Standard Graph Templates

Outsourced tables and listings can be fairly easily defined using table shells to explain how clinical trials data should be tabulated, and ODS templates supplied to control the basic appearance of the output. Outsourced graphs, particularly if they have been heavily customised, are not so easy to define on paper, and even more difficult to control, as the SAS/GRAPH software can behave very differently on different platforms and devices. Fortunately the use of graph templates will become available when production ODS Statistical Graphics and Graphics Template Language (GTL) is introduced in SAS 9.2, but it is still possible to create useful graph templates now in SAS 9.1 using the experimental ODS Statistical Graphics. WHY STANDARDISE WITH ODS STATISTICAL GRAPHICS? The outsourcing of the production of tables and listings to external companies is a relatively painless exercise, particularly now that ODS templates can be used to standardise their appearance. This means that the external companies can concentrate on generating the contents of tables and listings, rather than spending time on layouts and fonts. Only now, with the experimental ODS Statistics Graphics templates in SAS 9.1, it is possible to standardise graphs as well, so that external companies can be supplied with standard templates for a range of graphs, allowing them to concentrate on generating the graph contents.