Minitab 12 Forum

After reading about the issues reported for full Minitab 14 I tried Student Minitab 14 (current student version) with similar results so I tried full Minitab 12 -- originally for Windows 95 -- and I am glad I did because it does not seem to suffer the problems I had with 14. Projects and graphics can be saved and reopened. Some interaction with the OS requires slightly different strategies than in Wondows but I have been using the software for weeks now. The biggest issue is that the online help is flaky. For example, in Session Command Help I might click on a topic and get the topic one or two positions away on the index. I've been using Minitab for about 30 years so I don't need a lot of help. However, I did get the help file working outside of Minitab tbough I don't remember the details now. You can pick Minitab 12 up for < $100 on eBay and it is vastly easier to use than the Linux default of R (which I also use but do not recommend for beginners).

I spent this morning (and many other hours) getting useful work done in Minitab on Mepis 8. The glitches with Minitab are as minor as reported above but the problems with the help system are more serious. Sometimes the help system does not even open. If it does, I may click on a link to PLOT and end up at CENTER or some irrelevant place. The forwared and back buttons work but unfortunately the place I land is never close to the place I intended.

My workaround was to copy the CHM help file from a later version (Student 14) and read that in kchmviewer. I am only interested in Session Command Help and the session commands have not changed much in decades so Minitab version should not matter much.

If you are wondering why I care about the old session commands, they are also the macro language, and I am running simulations, every one of which requires writing a macro.

FYI Help files from Windows 3.1 have an HLP extension and are nasty RTF files that kill AbiWord and won't open in Open Office. I could not find an easy and cheap way to deal with those on Linux. Later, MS switched to CHM files -- compiled HTML. kchmviewer can read these. It can also convert the CHM document to a mini-web site with all the info in HTML pages with links for getting around.