The bad news is: We have not and will not build a dedicated menu program to replace epiglue as part of the EpiData Association activities.

The good news is: There are several other possibilities to replace Epi6 menus within the "EpiData frame"

To maintain the QES-REC-CHK file principle (see later for other possibilities) 1. Make a qes/rec file which in individual fields uses the "execute" chk file command 2. Create batch files with EpiC which will accomplish many things such as zipping and encryption for backup or maling, importing or exporting of data for analysis, controlling data consistency (CHECKRANGE etc.) 3. In analysis: Build your own form such as the opening info.htm, where you can include commands. To learn how - look at the info.htm in any simple editor and replace commands in the<epi....> tag. And learn a bit of html language coding. You will find textbooks on that everywhere.

If you run epidata analysis (the test version) the opening window shows contents of the file "info.htm". Part of this is:

Examples of how the programme works: Graph: Bar chart (Click) Statistical Process Control Chart (Click)

If the user clicks on "Bar Chart" a bar chart will be shown. Behind the click is a link to the following analysis commands: Graph: <A HREF='epi:close;set echo=off;define fn __________________________ glob;fn= "@sysdir"+"testdata";cd "@fn";read bromar;set warning=on;bar agegrp;cd; set command=off;echo Press F1 to view info again;set echo=on'>Bar chart</a> (Click)

This looks a bit complicated to new users, but if you look more closely several words are well known EPI6 commands e.g. close set echo=off read bar

So to make a menu point for showing descriptive statistics and let the user define select you would just add to the info.htm fil a line of text in an editor:

Statistics <A HREF='epi:close;read datafile;select sex = ?Sex= 1 or 2?; describe;set echo=off;close;view info.htm;>By sex</a>(click)

The difficult part of this to understand: select sex = ?Sex= 1 or 2? Analysis starts the select command but instead of running it lets the user input a value in a box on the screen. On that screen the text "Sex=1 or 2" is shown to guide the user. Similarly other select or defines could be made.

You could also add two lines for fixed selections: Statistics <A HREF='epi:close;read datafile;select sex = 2; describe;close;view info.htm;>For males</a> Statistics <A HREF='epi:close;read datafile;select sex = 1; describe;close;view info.htm;>For Females</a>

Outside the EpiData frame, but within the EPI6 menu principles: Maybe we could persuade EpiConcept and Denis Columbier to make Winglue available. Winglue is a replacement for epiglue.

Other possible strategies would be to make a simple html page and include "tags" to run whichever programme you like or use other software - e.g. epi info for windows from CDC or larger server systems.

regards jens Lauritsen EpiData Association, Odense Denmark.