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When you open a survey data file, a new table document is automatically created. When you create tables, they are added to this table document. The settings that apply to the tables for properties such as headers, footers, cell contents, and so on, are taken from the default IBM® SPSS® Data Collection Survey Reporter settings. For example, by default, all tables display Counts and Column percentages.
You can change these settings for one or more tables using the Table Properties dialog box. You can change the settings for all new tables in the current table document, or for tables in all new table documents. You can also save your settings as defaults so that all new tables that you create use your own settings instead of the system defaults. This creates table document template.
For example, you may find that you almost always want to include Counts in your tables but not Column percentages, and that you want all your tables to display filter details in the right footer rather than the left header. You can do this by changing these properties in the Table Properties dialog box and saving the settings as defaults. This creates a table document template with the new settings. Whenever you open a survey data file, the new table document that is created will apply the settings from the template to all the tables that you create. If you subsequently need to include Column percentages (or any other cell contents) in a particular table, you can use the Table Properties dialog box to change the cell contents, and apply the changes to just that table.
A table document template is similar to an ordinary table document (.mtd) file, except that in most cases it does not contain any tables or references to specific survey data files. However, you can also create a template by setting up a table document with the defaults that you require, removing the information about the survey data, saving the file in the templates folder, and specifying the new file as a template in Survey Reporter. In this case, the file can contain tables as well as table properties.
When you open a survey data file, Survey Reporter uses the defaults in the template .mtd file, if there is one, for all the tables in the new table document. If no template exists, the default settings supplied with Survey Reporter are used. You can override these defaults for selected tables or for all tables that you create. When you save a table document, the settings you have applied to specific tables are saved, rather than those in the template. When you subsequently reopen a table document that you have saved, the settings in that table document apply, not the settings in the template.
You can set the following table properties as defaults in a template file so that they are applied to new table documents.
• Cell Contents
• Display Options
• Statistics
• Headers and Footers
• Chart Types
You cannot set the following table properties as defaults in a template. This is because they refer to specific variables, which may not be present in another survey data file.
• Weights
• Hiding rows, columns or cells
• Levels
• Sorting rows or columns
If you are using a template that contains tables as well as table property settings, however, you can set these properties for individual tables.