CATmaker

Introduction Download the Demo Ordering CATmaker Frequently Asked Questions

CATmaker is a software tool which helps you create Critically Appraised Topics, or CATs, for the key articles you encounter about Therapy, Diagnosis, Prognosis, Aetiology/Harm and Systematic Reviews of Therapy.

It carries out the following functions:

prompts you for your clinical question, your search strategy and key information about the study you found;
provides on-line critical appraisal guides for assessing the validity and usefulness of the study;
automates the calculation of clinically useful measures (and their 95% confidence intervals);
helps you formulate clinical "Bottom Lines" from what you've read;
creates 1-page summaries (CATs) that are easy to store, print, retrieve, and share (as both text and HTML files);
helps you remember when to update each CAT you create;
helps you to teach others how to practice EBM; and
most importantly, it looks really cool.

Downloading the demo version

You can download a free demo version (called the "CATnipper") by following the instructions below. The CATnipper provides all the functionality of the CATmaker, but it doesn't give you access to all of the guides, and is time-limited in that it has only nine lives.

Version File size Installation Instructions

Win dows 95/NT
2.5 MB
Save the file to disk, quit all applications and, using Windows Explorer, double-click the catnipper.exe icon.
Click here to download an RTF file with further details.

Windows 3.1 - not yet available

Macintosh 2.9MB
Save the file to disk and decompress it with BinHex (your browser may do this automatically)
In the Finder, double-click the cat.sea icon
When prompted, choose a folder to extract into and click Extract
Make sure the folder contains three items: CATnipper, CATprefs and nomogram. Double-click CATnipper to start.

Version	File size	Installation Instructions
Win dows 95/NT	2.5 MB	Save the file to disk, quit all applications and, using Windows Explorer, double-click the catnipper.exe icon. Click here to download an RTF file with further details.
Windows 3.1	-	not yet available
Macintosh	2.9MB	Save the file to disk and decompress it with BinHex (your browser may do this automatically) In the Finder, double-click the cat.sea icon When prompted, choose a folder to extract into and click Extract Make sure the folder contains three items: CATnipper, CATprefs and nomogram. Double-click CATnipper to start.

Ordering the CATmaker

You can now order CATmaker by downloading this order form (a PDF). It is priced at £90 for a single-user licence, £150 for a 5-user, or £250 for a site licence (prices exclusive of VAT).

Frequently Asked Questions

Technical support for the CATmaker is provided through this web site. If you have a problem, please look through this list of Frequently Asked Questions to see if there is an answer. If not, use the email link at the end to contact us and we'll get b ack to you as soon as possible.

Installation Using the CATmaker / CATnipper Saving and Loading CATs Other

Installation

Question Can I install CATmaker from a networked server?

Answer: Yes! CATnipper always looks to install into C:/program files/CEBM/catnipper, no matter where you install it from (though you can, of course, change this directory during setup). However, you may get into trouble if two users try to install it at the same time. CATmaker just needs to be copied into any directory, though will run best from a PC's own hard drive.

Question Can I install CATmaker onto a networked server and run it from there?

Answer: Yes again! You'll probably have to do some fiddling with your network software, but there's nothing in CATnipper to stop you from running it from a server. Note, however:

simultaneous users are not supported,
CATnipper always has to have read-write permissions for its working directory,
it will default to this directory for saving CATs and Kittens, and
it will run more slowly across a network, as the graphics take time to load.

Question I get a "File System Error" message when I install CATnipper.

Answer: We noticed this phenomenon on some versions of Windows 95, and tested it out to see if we could eliminate it or trace its source. So far, no luck, but we have established that it does not cause any harm to your system.
Click OK and carry on!

Using the CATmaker

Question When I type, I just get bizarre characters instead of text. What's going on?

Answer: This is a font problem. You need to have Arial and Times New Roman installed on your machine.

Question Can I print from CATmaker?

