KALEIDAGRAPH

Mathematics and Computer Education, Fall 2004 by Grandgenett, Neal

KALEIDAGRAPH Produced by: Synergy Software 2457 Perkiomen Avenue, Reading, PA 19606 http : //www. synergy .com Phone: 610-779-0522 Price: $160

Although I'm not usually influenced much by product advertisements, this particular ad caught my eye. It read:

"Wanted: A lean, talented and budget-wise daily graphing solution is seeking a few progressive educators. Candidates must be seeking an easy-to-learn solution to build student confidence in data handling and graphing analysis techniques. An appreciation of the value of a good scientific graph at a modest price is a must. "

I decided to investigate this potential relationship. I took advantage of their free software download to take a look at the program behind the advertisement. The version of KaleidaGraph that I downloaded and reviewed was the Macintosh version, which runs on any Macintosh with OS 8.6 or later, including OS X. The program is also available for PC machines and any of the Windows operating systems. On both platforms, it uses about 15 MB of hard drive space and 32 MB of RAM.

Upon downloading and installing the free demonstration software, I was encouraged that what was downloaded was a full working version of the program, with only the slight modification that the save and export options were disabled. Printing was available as well, and merely included a banner across the printed page that said "Demo Version". Thus, I was able to explore essentially all of the program features without cost. Included with the download was also a "Quick-Start Guide" that promised to help me know "almost all of the important functions in less than an hour". I set the timer utility on my computer and went to work.

I was pleased to see that there were quite a few different graphing and plotting choices. I could create graphs and plots fairly quickly, using either an entire data column or just a selection of the data. A pop-up menu system provided convenient access to the various display options.

The plot types within KaleidaGraph are fairly extensive and varied, and include Line, Scatter, Double-X, Double-Y, Double-XY, High/Low, Step, Probability, XY-Probability, Histogram, Box, Percentile, Horizontal Bar, Stack Bar, Column, Stack Column, Polar, Pie, and Function Plots (by formula). Curve fitting options include a library of more than 100 industry specific formulas that can be used as a template for curve fitting and that can be customized for individual settings. For comparison purposes, a total of 16 different curve fits can also be displayed on the same plot.

Although the program itself is focused more on plotting and graphing than on statistical analyses, KaleidaGraph does include a few basic statistical procedures that can be run in the program. These include basic descriptive statistics (such as mean, standard deviation, Kurtosis, etc.); t-tests and ANOVAs (one way and two way); non-parametric tests (such as Wilcoxin Signed Rank, Wilcoxin Matched Pairs, Wilcoxin Mann-Whitney, Kuskal-Wallis Rank Sum); and Post Hoc Tests (such as Tukey HSD, Bonferroni, Holm, Dunnet).

I found the data management characteristics of KaleidaGraph to be relatively powerful and convenient. The data formats included floating point, double precision, integer, date, time, and text. A useful "posted note" feature allows annotation of data for other users. Data entry can be done directly in a grid type of format, similar to a spreadsheet, or can be easily imported from other "number crunching" programs, such as Excel. In addition, the program also allows you to import tab, space, or various text delimited files, generated by applications such as word processors.

KaleidaGraph includes other useful features that enhance the ability of the program to annotate and display graphical information. Drawing tools are available to add lines, arrows, boxes, arcs, and polygons. These tools also allow the copy, duplication, grouping, alignment, and layering of the drawn objects. Graphs and plots can be easily adjusted for colors and scale. In addition, the graphical output generated by the program can be easily exported into common file formats, such as JPG, GIF, TIFF, PICT, and PNG.

Although it took about two hours rather than the promised hour for me to get where I felt fairly comfortable with the program, I thought the program did live up to its general promise of being an "easy-to-learn solution to build student confidence in data handling and graphing analysis techniques". It was great to be able to download and use the program on a trial basis, making it particularly useful to recommend to my funds-strapped students, who might want to try the program out before committing to buying it. All in all, I would recommend the program for classroom use. I found it a useful option for students with a wide variety of data graphing and plotting needs.

Review by Neal Grandgenett

University of Nebraska at Omaha