For trouble-shooting, see problems.htm
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3.57.0 4/2005
New features: Graphs: empirical curve smoothing, item and test randomness curves
Minor changes and bug fixes:
XFILE= item and person range boxes
UNC \\ allowed
"File may be in RTF format" warning message.
Table 3 reports KR-20 and correlations as approximate with missing data
Empirical curves: y-axis score points sometimes displayed incorrectly
Test characteristic curve: misleading item identification removed
Table 23.01 renumbered to Table 23.99 to accord with its position
Distracter Tables: missing values, percent of all. Non-missing: percent of non-missing.
Table 3.2: better STKEEP=NO message
3.56.1 3/2005
SPSS file conversion: correct "file save" failures
3.56.0 2/2005
Table 34: corrected for comparisons with a separate file.
Graphs: Empirical categorical & distracter probabilities
Graphs: fine-tuning of ranges
Plots: Show "plotting problems?" entry on plot menu - www.winsteps.com/problems.htm
Tables 30, 31, 33: DIF t-test probability on DIF reports (2-sided Student's t-test)
3.55.1 1/10/2005 Excel binding improvements
3.55.0 1/1/2005 Excel scatter plots, DIF plots, ConstructMap (formerly GradeMap) output
"extra information" prompt missing show input dot line Fitp=-10 displays all in Table 7,11. Help File amended Decimal weights in Table 20 and SCFILE= report to one dec. place instead of integers Correction to category range on empirical curves Show empirical zones on empirical graphs Improved Excel plotting: Bubble charts Scatter plots Keyforms (vertical & horizontal) DIF plots for Tables 30, 31, 33 Plots menu SPSS called with absolute file location, instead of relative Overlong pselect, iselect diagnostic Work files given unique names Screen buffer overflow prevention DIF baseline measure corrected in tables 30, 31. ConstructMap (formerly GradeMap) output file Winexcel.exe to write out the Excel plots, not a dll (unreliable and difficult to debug). Plotting 0-100 rating scale with long integers and large data arrays
3.54.1 10/29/2004 Background color on plots user-settable. IAFILE= malfunction corrected. Graphing failures corrected. Runs under Windows 98. IDROPX= and PDROPX= to exclude extreme scores. Detection of inintended input file overwrites.
Close screen dialog box Iterations: "=?" - source not detected, so output line shortenned Input in process ... shortenned due to 2 character output User choice of colors on graphs Correction to size of copied area on graphs Close box for files on program close Output file: check file does not exist: overwrite, new file, temporary file SPSS: "construct" changed from "open file" to "save" CSV=T, IAFILE=, HLINES= problems: solved with ";" and QUOTED=YES =?=?=? and Input in process?: semi-ok: shorten the === line Isfile= headings corrected Suppress unwanted newlines on control variable screen empirical curve problems corrected output file labels in "quotes" Run-time error '91': object variable or with block not set - Excel problem corrected Exam1.txt: Access violation on graphing - corrected Crash on graphics: exam5.txt - corrected Graphs - items: access violation - corrected Option to trim extreme scores Tables 2.5 and 2.6, output "all options" first
3.54 9/22/2004 Fix failure to display curves. May be reported as a WST.EXE problem.
3.53 9/1/2004
3.53.1 Table 12: accept upto 255 different categories. Table 32: fix header problem.
Graphs of empirical ICCs for each item, with upper and lower confidence bands
Field names to simplify item and person selection, subtotals, etc.: DIF=, DPF=, IAFILE=, IMAP=, IPMATRIX=, ISORT=, ISUBTOT=,
IWEIGHT=, PAFILE=, PMAP=, PSORT=, PSUBTOT=, PWEIGHT=
WINSTEPS Help from www.winsteps.com
Measure stratification for non-uniform DIF/DPF analysis
More precise computation of means and standard deviations
IDELETE and PDELETE provide one-line item and person deletion
3.52 7/1/2004
Wingraph: fine-tune placement of empirical ICC points based on mean x- and y-values.
