Portfolios - AskiaAnalysis Assistant

Portfolios (AskiaAnalyse)

A portfolio contains a selection of tables and charts that have been placed there for future use. It enables you to create and store specific table/chart definitions which you, or other users, need to use frequently. When you re-open a table or chart that has been saved to a portfolio, it is re-calculated based on the current data.

An open portfolio is displayed in a separate window from your table definitions and can be accessed via the window menu.

Creating or opening a portfolio

To create or open a portfolio:

Open the file menu.
select new portfolio or open a portfolio, as appropriate.

Opening a table or chart in a portfolio

To create or open a portfolio:

Open the portfolio menu.
Double-click the table or chart. It is re-calculated to take into account the current data.

Saving to a portfolio

When a cross-tab has been defined and run, you can save it to a portfolio.

To save a tab in a portfolio in askiaanalyse:

Right-click the table and select send to portfolio.
The root directory is displayed; click the create portfolio button and create a new folder in which your new portfolio will be held. This portfolio can then be accessed via the portfolio tab on the left.
You can also drag and drop a question from the question list into the portfolio window. The question is dropped onto the item already selected in the portfolio window. When you do this, the follow dialog appears:
Select where you want the question to be dropped into the selected item in the portfolio (rows, columns or edges). If you want it to replace any existing question in the same place (i.e. if you selected rows, and you want it to replace any question already on the rows), select replace. If you want it to be added to the rows, columns or edges without replacing an existing question there, select append.

Exporting a portfolio

You can export a portfolio directly to Word (in RTF format), Excel, PowerPoint, ASCII or TabsML. For details, see exporting from charts and tables or portfolios.

Printing a portfolio

To print the contents of a portfolio:

1. Open the portfolio (in the file menu, select open a portfolio...).

2. Ensure the window containing the portfolio window is on top (either use the window menu to arrange the windows, or press CTRL-TAB until the window is on top).

3. In the file menu, select print.

Organising a portfolio

Portfolio items can be re-arranged by dragging and dropping them. Below is an example of a portfolio structure:

Context menu

The context menu gives you access to the following features:

OPTION	DESCRIPTION
Open	Opens the selected profile. The tab definition view appears, allowing you to edit the definition, run the charts/tables, etc. If a table of contents was selected, you are presented with a dialog that allows you to specify custom title, table and page text.
Recalculate	Regenerate the table taking any new data into account.
Cut	Removes the selected profile and places it on the clipboard; it can then be pasted back into a portfolio.
Copy	Copies the selected profile to the clipboard; it can then be pasted back into a portfolio.
Paste	Pastes a profile stored on the clipboard (using copy) into the portfolio.
Paste tab-template	Pastes the tab-template stored on the clipboard to the selected profile.
Paste tab-style	Pastes the table style (fonts, colors) stored on the clipboard to the selected profile.
Insert a chapter	Places a new chapter (i.e. a section) into the portfolio at the selected point. Profile items can be placed within chapters in order to organize the portfolio.
Insert a table of contents	Places a new table of contents into the portfolio at the selected point. Tables of contents list all of the items within the portfolio when the portfolio is printed or exported to Microsoft Word.
Insert an external file...	Import an external data table into the portfolio which can then be referenced as a table object using commands written in askiascript. This facilitates the use of external data in both askiaanalyse and askiavista in calculations or comparison with the normal survey data, or to control data cleaning and validation.
Delete	Removes the selected profile from the portfolio.
Find (CTRL + F)	Searches and displays the questions in the portfolio containing the words or characters entered into the find dialog.
Move left (alt + ←)	If the selected item is located inside a chapter, this command removes it from the chapter.
Move right (alt + →)	If the selected item is below a chapter but not inside that chapter, this command places it inside the chapter.
Move up (alt + ↑)	Moves the item upwards within the portfolio.
Move down (alt + ↓)	Moves the item downwards within the portfolio.
Change sub-population...	Allows you to select the sub-population that will be used for the selected profile.
Change universe...	Allows you to select the universe that will be used for the selected profile.
Change weighting...	Allows you to select the weighting that will be used for the selected profile.
Change tab-template...	Allows you to select the table template that will be used for the selected profile.
Change tab-style...	Allows you to select the table style that will be used for the selected profile. A window appears, allowing you to select the desired table style from a drop-down list; select it and click `OK`.
Break according to...	Allows you to break the table definition into as many definitions as there are questions in rows, columns or edges.
View template usage...	Lists the table templates used in profiles within this portfolio. This enables you to view details of the templates being used without going into the table definition.
View column usage...	Lists the column definitions used in profiles within this portfolio. This enables you to view details of the columns being used without going into the table definition.
View tab-style usage...	Lists the table styles used in profiles within this portfolio. This enables you to view details of the table styles being used without going into the table definition.
Settings...	Allows you to modify the page headers and footers, or nominate or define a sub-population, without going into the table definition. You can also set the language to be used when the portfolio is opened (if `default language` is selected, the portfolio will use the default language defined in askiaanalyse; otherwise, the specified language is used). The selected language is visible in the tab-definition as well as the results.

