This section will cover two examples of importing your text-only data file into another program that will allow you to manipulate and analyze it.

Importing to QuattroPro

First, let's look at QuattroPro, the spreadsheet application within the Corel Suite. You should open the program and then simply open the text file (you'll have to select the "view all files" option in the dropbox in Open File dialog box to see the text file). When you do, a dialog box will appear, and will prompt you to select your import settings. You can choose "Demilited Auto" and you'll probably be OK, but if you want more control over how the file is imported, click on the "Settings" button. This will allow you to choose the character that delimits values (a comma, in our example, though you can use any character) and that which delimits respondents (a hard return, though again you can make this anything) more carefully.

Click OK, and there you are -- the file should open in a spreadsheet format, with cases in rows, and variables neatly separated into columns. You'll probably want to assign labels to the column headers so you know what each column refers to, and you're off analyzing the data.

Importing to SPSS

In SPSS, you import the text file by selecting File>Read Text Data (or Read ASCII Data, depending on the version of SPSS you're running). Browse to the location of your text file, and open it. You'll be guided through a series of dialog boxes that will allow you to tell the program how your text data are delimited and formatted (Your text file is a "delimited" data file, NOT "fixed width").

Now your data are neatly separated into columns, which you'll now want to label so that you know what the numbers refer to for each case (row).

That's it!

Congratulations on running your first web survey, and good luck analyzing your data!