Any Excel users?

Does anyone use Excel on a regular basis? With the computer class I've been taking this term it has been my first introduction to it (a brief intro). I like it, you can do just about anything with it.

I'm taking a class devoted solely to Excel next term. Think it will help me when I get to Stats 1 and 2?

Power Point is kind of cool too, not to mention easy to use. It will be a good tool for me to use when I start teaching history.

Yep, I use it a LOT for work. It is a great tool to have...

On Excel and stats: a new article was published last year, with the same point as a string of past articles ...

McCullough B.D. and Heiser D.A. 2008. On the accuracy of statistical procedures in Microsoft Excel 2007. Computational Statistics and Data Analysis. 52:4570-4578. (.pdf available upon request)

You can play around with Excel and learn some general ideas about stats, but don't depend upon it. Apparently, even the statistical distributions in Excel have errors. Use a program designed to do statistics when you are doing your stats "for real". I do use Excel all of the time, and it's very useful for me (keeping track of and calculating grades, keeping data organized, ect) but I try to avoid doing statistics in it. That said, if you are just doing statistics for a class, not to prove anything, if the teacher wants you to use Excel, it won't hurt you (just your results).

In one of my intro classes I had was intro to microcomputers. I learned how to use excel (one of the only tests I made a 100 on), word, access, powerpoint.

• Excel was not that bad. I liked the fact that if you put everything in it right it adds stuff for you. Considering math is not my strong suit its a nice feature.

• Access hated that with a passion. Passed with like an 80 on the test but it was so backwards from the other programs.

• Word was fine. I was basically learning that in 2 classes so that made it a bit easier.

• Power Point was my favorite.Fun to use and do all kinds of stuff with.

I don't have a stats class so I have no idea if that will help with it or not.

I'm not a big fan of Microsoft in general but I LOVE excel. I've taken several computer classes in college that use it, I've taken an Excel specific class for work and I use it on a regular basis. Even mu husband (who owns his own IT business) defaults to me when he has a question about Excel.

Love the microsoft suite....aside from access LOL.

I took highschool computer courses last year which included all of the suite, and this year I took a college advanced course in excel, powerpoint and word. Got a final grade of 100% in both excel and pp, 96% in Word (word sucks for clipart LOL).

It's a good proggy, easy to use. But I will say I prefer the older version over 2006.

I like and enjoy using Excel. Just basic functions for me though, please!

I think it would be hard to go wrong learning Excel. You can perform an operation on thousands of cells with just a few clicks, sort, import text files into a columnar format, and create all sorts of fancy graphs.

That said, I've never used Excel in a stats class. We've always used some sort of specialized statistics software (JMP, SPSS, SAS, etc.) SPSS in particular looks like a modified version of Excel, so I think a good working knowledge of Excel might make the learning curve a little bit easier with one of those packages.

I do a lot of reading and I use Excel to keep track of all the books I read. I print this out and bring it with me to the library or book store. I also use it to keep track of all movies I have rented, as you can tell I have a short memory :-)

I rarely use it, but took a class in it a few years back. It's a good thing to know, esp. for job-hunting purposes.

I use Excel daily for work and also Word and Powerpoint regularly. Excel is great for mathmatical spreadsheets, but I also use it for things like project plans.

I created the first TCS cookbook in Word, and someone then converted it over to a PDF (yeah, that was me that pieced it together).

I did a couple of Humane Society cookbooks in Powerpoint. I wanted to clip in pictures and other things and it was easier to do in Powerpoint than Word.

Slide shows in Powerpoint can be fun. I made a slide show that ran on its own for the Humane Society that had all of their adoptable pets at the time, and they loaded it on a laptop that they took to their adoption events. I got to play with the timers and motion effects with that one.

I've mostly used Excel for database management. Took beginner and imtermediate courses in it, and it's an amazing program with a seemingly endless array of uses.

the things Excel can do are amazing

As for stats, Excel does have a lot of probability formulas in there, like the Poisson and the Hyper-geometric. There is also an add-in called Mega-Stat for Excel the I have used, it is very very easy.

I'm an equity analyst and I have used Excel daily for work since it was created I think!. I had to start with a program I doubt you've ever heard of, Lotus 123.

I've never had an excel class, so I'm SURE there are a million things you can do with it that I don't do, I'm sure there are a million short cuts I do by hand - but I use it almost solely for modeling financial projections, and I build my own formulas for analysis, projections, and discounted cash flow stuff. But part of that is just my "proprietary" way of doing things that distinguishes my output from other people's.

When it came to stats in college? I did not use a program like excel, I used some stat-specific software that was already set up to do regression stuff.

I also use Word and Powerpoint all the time. The only time I use Adobe is when I'm done with something I created in Word or Powerpoint and I turn it into a PDF file for distribution.

But have fun exploring!

Laurie

Originally Posted by LDG

I had to start with a program I doubt you've ever heard of, Lotus 123.

Click to expand...

I mourned Lotus 123 when everyone went to Microsoft Excel. Then I got over it pretty quickly. There are still a few of us old codgers that remember 123!

OMG, I HATED Lotus 123!!!

I was not DOS compatible, LOL. I also remember using Word Perfect...the DOS-based one, when my computer was what, a 286?

OK, so us old timers are hi-jacking the thread now (SORRY! ) but.... I remember when the first add-on came out for 123 that allowed you to change the row height and the fonts! I was SO excited and work immediately authorized the purchase.

I didn't like migrating to Excel either - but got over it quickly as well.

And yes, I remember Word Perfect too. OK - talk about "dating" ourselves, he-he-he.

Laurie

I use excel quite often in my job in the legal field. I create a lot of charts to track data and documents, and we'll often get excel sheets as documents in a lawsuit, so it's good to know my way around them.