Answer: Not directly. There are two ways you can do this, according to the two ways of saving a CAT:

save as a CAT (*.txt file) and load the file into your favourite word processor. You'll see that the tables are ready to be converted into a table automatically (see below). You can then set it out the way you like and print it.
save as a webCAT (*.htm) and load the file into your web browser. Here, the tables are already formatted, so you can print straight away.

Question When I enter numbers and hit CALC, nothing happens. Why not?

Answer: CATmaker will only do calculations on numbers in tables which have some (any) text entered in the corresponding Event, Outcome or Test Result box; it ignores numbers in rows which have no text here. If, for example, you're doing quick and dirty CATs (moggies), you might have to type some random characters to get the calculations to work.

Question I get an error message with a choice of Stop or Continue. What should I do?

Answer: Click Continue. If this happened when you were cancelling an instruction to load a kitten, that's OK; otherwise, please send us an email to tell us when it happened. In any case, it's OK to click Continue and carry on.

Question When I try to calculate a measure of effectiveness (likelhood ratio for diagnosis or odds ratio for systematic reviews), I get an error message and the slot for the measure to appear is left blank. Why's that?

Answer: Likelihood Ratio: This means that you've got a zero as the number of patients in one of the outcome groups. The LR calculation needs these numbers as the denominator, but it can't compute division by zero. Therefor e, you get the error message and, if appropriate, "INF" is inserted to represent infinity. You could try to get around it by recalculating with a very low number instead of zero (e.g. 0.01).
Odds Ratio: a similar phenomenon occurs in the Systematic Reviews section when trying to translate an odds ratio of 1 into an NNT.

Question In therapy, calculating Event Rates, I get nonsense for the Event Rate of the third outcome line.

Answer: In some earlier versions, there is a rogue character where you entered the number of patients with that outcome. This confuses CATmaker. What you need to do is use the TAB key until you see the whole field selected and over-type the number of patients, then hit CALC. Doing this makes sure that all characters in the field are deleted and replaced with just your number.

Question I've saved as a text CAT. How do I format the evidence into a nice table?

Answer: Load the *.txt file into your favourite word processor, select the lines with the evidence data and select Text to Table (in Word, this is in the Table menu). You'll get a dialogue box asking you to tell the software how to delimit table cells; you should enter the pipe character ( | ) and click OK.

Saving and loading CATs

Question How can I re-load and edit a CAT I've already made?

Answer: CATnipper can only reload "kittens"; once you save your work as a CAT, it can't be loaded back into CATnipper. Of course, you could edit it with a word processor or other text editor, but we recommend that, if yo u want to edit your CATs using CATnipper, you should save them as kittens as well.

Question Help! When I re-load my kitten I get an error message and it fails to load.

Answer: If the error message is "Cast Member not found", then you have two choices: start again or open up the kitten with a text editor and do some emergency surgery on it. If you choose the latter, follow these instructions (new browser window):

Question I've saved a CAT, opened it and it's got lots of stuff in it that makes no sense to me. What's happening?

Answer: It sounds like you've opened a kitten instead of a CAT. We recommend you use a naming convention, or different directories, to distinguish between CATs and kittens, as they are both stored as ASCII text files.

Other

Question Don't you think you've taken this CAT metaphor a bit far?

A cat writes: As a CAT, I am often asked this sort of question. My reply is invariably "Miaow miaow mew myowwrll prrp prrrhp prrhrhrhrp myow".

If you are having a problem that you can't solve with reference to this list, please send an email to Douglas Badenoch, badenoch@cebm.jr2.ox.ac.uk, and he'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Question	Can I install CATmaker from a networked server?
Answer:	Yes! CATnipper always looks to install into C:/program files/CEBM/catnipper, no matter where you install it from (though you can, of course, change this directory during setup). However, you may get into trouble if two users try to install it at the same time. CATmaker just needs to be copied into any directory, though will run best from a PC's own hard drive.
Question	Can I install CATmaker onto* a networked server and run it from there?*
Answer:	Yes again! You'll probably have to do some fiddling with your network software, but there's nothing in CATnipper to stop you from running it from a server. Note, however: simultaneous users are not supported, CATnipper always has to have read-write permissions for its working directory, it will default to this directory for saving CATs and Kittens, and it will run more slowly across a network, as the graphics take time to load.
Question	I get a "File System Error" message when I install CATnipper.
Answer:	We noticed this phenomenon on some versions of Windows 95, and tested it out to see if we could eliminate it or trace its source. So far, no luck, but we have established that it does not cause any harm to your system. Click OK and carry on!

