Frequently Asked Questions

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General Issues

The current version of Sigma Magic software is programmed for Windows operating system only and hence will not work on a Macintosh computer. If you have a dual boot computer or if you a virtualization software like Parallels Desktop you may be able to run a Windows version of Excel on your Mac.
Sigma Magic has been programmed to work with the features provided in Excel 2010 and later. It will not work for versions of Excel earlier than 2007. Most of the functions within Sigma Magic will probably also work on Excel 2007 but they are not guaranteed to work.
Sigma Magic software will not work on the Android version of Excel or Google Sheets. It requires a desktop version of Microsoft Excel to run the programs.
If you have purchased a node-locked version of the software then the software is locked to computer on which it is installed. Hence, you will not be able to use the software on multiple computers. There is no way for us to transfer the license key from one computer to another. If you need to use the software on another computer, then you will have to purchase an additional license or you will need to purchase the shared license key which can be shared across multiple computers.
In most cases, the full version of the software will continue to work after you reinstall the OS. You may just need to re-install the Sigma Magic software on the updated computer (and possibly enter the license key again). If this does not work, then please contact the technical support line and they will issue you another license key for you to use.
Sigma Magic will try to launch the following external applications depending on what button you click in Sigma Magic software:
  • Microsoft Power Point
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer
  • R Software
Sigma Magic uses the following standard libraries to function properly. In most computers these libraries should already be installed on your computer, if not please contact the help desk for more details.
  • C:\windows\system32\stdole2.tlb (OLE Automation)
  • C:\windows\system32\fm20.dll (Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library)
  • HHCTRL.OCX (Microsoft Object for viewing Help Files)
  • WININET (Microsoft Library for Internet Connection)
  • MSXML (Microsoft XML Parser)
  • WSH (Microsoft Script Host)
Sigma Magic automatically downloads any required R packages prior to analysis. However, if you would like to pre install these packages to speed up your analysis, then the following packages are being used. Note that when you install these packages using packages.install(), they may in-turn install other required packages that they depend on.
  • party package for Conditional decision trees
  • rpart package for Recursive decision trees
  • psych and fa packages for Factor analysis
  • ca package for Correspondence analysis
  • MASS package for Discriminant analysis
  • class package for KNN
  • e1071 package for Naive Bayes
  • neuralnet package for Neural networks
  • randomForest package for Random Forests
R software needs to be installed and linked to the Sigma Magic software in order for Sigma Magic to use R software. The linkage can be done by clicking on Options and under the Installation tab there is place where you can specify the RScript executable file. Browse for the location of the Rscript.exe file and select it. Make sure that if you have multiple versions of R installed on your computer, you pick the latest version. However, if you are having problems with a new release you may want to link it back to an older tried and tested version of R. If the linkage is successful, you will get a check sign next to the browse button otherwise you will get a cross sign.
Note that currently Sigma Magic only uses the R software when you use the Analytics functionality and not for the other templates. The options that you select for the analysis and the data you enter in Excel is converted to an R Script file and the RScript.exe file is used to execute the program generated by Sigma Magic software. Once the R software successfully executes the script and creates the output files, Sigma Magic will read these output files and display them back in the Sigma Magic software. The script files generated by Sigma Magic software are stored in the %TMP% folder and will be overwritten for each new analysis that is created.
Some of the Sigma Magic analytics templates will download other R software packages based on the required functionality if these packages are not already installed on your computer. These packages require to be installed in the library directory which may be write-protected. You may need administrator privileges to install the packages into this library. You have two options: a) You can make the R\library folder writable for the current user by clicking on file properties and allowing Full Control for all users under Security tab. b) You can pre-download and install the requisite packages using administrator privileges. The name of the package required for each analysis is listed in the help files.

Manage Files

You can use a single workbook for all your analysis. It is better to store all the analysis you perform in a single workbook. Each analysis could be stored on a different worksheet on this workbook.
You could choose to open that workbook and save results in that workbook. However, if you want to save just the data and analysis for your project, you may want to create a new workbook and then copy and paste data into this workbook so you are not carrying any extra data in your workbook.
If you need the macro functionality, you can enable the macros in the other book. However, it is recommended that you use a new workbook if you have macros just to ensure that there are no issues with function naming conventions.
You do not need to enable macros in the workbook for using Sigma Magic software. However, there are certain templates that can benefit from saving in a macro-enabled workbook. These templates are: Process Map, Value Stream Map, Fault Tree Analysis, Cause & Effect Diagram, Relationship Diagram. These templates have a task specific menu which will be automatically enabled if you save these files in a macro-enabled file.
No, unless they have Sigma Magic software installed on their computer, they will not be able to re-compute the outputs. They can manually edit this sheet as it is any ordinary Excel spreadsheet.
No, the export from Excel into PPT is based on images. An image is created and exported into the PPT. So, unless the file is re-created, the PPT file will not change. If you make any changes to the Excel file, delete any previously exported files and re-export the files once again.
The order of the pages in the Power Point file follows the same order in which you created the templates. So, the first template you used will be slide 1, the second template you used would be slide 2 and so on.
Sigma Magic does not set these variables - it uses the default settings for your Power Point application or as defined within the template. You can change the default settings within Power Point, apply a template or modify the slide Master within the Power Point file.
The Print functionality requires that there is at least one printer specified in your computer. If you computer has no printers defined, you will get an error message when you try to print. First install a printer and then try to use this functionality. Refer to your computers documentation on how to add printers.
In most cases, the Excel files in the Examples directory also contains a worksheet that describes the problem being analyzed.
This is a know issue with Microsoft and is currently being worked on. This problem occurs if an external monitor is connected to your computer. You will have to remove any external monitor connections when you are exporting the Excel file images to Power Point application.

