Regardless of whether you spend a lot of time or a little bit of time using SAS Enterprise Guide, you want it to be the most user-friendly experience you can have. But since your definition of user friendly might not be the same as another users, SAS Enterprise Guide has options that you can use to customize your experience.
1. Turn off Welcome Window
The General panel is where you can turn general options on or off. For example, if you don’t want to see the Welcome window every time you open SAS Enterprise Guide, you can turn it off by deselecting the "Show Welcome window at start-up" option.
2. Autoexec Process Flow
Another general option that is a time saver is the Automatically run “Autoexec” process flow when project opens. You can create a process flow named Autoexec that defines all your macro variables or your LIBNAME statements, for example. Every time you open that project, the Autoexec process flow automatically runs, and the macro variables or libraries will be ready to use.
3. Split view into multiple windows
By default, SAS Enterprise Guide displays only one item at a time. But you can easily change this and show two items at a time using the Workspace Layout option. You might want to have your Program Editor open, and see the input data set you’re working with. Or the log and Program Editor. Or the output data set and the result – the combinations are endless!
To view two windows at once, select View --> Workspace Layout and then select Stacked or Side-by-Side. To specify the window you want something to open in, click in the upper right corner of the workspace.
In SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1, the workspace is extremely customizable, and you are not limited to two workspaces.
4. Reset Default Layout
Sometimes your project might seem to be misbehaving – you have lost a window, or it won’t go where you want it, or your cursor is nowhere to be found. One of the first things to try is to use the Restore Window Layout option in the General panel. (Note: In SAS Enterprise Guide 8.1, this option is on the main menu under View-> Reset to default layout).
5. Automatically replace task results
We turned off the Welcome window so that it doesn’t pop up each time we open SAS Enterprise Guide, but what about being prompted to replace the results of a task every time you run it? This is the default behavior, but you can turn it off. You can do this by setting the Replace results option to Replace without prompting.
6. Automatically submit custom SAS code
There might be code that you want to run every time you connect to a server (vs the Autoexec Process Flow, which runs every time you open the project). For example, you might want to create certain macro variables or work tables or assign or unassign libraries. You can include this code and set it to automatically run by selecting the SAS code options in the SAS Programs panel.
These are only a few of the many options you can configure in SAS Enterprise Guide. In my next article, I'll give you some tips for working with the program editor. In the meantime, enjoy exploring Tools --> Options!
