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GraphPad Prism Changelog

What's new in GraphPad Prism 7.0a

Apr 4, 2016
  • Heat maps
  • Three-way ANOVA
  • FDR approach to multiple comparisons
  • More accurate (asymmetrical, likelihood) confidence intervals from nonlinear regression
  • Label sub-columns
  • Color code sheet names, and selected cells in tables
  • Semitransparent colors so you can see overlap
  • Enter dates (or elapsed times) as X values

New in GraphPad Prism 6.0h (Nov 19, 2015)

  • Prism 6.0h fixes a bunch of problems that prevent earlier releases from working perfectly with OS X 10.11 El Capitan. But it also works fine with earlier releases of OS X.
  • Most important, this release fixes several bugs that cause crashing on launch, and also when you click 'Cancel' button in 'Delete Sheet(s)' dialog, or when you OK or Cancel from the Hook Constant dialog. If you still have problems with crashing see the portion of this faq that explains some Terminal commands to use.
  • This release also fixes a few minor issues that are not related to El Capitan. Most important, Prism now works consistently when a layout includes a graph from another project. With earlier versions, under some circumstances such graphs could get very small or appear to vanish entirely from your layout.
  • It also fixes some cosmetic bugs, specific to El Capitan, that make the program harder to use:
  • Impossible to see options for lines, bars or points: menus blank.
  • Wrong color scheme of 'Format Data Table' and 'Result' buttons, column, subcolumn and row titles.
  • Preview area in 'Frame and Grid Line' section in 'Format Axes' dialog is empty.
  • Export window is corrupted: cut from left and right.
  • All icons on the toolbar do not highlight after you click on them.
  • Content of thumbnails in 'Gallery View' mode appears not clear or faded.
  • Black line appears under toolbar when you switch to 'Full Screen' mode.
  • Grid doesn't work on Graph and Layout sheets.
  • Bar graph diagonal fill patterns are mirror-image of what they should be.

New in GraphPad Prism 6.0f (Aug 20, 2014)

  • New:
  • Removed the alert asking "activate for one or for all users?" when activating silently.
  • The Tab key now moves the focus between the navigator and the gallery window.  
  • Changed the default default Graph zoom settings in the Prism preferences to 'View entire graph'.
  • Opens large files much faster. 
  • Minor calculation issues fixed:
  • Cumulative frequency distribution analysis gave slightly inaccurate (in sixth or seventh digit) fractions or percentages with huge data sets (many thousand values).
  • Nonlinear regression would crash Prism when fitting a curve with parameters shared, but the first data set is completely empty.
  • When data were entered as Mean, n, and SEM or SD, or if data were entered as single Y values without replicates or error values, main effects multiple comparisons tests after two-Way ANOVA were not performed.
  • The option on the Range tab of nonlinear regression to ignore all data outside of specified range could not be used when the X values were a series (so the X column was shown as bold).
  • When fitting a curve using weighting by 1/SD^2, it is not possible for Prism to draw confidence bands. Now that choice is gray. 
  • Bugs fixed:
  • Crashes when opening some file containing  images from Powerpoint files that included tiff images. 
  • Flush justification was not applied to text object when all text is selected.  
  • The settings for the "style" of the "error bars" in the 'Format Graph' dialog was not saved after the project is saved and re-opened.  
  • If an XY graph showed individual replicates, it was not possible to right click and choose Format Points.
  • Additional grid lines didn't always show dotted/dashed properly.
  • Multi-line column labels do not show up in the multiple comparisons results of one-way ANOVA.
  • The position of custom labels on the graph changes after re-opening some files. 
  • Incorrect help link in 'Import and Paste Special Choices' dialog.  
  • The monochrome export option didn't work for JPG.  
  • Prism ignored the setting to use row titles for X axis labeleing if the first Y column was empty.  
  • The choice to separate groups on a graph with a grid line did not work correctly for "Symbols+lines" grouped graph with even number of data sets.
  • Additional ticks sometimes were not aligned with each other. 
  • It was impossible to add additional ticks to segmented axes. 
  • It was sometimes nearly impossible to move legends and titles on a graph.
  • If you placed a graph on a layout in using the option "Unlinked picture. Cannot be edited" , that layout would not display properly in Prism Windows.