Software Templates

The templates are standard Excel worksheets that can be e-mailed to others. If the other user has Sigma Magic software installed, they will be able to edit the data and also perform the analysis. However, if the user does not have Sigma Magic software they will not be able to recompute the results in case they make any changes to the inputs.
No, there are no limits to the number of templates that can be added. Note that each of these templates contains data and graphs and the size of the file can increase dramatically if you keep adding templates to the same workbook. Try to create a different workbook for each project.
It is recommended that you DO NOT make any changes to the template. The Sigma Magic software expects to find data at specific locations and if you make changes to the template, then Sigma Magic is not guaranteed to work properly. There are specific ways in which you can add rows, columns, make changes etc. please refer to the Worksheet Format in the help file for more details.

Update Worksheet

The Excel worksheet update has been turned off during calculations, so you may not notice changes to the worksheet until all the calculations are completed. If the text output is the same and the figures are the same, you will not notice any change in the output area. The software does not append the calculations below the old calculations, but replaces any calculations that were already made earlier with new values if any.
If no worksheet input data is required, then the computations are done automatically for you. However, if any worksheet data is required, Sigma Magic does not know if you have completed entering / changing the input data cells. Hence, you have to manually click on the Compute Outputs button after you have entered all the required data.
If no calculations are required, then you do not need to click on Compute Outputs. However, there is no harm if you click on Compute Outputs. You may also want to look at the Conclusion box - sometimes it indicates that it expects you to click on Compute Output after entering the data.
Once Compute Outputs is clicked, the text output and graph is updated based on changes you have made to the input data. There is NO way to get the old graph back. The back button does not work here! One option is to replace the data you have changed to the old data set and the graph will probably change back to the one you had earlier. Another option is to always create a new worksheet template for different data sets so you can retain the old worksheet graphs (if required).
Unfortunately, once you clear the data on the worksheet, the data cannot be retrieved back. There is no back button for the clear operation at this point.
Copy will only retain the column name and not the data in that column. If the data in the column is changed, then all paste operations that were done in the past use the old data set and future paste operations will use the new data set.
Copy will only copy the data values and not formula, formatting etc. So, you will lose all formatting of the column when you use the Copy button.

Miscellaneous Items

You can either click the About button or look at the information in the License Manager by clicking on the License button.
You can download and install any new version of the software that has a different minor revision number or bug-fix release number. Within the first year of purchase, all upgrades are free and you can download the latest version of the software. After one year usually you have to pay an upgrade fee to download the latest version of the software.
If no dialog box opens then the software was probably not installed correctly on your computer, please contact the help desk for assistance.
You need internet access to view this page. If you have do have internet access, ensure that you have properly setup the Proxy server information within Internet Explorer.
If you have JavaScript or CSS turned off, you may not be able to view the web page properly or some features/functions on the website such as ordering software, feedback links etc may not work. It is recommended that you turn them on in order to view the website. Most computers should already have these features enabled on your web browser. If you can see the date on the right hand top corner of the website, then you have these features turned on for your browser.
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.
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.
If you do not have a permanent license key, as displayed in your license manager you can click on the Buy Now button to place an order for the license. Once you enter the requested details and make the payment, your license key will be emailed to you and/or uploaded to the online server. Once you enter a valid license key, the full functionality of the software will be enabled.
When you enter the license for the first time, the license key details are not updated immediately. You will need to click on Activate Key to update the license details. Internet access is required to validate your license details. In some companies, the software is unable to connect to our server because of a firewall. In these cases, you will need to enter the proxy address details to validate the license key. Please contact the help desk if you are still unable to activate your license file.
You will find the Check Updates button within the License Manager on the main menu. If you click on Check Updates and you find that a later version of the software is available, you can download that version and run the Setup file. It will replace your existing version of the software. You will have to close and re-open Excel and the new version of the software will be now available. If you are unable to update using the Check Updates button, then you will have to manually update your software. In order to do this, first uninstall the software from your control panel and then visit the Download Software page on our website and click on the Download button to download the latest version of the software to your computer.
If you download the software yourself, you need to make sure that your license key is still valid for the new major version of the software. When you click on Check Updates, it will indicate to you if your license key will still work with the newer version.
The free version of the software has a watermark on the charts which can easily be removed if we provided the native version of the charts within Excel. Hence, these charts are provided as images. These charts are provided in the native Excel format only for business users. If you want full functionality to edit the charts, you will need to go in for a licensed model.