Chapters

Portfolios may contain chapters. These enable you to group questions together.

To create a chapter:

Right-click within the portfolio.
Select insert a chapter.

To place a question within the chapter:

Right-click the question.
Select move up or move down until it is below the chapter.
Select move right to move it into the chapter.

External data

Portfolios can refer to external data files such as a look-up table or a set of reference data containing, for example, norms or benchmark values. External data must be structured as a simple table, where data of the same type are organised into columns and rows.

Once an external table of data has been loaded, its values can be accessed by writing askiascript commands and used in arithmetic expressions or as comparison values in tables, in cleaning scripts and so on.

An external data file should be formatted either as an Excel workbook (both .xls or .xlsx formats are supported) or as a table of values organised as a comma-separated value (.csv) file.

Options allow you to specify whether the values should be stored within the portfolio, or refreshed each time the portfolio is opened.

To import an external data file:

Right-click within the portfolio.
Select insert an external file....
Enter the path and filename of the external table or click the ... button to the right of the External file field.
If the external file being added is an Excel workbook, select the worksheet containing the table from the Sheet dropdown menu or choose the option to import All sheets.
Select the appropriate storage options from the checkboxes, then click OK to start the import process.

Import external file dialog

When the option insert an external file.... from the Portfolio right-click menu, the import external file dialog will appear:

The options for importing an external file are as follows:

OPTION	DESCRIPTION
External file	The path and filename of the external data file. It may either be an Excel file (.xls or .xlsx) or a comma-separated value file (.csv). You may either type in the file name or click `...` and select the file from your file storage.
Sheet	If the `External file` is an Excel workbook, this dropdown menu will be populated with the names of the different worksheets. Use this menu to select which worksheet should be imported, or select the option `All Sheets`.
Store the path as relative to the portfolio	If selected, askiaanalyse will treat the filename as a relative file name. For example, if the data file is located in the same folder as the portfolio file, no other information is needed for Askia to locate the file. If the portfolio is subsequently moved to another volume, the data file will still be found, provided it has also been moved to the same folder. If unselected, a fully qualified filename starting with the device letter and also listing all the parent folders in sequence will be stored as the name.
Re-read data file when a portfolio is opened	If selected, this will refresh the external data each time the portfolio is re-opened, replacing any data previously imported. If not, the data will be left unchanged. It can be refreshed later by selecting this option, then closing and re-opening the portfolio.
Store external data in portfolio	If selected, the data will be saved as a part of the portfolio. This means there would be no need to provide the external data file when distributing the portfolio to others, provided that the option `Re-read data when portfolio is opened` has been de-selected.

AskiaVista and AskiaAnalyse portfolio compatibility

For details of portfolio compatibility between AskiaAnalyse and AskiaVista, see portfolio compatibility.

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