"MODEL S.E.", instead of "ERROR", heading on reports.
Automatic close of all output windows, if desired.
Average score discrepancies added to DIF Tables
P-values, upper and lower asymptote estimates for dichotomies: PVALUE= ASYMPTOTE=
Revision of Help file
Closer coordination of Data Setup screen and main processing
3.51 5/1/2004
3.51.2 Eliminate duplicate lines in PFILE=. Correct formatting problem in XFILE=
3.51.1 Bug in SPSS formatting routine
New Table 33: Interaction/bias between groups of items and groups of persons.
Item Tables: ASYMPTOTE= reports Upper and Lower asymptote estimates and p-values. Widen label column.
Item Tables: Distracter subtables: counts of "Missing" included on distracter report.
Edit files pull-down menu: display reformatted file after DELIMITER=
Data validation: Reports if input file does not have MS-DOS CR+LF line breaks
Output files pull-down menu: XFILE= allows selection of items with explicit person selection
Output file: XFILE= has person and item measures
Specifications: MAKEKEY=YES does not require KEY1=
Memory overwrite in the connectivity checking routine corrected
Graphing pull-down menu: empirical ICC with GROUPS=0 and extreme items corrected.
Response Table: TABLE 7.1 - item responses shown for extreme items corrected
Estimation: Category discrimination calculation improved
3.50 4/1/2004
Add PSELECT and ISELECT details to headings of measure tables
Add Bubble chart output file menu
Occasional failure of the SPSS conversion. If this happens with this version, please contact us.
No-DIF expected score shown on DIF reports
Old and new directories shown if there is a change of directory
Data setup - clean-up MRU list
Correctly report weighted total in title of Summary Table 3
3.49 2/1/2004
Increase compatibility with XP.
Make variance term computations accord with
www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt173g.htm
Add Table 2 subtables for original codes
Add CSV options to Keyform coordinate, simulated and RFILE= output files
More output file set to temporary (rather than permanent) status
3.48 11/20/2003
XFILES= corrected expected values for missing data
Program icon changed 
MFORMS= works if some data are after END LABELS
Continued improvements to data file setup screen
Improvement to variance computation in principal components
Improved support for low resolutions screens and small windows
3.47.2 10/1/2003
Batch files by right-click
Resizing of graphs screen
3.47.1 8/14/2003
New Winsetup interface for control and data files. Updated in response to user feedback.
Bug fix: Graphs didn't work if last item deleted.
3.47 8/11/2003
Correction to polytomous discrimination computation
Point-biserial for persons and items on total score
Improved point-measure correlation computation with Groups=
Discrimination (slope) estimation
Output file can be sent to Excel, and some to SPSS
Add defaults to XFILE= and file saving
Allow blanks in Extra Specifications (see Help file for rules)
3.46 8/20/2003
Minor bug fixes
3.45 8/11/2003
Bug fix for SAFILE= when the lowest category number is greater than zero.
Better SAFILE= values for successive null categories: 40 logit adjustment.
Documentation: clarify that all S.D.s are "sample" not "population".
Documentation: STKEEP=YES, stuctural and incidental unobserved categories.
Template.txt: specify to delete "; data here " comment.
