SPSS 17 for Macintosh requires a Mac with an Intel processor, running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). SPSS 17 will not run on a PowerPC machine, or under Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard); according to the vendor, however, the SPSS 18 release will resolve the latter problem.

SPSS 17 is very similar in most ways to SPSS 16, only with far fewer bugs and with some key additions. It’s one of the more comprehensive updates to the program, and is essentially a required upgrade from 16 if only to squash the bugs. (Note: we have also used SPSS 27 for the Mac, which has basically the same pros and cons, but is very slow.)

• Download Spss 17 - real advice. Fortunately, the developers released a Mac OS version for SPSS. But, like the Windows version, it was released as a shareware version.
• There is a free alternative - PSPP and we've made a tutorial how to install it on your Mac. Besides allowing one to get a clear overview of the possible outcomes of a given action or trend, IBM SPSS Statistics also features a built-in statistical modeling tool that makes it really easy to put years of research to good use by allowing you to effortlessly graph and analyze the collected data.

The various bugs we mentioned are pretty much gone now (we have not tested the update checker or dragging an Excel file onto the spreadsheet view, to be fair). The program is still fairly slow, which is, I believe, entirely due to the speed of rendering results, rather than speed of calculation. SPSS 17 deals with sluggishness on PowerPC machines by requiring an Intel processor.

SPSS still does not have keyboard commands to switch through the various windows. You can shut off the case summary, but you have to do it at the beginning of each session. The mainly-useless Help menu still runs through every single menu when clicked, a major slowdown; SPSS believes the problem is in Apple’s Java implementation, which is likely since Apple wants Help to be used to quickly spot menu items, but it's still a pain for which a workaround would be nice.

Again, you can change the size of dialogue boxes, so that if you want to see longer variable names in, say, Recode, you can - but you can't change the size of any particular element, resulting in some serious stretching at times.

SPSS 17 continues 16’s limitations on reading Windows and old Mac output and continues to read older data and syntax files with no problem; more impressively, older versions of SPSS can easily read SPSS 17’s files, even though SPSS 16 and 17 have support for long variable names.

Cool new additions are a codebook procedure, which records all sorts of information about the data file; an improved syntax editor with autocompletion of common commands, code coloring, and instant reporting of errors in the syntax window; and spell checking of text strings in the data file (especially handy now that strings can be well over 256 characters — you can now use SPSS to handle qualitative survey data). A new export-to-Office feature provides more control over the output, too.

Statistical modifications to the base program include nearest neighbor analysis; a median function and lead function to COMPUTE and lead to IF; aggressive versus conservative rounding in COMPUTE; a graph conversion utility; more multithreaded algorithms for those with multi-core (or multiple) processors (all Intel Mac users); and far better graphing and visualization capabilities with the new Graphboard.

As for optional modules, there is multiple imputation for missing values (Missing Values module), a process which is fairly painstaking and requires thought, but can be absolutely invaluable. Categories has improved categorical regression predictions. A new module, EZ RFM, provides recency, frequency, and monetary analysis; and enterprise users and statistical programmers will find all sorts of new additions.

Spss 17 For Mac

As a side note, if you need to read SPSS “SPV” output files from relatively recent versions, you don’t need SPSS or even the company’s slow, buggy SmartViewer. You can open them in the free PSPP—very quickly indeed.