New in GraphPad Prism 6.0e (Jun 2, 2014)

  • New feature:
  • New script commands, WBlock and WTBlock. These commands let you specify a block of cells on any table to output to the text file specified in OpenOutput.
  • Additional column of labels for multiple comparisons results of one-way ANOVA, so each comparison is labeled both by column names and also (new) column letters (i.e. "D-B").
  •  The "Show tooltips" preference now applies to graphs and layouts sheets as well as the toolbar and navigator.
  • Thumbnails of sheets in Prism gallery are now numbered.  This helps when using scripts or talking about Prism projects over the phone.
  • Important fixes:
  • Problems with error bars on log Y axes when you specified upward pointing error bars only. If it would have been impossible to plot a downward pointing error bar (because the bottom value would be negative, not allowed on a log axis) Prism wouldn't even plot the upward pointing error bar and would display an unhelpful gray floating note about it being impossible to plot error bars (because negative values can't be shown on log axis). 
  • Magic did not change the symbol type, size, and color correctly for column scatter graphs. Also Magic did not change the fonts of axis titles, when it was supposed to. 
  • If you duplicated huge families, then saved the file, Prism sometimes showed "Unable to open the file you are requested" when you tried to open it.
  • Prism no longer freezes or crashes when it opens a file that inlcudes graphs that try to graph data sets that have been deleted.  
  • When moving objects, hold the shift key to move only up or down, or hold the command key to move only right or left.
  • If you changed error bar direction using the short cut menu, the change wouldn't stick when the file was saved and reopened. Details. 
  • Labels created with "Additional ticks..." didn't maintain their position when the file was saved then reopened. 
  • Other fixes:
  • Clearer labeling of hazard ratio in Survival analysis, with "A/B" and "B/A" labels in two places.
  • Fixed bug where if the upper error bar doesn't get plotted, no more error bars were plotted.  
  • Fixed the problem when a lot of blank free space was left within a gallery after scrolling to its bottom. 
  • The results page name for correlation matrix now states whether the results are Pearson r or Spearman rs.  
  • Custom (additional) ticks replaced row titles, set as regular ticks. 
  • Prism 6 uses single precision to store results (but double precision to calculate them) and the seventh digit is not completely accurate. Before Prism would show one seventh digit and screen and export another. Now it is consistent.
  • Message about clipped error bars came up incorrectly when the error bars are median and range or IQR. 
  • Replaced the floating note "The geometric mean cannot be graphed for #n# values, because they are zero or negative. " with  "The geometric mean is undefined when any values are zero or negative, which is the case #n# times on this graph."
  • Magic occasionally crashed when used to change many sheets at once.
  • Prism would freeze when you view the "XY Graph, Points" created by the Frequency distribution analysis (as relative frequency). 
  • A grouped graph's default axis range was wrong when the data table contained transposed pasted data.
  • The graph type sometimes switched when opening a file made from a template created using previous version of Prism.
  • Residual plots created by linear or nonlinear regression did not have the automatic dotted horizontal grid line at Y=0 if the analysis was run from the graph (as opposed to from the data table).
  • Fixed updating of custom ticks hooked to an analysis constant after changing data analyzed and switching back to graph.
  • Adjusted P values in One-Way ANOVA's multiple comparisons are now right justified like the other results.
  • Improved the error message when you try to perfrom repeated measures ANOVA without enough data to "Prism can only perform repeated measures ANOVA when every subject has data at every time point."
  • Fixed the Format Point feature for data points if some data in data sets is missing. 
  • Pictures, imported to Prism's graph, could appear in the wrong position in exported layout.
  • Fixed the problem when the prism.exe process was left hanging after it had been run from the command line using an incorrect script file as a parameter.
  • Simulate XY data analysis was renamed after second re-applying changes in the parameters dialog. 
  • If your X values are a series, rather than values you entered and can edit, Prism is unable to use the feature on the Range tab to only fit data within a certain range of X values. The nonlinear regression results now show a floating note warning when you try to do that.
  • If you cut an entire row, or part of a row, that contained a row title, the row title in the next row down was deleted as well.
  • Fixed the floating note included with some Contingency results analyses to say "Calculation of 95% CI of the difference between proportions requires at least six subjects in each cell.". It incorrectly said "five" instead of "six".
  • The color of the line within a legend didn't always update when you changed the color of the curve. 
  • Now saves file in a format so Prism Windows can open it properly,  if radiobutton "Unlinked picture. Cannot be edited" was selected in "Place Graph on Layout" dialog.
  • Prism Mac couldn't save project over a network to a Windows folder with permissions "Write only".
  • Prism sometimes crashed when adding a lot of data sets to an existing graph. 
  • If you set the direction of labels under the axis using the contextual (right or control click) menu, those changes didn't stick. 
  • Problems with scientific log format.
  • The Column Statistics analysis wouldn't work (incorrect message 'No calculations selected') when you only selected  Column sum and/or confidence intervals.
  • When you selected a block of data and then chose to format the corresponding points,  it was impossible to change the border color of open symbols.
  • Improved autorecovery of damaged files.
  • Installation etc.:
  • Prism now expires at midnight of the last day, rather than  a day earlier as it did before.