Add exact residual sizes in Table 3.2
Item and person labels in XFILE
Correct IAFILE= name in Control variable list
3.44 8/1/2003
Registration of Typelib for better running under XP and 2000
Interval sizes for Empirical ICCs
KeyForm output file
3.42 5/5/2003
Bug fix: Coherence misreported when items weighted
SPSS conversion: no data records formatted and long variable names
Text editor existence validated
Slightly later version of SPSSIO32.DLL (5/20/2003)
Corrected explained variance for raw score residuals and logit residuals (6/4/2003)
Minor correction to KR-20 computation (6/12/2003)
Minor corrections to subtotals with weighted persons/items
Edfile= integer-round values (useful for expected ratings
(7/1/2003) UDECIM alters decimals in SFILE and ISFILE
MFORMS= failure remedied
SAITEM=Y when item number specified in SFILE or SAFILE for one group
SPSS - add Winsteps control file to drop-down menu
Messages to screen: 80 characters
3.41 4/11/2003
rating scale structure: step/threshold discriminations
work files default to Windows temporary directory
IFILE, PFILE: correction to heading lines
DIF files: also an unpaired list: correction to measures displayed for DPF
SPSS files can include constants during the conversion
3.40 3/15/2003
Add 0.5 probability line to bit-mapped cumulative probability plot
Convergence problem under some anchoring and centering conditions
Most-recently used files list not updating properly
3.40.2 SPSS "person" variables converted with decimal places
3.39 2/16/2003
Fine-tune XMLE computation.
fine-tune anchoring convergence - update to 3.40 if this gives problems.
Fix for residuals in XFILE= sometimes miscomputed
Fix for some "out of zone" in Table 22.2 misidentified
3.38 1/1/2003
PTMEA = point-measure correlation in headings.
Corrected SCFILE headings.
Most-recently-used files in Files menu
W300=Yes produces PFILE= output in 3.00 format
3.37.2 12/13/2002
Fix problem with UANCHOR= and UPMEAN=
Report data frequency for SPSS files
Add empirical information to "expected score" ICC in Graphs Pull-down menu
MNSQ=NO with Tables 13.2 (Chart=Yes)
Always start graph screen maximized
Fix y-axis scaling problem: Table 29
Allow tabs in =* lists
Only report KR-20 and score-to-measure summary correlation when meaningful
IPMATRIX= for matrix of response-level data
Rename examples files to have .txt suffixes
3.37 10/29/2002
WHEXACT= includes final term in WH normalization for standardized Infit and Outfit statistics
Missing data shown as "?" in xfile=
Allow number or range in XFILE= output-file menu
More shortcut keys
99999 for overflow on numbers - previously shown as unprintable characters
DIF estimates for extreme scores
Test characteristic curve, and item characteristic curves in winvbexe
Allow UDECIM= to change from "Specification" menu
Add .0000005 to positives, subtract from negatives, to make .05 always half-round to .1
DISCRIM=YES displays item discrimination estimate
Category labels on graphs
3.36 8/6/2002
Corrections to Success and Failure model computations
Output file of all parameter settings: control variable list
experimental XMLE bias-adjusted estimation option
Raw score to measure correlations and Cronbach Alpha
Item identified if only one item in a rating scale group
3.35 7/15/2002
Table 6.6, 10.6: most unexpected responses list
3.34 5/1/2002
Table 27, 28 subtotal histograms also show standardized for 1000.
MFORMS= permits mutiple different data file formats in one analysis.
Table 31: DPF computation corrected.
Rating scales: the term "Thurstone Threshold" replaced by ".5 cumulative probability",
because Winsteps does not compute Thurstone's models.
3.34.1 Colorized graphs: conditional probability curves
3.33 3/20/2002
Graphs Menu shows bit-mapped probability plots.
3.33.1 April 2002: Category information curves added to plots.
Allow individual persons and items to be selected with XFILE= from Output Files menu
Better warning when Wordpad.exe has failed
3.32 3/5/2002
TOTAL= enables display of total observed raw score in measure tables and files
Automatic detection of data connectivity an linkage problems due to missing data and Guttman patterns
Ability to automatically exclude measures corresponding to extreme scores from anchoring
Up to 30,000 items and 1,000,000 persons
Help for Tables 30 and 31: together with adjusting their output columns
3.31.3 12/31/2001
Bottom category anchoring indicated with 'A' in Table 3.2
Better message if Temporary Directory is invalid
3.31.2 12/4/2001
Problem with Distractor output file if last observation is missing
3.31.1 11/18/2001
MRANGE= problem in Table 3
Right-click problem after run completes
3.31 10/30/2001
Minor documentation changes
3.30 10/11/2001
Tables 30 & 31 DIF and DPF calculation
Table 2.6 Expected category averages by item for this sample
Right-align file name in Table headers
Probability curves in Tables 3 and 21, controlled by MRANGE=
Problem with Table 1 when weights are zero.
