EG is a great AD HOC tool, and I love it for that. Even pressed a company I used to work for to adopting EG.
But, it is not a good platform for scheduled production runs.
It also lacks a lot of ability at allowing a worker to multi-task multiple projects and processes. The developers were too small minded about the size of the datasets we heavy hitters use (> 1,000,000 observations, I've regularly processed > 600,000,000 and as much as > 1,000,000,000 with SAS). Processing large datasets is one of SAS's strengths.
Hopefully the underlying server is either Unix or a Mainframe. You need to be able to log on to that box so that you can build jobs that can run from a proper scheduler -- like Control-M. Relying on your local PC's Scheduled Tasks to run production jobs is just plain ________________.
Your headaches will get worse if you have to use "Meta-Data" and the meta-data admin is not intelligent, congenial, and genuinely helpful. The EG admin can also give you headaches and frustrations.
When done well, the environment sings beautifully. But it is very complicated under the covers and can be easily sabotaged by poor design and administration.
One the biggest problems is the lack of general documentation. In the old days, SAS had the best documentation of any software product. SAS/STATS not only told you how to use their functions, it even explained a lot of basic statistics and the theory and reasons behind the various types of regressions. Where do you find that kind of education for Meta-Data? I have yet to find a general explanation of the general architectural design and reasons for the design of Meta-Data and thus why the Meta-Data server was constructed the way it was. There is nothing to build an appropriate intuitive feel for what to do and why.
Anyway, I feel your pain, and sympathize with you.
For SAS/Graph stuff. Look for the "Preview Code" button and then the "Insert Code" button.
Our EG blew up on a regular basis until we found that defining goptions in an autoexec.sas file was the cause.
Another problem we have had is that ActiveX and JavaX controls don't work as well/expected, so we have had to change the default graphics device to .gif to get proper but limited output.
I like having PC SAS on my box simply for the help documentation. EG is grossly lacking in that regard. The "Online Documentation" is slow, not always available (if the internal network ISP connections are our -- considered non-critical), and greatly cuts into a person's productivity waiting for a page to paint.
EG is meant to be a productivity tool, but it isn't as much of a one as it could be if it had better product management.