New in GraphPad Prism 6.0b (Oct 11, 2012)

  • New Analyses – ANOVA, multiple comparisons and more:
  • Two-way ANOVA with repeated measures in both factors.
  • Multiplicity adjusted (“exact”) P values for multiple comparison tests. Read more about this #1 request in our blog.
  • New post tests - Fisher’s unprotected Least Significant Difference (LSD) and Holm-Sidak.
  • Run a set of t tests (one per row) at once, correcting for multiple comparisons with Bonferroni or by contolling the False Discovery Rate (FDR).
  • Follow two-way ANOVA with tests for simple or main effects. Don't worry if you don't know what that means - Prism 6 presents those choices graphically so the meaning is obvious.
  • Greenhouse-Geisser correction in repeated measures one-way ANOVA to avoid the need to assume sphericity.
  • Grubbs’ outlier detection. Our most popular QuickCalc web calculator is now part of Prism.
  • Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to compare two groups (an alternative to the Mann-Whitney test).
  • Ratio t test
  • Improved curve fitting:
  • Fit to implicit and differential models.
  • Write more complex models.
  • Quicker interpolations. Prism 6 adds a new analysis that streamlines the process of interpolating values from standard curves.
  • Weight your fit by 1/Y^k
  • Monte-Carlo simulations without writing scripts.
  • Prism 6 adds a new kind of data table for parts of whole data. Plot pie charts, donut plots and more.
  • Compare the observed distribution of values with theoretically expected values with the chi-squared or binomial test.
  • Compute each value as a fraction or percentage of the column total.
  • Work with larger data sets:
  • Enter data in up to 256 data set columns.
  • Enter up to 256 subcolumns per data set (up from 52 in Prism 5). This lets you compute repeated measures two-way ANOVA with more subjects.
  • Work more efficiently:
  • Faster. Faster saving, faster closing, faster nonparametric calculations, faster graphing, faster, crisper screen redraws.
  • Format several data sets at once. Want to plot alternating columns as dotted lines? Now you can do it in one step.
  • View and edit all of your column titles at once. Great for large files!
  • Choose the size, shape and color of your data points right from the data table. You can even select any contiguous block of data and make choices for that specific subset of your data table.
  • WAND. If you love MAGIC, you will love the new WAND. While MAGIC reformats graphs, the WAND analyzes and graphs a new data table to match what you have done to another.
  • Paste link values from results tables into a data table so everything updates automatically. This also works if you want to link data from one data table to another.
  • Plays well with others:
  • Export graphs in more formats.
  • Better TIFF compression means smaller files and faster exporting.
  • Import more types of graphic files into your Prism layouts.
  • Control whether to use periods or commas as a decimal separator from within Prism.
  • Choose how to handle excluded values when you export/paste from Prism data tables.
  • If you use LabArchives, you can now open your Prism files right from LabArchives without first downloading the files to your computer.

New in GraphPad Prism 5.0d (Dec 9, 2010)