SPSS is one of the big statistical dogs of business and science; in particular SPSS' focus on business makes it relatively easy for the beginner, whether they plan to use it for scientific analysis or market research. Unfortunately, after its first promising version (which leapfrogged the old SPSS/PC), the Mac was relegated to second class or worse at SPSS; not until recently did the company start having MacKiev work on usable ports of the Windows versions. Even more recently, SPSS chose to take non-Windows platforms much more seriously, setting up a core statistics engine which is addressed by Java front end. This setup lets SPSS customize the front end for each platform while offering similar features across the board, without some of the limitations (particularly the time delays) of the past.
SPSS is serious, industrial-strength software; though it can be used through a familiar interface, with a spreadsheet view of the data and dropdown menus to run analyses, real power users eschew these and go for the built-in syntax language. SPSS has menu access to most or all commands, batch-language and interactive-command control, the ability to click a button and have a menu command appear in your batch file (so you will know how to write it in the future), and separate windows for syntax, data, and output. You can assign labels to values (1='Strongly Agree') and to variables (DOD1942 = 'Department of Defense Document 1942 references within this file').
Mac versions still have some interchange issues with Windows versions; Mac support is hard to find on the SPSS site; and there appear to be some Mac-specific bugs. On the lighter side, the current version comes with regression included, instead of being part of the Advanced Models package; but the tables facilities are still an option, as are time-series and numerous other statistics. Also to SPSS’ credit, the Mac version puts the menu at the top of the screen, has standard open/save dialogues with bookmarks on the left, and other user interface conventions of the Mac world.

The price remains very high for individual commercial users, and on top of the steep cost for the base package, many users will need extra modules, each of which costs about as much as a low-end version of Stata – and SPSS charges for module upgrades, too. However, academic prices are substantially discounted even for single users; there are dramatically discounted “graduate packs” and 'starter packs' good for four years; and academic site licenses which can greatly lower the price if you’re at an institution that buys many copies.
Stata’s full version is usually priced well below SPSS’ base package; but Stata has some drawbacks, including much lower ease of use, lack of “camera ready copy” — such as it is in SPSS — and some missing features, such as an easy way to do stepwise regression; and the spreadsheet view is lacking in comparison with SPSS. Stata does have a vibrant user community, but then, so does SPSS; both allow the use of external algorithsm, in SPSS’ case accepting both Python and R. To use them, you have to install the free Programmability extension.

One handy feature of SPSS is a sort of variable spreadsheet, which makes it easy to find and manipulate each variable. The columns shown below can be widened or narrowed as needed; and some items (such as value labels and missing values) can be copied from one variable and pasted to others. One can also change variable types here (indeed, this is the only place for doing that easily); but it's easier to change formatting (width, decimals, and columns) from syntax. Likewise, missing values, value labels, and variable labels can all be set either way, but syntax is easier.

A new, and surprisingly handy, feature is the ability to have more than one dataset open at a time.

The “measure” column is new, and lets one declare the type of variable, which can be handy in the variable selection views (shown later). Variable names can be longer than 8 characters now but spaces and many special characters are still not allowed; fortunately variable labels are also available.

New users don't have to learn the syntax immediately; they can play around in the menus and submenus. Sometimes it’s a little awkward — in the example below, poorly chosen variable labels (automatically added by Perseus SurveySolutions) overfill their space, and the components of the box cannot be resized. Instead, as you move the mouse over, the full name floats over, after a substantial delay; this feature tends to get in the way more than anything else. The new use of icons is handy, though — you can quickly see which variables are appropriate in a particular analysis, if you took the time to mark them correctly. Even if you didn't, you can see the string variables easily.

For the average SPSS user, who will use a relatively small number of procedures repeatedly, the Paste button is invaluable. Instead of going to the manual immediately, the user can set all the options in this and the sub-windows, and then click on Paste. The command will then appear in the syntax window, to be re-used later, perhaps with different settings, or perhaps just with different variables. This is the easiest way to learn the syntax (though it helps to have the manual as well, to see what each setting does, and in case there are syntax commands not available through the GUI.)

As with prior versions, as you can easily slice, dice, and weight data, and pop out scatterplots using the built-in menus, SPSS automatically records your syntax into a “journal,” which you can later modify to quickly run lots of analyses very quickly. We recommend you use the syntax guide (provided on CD, or at extra cost in book form) and type your commands as often as you can, instead of using the menus. Using SPSS becomes much, much faster that way, especially if you tend to use powerful tools such as 'temp/select if' and 'do if' commands for quickly selecting one or two groups. Writing little programs in the syntax mode can save a great deal of time, and separates professional programs like SPSS from software which fills the needs of more casual reseachers. (The free, open-source R projectonly uses syntax.)

