

In the next blog in this series, I will show you how to make changes to your PowerPoint reports built-in Displayr.

If you have any questions or need help you can always contact the technical support team by dropping them an email at support@displayr.com. 

Exporting a Document as a File

How to Automatically Export Multiple Reports with Different Filters

PowerPoint

Exporting to PowerPoint 1: 10 advantages of creating PowerPoint reports in Displayr

Exporting to PowerPoint 2: How to Create PowerPoint Reports in Displayr

Exporting to PowerPoint 3: How to make changes to existing PowerPoint reports

How to retrospectively automate an existing PowerPoint report using Displayr

See PowerPoint linking in action (Video)

PowerPoint Export

How to export editable charts to PowerPoint

Export charts using your own PowerPoint Chart templates via Displayr cloud drive

Updating Existing PowerPoint documents

Automate PowerPoint reporting

Aligning Text and Images in PowerPoint Exports

How to Automatically Update Your Reports

Setting up “branded” Power-Point-style templates in Displayr

Create and Update PowerPoint Reports using R

Excel

Excel Export

Exporting LDA Functions from Displayr into Excel

As examples, here are four templates. If you click on these links they will open up as documents in your Displayr documents page:

• Displayr Template LIGHT (widescreen)
• Displayr Template LIGHT (standard)
• Displayr Template WHITE (widescreen)
• Displayr Template WHITE (standard)

The basics

A template is not a specific type of document. Rather, it's a document you create with the explicit goal of re-using when creating new documents. So, you create a template by clicking + Add New on your Documents page in Displayr.

It is a good idea to give it a name like _Template, where the underscore forces it to the top of your Documents page. You can create multiple templates.

Just like with PowerPoint, from time-to-time you or a colleague will accidentally modify your template documents. Unlike with PowerPoint, Displayr has a built-in versioning system, so you can restore old templates by clicking on the cog at the top right of the document, pressing Document Settings > Version History, and then Use this version for the version you wish to revert to.

Page size

You can control the size of the page in a Displayr document using Home > Layout > Page Size. For example, if your goal is PowerPoint automation, you may want to choose the Widescreen (16:9) option.

The concept of a page size is a bit different in Displayr than in PowerPoint. If you have things that go off the edge of a page, they will still appear when you publish the document, unless you have hidden them (Appearance > Hide). This means that you can, in practice, create pages of different sizes just by putting things outside a page's border.

The Page Master

The main place where defaults are set is in the Page Master, which accessed by clicking Appearance > Page Master (View) from the Ribbon at the top of the screen. When you have finished making your changes, discussed below, you then click Appearance > Normal (View) to return to the normal mode for editing a document.

Backgrounds

When you go into the Page Master, you can see the different page layouts on the left (Title Only, Blank, etc.). You can create backgrounds for these pages by inserting images and shapes from the Insert tab. For more information on how to layout objects, see Controlling the Placement of Objects in Displayr.

You can save time by selecting all the elements of your background and copying and pasting them onto another page (Home > Selection > Copy and Paste). But don't copy the actual slots themselves (i.e., the places for headings, text, and charts). You need to manually format each of them separately.

Colors for charts, tables, and shapes

When you click on a chart on one of the layouts, you will see a list of colors shown on the right side of the page in the Object Inspector. If you change these colors, they will change:

• The default colors that appear in charts
• The color options that are available for tables (Appearance > Table Styles)
• The color options that are available for shapes (Appearance > Shape Styles)
• The gallery of colors that are available when you are using a color picker to set the colors of an object.

Font family, font size, font style, and font color

Font settings are set separately for each of the page layouts (i.e., Title, Blank, etc.). For example, the screenshot below shows the Page Master for Title and Content. To set the font, font size, and font color, you click on the chart (as shown below), and then change the font settings in Appearance > Font. These settings apply by default to all types of objects that are put into the slot on the page, whether it be text or a chart, but you can override these settings as needed on your Normal pages.

Chart templates

Once you have formatted a specific chart as per your needs on a Normal page, it can be saved as a template, by clicking on the chart and then clicking in the Ribbon on Chart > Save as Template. This is then applied to another chart or table using Chart > Apply Template.

