Excel Basics
Martin Lee Abbott · 2016
EXCEL BASICS 1Microsoft Excel ® is a powerful application for education researchers and students studying educational statistics.Excel worksheets can hold data for a variety of uses and therefore serve as a database.We will focus primarily on its use as a spreadsheet, however.This book discusses how students of statistics can use Excel menus to create specific data management and statistical analysis functions.I will use Microsoft Office Excel 2013 for all examples and illustrations in this book.2 Like other software, Excel changes occasionally to improve performance and adapt to new standards.As I write, other versions are projected; however, most all of my examples use the common features of the application that are not likely to undergo radical changes in the near future.I cannot hope to acquaint the reader with all the features of Excel in this book.My focus is therefore confined to the statistical analysis and related functions called into play when using the data analysis features.I will introduce some of the general features in this appendix and cover the statistical applications in more depth in the procedure chapters. DATA MANAGEMENTThe opening spreadsheet presents the reader with a range of menu choices for entering and managing data.Like other spreadsheets, Excel consists of rows and columns for 1 Some material in this appendix is adapted from Abbott (2011), Understanding Educational Statistics Using Microsoft Excel and SPSS ® . 2 Used with permission from Microsoft.