Help Manual

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Sigma Magic Help Version 15

Options

Overview

The Options menu can be used to set the default behavior of Sigma Magic Software. These settings are saved between sessions and will be used the next time you use Sigma Magic software.

The options menu describes common elements that can be set once and used in future worksheets as required. For example, you can set the confidence level in the options menu once and this value will be used in any future worksheet that you create that requires the confidence level. Of course, any existing sheets that have already been created will not be affected by the option's value. A sample screenshot of the main menu bar is shown below.

The Options dialog box can be opened by clicking on the Options button in the Miscellaneous menu located on the main screen.

User Details

An example screen shot of the User options is shown in the figure below.
options 1

Options Tab: The Options tab helps you navigate between the different pages available within the Options menu. You can switch between the following pages.

Option	Description
User Details	Contains details of the user profile such as name, email, location, etc.
Install Settings	Contains the basic installation settings usually required during installation.
General Settings	Contains some basic settings for the software function usually requires to be setup during installation.
External Files	Specifies location of external resources like files.
Thresholds	Specifies the threshold values for commonly used parameters like confidence level, power, etc.
Colors	Specifies the default colors to use for the analysis.
Reset	Reset the settings back to the default values.

User Name: Enter the full name of the user. Note that this is an optional field, however, you are encouraged to enter a name to identify the user in case you need to communicate with us for any reason.

Email: Enter the email address you want to use. This is a mandatory field. You will not be able to submit error logs or feedback without a valid email address. We will use this email address to send you information about product updates, license details etc. Note that we have a strict privacy policy and your email address will not be shared with anyone. Any changes to your email address are only effective after you confirm this email address. If you do make a change to your email address, you will need to click on the Update button for this to take effect.

Company Name: Enter the name of your company or university. Note that this is an optional field, however, you are encouraged to enter this value so that we can understand the types of users using our software application.

Location: Enter the country where you are using this software. This is an optional field and we only use this information to aggregate the regions of the world who have installed and are using the Sigma Magic software.

Profile Picture: Click on the profile picture to upload a picture for the current user. Note that the picture is only saved locally on your computer and is not uploaded to the server. This action is optional.

Update Records: You can click this checkbox to let us know not to contact you for any marketing reason. Note that if you leave this box unchecked, we will not send you any promotional material but you may still receive product updates and license information that are required for your software to work effectively.

If you make any changes to the above information, your changes are not effective unless you click on the Update button. Note that Internet access is required for this to work as the information you enter here will be sync'd with our server. You can always come back and make changes to your user profile information at any time.

Reset Button: Click on the Reset Button to delete the current settings and replace them with the default values.

Help Button: You can click on the Help button at any time to view the help information on this topic.

OK Button: Click on the OK Button to save any changes you have made to the dialog box.

Cancel Button: Click on the Cancel Button to cancel any changes you have made to the dialog box.

Please note that any information you submit to us is governed by our strong privacy policy of Rapid Sigma Solutions LLP. You can view the Privacy Policy on our website for more details.

Installation Options

Click on the Install Settings button on the right to open the Install Settings dialog box. An example screen shot of the Installation options is shown in the figure below.
options 2

Release Key: If you are using a shared multi-computer license key then you can use this menu option to control when the license key is released by your computer.

Option	Description
Yes	Release the shared license key when you logout of Sigma Magic software. This will allow other users in the company to get the license key when they need them and you are no longer using the software. When you log back into the computer again, you will need to wait for another user to release the license key before you can use the Sigma Magic software.
No	Do not release the shared license key when you logout of Sigma Magic software. You would use this option to keep your existing license key allocated to your computer. Since you have not release the license key, your license is still active and you do not need to wait for other users to release the license key in order to use the software.

Check Updates: This option specifies how often Sigma Magic will check for updates. Note that software checks for updates on our server hence Internet access needs to be enabled for it to check for and download any updates.

Option	Description
On Startup	The software will check for any available updates when you start the Sigma Magic software when you click on Sigma Magic on the main menu bar the first time after you open Excel. This is the recommended setting so that your software is always up-to-date with all upgrades & bug-fixes.
Never	The software will never check for any updates.
Monthly	The software will check for updates to your software once per month. Note that this requires you to have opened Sigma Magic software. If less than a month has passed since the last check, then the software will not check for any updates.

Proxy Setting: The proxy option enables you to specify a proxy address and proxy port to enable your system to connect to the Internet if you are behind a firewall. Connection to the Internet is required to validate your license keys and to submit any error reports to the company for resolution. If your company is behind a firewall, you can try to set the Proxy within the Internet Explorer software (under Advanced Settings) and Sigma Magic software will automatically pick it up from the Explorer settings. If not, you can specify the proxy address here. Make sure to select the checkbox next to Proxy to indicate to the software that you need to use a proxy for accessing the Internet.

