The
SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) gives you greater flexibility in
generating, storing, and reproducing SAS procedure and DATA step output
along with a wide range of formatting options. ODS provides formatting
functionality that is not available when using individual procedures
or the DATA step without ODS enhancements.
You can
use ODS to accomplish the following tasks:
Create reports for popular software applications.
With ODS, you can use
ODS destination statements to create output specifically for software
other than SAS and make that output easy to access. For example, you
can use the ODS PDF statement to create PDF files for viewing with
Adobe Acrobat or for printing. You can use the ODS EPUB statement
to create output for e-book readers. The ODS RTF statement creates
output for Microsoft Word.
For complete
documentation on the ODS destination statements, see Dictionary of ODS Language Statements in SAS Output Delivery System: User’s Guide.
Customize the report contents.
ODS enables you to
modify the contents of your output. With ODS, you can embed graphics,
select specific cell contents to display, and create embedded links
in tables and graphs. You can select specific tables or graphs from
procedure output to be printed or you can exclude them. You can create
SAS data sets directly from tables or graphics.
Customize the presentation.
ODS enables you to
change the appearance of your output. You can change the colors, fonts,
and borders of your output. You can customize the layout, format,
headers, and style. You can add images and embedded URLs.
Create more accessible SAS output.
The ODS EPUB and ODS
EPUB3 destinations are the recommended destinations for creating SAS
output that is accessible to the broadest audience. They create e-books
that use many of the accessibility features of the EPUB specification.
These features allow e-book readers such as iBooks to present e-books
so that they adapt to the needs of users with a wide range of abilities.
For example, when reading an e-book created by the ODS EPUB and ODS
EPUB3 destinations using iBooks on an iPad, users can adjust font
size, color schemes, and magnification. They can also access the text
using assistive technologies such as the Voiceover screen reader and
refreshable braille displays.