Introduction > Introduction

Welcome to the manual for this innovative program for Market Research.

This documentation is updated to version 24.1.2

When using the program press function key F1 to get relevant help.

See Companion suite for a description of the Companion programs and what they are for.

UNI files (with a .uni extension) are treated differently starting with version 24.1, see Fixed format data files for type details.

Recent changes

Some features for larger projects require an extended licence, see:

Extended facilities

For QPSMR Classic program users (Insight, and CATI), please read:

Classic users

Classic grid tables will now run unchanged in Companion.

Licence free facilities

Anyone can download the software and use the free facilities:

•Analyse data with Tables setup, Quick tables and Drill down using a supplied Reflect database (.qrf or .qrfx)

•Input data using a supplied Input file (.qpsmrinp)

•Check triple-s standard files

•View and edit raw data files (character, binary, .csv, spreadsheet, or .xml)

•Format tables in Excel (OpenXML) produced by QPSMR CL and MRDCL

•Use the built in CL preprocessor

•Export project details

There are also the licence free Companion programs:

•Companion Reflect which replaces QPSMR Reflect for end user analysis

•Companion Input which replaces QPSMR Input for entering paper and CAPI surveys

•Companion Input Android which can also be used to enter CAPI surveys

Environment

The Companion program:

•Runs on Microsoft Windows 64 bit:

oWindows 11

oWindows 10

oWindows 8 Pro (not RT)

oWindows 7

•Windows 32 bit versions are available on request.

•Is written entirely in the C# language (pronounced "See Sharp") except for the CL engine which is written in C++.

•Uses the .NET Framework (sometimes written as dotnet)

•Is fully Unicode and can handle any mix of languages (except with binary data)

The Microsoft .NET Framework which is included with recent versions of Windows and can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/downloads, Developer tools.

Note: When running tables the preprocessor is built into the Companion; the remainder of tables production uses a generated CL script.

Benefits of .NET

C# and the .NET Framework give the following benefits to the program:

•robust

•secure

•future proof

•easy to maintain

•handles any language text

Documentation

This introduction contains the following topics:

Program description

Manual structure

The remainder of the manual consists of:

User Guide

Reference Manual

The Reference Manual also contains a list of Internet web resources.