Catchup Delay: Sometimes, Excel is unable to copy and paste shapes from one location to another due to limited bandwidth or lack of resources. In such cases, it helps to add a small delay into the loop and gives Excel time to complete the copy and paste operation. You can specify the delay in seconds for Excel to complete this operation. Note that the larger the time you specify here, the slower will be the copying operation - especially if you have a large number of images to copy and paste. Start with a value of 0 and slowly increase it to a value that is required for your computer if you encounter problems with the copy and paste operation.

Menu Language: The menu language lets you specify the language setting of the main menu. By default, the English language is used. If you would like to have other languages for the Main Menu, you will need to place the appropriate translated files in the Languages folder in the Install directory. Any languages defined in this folder will appear in this form for selection. Note that any changes to the language will only take effect on re-starting Excel software. The following table shows the list of languages currently shipped with the software.

Option	Description
English	Shows the main menus in the English language. This is the default setting.
Spanish	Shows the main menus in the Spanish language.

Top Menus: You can use this option to specify the menus to use for the Tool Wizard. By default, all tools are displayed. However, if you only want specific tools to be defined that are aligned to the project methodology you are working on, you can change this selection. The menu format is stored in the menus.json file in the Installation folder. You can edit this file to reorder and show menus in a different format. A few available formats are DMAIC menus, DMADV menus, Lean menus, etc. but you could define your methodology and the menus that you would like to see here. The following table shows the list of menus currently shipped with the software.

Option	Description
All	Displays a list of all available menus arranged in alphabetical order.
PDCA	Orders the menus based on the PDCA methodology. Note that only the seven basic quality tools are used for this methodology. If you need other tools for your analysis, please use all tools.
DMAIC	Orders the menus based on DMAIC methodology. Note that not all tools may be displayed in these menus, only those required by the DMAIC methodology.

Userform Size: This menu is not currently enabled but it can be used to control the size of the userform such as the input dialog box. Currently, you can control the size of the userform by adjusting the zoom factor within your display settings on your computer.

Info Messages: You can specify how status messages are displayed by the software. The status messages option can be used to display the status of the progress of the calculations or if the software wants to report any problems with data entry or analysis. The following options are available:

Option	Description
None	Status messages are suppressed and not displayed to the user. This setting is not recommended as important system messages may be hidden.
Worksheet	All status messages are dislayed at the top of the worksheet. You can use this option if you do not want to press the OK/Close button on the status messages. But make sure to look for any messages at the top of the worksheet.
Status Bar	All status messages are displayed at the bottom status bar of Excel. You can use this option if you do not want to press the OK/Close button on the status messages. Make sure to look for any messages at the bottom status bar of Excel.
Popup Window	All status messages are displayed using a popup window. Note that the user may need to click on the OK or Close button to close this message. This is the recommended setting for this software.

Startup Messages:

Option	Description
Yes	Display the startup dialog box when user starts Sigma Magic software for the first time. The startup dialog box can help user create a new project file or open an existing project file.
No	Do not display the startup dialog box when user starts Sigma Magic software. The user can continue to work with currently open Excel file. You can manually open the startup file by clicking on Open button on the main menu bar at any time.

Error Messages: Specify how error messages should be displayed. The following options are available.

Option	Description
None	Error messages are suppressed and not displayed to the user. This setting is not recommended as important system messages may be hidden.
Worksheet	All error messages are dislayed at the top of the worksheet. You can use this option if you do not want to press the OK/Close button on the error messages. But make sure to look for any messages at the top of the worksheet.
Status Bar	All error messages are displayed at the bottom status bar of Excel. You can use this option if you do not want to press the OK/Close button on the error messages. Make sure to look for any messages at the bottom status bar of Excel.
Popup Window	All error messages are displayed using a popup window. Note that the user may need to click on the OK or Close button to close this message. This is the recommended setting for this software.

Help Viewer: This option specifies how the help file will be displayed to the user.

Option	Description
Offline	Display the help file on your local computer using the HTML viewer.
Online	View the help files on the server. If you choose the Online option, then the software will display the help files that are stored on the Sigma Magic server. The online option requires Internet access to view the help files. If you have not installed updates on your computer, the online options files may be more recent compared to the offline help files that may be stored on your computer.

