This update includes additions and fixes to DASH 3.4.4 update level 5. It must not be installed to any earlier DASH release.

A complete updated package is also available if DASH 3.4.4 has not been installed yet or you wish to do a clean install.

The menu Create SPSS Tab Delimited File now includes three major new options:

• Fields may be assigned names other than the default p#f# name (e.g. age, gender, Q14).
• Fields may be removed from export (e.g. call management data, client-specific fields in omnibus studies, unused fields in tracking forms).
• Fields may be exported in a different order than they appear in the DASH 2 form (e.g. to reposition a field added at the end of the form to appear in the sequence in which it was asked in the interview).

The new options are implemented through the familiar option of creating a map file, currently implemented for general use through the menu Import/Export Delimited Data With Map. Variable names can be assigned to each field using the NAME command in a form or adding it beside the default field name in the map file. If a custom map file has not been created before the new SPSS export menu is executed, a default map file is automatically created and the full data file in the original order is exported.

The new DASH export operation has been tested with SPSS 14.0 and may not be compatible with old versions of SPSS.

A "DASH 2 Marginal" menu has been added to the DASH 3 administrator menus. Marginals may now be produced for any DASH 2 form with the features available for DASH 3 form marginals:

• Counts and percents are embedded in the context of question text and option list labels.
• Results may be weighted.
• Filters may be applied by page or page range, and/or by case or case range, and/or by commands.
• The presentation may be customized with specific colours, fonts and layout for each client.
• Output is HTML for viewing in a browser.

The DASH 2 Marginal option works by first converting the DASH 2 form to a DASH 3 form, then running the DASH 3 marginals. For optimal results, the DASH 2 form layout must follow specific conventions so that question text and option lists are readily identifiable by the software. The conversion step runs automatically on new and revised forms and may take some time on large forms, but the subsequent execution of marginals on such forms is significantly faster as no conversion step is required.

Several changes affect all marginals executed in DASH 3 on either DASH 2 or DASH 3 forms:

• Marginals may now be run to display question text and list items before a data file has been created.
• An output field is now displayed as ... to indicate its presence.
• All pages with no fields are suppressed from output.
• The labels for list items of empty fields are now displayed unless zero suppression is turned on.
• Output includes a "Top" button on the header for each page to allow return to the index.
• New documentation on marginals is now available in a pdf file.

The Merge Forms menu combines into a single DASH 3 form any of the following:

• two DASH 3 forms;
• two DASH 2 forms;
• two OpenOffice documents;
• any pair consisting of a DASH 3 form, a DASH 2 form, and/or a OpenOffice document.

The major purpose of this option is to generate a mixed-language form from separate sources. For example, the Merge Form process can make a form completed for English language respondents into a two language form by extracting from an OpenOffice document the French language text and option list labels, language-specific Next/Last/Exit button text or images, and presentation styles.

Lists of up to 16,000 items and a maximum total length of 240,000 characters are now allowed. The previous limit was 2,000 items and 30,000 characters.

A new command has been added to restrict the presentation of randomized pages to a specific maximum. For example, when there is a large number of attitude scale statements, the randomPageCount command ensures each respondent sees only a randomized subset.

New styling options have been added for colgrids in which the columns are titled with question text and each row starts with text for a single answer option.

• Separate styles (e.g. background colour) may be applied to even and odd columns;
• Separate styles (e.g. width) may be applied to the label and field columns.

The form conversion utility now automatically extracts DASH 3 lists from the combination of DASH 2 form text plus adjacent numeric or alphanumeric fields and creates a pull-down list field in the DASH 3 form. For example, a logical field for "y" and "n" entries becomes a list field with the item labels "Yes" and "No". More complex numbered lists are also converted.

Improvements have been made in the option to create forms in the OpenOffice word processor.

• Column styling has been improved in colgrids.
• XML tags are now allowed so that, for example, a style sheet may be referenced for a web survey.
• Complex URLs may now be included.

• Files created by the tomcat web server should now have group write access enabled.
• A number of DASH commands would generate the error "invalid command name: -1" when executing List Case Data Errors. Those commands have been fixed.