Tips and Shortcuts

Work quickly and easily by familiarizing yourself with the following shortcuts and tips:

  • Build streams quickly by double-clicking. Simply double-click a node on the palette to add and connect it to the current stream.
  • Use key combinations to select downstream nodes. Press Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+W to toggle the selection of all nodes downstream.
  • Use shortcut keys to connect and disconnect nodes. When a node is selected in the canvas, press F2 to begin a connection, press Tab to move to the required node, and press Shift+Spacebar to complete the connection. Press F3 to disconnect all inputs and outputs to the selected node.
  • Customize the Nodes Palette tab with your favorite nodes. On the Tools menu, click Manage Palettes to open a dialog box for adding, removing, or moving the nodes shown on the Nodes Palette.
  • Rename nodes and add ToolTips. Each node dialog box includes an Annotations tab on which you can specify a custom name for nodes on the canvas as well as add ToolTips to help organize your stream. You can also include lengthy annotations to track progress, save process details, and denote any business decisions required or achieved.
  • Insert values automatically into a CLEM expression. Using the Expression Builder, accessible from a variety of dialog boxes (such as those for Derive and Filler nodes), you can automatically insert field values into a CLEM expression. Click the values button on the Expression Builder to choose from existing field values.
    Figure 1. Values button
    Values button
  • Browse for files quickly. When browsing for files on an Open dialog box, use the File list (click the yellow diamond button at the top of the dialog box, next to the Look In field) to access previously used directories as well as IBM® SPSS® Modeler default directories. Use the forward and back buttons to scroll through accessed directories.
  • Minimize output window clutter. You can close and delete output quickly using the red X button at the top right corner of all output windows. This enables you to keep only promising or interesting results on the Outputs tab of the managers pane.

A full range of keyboard shortcuts is available for the software. See the topic Keyboard Accessibility for more information.

Did you know that you can...

  • Drag and select a group of nodes on the stream canvas using your mouse.
  • Copy and paste nodes from one stream to another.
  • Access Help from every dialog box and output window.
  • Get Help on CRISP-DM, the Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining. (On the Help menu, click CRISP-DM Help.)