EZCalc 1.3 Beta “User Manual”

1) Create new data file
	Click the "New" button in the tool bar, browse or enter a target file name and click “Save”. The file name will be shown on the top of the window bar. This file will be used to contain data from multiple participants in a card sort study. The default extension of the file is “.rec”, meaning record file. 
	Click “Add from a participant data file” button at the bottom right corner and select the individual participant data file with a “.esd” file extension. These .esd files are generated by Usort, which is the other application package of EZSort. Repeat this step until all the participant data is loaded into EZCalc. 
2) Open an existing data file
	If you have already created a “.rec” file, click the “Open” button in the tool bar to load it into EZCalc. 
3) Browsing individual card sort data
	Click on the user name to show the corresponding card sort data on the right of the screen. Each higher-level category starts with a folder icon followed by a group names. Lower-level categories is marked with short separation lines “--“ within certain higher-level categories
4). Displaying tree diagrams as analysis results
After data is loaded into the system, click any of the three analysis icons ("Complete", "Single" and "Average") to display tree diagrams. Each diagram is generated using its distinct algorithm. In brief, Single linkage algorithm emphasizes more on similarities, while Complete linkage algorithm emphasizes more on differences. Average algorithm gives a balance of these two algorithms. So, each algorithm provides information structure at a different angle. For more information about the statistics principles of the three algorithms, please visit http://www.statsoftinc.com/textbook/stcluan.html#a.
When participant(s) indicate in the Usort 1.8 Beta program that they do not know some of the items, the number of valid answers for each item is shown in brackets after the item name in the tree diagram. For instance, (17/20) means that there are 17 valid answers in the data from 20 participants (3 participants did not know that item). 
5). Manipulating tree diagrams
	The green line and pink threshold lines and their attached data flags provide visual aids for the analysis of information structure displayed in the hierarchy. The attached data flags indicate the distance score thresholds corresponding to the location of the threshold lines. The alternated shading colors show the in high-level groupings. The different colors of branches in a tree diagram show the low-level groupings. Differences in vertical distances among card name items provide additional visual cue for both low-level and high-level groupings.
	The two threshold lines can be dragged horizontally and dropped at the desired place to better visualize the groupings. The tree diagram will refresh based on the location of the threshold lines when they are dropped.  Tree diagrams allow scrolling (when scroll bar shows up) and resizing.
6). Viewing distance matrix as reference data
	The distance matrix can be viewed by clicking on the "Matrix" button in the toolbar. This distance matrix shows the intermediate result of cluster analysis.
7). Saving and Printing files
	Click on “Save” or “Save as” button on the tool bar to save participant data file, tree diagram image file or distance matrix file, depending on the screen state. Participant data is stored as ".rec" files (i.e. record). Each tree diagram can be assigned in different names and be saved in bitmap format. Similarity matrix is stored in text format.
	The whole tree diagram should be saved or printed when these functions are used, even if a tree diagram cannot be displayed without scrolling.

Reference: EZSortPaper.pdf  from http://www-3.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/Publish/649
Contact for EZSort:  Jianming Dong (jdong@us.ibm.com)