Chapter 5 Spreadsheets
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Spreadsheets: Making Numbers Talk

Author Supplement to Chapter 8

Applications and Comptencies

 

Websites That Expand on Chapter 8's Knowledge

 

 

Charts

For those of you who have Excel 2016 or 365 there are some new charts which are very interesting. It takes a little while to understand each one, but it is well worth your while if you are working with figures. We are all familiar with the pie, line, and bar graphs, but there is some data for which they only tell part of the story. I think that you will find that these take data from information to knowledge. They are more of a forest view versus the trees. Have fun with them.
http://www.vertex42.com/blog/help/excel-help/6-new-awesome-chart-types-in-excel-2016.html

Charting with Excel. Great help in understanding which column will be the X axis and which will be the y axis.
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/index.html

Using charts to present data.
http://www.strategiccomm.com/usecharts.html

Using data and statistics. Although this is the title, this site is best used as a great description of line, pie, and bar graphs with description of what they are best used for. (See also Excel charts for statistics can be dangerous)
http://www.mathleague.com/help/data/data.htm

See the Tutorials for more help.

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Dashboards

Hall, Owen P. (2003). Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems. A good source of information.
http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/2010/08/using-dashboard-based-business-intelligence-systems

A Look At Dashboard Reporting Time Frames (2011). Enterprise Dashboard Digest/
http://www.enterprise-dashboard.com/

The Dashboard Spy’s collection of digital dashboards. A plethora of links to examples etc. of dashboards. See the 2008 example of an Excel Dashboard and you will find a linke to a tutorial ($47) on using Excel to create not just dashboards, but other things for business intelligence. Did not see the tutorials myself. You are told before you download that if you are an Excel beginner forget it!
http://www.enterprise-dashboard.com/best-excel-dashboard/

Designing Spreadsheets

Planning

Designing and Developing Good Spreadsheet Models (2005). This document, class notes, are still very valuable. Spreadsheet principles remain the same. It is organized under two categories, Characteristics of Good Models and Designing and Building Good Models.
http://www.ucblueash.edu/cheatham/MCArchives/gen_class_notes_ss_designing_good_models.htmhttp://www.ucblueash.edu/cheatham/MCArchives/gen_class_notes_ss_designing_good_models.htm

Read, Nick & Batson, Jonathan (1999). Spreadsheet Modelling Best Practice. Sponsored by IBM, the age of this and the fact that it is still available indicates that the principles outlines in this lengthy (102 pages) document are solid and still applicable.
http://www.eusprig.org/smbp.pdf

Making it look good

Excel Design Tips - Make Your Excel Spreadsheets Look Good
http://www.cogniview.com/convert-pdf-to-excel/post/excel-design/

 

Formulas

Order of math functions in formulas (holds true for any computer formula). From the math forum at Drexel University. (Incidentally PEMDAS was coined by one of your authors, LQT)
http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.order.operations.html

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Pivot Tables

Excel Pivot Table Fundamentals
http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/excel-pivot-tables.htm

Explains uses for pivot tables
http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/PivotTables/ExCreatePiv1.htm

 

Printing a Spreadsheet

How to avoid spreadsheet printing errors. (Note in 2007 & 2010, access printing on the Page Layout tab and then Page Setup Group, Print Area). There is some very helpful information here including how to see what the page view is. Don't forget that you can always change your page orientation to landscape (See changing page orientation).
http://www.post-gazette.com/interact/20000615radin.asp

 

Spreadsheet or Databases

Database vs. Spreadsheet. A thorough discussion of this topic with and excellent summary of its points at the end.
http://fcis.oise.utoronto.ca/~gmacrae/Resources/SSvsDB.htm

Patten, B. (1998). Database vs. spreadsheet is no contest. http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/1998/10/19/smallb4.html?page=1

Spreadsheet vs. Database. A good overview of when one needs each.
http://www.igetit.net/newsletters/Y03_04/ssvdb.aspx

See also the file from your authors.