  • Fixes to data analysis:
  • Fixed bug in multiple comparisons tests following two-way ANOVA with tables with three or more data set columns could result in incorrect designation of statistical significance (confidence intervals were always correct).
  • When you choose Fisher's exact test to analyze a contingency table, Prism switches to the chi-square test when the sample size is large. If you ask for a one-tail P value in this case, Prism reported a two-tail P value instead. Fixed.
  • Fixed initial value of LogKB in the allosteric ec50 shift equation.
  • Fixed bug in correlation analysis. It did not calculate results when you chose only selected data sets in the Analyze dialog.
  • Important fixes:
  • Improved plotting of column scatter plots. In some cases, two points were superimposed so you couldn't tell there were two. In other, very rare, cases, Prism could plot more symbols than there were values.
  • Prism can now open huge .PZFX files. With earlier versions, huge files (hard to define but greater than 10MB for sure, maybe greater than 30MB) simply would not open.
  • Bypassed bug in Excel 2008 (Mac) that resulted in some copied values pasting incorrectly into Prism 5.0c.
  • Prism 5 lets you right click on a data point and choose a different color or size for it. Prism 5.03 and 5.0c (but not earlier releases) often got confused about which value should have the extra formatting.
  • Improved automatic backup system. Now you can choose whether to backup every so-many minutes or every time you go to a new sheet. Or both.
  • Automatic renaming of sheet titles so they become very long no longer prevents the file from being saved.
  • The Magic command no longer crashes when used to change many graphs at once.
  • Minor fixes
  • Much faster importing of data with more than six digits after the decimal (Mac only).
  • Fixed the problem that correlation analysis could not be run again after nonparametric correlation was interrupted.
  • Fixed the problem that made it impossible to perform the correlation analysis after transforming data table.
  • It is now possible to click the "Text" tool while holding Shift, to create multiple text objects.
  • Fixed the problem that made it sometimes impossible to set minimum X value to a value other then zero in the "Format Axes" dialog.
  • Improved pasting of column titles onto data tables with subcolumns.
  • X axis labels in Grouped axes no longer spontaneously change from row titles to column titles.
  • Better magic. No longer incorrectly changes the legends' symbol color.
  • Fixed the problem when area fill on the graph appeared blank in exported PDF file.
  • Opens Prism 4 files without sometimes losing the bottom line of plain frame axis.
  • Made Prism smarter about opening files from future versions of Prism.
  • One-way ANOVA is smarter about handling data sets with no data.
  • The Windows buttons to minimize or resize the Prism window now works on all displays (with prior versions those buttons only worked on the primary display).
  • Fixed the problem when restoring the computer from sleep sometimes broke open OLE links between Prism and PowerPoint.
  • Fixed Y axis range for graphs of cumulative frequency distributions plotted as relative frequencies (fractions).
  • The horizontal lines plotted at the mean or median on scatter graphs are now positioned correctly even when spacing between columns was customized.
  • The "Send to PowerPoint..." command on the File menu is no longer gray when you are on a graph.
  • The shortcut Ctrl+H can be used to Send to PowerPoint.
  • Fixed appearance of gridlines when exported to EMF, and then Imported in Adobe Illustrator CS 5.
  • P values less than 0.0001 are now summarized with four asterisks.
  • Prism now correctly changes only the date of last edit, and not the creation date, when it saves a file. (Mac only).
  • Fixed autobackup system. In rare cases, it was possible for the automatically restored file to be older than the saved version.
  • Fixed the color of text in floating notes, so text doesn't become invisible. (Mac only)
  • Fixed some bugs in pasting data from Excel using scientific notation (Mac only).
  • Fixed the problem when Prism did not warn if you constrained a parameters to be constant in nonlinear regression, but didn't actually enter a value. (Bug was in Mac only.)
  • Prism now remembers the width and height values entered in the "Position..." dialog used to determine where objects belong on the page. (Bug was in Windows only.)
  • Fixed DuplicateFamily script command. If you give it the argument "" (two quotation marks with no spaces in between), it will duplicate all sheet names without adding a prefix. (Windows only bug.)
  • Fixed the problem where text objects linked to an info constant sometimes linked to a different info constant after running a script. (The bug was Windows only.)

New in GraphPad Prism 5.0 Alpha (Jun 12, 2008)

  • New look and feel.
  • Prism 5 lets you work much more efficiently. The new toolbar buttons offer easy access to every feature. No more searching through pull down menus to find what you need. Also try the new right-mouse-click menus for quick and easy editing. And we've added many new tools to help you stay organized in a large project.
  • Prism Magic.
  • Have you ever wanted to make one graph (or many graphs) look just like another one? Prism Magic (Make Graphs Consistent) makes it easy. Select the graphs you want to change, choose your example graph from any Prism project, and preview your selected changes. When you are happy with the preview, click OK and you have a set of matching graphs.
  • More powerful curve fitting.