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I've received a few questions about using Excel and if reports<br>
have to be typed. Most of the material below has been covered<br>
on my web pages or e-mails I've sent or those from Dr. Moga.<br>
You should have learned much of what's below during the exp 1<br>
(SOL) day two lab day (that's coming up for Monday labs on<br>
Sept. 11).<br>
<br>
1) You need to type your report using the template provided on<br>
Carmen. You can write certain parts, mainly the sample<br>
calculations. It can be a little tedious typing in
equations.<br>
You can write them out and then incorporate them into your<br>
Word doc by scanning them or taking a picture (scans are<br>
usually better) of your written portions and incorporate it
into<br>
the Word document template. Just make sure they're
organized<br>
and neat, certainly neat enough for someone to read easily.<br>
Use <b>PEN</b> so that when you scan them or take a picture
they are<br>
more easily read by the TA (pencil can come out a little
light).<br>
<br>
You can use the equation editor in Word to do the equations
but<br>
for some reason it doesn't always show up properly in the
on-line<br>
grading system. Remember, check the file you upload to make<br>
sure things are readable. If not, often making a PDF from
the<br>
Word doc and uploading that will take care of the problem.<br>
<br>
2) You do not have to use Excel. However, I would suggest learning
<br>
how to use it. It will come in handy later in the
semester. There <br>
are a few labs which will require a lot of calculations and
graphs. <br>
They will go much quicker if you use Excel. Besides, it's a
very <br>
useful skill to have. <br>
<br>
3) If you use Excel (or a similar program) you can have it do the<br>
calculations. That's really the best thing to do in terms
of saving<br>
time. <b>You will still have</b><b> to show sample
calculations in the<br>
report. </b>Just printing the equations as they appear
in Excel is<br>
not sufficient.<br>
<br>
If you make the Excel sheet look like the data tables in the
report<br>
template (with titles, headings, etc.) you can incorporate
the Excel<br>
worksheet into Word. You could import the data tables from
the<br>
report template into Excel or just copy the titles and
headings from<br>
the template into an Excel worksheet to make the tables.
Then have<br>
Excel do the calculations for you by programming in the
equations.<br>
<br>
You also have to make sure you have units (best to put them
in the<br>
headings) and have the correct number of sig. fig. You
can't set<br>
sig. fig. in Excel but can set the decimal places to get the
correct<br>
sig. fig. See my help files for exp 14 and how to use Excel
on how<br>
to do this. By the way, if you set the numbers in your
tables to the<br>
correct number of s.f. before making the graph you will get
the<br>
correct number of s.f. for the axes labels.<br>
<br>
Word will incorporate Excel worksheets fairly easily. You
can also<br>
copy and paste a table from Excel into Word. If you can't
figure<br>
out how to do this you can copy all the data back over to
the data<br>
tables in the Word template you download from Carmen.<br>
<br>
4) If you've done your graphs in Excel just incorporate them from
Excel<br>
into Word. In Excel set the <b>margins </b>to <b>0
inches</b> for your graphs.<br>
Even if you intend to print a graph and scan it before
putting it into<br>
Word you want to set the margins to 0 inches (it will then
default to<br>
the minimum margins your printer can do, most newer printers
can<br>
print pretty much to the edge).<br>
<br>
You have to be careful when you transfer them into Word
since it often<br>
messes up the margins unless you transfer them in using the
proper settings.<br>
Also, the default for displaying graphs is "Landscape" mode
(the page laying<br>
on it's side with the 11.5 inch side running horizontally).
This usually gives<br>
the better looking graph. Use "Landscape" mode unless we
tell you otherwise.<br>
Make sure when you bring the graph into Word it stays in
Landscape mode.<br>
<br>
Look at my examples and help pages for using Excel and the
reports and<br>
graphs.<br>
<br>
I wish I could tell you exactly how to do all of these
things. Unfortunately there's<br>
lots of versions of Microsoft office and they work slightly
differently and the<br>
way Word and Excel are set up are slightly different in the
versions. It's not hard<br>
to figure out though. Just start playing around. There are
many sites with tutorials<br>
on how to use Word and Excel on the web. <br>
<br>
<font color="#000000"><a
href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjXg6Ljk5_NAhVp3IMKHaiJCb0QFggeMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsupport.office.com%2Fen-us%2Farticle%2FOffice-Training-Center-b8f02f81-ec85-4493-a39b-4c48e6bc4bfb&usg=AFQjCNFVwuwx6tSLDUupA2V7eYGIiCDr-w">Microsoft
Office Training Center - Office Support</a><br>
<br>
<a
href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjXg6Ljk5_NAhVp3IMKHaiJCb0QFgguMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Flearning%2Foffice-training.aspx&usg=AFQjCNGBgKVvct8jRZM-uNp9KjGlKGudpg">Microsoft
Office Training | Microsoft Learning</a><br>
<br>
<a
href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjXg6Ljk5_NAhVp3IMKHaiJCb0QFgg1MAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.microsoft.com%2Fen-us%2Fdownload%2Fhow-to-tutorials.aspx&usg=AFQjCNFXdWDJeJHmpapN6-ty0nEqNZUAyw">How-to
tutorials - Microsoft Download Center</a><br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.gcflearnfree.org/">http://www.gcflearnfree.org/</a><br>
<br>
I'm sure there are tutorials on Youtube and elsewhere
as well.<br>
<br>
Dr. Zellmer </font>
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