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Excel Tutorials

Excel

A free, seven lesson tutorial on Excel. Covers topics of quick navigation, formatting, functions, advanced functions, conditional formatting, managing big data,and visualizing data. One needs to provide an email address so the lessons can be sent one by one.
http://spreadsheeto.com/

Note that the 2007 and 2010 versions are so similar that you can easily use a tutorial for either one.

Tutorials for all of Office 2010 Programs
http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/excel/default.aspx

This tutorial is excellent, covers the basics, plus formatting cells, formulas, functions, and graphs. Recommended. Although for Excel 2000, this site will work for XP (2002) as well.
http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2000/excel/
2007 & 2010 version is at http://www.fgcu.edu/support/office2007/Excel/index.asp

Excel 2000 help. This tutorial is excellent, covers the basics, plus formatting cells, formulas, functions, and graphs. Recommended. Although for Excel 2000, will work for XP (2002) as well.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/FX100646961033.aspx

Excel 2003 from Rutgers State University of New Jersey
http://getit.rutgers.edu/tutorials/excel/media/excel.pdf

Excel 2007 tutorials designed to make you think by giving you a task to perform and pointing you to the article(s) in the Excel Help System.
http://www.vertex42.com/Excel2007/excel-tutorial.htm

 

Charts

Excel 2007 for all charts in Microsoft Office.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/overview-of-charting-P001216348.aspx

Pivot Charts and Tables

Videos about creating pivot tables and charts
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=free+pivot+chart+tutorial&qpvt=free+pivot+chart+tutorial&FORM=VDRE

Create a pivot table
http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/animations/pivotTable-create.html

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Websites from the Text in Chapter 8

About mathematics http://math.about.com/library/weekly/aa040502a.htm

Sparklines http://sparklines-excel.blogspot.com/

Dashboards http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/how-to-create-an-excel-dashboard/

Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/customizereports.aspx

Excel Tutorials http://spreadsheets.about.com/

Power Pivot http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/excel/default.aspx

 

Applications and Competencies Spreadsheets

Spreadsheet for number 2 Calculate Gestational Age

Spreadsheet for number 3 Calculate BMI

Spreadsheet for number 5 Calculate age on admission

 

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Websites from the Reference List in Chapter 8

Camoes, J. (2007). How to create a dashboard in Excel. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.excelcharts.com/blog/how-to-create-an-excel-dashboard/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2009, July 26). About BMI for adults. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html

Decision Models. (n.d.). Excel memory limits. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://www.decisionmodels.com/memlimitsc.htm

European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group. (2010). EuSpRIG original horror stories. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://www.eusprig.org/stories.htm

Few, S. (2004a). Common mistakes in data presentation. Intelligent Enterprise, 7(12), 34. Retrieved from http://intelligent-enterprise.informationweek.com/showArticle. jhtml;jsessionid=QAKJKMB4JHXVFQE1GHPCKH4ATMY32JVN?articleID=26100530

French, T. (2010, April 9). Excel 2007 pivot table tutorial. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://spreadsheets.about.com/

Google. (2010). Size limits: Getting to know

Google Docs – Google Docs help. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from http://docs.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=37603

OpenOffice.org Wiki Contributors. (2008, November 26). What’s the maximum number of rows and cells for a spreadsheet file. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/FAQ/Calc/Miscellaneous/
What%27s_the_maximum_number_of_rows_and_cells_for_a_spreadsheet_file%3F

Panko, R. (2008, May). What we know about spreadsheet errors. Retrieved April 12, 2010, from http://panko.shidler.hawaii.edu/SSR/Mypapers/whatknow.htm

Russell, D. (2010). Order of operations. Retrieved April 9, 2010, from http://math.about.com/library/weekly/aa040502a.htm

Tufte, E. (2004, May 27). Sparklines: Theory and practice. Retrieved April 22, 2010,
from http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001OR&topic_id=1

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Created November 19, 2011

© 1999- 2013 Linda Q. Thede & Jeanne P. Sewell

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