Log File: This setting will let you save critical error information to the hard-disk that can be used to troubleshoot any problems you may be having. If you choose the option of not saving the log file, then no information is stored to your hard-disk. The log file is stored in the temporary folder on your computer under the SigmaMagic folder.

Run Tests: You can click on this button to run a bunch of tests to check if your software has been installed correctly. If the test is passed a green checkmark is shown next to the test, otherwise, a red cross is shown if some problem was detected. The following tests are performed when you click on this button. options 2

Unload Software: If you are not planning to use the software for a while and would like to unload it from Microsoft Excel you can click on the Unload Software Button. This will remove the Add-In from Excel and Sigma Magic software icon will not show up on the Excel main menu bar. Note that this will not remove the software from your computer or delete any files. If you want to reload the Sigma Magic software, you will have to go to Excel > Options > Add-Ins and reselect the Sigma Magic software so that it can be loaded back into Excel. If you want to permanently remove Sigma Magic software from your computer, you will need to uninstall it from the Control Panel.

Reset Button: You can click on this button to reset all the settings shown on this page to their default values. Note that there is no undo button and once the settings have been reset, there is no way to go back to the older settings.

Optional Settings

An example screen shot of the Optional settings is shown in the figure below.
options 3

Date Format: This format will be used wherever data has to be displayed on the worksheet. Use one of the standard built-in formats or you can choose a "Custom" format to define your own format. The following options are available.

Option	Description
Auto	The software will pick a date format for you. This is the default value.
Custom	You can manually specify the date format using your own format. Use dd to indicate the date, mm for a two-digit month, or mmm for a three-letter abbreviation of the month, yy for a two-digit year, yyyy for a four-digit year, hh for hours, mm for minutes, and ss for seconds.
Short	The date is printed as 11-10-2020
Medium	The date is printed as 11-Oct-2020
Long	The date is printed as 11-October-2020

Number Format: This format will be used to format any numeric values that are printed in the outputs area. Use one of the standard built-in formats or you can choose a "Custom" format and specify your format. The standard format Fixed-3 means it will print all floating-point numbers using 3 decimal places. You can specify your custom format using standard Excel functionality, use 0 to force the printout of a digit or # to print digits where required, period to indicate the decimal place, and E for scientific exponential notation.

Graph Height: You can use this option to specify the height of the graphs on each worksheet. The height of the graph is specified as the number of rows that should be used to display the graph.

Graph Width: You can use this option to specify the width of the graphs on each worksheet. The width of the graph can be set to "Auto" and the system will not modify the graph width specified on the tool. The width of the graph will be set to the width of the column. However, you can choose a different width setting and the size of the graph column is modified.

Graph Spacing: You can use this option to specify the spacing between two graphs. A value of 0 implies no spacing. Larger the value, larger the spacing between charts.

Graph Border Thickness: You can use this option to specify the thickness of the graph border.

Graph Line Thickness: You can use this option to specify the thickness of the lines used within the graph.

Graph Marker Size: You can use this option to specify the size of the markers to be used in the graph.

Analysis Outputs: Specify the types of outputs that needs to be displayed in the notes window.

Option	Description
Input Summary	Display a summary of the inputs used for this analysis.
Assumption Checks	Check the assumptions for the selected analysis and display them in the notes window.
Analysis Results	Display the results of the analysis in the notes window.
Conclusions	Display the conclusions for the selected analysis in the notes window.

Reset Options: You can click on this button to reset all the settings shown on this page to their default values. Note that there is no undo button and once the settings have been reset, there is no way to go back to the older settings.

Save Settings: You can click on this button to save all of your optional settings to a file. The default file name is SMSettings.ini. This file contains all the setting you have customized for your software and save it to a file. You can reload the settings later in case you need to reinstall the software or move the settings to another computer. You can also share these settings file with your friends and colleagues and they can replicate your settings on their computer. Note that some of the settings such as file folders may not work on other computers. For example, if your default file folder is set to C:\Users\Sam. The same file folder may not be available on another computer as the user name will probably be different. Hence, if you are sharing the settings with other users make sure that all the personalized information such as your specific directories are not included in your Options settings before you save the file.

Load Settings: You can click on this button to load the settings you may have saved earlier. This could be useful if you have corrupted your settings or you want to replicate the setting of another user.

Shortcut Keys: You can click on this button to specify mapping for the shortcut keys. By default, the software will map the following shortcut keys on your computer.

Key	Action
F1	Launch the help file for the selected tool.
F2	Open the Analysis Setup for the selected tool.
F3	Recompute the Analysis Outputs for the selected tool.
F4	Open the data editor to view or edit the data available for analysis.
F5	Duplicate the current tool to run what-if analysis as required.

