SAS Registry Settings for ODS Graphics

The SAS Registry is a special SAS item store file that is stored in your SASUSER storage location. It contains the default settings for many SAS products and their features. You can browse or edit this hierarchical file with PROC REGISTRY, or with the Registry Editor window. The window can be accessed with the global REGEDIT command from a Display Manager session. When you issue the command, the main Registry Editor window appears:

If you expand the ODS folder, you will see a subfolder for ODS GRAPHICS, which contains three registry keys.

Registry Editor Window Showing ODS Folder

Registry Key	Use
Default State	Determines whether the ODS Graphics environment is active by default
Design Height	Determines the default height of a graph that is generated with GTL
Design Width	Determines the default width of a graph that is generated with GTL

If you were to change the Default State from Off to On, it would make the ODS Environment active in every SAS session. This implies that if you run a procedure that normally requires you to activate the ODS Graphics environment with the ODS GRAPHICS ON; statement, you would not have to issue this statement—ODS graphs would be automatically produced every time you run an ODS graphics-enabled procedure such as UNIVARIATE, ARIMA, or REG.

Note: The SAS procedures such as SGRENDER, SGPLOT, SGPANEL, and SGSCATTER only produce template-based graphics. They internally activate the ODS Graphics environment if it is not active and are unaffected by the Default State key value.

The Design Height and Design Width keys control the default graph size for all graph templates. The 640px by 480px size represents a 4/3 aspect ratio. If you change these values, any new or existing graph templates are affected unless you explicitly set a DESIGNWIDTH= or DESIGNHEIGHT= option in the BEGINGRAPH statement in the graph template definition. For details, see Controlling Graph Size.