Visualization templates

Displayr has two completely different ways of creating graphs. You can create charts, which are directly linked to data in a Data Set. Or, you can use the more flexible visualizations (Insert > Visualization), which can take data from anywhere and have many more formatting options.

The formatting of visualizations are remembered within a visualization, and are not set on the Page Master. Each visualization's fonts and colors can be customized on the visualization itself or you can hook it up to a visualization template created through Insert > Utilities > Visualization > Create template. More detail can be found on our blog post How to Create a Visualization Template in Displayr.

Example layouts

Just like in PowerPoint, it is good practice when creating a template to both set overall settings like fonts and colors in the Page Master, and also create a series of example page layouts that users can easily modify to their own needs. The example below shows a page with six boxes and titles. A couple of tips when doing things like this:

• It is usually easiest to start from the Title Only page layout when creating new layouts.
• Create any boxes using shapes in Displayr (Insert > Shape), rather than using an image created in another app, as this will allow people to easily resize and modify as per their needs.
• The efficient way to create a page like this in Displayr, is to:
  • Create the grey background as one shape
  • Create the two boxes (Insert > Shape) the heading (Insert > Text Box) shown at the top left and, when they are perfect, select them and use Home > Duplicate (Selection), and then move the duplicates to be underneath, Then, select everything, duplicate, and move, etc.

Templates and PowerPoint exporting

When you export a document to PowerPoint, all the formatting will still appear WYSIWYG in PowerPoint. So, if you take the time to create your templates in Displayr, this will save a lot of time in PowerPoint. However, Displayr will not modify the PowerPoint slide master settings (e.g., it will not change the default colors in PowerPoint). So if any new pages or charts are created in PowerPoint, you will need to change the defaults in PowerPoint manually.

Creating multiple versions of templates

Once you have created a template, you can duplicate it (so you can modify it). Go to your Documents page, hover over the template, and press the Duplicate button that will appear. Give your copy a new name, and it will automatically open for you in Edit mode.

Setting significance testing assumptions

It is also possible to modify the default significance testing options in a template. For example, you can change which default tests are used (e.g., chi-square or proportions tests), how weights are addressed, significance testing letters, etc. This is done via Displayr's sister program, Q. If you don't use Q, contact our support team and we will do it for you. The basic process is:

• Work out which assumptions you wish to modify. See the Q Wiki's section on significance testing for more information.
• Download your QPack as described Part 1 of this post.
• Open it in Q.
• Go to Edit > Project Options > Customize > Statistical Assumptions and modify things.
• Click OK.
• File > Save as, change the Save as type to Q Pack Files - project and data in one compressed file (*.QPack).
• Upload the QPack back to your document as described in Part 3 of this post.

Sharing templates

You can share templates with others:

1. Hover over the template on your Documents list and click Settings.
2. Expand the Version History section.
3. Press Download next to the version at the top. This will download a QPack onto your computer.
4. Whoever you share the version with then needs to go to the Documents page and click Upload > QPack. (Note, uploading QPacks is not available for freemium users).

Adding a template to an existing document

You can copy and paste customizations from your Page Master layouts from one document to another in Displayr using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V. If you have certain example tables or charts that are modified in your template you can copy and paste those over too.

The process is quite simple:

1. Create filters in your document
2. Publish the document to the web
3. Export multiple documents using the filters

Create your filters for the loop

There are many ways to create a filter in Displayr - see: 5 Ways to Create a Filter in Displayr for more detail. Importantly, if you create filters using Method 4 then you will need to set the variables together in a Binary-Multi variable set. To do so, select all variables in the Data Set that should be set together, and go to Data Manipulation > Combine from the Ribbon.

Publish your document to the web

Once your filters and report are ready, publish the document to View mode. To do this, go to Export > Web page. Remember to Republish if you have previously exported.

Export to PowerPoint looping through each of your filters

Within View mode, click on the Export link (at the very top). Select the file type to export: PowerPoint, Excel, or PDF.

Then, click on Advanced Options, and pick the filter categories you made above and click Export. Displayr will generate one report file for each selected filter category!

