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Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 3:53 pm
by rrf20
Hello, I am working through EViews 3rd edition book and on p27 there is instruction to pen Descriptive Statistics link from list of material links under Help\Quick Help Reference\Function Reference

none of the function links on this page open for me. When I click on any of them ,the computer does nothing. Do I need to set pop up settings somewhere? What can you recommend please?

Thank you

Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 3:54 pm
by EViews Gareth
Which version of EViews?

Re: Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 1:47 pm
by rrf20
EViews 6 Student Version

Re: Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:05 pm
by EViews Glenn
It's a difficult question to answer from the information provided. But we'll figure out how to get you the information that you need.

First of all, which 3rd edition book are you using that tells you to open the link? Second, which browser are you using? And which version of Windows are you using?

Let me note parenthetically that we have had lots of problems with the Help system for EViews 6. Previous versions of EViews used the Windows Help system for its help files, the help system was not written by us, nor was it an integral part of EViews, EViews just told Windows to launch a help browser and then pointed it at the file containing the information in the help system. Microsoft took away the help browser technology with Vista, and forbid software companies from providing it to users themselves. We converted EViews 6 help into a new format. Unfortunately, we found that while the system worked okay at the time of the EViews 6 release, browser upgrades and operating system upgrades seem to break the EViews 6 help system on a regular basis.

As a result, in EViews 7, we completely redesigned the help system.

Now I know that that doesn't help you right now. But I think we can figure out a way to work around the problem. What I'm going to suggest that is that we either (1) figure out a way for you to use a compatible browser, or (2) that we figure out what information you need to find and then explain how to use the PDF versions of help rather than the help system itself. To be honest, we find that searching through the PDF files offers a better experience than using the 6 Help System.

Re: Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 2:27 pm
by EViews Gareth
Further to Glenn's reply, I think the part of the PDFs that matches the link you describe is in the EViews 6 User Guide I PDF, in the "Descriptive Statistics" part of Appendix A. - Operator and Function Reference.

Re: Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 3:12 pm
by EViews Glenn
I guess I could have checked on my system the way Gareth did :oops:

Re: Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:14 pm
by rrf20
book edition - Using EViews for Principles of Econometrics - 3rd edition
browser- firefox
system - Windows XP - 2002

I suppose I could reinstall Internet Explorer on this computer, though I loathe that browser. How about we take the pdf version of getting the info route?

The info I was trying to access was "descriptive statistics functions" according to the help model I should be able to create scalars for using in calculations. That is my current aim. Thank you.

Re: Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:17 pm
by EViews Gareth
Further to Glenn's reply, I think the part of the PDFs that matches the link you describe is in the EViews 6 User Guide I PDF, in the "Descriptive Statistics" part of Appendix A. - Operator and Function Reference.

Re: Function reference malfunction?

Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 4:23 pm
by rrf20
Yup, I've got it. This seems a much better option than the web-based help set up. I'll go with the pdfs. Thanks for your input/assistance.
Cheers.