HOW TO USE THE ELECTRONIC BOOKS

The electronic books (e-books) are comprised of a group of PDF files that are linked together to form the following five books: Meet MINITAB MINITAB User's Guide 1: Data, Graphics, and Macros MINITAB User's Guide 2: Data Analysis and Quality Tools How to Use the Electronic Books Session Command Quick Reference

Accessing and Opening e-books Two conditions must be met before you can open one of the MINITAB e-books. 1. You must have a program installed that supports Portable Document Format (PDF) files: The MINITAB e-book PDF files are supported by Adobe Acrobat Reader 3.0, Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0, and Adobe Acrobat Exchange. Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 comes free of charge on your MINITAB CD, and is a program used to strictly view and navigate PDF files (see Installing MINITAB for information on installing Adobe Acrobat Reader). You can purchase Adobe Acrobat Exchange at your favorite software store if you want the additional capabilities of creating and editing your own PDF files.

2. You must have access to the MINITAB e-book PDF files: The MINITAB e-book PDF files reside in the Electronic Books folder of the main MINITAB folder on either your hard drive or the CD-ROM. If you install the e-books on your hard drive, you can access the files without the CD-ROM by choosing the appropriate shortcut from the Start Menu, or by opening a file directly from an Adobe Acrobat product or from Windows Explorer. If you install shortcuts to the CD-ROM, or if you decide not to install the e-books, you need to access the files from the CD-ROM. (see Installing MINITAB for information on installing the electronic books)

From Windows Explorer Accessing from the CD-ROM -- the Electronic Books folder on the CD-ROM, viewable in Windows Explorer, contains all of the available PDF files. One primary PDF file from each book is available in the folder, in addition to the How to Use Electronic Books file (MTB13DOC.PDF), while the remaining PDF files are hidden for easier navigation. The primary PDF file for each book, such as UG1TOC.PDF, takes you to the table of contents for the e-book with the exception of SCQR13.PDF, will takes you to the first page of the Session Command Quick Reference. Accessing from your hard drive -- the Electronic Books folder on your hard drive, also viewable in Windows Explorer, contains all of the PDF files for the electronic book(s) that you install. One primary PDF file from each book that you install is available in the folder, in addition to the How to Use Electronic Books file (MTB13DOC.PDF), while the remaining PDF files for that book are

hidden for easier navigation. The primary PDF file for each book, such as UG1TOC.PDF, takes you to the table of contents for the e-book with the exception of SCQR13.PDF, which takes you to the first page of the Session Command Quick Reference.

From the Start Menu A shortcut to the table of contents for an electronic book is available on your Start Menu under Programs > MINITAB 13 for Windows > Electronic Books, unless you choose not to install any of the e-books. If you choose to leave the e-books on the CD-ROM, thereby only installing a shortcut for each of the selected e-books on your Start Menu, you need to have the CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive to access the table of contents for a book using a shortcut. If you chose to install an electronic book to your hard drive, you can access the table of contents for an electronic book directly without the CD-ROM using the shortcuts on your Start Menu.

Using MINITAB e-books Navigate through any e-book using the buttons on the buttonbar, located at the top and bottom of each page. The buttons allow you to access the table of contents for other e-books, access the table of contents for the current e-book, access the index for the current e-book, and move from page to page within the current chapter of the e-book. Acrobat Reader and Acrobat Exchange both have additional navigation controls. Read the documentation included with those products to learn more about the additional controls.

Next/Previous The Next and Previous buttons are located on the right and left side of the buttonbar respectively. The buttons allow you to navigate through a chapter of an e-book on a page-by-page basis. The Next button takes you to the next page in a chapter of an electronic book. The Next button does not function when you are on the last page of a chapter in an electronic book. The Previous button takes you to the previous page in a chapter of an electronic book. The Previous button does not function when you are on the first page of a chapter in an electronic book. You can also use the Acrobat page view controls that allow you to navigate through multiple e-book chapters using either the previous or next view buttons (assuming you visit multiple files and/or views).

Contents The Contents button is located on the left side of the buttonbar. Clicking on the contents button opens a pane on the left side of the Acrobat window that contains a list of the major headings within the current chapter. Each entry in the list is linked directly to that heading in the chapter. Click on an entry in the list to go to the page that includes the heading.

Book titles (table of contents)

Click on one of the three book titles located on the buttonbar, including the book title for the current e-book, to open the table of Contents for that particular book. The table of contents includes links to every section in the e-book. Click on the heading text or page number to jump to the first page that includes that section of the e-book. Although a table of contents is not available for the Session Command Quick Reference, the SC QREF button takes you to the first page in the document.

Index Click on the Index that e-book. Every within the e-book. to that section of Quick Reference. button within any of three e-books to open the index for entry in the Index is linked directly to the relevant text Click on a page number next to a word in the index to jump the book. An index is not available for the Session Command

How to Use Click on the How to Use button to open a file that includes similar information to this text file. It also includes links to specific sections in all four e-books.

Printer Click on the printer icon in the upper right hand corner of any page to open the Print dialog box. You then have the typical options available for printing. Everything that appears on your screen will print including dialog boxes, graphs, the background, the buttonbar, and all text.

Page View By default, the first page in a MINITAB e-book chapter opens to fit entirely in the Acrobat window. Click anywhere within a text block, using the Acrobat hand tool, to zoom into the text block, making the text more readable. In addition, you can change the view using Acrobat controls.

What is Meet MINITAB? Meet MINITAB explains the fundamentals of using MINITAB: how to use the menus and dialog boxes, how to manage and manipulate data and files, how to produce graphs, and more. This guide also includes five step-by-step sample sessions to help you learn MINITAB quickly.

What is MINITAB User's Guide 1: Data, Graphics, and Macros? MINITAB User's Guide 1: Data, Graphics, and Macros includes information on how to use MINITAB's input, output, and data manipulation capabilities; how to work with data and graphs; and how to write macros.

What is MINITAB User's Guide 2: Data Analysis and Quality Tools? MINITAB User's Guide 2: Data Analysis and Quality Tools includes information on how to use MINITAB's statistics, quality control, reliability and survival analysis, and design of experiments tools.

What is the Session Command Quick Reference? The Session Command Quick Reference simply lists all MINITAB commands and subcommands. For detailed information on each of the commands, see Session Command Help within MINITAB. The Session Command Quick Reference is only available in PDF format, not in print.