To avoid interrupting the export process, please keep the browser window open until all the exports have downloaded.

Watch the video below to see the looped exports in action, or try it for yourself using our example Campground Dashboard.

Recap of performing Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA)

To set up the Linear Discriminant Analysis,

1. Import the example data from this URL: "http://wiki.q-researchsoftware.com/images/c/ce/Glass.csv"
2. Add the LDA model from the Insert > More > Machine Learning menu
3. Select the variables, then press Calculate

Please refer to the previous post for a more detailed explanation of these steps. Also see this post for more information about how LDA works.

Discriminant Functions

Once you've set up your LDAm you can go ahead and generate the discriminant functions. To do so, start by selecting the LDA output, and then go to Insert > Machine Learning > Diagnostic > Table of Discriminant Function Coefficients.

This table tells us that the score of an observation for category 1 is -2115766 + 1725406 * "Refractive Index" + 14604 * Na + 13401 * Mg + 17215 * Al + 17122 * Si + 14500 * K + 11306 * Ca + 12896 * Ba + 7517 * Fe.

It would be rather tedious to manually evaluate all 6 functions per data point. So the table can be exported to Excel via Export > Excel or used by another R calculation. In Excel, a matrix of data can be multiplied by the discriminant functions matrix to calculate scores. I am going to perform the same calculation in R to make predictions for the original data.

Manual Calculation of Predictions in R

First I create a table of the data with Insert > More > Tables > Raw Data. I select the 9 outcome variable in the same order as the table above. Then in Insert > R Output type the following few lines of code to make the predictions.

raw.data = cbind(rep(1, nrow(raw.data)), raw.data)
raw.data = as.matrix(raw.data) # convert from data.frame to matrix
scores = raw.data %*% lda.discriminant.functions
predictions = colnames(scores)[apply(scores, 1, which.max)]

The first line prefixes a column of ones to the data which are multiplied by the intercepts in the matrix multiplication. The third line computes the scores for each case in the data for each category of the outcome variable. The final line chooses the category with the highest score from each row. The first few predictions are shown below.

Checking Manual Predictions

Unless you specifically want to use the discriminant functions, there is actually no need to do so in order to make predictions for the training data. The predictions can be extracted from the LDA model directly.

To do this, make copy by clicking on the original LDA model and selecting Home > Copy and then Paste. Move this copy to a new page for clarity, then change the Output to Means. The predictions can then be added to the data tree with Insert > More > Machine Learning > Save Variable(s) > Predicted Values. You can hover over the new variable created to see that the first few cases are the same as the table above. More thoroughly, you could compare the vectors with code.

My work is saved in this this Displayr document. You can replicate the steps or use your own data by clicking the link (just sign into Displayr first).

Opening the report

If you have already finished creating the document from the previous post Case Study: Visualizations we will keep using it in this post. Otherwise, click here, which will open up a copy of the document created in that earlier post. This will automatically be saved into your list of documents.

This report shows various simple and advanced analyses from an experiment. You can view a video of the original dashboard being created here.

Unsuccessful updating

We will start with failure, by "accidentally" updating using an inappropriate data file:

• If you have not already down so, download the raw data file Shopping.sav data file from Case Study: Analyzing Survey Data.
• In the Data tree, click on the data file name (President - 200 Case.sav). See below.
• Press Update in the Object Inspector.

• Select My Computer and find the data file you wish to use for updating (i.e., the Shopping.sav file we downloaded earlier). Then press Open.

You will now see a sometimes-terrifying screen called the Data Difference Warning. In the middle of the screen you can see all the problems with the data as they relate to missing variables. If you look at the Pages tree and the Data tree you will see further errors.

• Press Accept.
• Click the Undo arrow at the top-left of the screen.

Successful updating

Now, repeat the process again, but this time do so using this data file. Your screen will initially look like the one below.

There are a few key things to note about this:

• Go to the Demographics page (in the Pages Tree). It has updated. Note the base size at the bottom has gone from 200 to 300. If you were to compare all the other numbers in this chart, you would see they have updated as well.
• Note that two of the pages (in the Pages Tree) are in red. These are the pages that rely on the MaxDiff analysis. It is still running.
• The last of the pages, Model, has a spinning icon next to it indicating that it is still computing its result. As when we first set up this analysis, it will take a number of minutes to finish computing.
• In the Data Tree we can also see that the variable Preference shares from max.diff is red. This is because it is also waiting for the MaxDiff analysis to update itself.

