General questions about using Excel or similar programs

[robert zellmer]

I get a lot of questions about how to use Excel and whether
you should use it.  I know if you don't know how to use Excel
it may take a little bit of time to figure things out.

I have several links explaining how to do certain things in
Excel.  I'm using a much older (but wiser) version of Excel
(2003).  My explanations generally pertain to that version.
I do have a link that explains some differences between
this older version and the newer versions (mainly 2007,
the more recent versions are similar to 2007).

You can find these links by going to the following links first,

*Using MS Excel for Reports* 
<http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/%7Erzellmer/excel/excel.htm>

*Helpful Tidbits for 1220* 
<http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/%7Erzellmer/chem1220/faq/faq_1220.htm>

The same links can be found in both places.  The specific
links are,

*Using Excel for Calculations and Graphs* 
<http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/%7Erzellmer/chem125/faq/excel.txt>

*Using Excel 2007 (Some differences to Excel 2003)* 
<http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/%7Erzellmer/chem125/faq/Excel2007.txt>

I highly encourage the use of Excel, both for calculations and
doing graphs.

Even if it takes you a bit of time to learn what you need to know it
will save you a lot of time in the end.  This is true for Exp 14, 15, 17,
18 and 21 which all have many calculations and graphs.  This is
especially true for exp 17.  If you don't use Excel (or some other
graphing program) for exp 17 it will take a lot of time to complete the
calculations and graphs.  Don't even get me started on what
kind of grief you will experience for Exp 17 if you are doing things
by hand and make a calculation error and don't catch it before
making the graphs.  The calculations in Exp 17 are simple but there's
at least 240 calculations.  You don't want to have to do all of these by
hand and especially not all over again if you make a mistake.  Look at
the example for exp 14 .  It shows how to program in eqns and
get more than one data set on a graph.  If you have trouble you can
always stop by to ask questions.

One question students always ask when using Excel is how to
set the significant figures in the tables and graphs.  I've explained
this in the "Using Excel for Calculations and Graphs" document.
You can't actually set the sig. fig. but you can set the number of
decimal places Excel displays in order to get the correct number
of sig. fig.  If you do this in your tables before plotting, the labels
on your axes will contain the same number of decimal places
(sig. fig.) as in the tables.


*What if you don't have Excel?*

You can find the following link by going to the "Using MS Excel"
link above or the "Helpful Tidbits" link.  It explains options.

*What if I don't have Excel?* 
<http://chemistry.osu.edu/%7Erzellmer/excel/no_excel.htm>


I hope these things help.

Dr. Zellmer
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