Features

BEST Viewpoints 8 is much faster than the previous version and has a much simpler and intuitive user interface. Its database connectivity and querying interface has been simplified and improved. It drastically simplifies the process of using the charts and plotting capabilities of Mathematica 8 for creating bar charts, pie charts, histograms, distribution charts, probability plots, bubble charts, and related types of charts. The most interesting feature is the possibility of creating analysis templates that are saved with a small image or icon containing the currently displayed analysis for easy file name association to content.

New Features

• The application is now compatible with Mathematica 8.
• Calculations and rendering times are faster in hierarchical viewpoints, relational viewpoints, and spreadsheets.
• Analysis templates options are now presented in the Main Menu for easy access, and templates can be organized by projects. Additionally, analysis templates are saved with associated graphical image of the current analysis for easy content association. Sample templates are included to help users understand the use of BEST Viewpoints and its analysis templates.
• Appearance and Menus
  • BEST Viewpoints now has two main working interfaces: 1) Data—for data importing, transformation, queries, and calculation of new fields or summaries. 2) Analysis—for automated data analysis like summaries or pivot tables, linear trends, charts, statistical analysis, visualization, and relational analysis, among others.
  • Main Analysis interface has four sub-menus: Analysis (selection of analysis fields), Build (customize analysis with optional features), Categories (select category values in analysis), and Data (sample from data or change data source).
  • Main TabView is now presented as PopupMenu to simplify the appearance of the application.
  • Most TogglerBars are now presented by default as CheckboxBars for a more standard look.
• What was previously labeled as "Categories" is now labeled as "Group By".
  • Optional WindowSize can be set to run the application in small screens (800x600).
  • View + Script returns current analysis script, including data preprocessing.
• The Manual Calculation button is more visible and accessible.
• Data Importing
  • XLSX files can now be imported.
  • The database data importing interface is simplified.
• Exploratory Viewpoints
  • Combine results in a single image by Fields (all selected fields in the same image) or by Categories (all category values in the same image).
• Addition of a combo analysis where the user can create any combination of Histogram, Line, BoxWhiskerPlot, and DistributionChart as a single image.
  • Addition of QuantilePlot, ProbabilityPlot, and ProbabilityScalePlot
  • Upgrade to BoxWhiskerCharts instead of BoxWhiskerPlots and addition of DistributionCharts
  • Addition of Histogram3D and SmoothHistogram3D
  • Update and major improvements to Histograms
  • Addition of standard probability distributions (SPD) for exploration: NormalDistribution, LogNormalDistribution, ExponentialDistribution, GammaDistribution, WeibullDistribution, BetaDistribution, StudentTDistribution, BinomialDistribution, BernoulliDistribution, GeometricDistribution, HypergeometricDistribution, NegativeBinomialDistribution, BetaBinomialDistribution, BetaNegativeBinomialDistribution, and PoissonDistribution
• SmoothHistogram and goodness of fit tests for the SPD (for user-provided or estimated parameters) added as options to Histogram or to Line Plots under probability plots.
  • Additionally, cumulative distribution function (CDF), probability distribution function (PDF), SurvivalFunction, and other functions can be used as the y axis in histograms and continuous plots for any of the SPD.