By typing in commands and then running them as a batch, the researcher can both take advantage of commands that don't work well as menus - such as temporary / select if - and save frequently used routines. For example, when running a linkage analysis to link employee survey data to customer or financial outcomes, I tend to run a number of regressions. It's far faster for me to type these commands in than to repeatedly trek through the menus. Likewise, if I just want to see how employees in Kansas answered a given question, I can either go through the menus, select just employees in Kansas, and select a frequency count; or I can type...
TEMP.
SELECT IF LOCATION=4.
FREQ /VAR=Q4.

Though it takes some time to learn the commands, most people tend to use the same commands over and over again. Using syntax can also save a lot of time for people who frequently use different options than the defaults. While the menus aren't too clumsy, simply typing the commands is a major timesaver.

SPSS has done a wonderful job of maintaining the syntax through all Mac and Windows versions, so that files written for older versions work without a hitch. The data format is also compatible without conversion, across versions and platforms, making it easy to share data and scripts with Windows people or users of older Macs. Data is stored in a highly compressed format, in a break from Microsoft norms of oversized files (but matching SPSS' mainframe heritage). There can be problems with sharing output files.

SPSS 16 seems less “touchy” than prior versions, though it is very sensitive to license issues. Activation is required, and we had times when it stuttered and told us there were licensing issues. That said, the program starts up quickly; selecting a data file is easy, though getting a new Excel or other data file in requires going into Open and then adjusting the file filter (otherwise it only opens SPSS’ own tightly-compressed .sav files).

Numerous icons provide little ease-of-use features, including variable sets, a lit of variables, a Python scripting facility, an easily used “common commands” button, and an export button which allows the output to be exported directly to Word, Excel, PDF, html, plain-text, or (just for graphics) various graphics formats like JPG and GIF.

A new “identify duplicate cases” feature will be quite a boon to survey users; it’s a fairly flexible tool, too. The menus and toolbars can finally be customized, which can help speed up the daily routine. A “visual binning” tool makes it easier to sort out the variables into categories (scale, ordinal, etc.), and another tool allows for date identification, another very useful new feature; the multiple response categories tool was already available and handy for surveyors. Insane people can change the user interface from “Macintosh” to “SPSS standard” so they can experience the joys of seeing three different menus, one on each window, and each one containing different commands.

It used to be that SPSS would run its analyses, then put them into the SPSS Viewer window (there are three windows at most — Viewer, where output goes; Syntax, where you program or run commands one at a time; and the variables/data spreadsheet), but now SPSS sets up the output window, putting in placeholders until it builds the tables. It’s just a little weird but no better or worse. Speed seems about the same — the calculations are lightning fast, and the graphics take a while. Every analysis seems to get a little header that we usually delete, telling the valid and missing sample sizes in summary form, even if they're in the regular output. We thought this could not be shut off, but the people from SPSS corrected us — you can shut it off, using the Output Management System. Indeed, the output management options are fairly extensive and allowed us to shut off repetition of commands, warnings, and other items — it’s a real improvement.

Copying and pasting is easy when it works; copied tables are pasted as ordinary text in programs like Dreamweaver, as tables in Word, and as data in appropriate cells in Word. If you want to retain the formatting, paste into Word; if you want to manipulate the results, Excel. Some larger output tables simply would not be copied at all, but you can save the output window and get at it that way. This is a real improvement over the prior version, which required us to paste into BBEdit before pasting into Word. On the darker side, we weren’t able to copy multiple output tables at once, which would have saved time. Users who want to customize the output will still be frustrated.

Charting is far better than in the past; though creating charts is a fairly clunky process in some ways, charts come out with sensible, clear formatting, are incredibly editable, and provide numerous options for scientists, statisticians, quality folk, and ordinary people. What’s more, the system pumps out the syntax whether you asked for it or not, so you can make minor changes manually without going through it. A test with fake data is: