Alex Dmitrienko asked in his post on Feb 5 whether the creation of binders should be addressed in future releases of EG. As a matter of fact, creating binders will become much easier when EG 4.1 is released later this year.

Creating binders in EG 3.0 is actually very easy. However, to create a binder you have to leave EG and open the Enterprise Guide Administrator software. (From the Windows desktop you select Start>Programs>SAS>Enterprise Guide Administrator.) The problem with this is that some people may not even realize that they have EG Administrator. Other people may notice that EG Administrator is there, but be unsure whether they need some special qualifications to use EG Administrator. You don’t need any special qualifications to use EG Administrator (although I believe some companies may choose to impose restrictions). To create a binder in the EG Administrator, you just select File>New>Binder and follow the instructions.

In EG 4.1 you can create binders without ever leaving EG. In fact, in EG 4.1 the EG Administrator is completely gone. Instead, you use the SAS Enterprise Guide Explorer which looks very similar to the old EG Administrator. To open the EG Explorer, select it from the Tools menu inside EG 4.1. Then select File>New>Binder and follow the instructions. You can also create libraries in the EG Explorer in EG 4.1 by selecting File>New>Libraries which is a nice improvement. The only thing that is confusing about creating a binder in EG 4.1 is that the name of the EG Explorer is so similar to the name of the Project Explorer window. Don’t confuse the two. The Project Explorer is the window showing a tree diagram of your project, while the EG Explorer is a tool you use to set up and manage binders and libraries.