Updating with a revised data file structure

The two updating examples we have just looked at represent worst and best-cases respectively. There is a middle ground where a revised data file contains some changes to structures, such as:

• Variables have been added.
• Some existing variables have been removed.
• Metadata (e.g., labels, values) have been changed.

When this occurs, you can import the revised data into Displayr and you will be given a series of warnings and errors, and you can resolve these one-by-one until any problems are dealt with. If you wish to experience this, try updating again with this data file.

Sometimes it takes a bit of experience to resolve with data updating problems, so please reach out to support@displayr.com if you have any problems.

In this post, I discuss how to make R and PowerPoint work efficiently together. The underlying assumption is that R is your computational engine and that you are trying to get outputs into PowerPoint. I compare and contrast three tools for creating and updating PowerPoint reports using R: free ReporteRs package with two commercial products, Displayr and Q.

Update: Some extra approaches have been pointed out by kind readers, so please read the comments to this post as well.

Option 1: ReporteRs

The first approach to getting R and PowerPoint to work together is to use David Gohel's ReporteRs. To my mind, this is the most "pure" of the approaches from an R perspective. If you are an experienced R user, this approach works in pretty much the way that you will expect it to work.

The code below creates 250 crosstabs, conducts significance tests, and, if the p-value is less than 0.05, presents a slide containing each. And, yes, I know this is p-hacking, but this post is about how to use PowerPoint and R, not how to do statistics...

 
library(devtools)
devtools::install_github('davidgohel/ReporteRsjars')
devtools::install_github('davidgohel/ReporteRs')
install.packages(c('haven', 'vcd', 'ggplot2', 'reshape2'))
library(ReporteRs)
library(haven)
library(vcd)
library(ggplot2)
library(reshape2)
dat = read_spss("http://wiki.q-researchsoftware.com/images/9/94/GSSforDIYsegmentation.sav")
filename = "c://delete//Significant crosstabs.pptx" # the document to produce
document = pptx(title = "My significant crosstabs!")
alpha = 0.05 # The level at which the statistical testing is to be done.
dependent.variable.names = c("wrkstat", "marital", "sibs", "age", "educ")
all.names = names(dat)[6:55] # The first 50 variables int the file.
counter = 0
for (nm in all.names)
    for (dp in dependent.variable.names)
    {
        if (nm != dp)
        {
            v1 = dat[[nm]]
            if (is.labelled(v1))
                v1 = as_factor(v1)
            v2 = dat[[dp]]
            l1 = attr(v1, "label")
            l2 = attr(v2, "label")
            if (is.labelled(v2))
                v2 = as_factor(v2)
            if (length(unique(v1)) <= 10 && length(unique(v2)) <= 10) # Only performing tests if 10 or fewer rows and columns. 
            { 
                x = xtabs(~v1 + v2) 
                x = x[rowSums(x) > 0, colSums(x) > 0]
                ch = chisq.test(x)
                p = ch$p.value
                if (!is.na(p) && p <= alpha)
                {
                    counter = counter + 1
                    # Creating the outputs.
                    crosstab = prop.table(x, 2) * 100
                    melted = melt(crosstab)
                    melted$position = 100 - as.numeric(apply(crosstab, 2, cumsum) - 0.5 * crosstab)
                    p = ggplot(melted, aes(x = v2, y = value,fill = v1)) + geom_bar(stat='identity')
                    p = p + geom_text(data = melted, aes(x = v2, y = position, label = paste0(round(value, 0),"%")), size=4)
                    p = p + labs(x = l2, y = l1)
                    colnames(crosstab) = paste0(colnames(crosstab), "%")
                    #bar = ggplot() + geom_bar(aes(y = v1, x = v2), data = data.frame(v1, v2), stat="identity")
                    # Writing them to the PowerPoint document.
                    document = addSlide(document, slide.layout = "Title and Content" )
                    document = addTitle(document, paste0("Standardized residuals and chart: ", l1, " by ", l2))
                    document = addPlot(doc = document, fun = print, x = p, offx = 3, offy = 1, width = 6, height = 5 )
                    document = addFlexTable(doc = document, FlexTable(round(ch$stdres, 1), add.rownames = TRUE),offx = 8, offy = 2, width = 4.5, height = 3 )
                }
            }
            
       }
    }
writeDoc(document, file = filename )        
cat(paste0(counter, " tables and charts exported to ", filename, "."))

