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ECOM II

14

Obtaining help

For most active windows context sensitive help can be obtained by pressing F1,

clicking on the help button or selecting the help drop down menu.

If you have problems using the program or entering data which you cannot solve then

contact Pisces Conservation Ltd by e mail   pisces@irchouse.demon.co.uk   or by

phone to UK 44 (0)1590 676622 during office hours (09.00 to 17.00). You might also

like to consult our web site at 

www.pisces conservation.com

 where you will find

answers for many common problems.

14.1

Common errors and problems

No matter how much care is taken with data preparation, it is not unusual to

encounter problems when initially loading and running analyses on a data set. These

are usually simple to rectify. Common error messages and their solutions are shown

below

1.    is not a valid floating point value. This will occur if the raw data set holds

blank columns or rows   ones that sum to zero. Remove blank columns and rows by

using  

Handling zeros

  in the working data window. It may also occur if the raw data

holds a blank cell. In some cases ECOM will identify the problem cell which should be

edited. Normally it is because the data has been prepared in a spreadsheet using

blanks to represent zero values.

Occasionally, this error can occur because a blank space has been accidentally

entered into a cell outside the data matrix when it was being prepared in a

spreadsheet program. To prevent this happening, it is good practice, before saving

your data set as a .csv file, to highlight the first 10 or so blank rows and columns

below and to the right of the data matrix, and press  Delete . This will clear the cells of

any accidentally entered contents.

2. Data matrix disparity. If ECOM detects that the biological and environmental

data sets have different numbers of columns, then the following screen will appear,

showing where the disparity lies. In this example, Site 2 is missing from the biological

file. The options are to Delete the Unmatched Column, or to Truncate the Longest

Dataset. This will, of course result in a mismatching of sites throughout the datasets,

but it may be useful if dealing with errant entries at the end of either dataset.

Copyright 2004  PISCES Conservation Ltd