3.29 09/30/2001
Put Median in subtotal tables (27 & 28)
MAKEKEY=YES constructs an MCQ key using the most frequently chosen options
Remove redundant control variable list in Table 0.2.
Allow field selection for XFILE= from the Output File menu
Rectify processing of comma-separated input files
3.28 07/31/2001
Make STKEEP=YES the default
Correct the SFILE= anchor values with STKEEP=YES
SPSS file input capability
3.27 07/12/2001
Selectively report weighted items and persons
Correct some problems encountered with FORMAT=
Check input text files for EOL-EOF characters
3.26 07/05/2001
Typo in pull-down menu of "PAFILE" for "IAFILE"
Add "B. Empirical Item-Category Measures" (Table 2.5) to Diagnosis menu
Change range on Tables 2.5 and 24 to match the person distributions
Correctly print the range on Table 29
Show counts of missing data for non-extreme scores on Table 3.2
Fix numbers overwritten after running Tables 23 or 24 with very short tests or very small samples
3.25 06/26/2001
Add expected curves to rating scale options in Table 29, Empirical ICCs
Fix sometimes aberrant results in Principal Components, Tables 23, 24 - caused by missing data.
3.23-3.24 06/04/2001
Add frequency histograms in PSUBTOTAL=, ISUBTOTAL=
Table 29: Empirical ICCs
Winsteps.ini updating now simplified by a dialog box
3.20-3.22 05/01/2001
Add subtotal reports, Tables 27-28: PSUBTOTAL=, ISUBTOTAL=
Add Table 2.5, map of average person measures by category.
Right-click for context menu of Tables
3.19 - 03/21/2001
Increased flexibility in labeling maps: IMAP=$s1w3+"."+$s6e8, also PMAP=
IAFILE=, PAFILE=, IWEIGHT=, PWEIGHT= can also use $s1w3+"."+$s6e8
Correlations now reflect IWEIGHT= and PWEIGHT=
Fix failure under certain conditions of TFILE=, Table 20, Table 12.2
Add S.E. of average measures on distractor Tables
EDFILE= data editing file to overwrite values in data file
3.18 - 03/01/2001
Fix OSORT=D and minor bugs
3.17 - 01/22/2001
Fixes including failure when using SAFILE=
3.16 - 12/14
"Diagnosis" menu
3.15 - 12/05
Thorough debug associated with validation of User Manual against program.
3.14 - 12/01
IWEIGHT= & PWEIGHT= for case weighting and item weighting.
PFILE= has decimals in counts, scores
ALPHANUM= for one character high numbers.
3.13 - 11/20
Tables 23 & 24 show factor contrasts as expressed in the other facet.
3.12 - 11/6
Table 24 shows structure of person factors.
3.11 - 10/31
Problem with output file on A: fixed.
IAFILE=$S..E.. for anchor values in item labels.
3.10 - 10/00
Fix for miscomputation of measures for extreme scores.
If extreme measures are far away from other measures, then you need this version.
3.08 -09/00
Work files into the TEMP directory. Tables into the output file directory.
Support for KEY1= with XWIDE=2 or more. Table 7.2 includes S.E.
Include extreme measures in RPM (score-to-measure) correlations.
UASCALE= for special anchor scaling.
PAFILE=$S..E.. for anchor values in cases.
3.07 -08/00
Options to rewrite input data Guttman-ized or simulated
Installs under Windows 2000
3.06 -08/00
Pivot= simplifies setting rating scale "pivot point" for dichotomizing meaning.