Please see the technical notes below before running this example code.

Below we see one of the admittedly ugly slides created using this code. With more time and expertise, I am sure I could have done something prettier. A cool aspect of the ReporteRs package is that you can then edit the file in PowerPoint. You can then get R to update any charts and other outputs originally created in R.

Option 2: Displayr

A completely different approach is to author the report in Displayr, and then export the resulting report from Displayr to PowerPoint.

This has advantages and disadvantages relative to using ReporteRs. First, I will start with the big disadvantage, in the hope of persuading you of my objectivity (disclaimer: I have no objectivity, I work at Displayr).

Each page of a Displayr report is created interactively, using a mouse and clicking and dragging things. In my earlier example using ReporteRs, I only created pages where there was a statistically significant association. Currently, there is no way of doing such a thing in Displayr.

The flipside of using the graphical user interface like Displayr is that it is a lot easier to create attractive visualizations. As a result, the user has much greater control over the look and feel of the report. For example, the screenshot below shows a PowerPoint document created by Displayr. All but one of the charts has been created using R, and the first two are based on a moderately complicated statistical model (latent class rank-ordered logit model).

You can access the document used to create the PowerPoint report with R here (just sign in to Displayr first) - you can poke around and see how it all works.

A benefit of authoring a report using Displayr is that the user can access the report online, interact with it (e.g., filter the data), and then export precisely what they want. You can see this document as it is viewed by a user of the online report here.

Option 3: Q

A third approach for authoring and updating PowerPoint reports using R is to use Q, which is a Windows program designed for survey reporting (same disclaimer as with Displayr). It works by exporting and updating results to a PowerPoint document.

Q has two different mechanisms for exporting R analyses to PowerPoint. First, you can export R outputs, including HTMLwidgets, created in Q directly to PowerPoint as images. Second, you can create tables using R and then have these exported as native PowerPoint objects, such as Excel charts and PowerPoint tables.

In Q, a Report contains a series of analyses. Analyses can either be created using R, or, using Q's own internal calculation engine, which is designed for producing tables from survey data (i.e., crosstab software and advanced analytics).

The map above (in the Displayr report) is an HTMLwidget created using the plotly R package. It draws data from a table called Region, which would also be shown in the report. (The same R code in the Displayr example can be used in an R object within Q). So when exported into PowerPoint, it creates a page, using the PowerPoint template, where the title is Responses by region and the map appears in the middle of the page.

The screenshot below is showing another R chart created in PowerPoint. The data has been extracted from Google Trends using the gtrendsR R package. However, the chart itself is a standard Excel chart, attached to a spreadsheet containing the data. These slides can then be customized using all the normal PowerPoint tools and can be automatically updated when the data is revised.

Explore the Displayr example

You can access the Displayr document used to create and update the PowerPoint report with R here (just sign in to Displayr first). Here, you can poke around and see how it all works or create your own document.

Technical notes

Since this post was originally published, one of the packages used by the example code from the section Option 1: ReporteRs above has changed, preventing the code from running as described. In order to run the code above, you will need to install the previous version of the package gdtools (which is a dependency of the main package ReporteRs). You can do this with the following code:

packageurl = "https://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/Archive/gdtools/gdtools_0.1.5.tar.gz"
install.packages(packageurl, repos=NULL, type="source") 

We will get in touch with the package authors and update this post again when the issue is resolved.

Additionally, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when running this example:

• ReporteRs makes use of rJava, and you should make sure that you have the latest version of Java installed on your system.
• You should create the folder c:\delete\ on your PC, or modify the path used in the example code.