DataDynamic Reporter allows you to import many different file formats: SPSS (.sav), Excel, TripleS, .var and other various types of database files.
There are two ways of importing files:
A) open an SPSS file directly and let DataDynamic automatically convert and rename the file
B) first create a new empty .ddf2 file and then tell DataDynamic Reporter to import the file.
The second option B) is more flexible, giving you more options for the import.
Please refer to the online manual for a more detailed description and for an exhaustive list of all the file formats that can be imported in DD.
A) Either use the File menu (click Open) or use the Welcome screen that appears when first starting DataDynamic Reporter or closing a DataDynamic file. In the Welcome screen, click on 'open an existing DataDynamic or SPSS file'. This option is easy but less flexible than creating a new .ddf2 file (for instance: you cannot choose a name for the file).
When the Open File dialogue menu appears, search for the relevant SPSS file, select it and double-click. The SPSS (.sav) file will now automatically be converted into a DataDynamic file with the same name as the .sav file (except of course it ends in .ddf2).
B) The way we recommend more to Import files.
First create a new, empty file. Then import your data into it, simply by click the 'Import' icon in Edit toolbar. The area on the right will show the ‘Specify import file’ window. Click the browse icon and a Windows screen will open. Browse until you find the data file (SPSS or other format like in the below video is Triple S format) on your desktop or network, highlight it and then click the open button. The file path and name should now be visible in the Specify import file box on this screen. Before to click the 'Import' icon, make sure both the options 'Import structure' and 'Import data' are checked, because what you want to import is both the structure and the data. DataDynamic Reporter will now import the data file and save it in the folder you specified.
You can follow the steps described above in point B) by checking the video on our Youtube channel. In this specific example we're importing a TripleS file, because it's probably the most generalized case to which refer also for other file formats. In this specific case both the .asc .xml need to be placed in the same folder, before to execute the 'Import' operation, and the file to choose to Import is the .xml one.