Device Options

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Device Options

Rename Device Element

1.

Click an element's label. A box will appear around it. (You may need to click twice.)

2.

Type in the new name.

Add Elements

To add an element to a device:

1.

Click the + button below a device to add an element. Each click adds another element.

plusbutton

Tip: If the existing elements in a device are numbers, then elements you add to the device will also be numbers. For example, if you label the first two elements 1 and 2, the next element you add will automatically be labeled 3, the next one 4, and so on. If the current elements are labeled a, b, and c, then the next element added will be d.

Note: The curve device does not have an add/subtract element button since it is not made up of discrete elements but of a continuum of values.

Add Range of Elements

To quickly fill a device with a range of elements (for example the numbers 1 to 100 or the letters a to z):

1.

Hold your cursor over the device, then click the Range button (...) below the device.

2.

Enter the desired range in the dialog box, in the formal "X–Y" or "X to Y".

Copy and Paste from an Existing File

To file a device with values from another source:

1.

Unless you want to add elements to elements already in a device, first empty the device of existing elements.

2.

Select and copy to the clipboard the desired list of values. This list should be a single column of values headed by a name that describes the list. The value at the top of the list will not be added as an element.

3.

Click in the empty device and choose Paste Cases from the Edit menu.

Delete Elements

To delete the last element added:

1.

Click the button below the device. This will delete the last element added to a device.

Minus element

To delete a particular or multiple elements:

1.

Highlight the elements you want to delete by either clicking in a single element, or click and drag to make a selection rectangle around multiple elements.

2.

With the desired elements highlighted, click the button below the device.

Delete Device

To remove the rightmost devices in a sampler,

1.

Click the close (x) button at the upper right of the sampler.

To remove the last device added,

1.

Choose Undo Add Device from the Edit menu.

To remove a particular device,

1.

Choose Delete This Device from the device's Options menu at the lower-left of the device.

Note: You cannot remove the device if there is only one in the sampler.

Change Device Type

You can drag into the sampler six different devices located on the bottom panel of the sampler. These include a mixer, stacks, spinner, distribution bar graph, distribution curve, and counter. To change the device type:

1.

Drag the desired device from the bottom of the sampler on top of the device you want to replace.

Display Count in Mixer and Stacks

1.

Click the device's Options menu at the lower-left of the device.

2.

Choose Show Count to display the number of device elements.

Display Proportions or Percents in Bars and Spinners

1.

Click the device's Options menu at the lower-left of the device.

2.

Choose Show Percent to display section/bar percentages. Choose Show Proportion to display section/bar proportions.

Note: Spinner slices are computed to a very high precision. The proportion shows only four decimal places. The percent display rounds to the nearest whole number.  Thus the size of three sections of a spinner divided evenly into thirds will appear as 0.3333 with Show Proportion and 33% with Show Percent.

Change Size of Spinner Sections

By dragging spinner sections:

1.

Position the cursor on the spinner border you want to adjust. The cursor will change from an arrow to a two-arrow circle.

2.

Click and drag the border to the desired location.

Note: The precision of a slice is limited by the precision of the mouse. Increasing the sampler’s size will increase this precision.

By editing percentage/proportion:

1.

Click the device's Options menu at the lower-left of the device.

2.

Choose Show Percent to display section percentages or Show Proportion to display section proportions.

3.

Click the current percent or proportion value of a slice and enter the desired value.

Change Height of Bars and Stacks

By dragging bars or stacks:

1.

Position the cursor at the top of a bar or stack. The cursor will turn to a plus sign (+).

2.

Click and drag the top of the bar to the desired height.

Note: To quickly adjust the heights of all the bars, position the cursor at the top of one bar. When the cursor changes to a plus sign, click and drag across all the bars.

By editing percentage/proportion of bars:

1.

Click the device's Options menu at the lower-left of the device.

2.

Choose Show Percent to display bar percentages or Show Proportion to display bar proportions.

3.

Click the current percent or proportion value of a bar and enter a new value.

Change Shape in Curve Device

1.

Position the cursor in the curve device. The cursor will turn to a plus sign (+).

2.

Click and drag, moving across the curve to change its shape.

Sample without Replacement in Mixer and Stacks

In mixer and stacks devices, you can sample with (default) or without replacement. To switch to Without Replacement:

1.

Click the device's Options menu at the lower-left of the device.

2.

Choose Replacement | Without Replacement.

When set to sample Without Replacement, the top of the device will be open, to imply that elements exit from the top of the device once they are selected.

In some situations, there are two types of Without Replacement options that you can select in the device menu: Replace after Each Repeat, and Replace After Last Repeat. If the Draw number is 1, then elements are replaced after the last Repeat— that is, after the sampler has completed drawing the number of samples you specified in the Repeat field. But if Draw number is 2 or more, you can choose to replace either after each case has been drawn, or after the entire run is completed.

Here is an example of when you might want the latter option. We filled the mixer below with the names of 10 students, set Draw number to 2 and Repeat number to 5. Our objective was to pair all the students up randomly to work in groups. We've paused the animation partway through drawing the sample. The replacement option has been set to Replace After Last Repeat so that we don't add names back into the Mixer until the entire run has been completed.

Picking Students

Merge Two Devices

To join together two branched devices in the same column:

1.

Choose Merge Device from the device's Options menu of one of the devices you want to merge.

2.

Select Merge With Device Below or Merge With Device Above .

In either case, the device above will replace the device below.

This sampler was built to model randomly moving three steps along a line, and at each step either going forward (+1) or backward (–1).

PreMerge

Because you would be at the same location after going +1 then –1, or –1 then +1, it would be conceptually clearer if the spinners associated with those two states were combined into one. The sampler below show the results after merging the two middle spinners in the third column.

PostMerge

Hiding Device Contents

To hide the contents of a device:

1.

Choose Hide Contents from the device's Options menu.

2.

Select whether you want to hide only the contents or also the outcome of the device. If the device holds a constant, for example, you would know its value as soon as you ran the sampler and saw a value move to the outcome slot at the top of the sampler.

3.

To prevent someone from revealing the contents prematurely, you can also lock the sampler.

To show the hidden contents of a device:

1.

Choose Show Contents from the device's Options menu (if the sampler is locked, you'll first need to unlock the sampler, which may require knowing a password.


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© 2012 Clifford Konold and Craig D. Miller