Question	When I type, I just get bizarre characters instead of text. What's going on?
Answer:	This is a font problem. You need to have Arial and Times New Roman installed on your machine.
Question	Can I print from CATmaker?
Answer:	Not directly. There are two ways you can do this, according to the two ways of saving a CAT: save as a CAT (.txt file) and load the file into your favourite word processor. You'll see that the tables are ready to be converted into a table automatically (see below). You can then set it out the way you like and print it. save as a webCAT (.htm) and load the file into your web browser. Here, the tables are already formatted, so you can print straight away.
Question	When I enter numbers and hit CALC, nothing happens. Why not?
Answer:	CATmaker will only do calculations on numbers in tables which have some (any) text entered in the corresponding Event, Outcome or Test Result box; it ignores numbers in rows which have no text here. If, for example, you're doing quick and dirty CATs (moggies), you might have to type some random characters to get the calculations to work.
Question	I get an error message with a choice of Stop or Continue. What should I do?
Answer:	Click Continue. If this happened when you were cancelling an instruction to load a kitten, that's OK; otherwise, please send us an email to tell us when it happened. In any case, it's OK to click Continue and carry on.
Question	When I try to calculate a measure of effectiveness (likelhood ratio for diagnosis or odds ratio for systematic reviews), I get an error message and the slot for the measure to appear is left blank. Why's that?
Answer:	Likelihood Ratio: This means that you've got a zero as the number of patients in one of the outcome groups. The LR calculation needs these numbers as the denominator, but it can't compute division by zero. Therefor e, you get the error message and, if appropriate, "INF" is inserted to represent infinity. You could try to get around it by recalculating with a very low number instead of zero (e.g. 0.01). Odds Ratio: a similar phenomenon occurs in the Systematic Reviews section when trying to translate an odds ratio of 1 into an NNT.
Question	In therapy, calculating Event Rates, I get nonsense for the Event Rate of the third outcome line.
Answer:	In some earlier versions, there is a rogue character where you entered the number of patients with that outcome. This confuses CATmaker. What you need to do is use the TAB key until you see the whole field selected and over-type the number of patients, then hit CALC. Doing this makes sure that all characters in the field are deleted and replaced with just your number.
Question	I've saved as a text CAT. How do I format the evidence into a nice table?
Answer:	Load the *.txt file into your favourite word processor, select the lines with the evidence data and select Text to Table (in Word, this is in the Table menu). You'll get a dialogue box asking you to tell the software how to delimit table cells; you should enter the pipe character ( \| ) and click OK.

Question	How can I re-load and edit a CAT I've already made?
Answer:	CATnipper can only reload "kittens"; once you save your work as a CAT, it can't be loaded back into CATnipper. Of course, you could edit it with a word processor or other text editor, but we recommend that, if yo u want to edit your CATs using CATnipper, you should save them as kittens as well.
Question	Help! When I re-load my kitten I get an error message and it fails to load.
Answer:	If the error message is "Cast Member not found", then you have two choices: start again or open up the kitten with a text editor and do some emergency surgery on it. If you choose the latter, follow these instructions (new browser window):
Question	I've saved a CAT, opened it and it's got lots of stuff in it that makes no sense to me. What's happening?
Answer:	It sounds like you've opened a kitten instead of a CAT. We recommend you use a naming convention, or different directories, to distinguish between CATs and kittens, as they are both stored as ASCII text files.

Question	Don't you think you've taken this CAT metaphor a bit far?
A cat writes:	As a CAT, I am often asked this sort of question. My reply is invariably "Miaow miaow mew myowwrll prrp prrrhp prrhrhrhrp myow".