You can use the Shortcut Keys manager to map the shortcuts that are of interest or more convenient to you.

Save Settings: You can click on this button to save the settings that you have defined for your options to an external file which either you can reload at a later point in time or share with your colleagues so that they can replicate the settings that you have made on your computer.

Shortcut Keys

A sample screenshot of the shortcut keys manager is shown in the figure below. tool Manager

User Action: Select the action for which you want to define the shortcut from the dropdown combobox. The available options are:

Action	Description
No action	The specified key will not be mapped to any action.
System default	The specified key will return to the shortcut mapped by Excel.
Open help...	Open the help file for the specified topic. Note that depending on the optional settings, this help file could be opened either locally within your computer or open the file available on our web server.
Open analysis setup	This is equivalent to clicking on the Analysis Setup button on the main menu bar.
Compute analysis outputs	This is equivalent to clicking on the Compute Outputs button on the main menu bar.
Open data Editor	This is equivalent to clicking on the Data Editor button on the main menu bar.
Duplicate workbook	The specified key will copy the currently active workbook and make a copy of the analysis so that you can run a what-if analysis by making changes to the inputs.
View summary sheet	This will change the currently active worksheet to the Summary Sheet.
View data sheet	This will change the currently active worksheet to the Data Sheet so that you can view the data available for analysis.

Shortcut Keys: Specify the key to use to map the shortcut. The available options are the function keys (F1 through F10), the Alt Key, the Shift Key, the Ctrl Key, etc. For function keys, no additional character is required.

Shortcut Chars: If the shortcut key is not one of the function keys, you will have to specify the character to use for the shortcut. For example, if you specify the shortcut key as Ctrl and the character as E. Then the shortcut is activated when you click on Ctrl-E.

System Keys: Clicking on this button will reset the specified shortcut keys to what was available in the Excel system before you started Sigma Magic software.

Reset Button: Clicking on this button will remove all the changes you have made and set the shortcut keys as originally defined within Sigma Magic software.

Cancel Button: Cancel any changes you have made and exit this dialog box. The changes are not saved.

OK Button: Save any changes you have made and apply the changes so that the short cut keys are effective immediately on closing this dialog box. Any changes will also be reflected when you close and open Excel the next time as well.

External Files

Click on the External Files button to open the dialog box for External Files. An example screen shot of the External File settings is shown in the figure below.
options 4

Project Folder: Click on the Browse button to specify the default project folder. Note that you need to specify the directory where the project files are located. When you open a new project file, the Excel project files specified in this folder are listed.

Data File Folder: Click on the Browse button to specify the default folder where data files are located. Note that you need to specify the directory where the data files are located. When you open a new , the Excel project files specified in this folder are listed.

Browser File: You can specify which browser you want to use for opening web content. If you leave this field blank, the Sigma Magic software will try to use Microsoft Internet Explorer. To specify this file, click on the Browse button and look for the browser executable file that you would like to use.

RSCript File: All Analytics tools within Sigma Magic utilize the R software in the background to perform the analysis. In order to use these analysis, R software will need to be installed on your computer. Once R software is installed, click on the browse button and link the RScript.exe file to Sigma Magic. If everything works fine, a tick-mark will appear next to this row.

Worksheet Logo: You can specify a Logo to replace the Sigma Magic logo that appears on the worksheet. Note that this will replace the logo on newly created sheets and will not alter sheets that have already been created before the logo was modified.

Default File: This field is used to set the default folder location that will be selected when the user clicks on Open button within the Manage Files group. To change this folder, click on the Browse button and select the appropriate folder. This folder should usually point to your home directory or the My Documents folder.

PowerPoint Template: You can specify the Power Point presentation template to use when Sigma Magic exports data from Excel to Power Point. This template will control the look and feel of the Power Point file. You can change the Power Point template by clicking on the browse button and pointing to another template. Note that Power Point templates have an extension *.pot.

Export Option: You can specify what information gets exported from Excel to Power Point. The available options are:

Option	Description
Auto	Depending on the analysis you have performed, the software will pick an appropriate option to export your results.
Only Graphs	Only graphs are exported with this options. The notes section is ignored.
Notes & Graphs	The notes & graphs are exported with this option.
Print Area	A standard print area will be exported. This is useful when analysis does not contain notes or graphs.

Reset Settings: You can click on this button to reset all the settings shown on this page to their default values. Note that there is no undo button and once the settings have been reset, there is no way to go back to the older settings.