Pivot= enables the setting of matery levels, such as 75%, in item-person maps.
"Edit" commands move to "Edit" pull-down menu from "File" menu.
Groups= doubles as Irefer= when Irefer= is omitted.
Groups=* list * supported.
3.05 - 07/00
Rating scales with upto 255 categories
Upto 10,000 items and 1,000,000 persons
Explained person variances in Table 24 (Person principal components)
3.04 - 06/00
Explained item variances in Table 23 (Item principal components)
GRFILE= includes item information
3.03 - 06/00
add fit statistics to distractor tables.
Tables 7.2, 18.3 etc. for Person KeyForm output
Table 1.10, etc. - allows reverses Item ordering.
3.02 - 05/00
ITEM= and PERSON= now up to 12 characters.
OSORT= permits various orderings of distractors in Table 13.3 etc.
3.01 - 03/00
Fix PSELECT= read failure. Table 7 shows correct responses and statistics.
3.00 - 02/00
Faster processing. Display of input record. User scaling suggested.
2.99 - 02/00
Introductory help screen. Table 25 of displacements.
2.98 - 11/99
If NEWSCR=, IVALUE= etc. does not recode your categories
- request free update.
If anchored unobserved categories don't print in Table 3.2
- request free update.
% frequency of observed column in Table 3.2.
frequency of Missing observations shown in Table 3.2.
2.97 - 10/99
Bug fixes under unusual conditions.
ILFILE= for alternative item label files.
Table 0.3 repeats the control file.
2.96 - 09/99
If MODEL=R crashes your program - request free update.
DISFILE= for output of distractor information
Filter= added to Winsteps.ini
Tables 12.5 & Tables 12.6 for Item-Category Maps:
12.5 Expected score zones
12.6 Thurstone-style thresholds
2.95 - 08/99
"Help" file improvement. Bug fixes.
2.94 - 07/99
Improved Distractor reporting.
Improved reponse-level reporting in the residual "XFILE="
More functionality to post-analysis reporting control with "Specification"
pull-down menu, including PSELECT=, ISELECT=, UMEAN=, USCALE=
"+PSELECT=" and "+ISELECT=" select from previous selection.
2.93 - 05/99 New menu: SPECIFICATION for control at report time.
ISELECT= for item selection at analysis time, and also for reporting.
PSELECT= for person selection at analysis time, and also for reporting.
2.92 - 04/99 DELIMITER= accepts Tab-separated data (e.g. Excel export)
BATCH pull-down menu makes running WINSTEPS in batch mode a breeze!
2.91 - 03/99 - Has "Help" feature. Defaults to WINSTEPS directory and group. Point-measure correlation is default.
2.90 - Output a score-to-measure file. Improvements to principal components analysis.
2.89 - 02/99 - Fix "Previous Page" overflow problem.
2.88 - 01/99 - Allow wider names in Principal Component Tables. Fewer default Tables. Fix "RPM -1" bug when PTBIS=NO is specified
2.87 - 12/98 - Tables 23 & 24 Principal components - stop early with Ctrl+F
2.86 - 12/98 - Table 24: Person Principal Components
Pull down menus for output files and tables
Bug fix in KEYS= and TABLES=
2.85 - Tables: report displacements for all measures, if reporting any
show logit factor distance on factor plots.
2.84 - you can substitute your own Editor/Word Processor for WordPad;
Tables can be requested by pull-down menu;
Item Principal components have been moved to Table 23;
IREFER= provides a convenient rating scale recoding method when you have many scales.
2.81 - allow running in batch mode in a .BAT file:
START /w WINSTEPS [control file] [output file] [extra specifications] BATCH=YES
2.80 - 1/98 - convert BIGSTEPS to Windows WINSTEPS
i) increase number of persons to 1,000,000 and 3,000 items.
ii) Add pull down menu to ease viewing and editing control
and output files.
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