Data Management Overview

You can pass information through a macro using arguments, or you can pass information through macros by providing user interaction. Arguments can only be used in local macros and they are often not very user friendly. Instead, you can provide questions or messages that interact with the user of the macro. Minitab provides several communication aids that are compatible with global macros and that provide user friendliness: the command NOTE, a special "TERMINAL" option on WRITE, READ, SET, and INSERT, the command YESNO, and the statement PAUSE.

You can also manipulate the macro output using several Minitab commands. You can suppress your output using BRIEF. You can control graph output using command such as NOFRAME, GPRINT, GSAVE, GSCALE, GPAUSE, or NO BRUSH. You can also change or add an argument name or title.