Threshold Settings

An example screen shot of the Threshold settings is shown in the figure below.
options 5

1	Confidence Level: This option can be used to set the value of the confidence level. The initial default value is set at 95%. Possible values are between 0 and 100%. You can either enter a value in the combo-box or click on the shape to select a value.
2	Power Level: This option can be used to set the value for the Power of the test. The initial default value is set at 90%. Possible values are between 0 and 100%.
3	Model Reduction Alpha: This option can be used to set the type I error (alpha value). The initial default value is set at 10%. Possible values are between 0 and 100%.
4	MSA Alpha: This option can be used to set the type I error (alpha value) for model reduction during MSA. The initial default value is set at 10%. Possible values are between 0 and 100%.
5	MSA Percentage Limits: This option can be used to set the acceptable values for the Measurement Systems Analysis when the data is continuous or discrete. The default values are 70% and 90%. Anything less than 70% is not acceptable, between 70-90% are marginal and greater than 90% are excellent.
6	MSA Kappa Limits: This option can be used to set the acceptable values for the Measurement Systems Analysis when the data is nominal. The default values are 0.7 and 0.9. Anything less than 0.7 is not acceptable, between 0.7-0.9 are marginal and greater than 0.9 are excellent.
7	MSA Kendall Limits: This option can be used to set the acceptable values for the Measurement Systems Analysis when the data is ordinal. The default values are 0.7 and 0.9. Anything less than 0.7 is not acceptable, between 0.7-0.9 are marginal and greater than 0.9 are excellent.
8	Regression R^2 Limits: This option specifies the acceptable values for the coefficient of determination (R^2). The default values are greater than 70% is excellent, less than 30% is poor and acceptable in between.
9	Cpk Limits: This option can be used to set the acceptable values for the process capability indices. The default values are 1.33 and 1.67. Anything less than 1.33 is not acceptable, between 1.33-1.67 are marginal and greater than 1.67 are excellent.
10	Z Score Limits: This option can be used to set the acceptable values for the Sigma level (Z scores). The default values are 3 and 6. Anything less than 3 is not acceptable, between 3-6 are marginal and greater than 6 are excellent.
11	Reset Button: You can click on this button to reset all the settings shown on this page to their default values. Note that there is no undo button and once the settings have been reset, there is no way to go back to the older settings.

Color Settings

This setting can be used to change the look and feel of the worksheets. An example screen shot of the Color settings is shown in the figure below.
options 6

Color Theme: You can use these settings to change the layout of colors used on the tools using a custom layout. There are different colors used for different sections of the worksheet and dialog box. Using the theme colors will change the entire set of colors as a group. You can click on the Color Theme dropdown box to change the default colors for a group of settings at the same time. The following default colors are currently available for the Theme setting.

Option	Description
Blue	Set a blue color theme for various elements. This is the default setting.
Gray	Set a gray color theme for various elements.
Orange	Set an orange color theme for various elements.
Green	Set a green color theme for various elements.

Select Colors: You can click and change individual colors for specific elements separately. If you click on the text portion within the box, you will be able to set the foreground color of this item. If you click on the background portion of the box, you will be able to set the background color for this element. The following options are currently available.

Option	Description
Main Header	This is for the title line which contains the name of the worksheet and the Sigma Magic logo.
Sub Header	This is for the row that contains the sub-header description such as Notes and Graphs.
Notes Header	This is for the header or title of the notes area.
Notes Body	This is for the main body of the notes area.
Chart Area	This is the color to be used for the graphs.
Tabs	This is the color to be used for the worksheet tabs.
Dialog Box	There are two colors defined to highlight dialog box - one for normal and the other for highlight.
Worksheet Highlight	There are two colors defined to highlight worksheet cells - one for normal and the other for highlight.

Groups: You can specify the background (BG) and foreground (FG) colors that should be used for any groups on the charts. The groups are used when multiple elements are plotted. For example, if a chart uses 2 lines, then the first line belongs to group 1 and the second line belongs to group 2.

Standards: You can specify the colors for the various standards. For example, what colors should be used for averages, limits, targets, data, outliers, fitted lines and the pass, warning, fail indicators.

FAQ

This section contains some frequently asked questions. If you have other questions about this module, please contact technical support.

Will the options values persist for different users?

Option values will be stored centrally for a given user. So, if two people are using the same computer (same login account), they will be using the same set of Options. If one user changes the values in the Options, it will also affect the other user. Of course, if they have different accounts, then the Options values are preserved.

Will the options values override the values within the dialog box?

No, the option value is the default value used in the dialog box. If you specify a different value in the specific dialog box on a worksheet that value will be used for the analysis. The dialog box value will not overwrite the option value that is applicable for all worksheets.