EXCEL POWER MOVES http://home.uchicago.edu/~greenland AIR 2015 Bethany Butson (Purdue) Leonard Goldfine (Minnesota) Will Greenland (Chicago) Luzat Khandkar (Chicago) http://home.uchicago.edu/~greenland

Motivation/Introduction Excel is a highly useful and flexible tool Used right it is extremely powerful for rapid report development Sticking to basic good practice helps avoid most frequent mistakes/errors Various “power moves” enhance productivity further

Basic Good Practice Three content tabs: Data Calc Report Standard additional tabs for calculation and meta-information: Scratch calculation Notes Checklist Lookups Create a “shared language of spreadsheets” to save time when working with multiple users

Before You Get Started Default version of Excel doesn’t have useful functions enabled: Developer tab Click File  Options  Customize Ribbon  Check the Developer box Analysis Tool Pack and Tool Pack VBA Click File  Options  Add-Ins  Manage  Click Go  Check Analysis Tool Pack and Tool Pack VBA  Click OK Bethany Enable functions!

Power Move 1: Drop-Down Getting started – 2 worksheets Data Lists Creating Lists Simply create lists by entering desired fields in each column Activating Lists Use the Data Validation feature Select “List” option from the Allow drop down menu Use the Source drop down menu to select appropriate list Lists can be edited Bethany

Power Move 2: Using VBA for Data Clean up Example) CIP code missing leading zeros Create VBA master file that contains code that can be used to clean up CIP codes Master file can contain several VBA modules Bethany

Power Move 3: Creating a Report Publication in Excel Create report template Add data sheet(s) Insert data into report template using charts/linked tables/images/etc. Bethany

Power Move 4: Survey Response Analysis in Excel Use DCOUNT, DSUM etc. to create a frequency table in calculation tab Multiple filter columns allow subpopulation comparisons Once template is created, duplicate to model multiple questions Combine with approach discussed above to produce live survey output report Utilize Pivot Tables for further data manipulation

Power Move 5: Use VBA to Automate More Complex Analysis (1/2) Ad-hoc survey reporting tool has familiar requirements: Side-by-side subpopulation reporting Repeatable for future survey iterations Adaptable to new survey designs But also has further analysis needs that are not simple to produce in “pure Excel”: Median, standard deviation etc.

Power Move 5: Use VBA to Automate More Complex Analysis (2/2) VBA macros can be used to: Iterate through multiple questions/settings Copy/paste output from unformatted calculation area/tab to report Or, pasted output via VBA can itself be the underlying source for a final round of calculation (e.g., significant differences) before formatted output

Final Observations/Wrap-Up Start from a simple/structured place: Data Calc Report Make notes on things that change, explain how the whole workbook fits together Use common “recipes” to solve similar problems Use VBA to automate repeated tasks, especially: Copy/paste (moving data around) Generate near-identical reports changing simple settings

Bethany Butson: bbutson@purdue.edu Leonard Goldfine: gold0154@umn.edu Contact Information Bethany Butson: bbutson@purdue.edu Leonard Goldfine: gold0154@umn.edu Will Greenland: greenland@uchicago.edu Luzat Khandkar: lkhandkar@uchicago.edu