What's New in the SAS 9.3 ODS Graphics Editor

Overview

The ODS Graphics Editor has the following changes and enhancements:

inclusion with Base SAS
stand-alone editor is no longer required
ODS enhancements
enhancements for editing a graph
additional rendering option for SGE files

Editor Is Included with Base SAS

The ODS Graphics Editor is now available with Base SAS software. SAS/GRAPH software is not required in order to use the editor. The documentation has also moved to the Base SAS node in SAS Help and Documentation.

Stand-Alone Editor Is No Longer Required

In previous releases on Windows and Linux operating systems, you had to install the stand-alone editor even when you invoked the editor from SAS. You could not open ODS Graphics Editor SGE files without the stand-alone editor.

Starting with the 9.3 release, the stand-alone editor is no longer required to open SGE files from SAS. However, the stand-alone editor is still available. You would install the stand-alone editor when you need to open SGE files but do not have SAS installed on the system.

ODS Changes and Enhancements

The editor supports a new ODS style: HTMLBlueCML (Color, Marker, Line).

In Windows and UNIX operating environments, when editable graphs are created in the SAS Windowing environment, the default ODS behavior has changed as follows:

HTML is the default ODS destination. If you close the HTML destination and do not open another destination, then no destinations are open.
HTMLBlue is the default style for the ODS HTML destination. ODS Graphics Editor (SGE) files that were created with the HTML destination appear different from those that were created with the previous release of SAS.

The editor does not support the HTMLBlue style, but instead supports the similar HTMLBlueCML style. To produce the same output as HTMLBlue in the editor, specify the HTMLBlueCML style, and then change the line style or markers as appropriate.
SAS procedures that support ODS produce ODS Graphics output by default. You do not need to add the ods graphics on statement to your code. See “Procedures That Support ODS Graphics” in SAS/STAT 9.3 User’s Guide.

Enhancements for Editing a Graph

The following enhancements apply to editing a graph:

You can edit any GTL annotations (DRAW statements) that are part of the graph as well as annotations that were created with the ODS Graphics procedures.
As with single-cell graphs, the editor supports edits to secondary axes for graphs with a layout of DATALATTICE, DATAPANEL, and LATTICE. The secondary axes are now independent from the primary axes for these multi-cell graphs.
You can select FileNew to create a blank page. You can then add annotations to the page.

Additional Rendering Option for SGE Files

SGE files can be rendered to any ODS destination using the SGRENDER procedure. This enables you to render your edited and annotated graphs in a vector graphics format. You can render graphs on platforms, such as z/OS, that do not support running the editor. For more information, see SAS ODS Graphics: Procedures Guide.