MS Excel Short Course in Data Handling &

Statistical Function

A basic course for new users of MS Excel with

a special emphasis on data handling, data
organizational and statistical functions.

Developed by
the International Centre for Allied Health Evidence (iCAHE)
School of Health Science, Division of Health Science, University of South
Australia

Intention of the Course

This booklet provides you with a structured, enjoyable and practical approach to
learn to use MS Excel. These skills will enable you to undertake research and
data handling activities within your clinical practice.
This booklet is designed for all skill levels, from absolute beginner to more
advanced knowledge.
MS Excel Short Course in Statistics

Content of the booklet

In the first session of this course, you will learn:

 About the properties of MS Excel
 Why use MS Excel
 The difference between a spread sheet, a database and a word document
 How to get into Excel
 How to open a new file
 How to enter data
 How to save a file
 How to open an existing file
 How to copy and paste data

In the second session of this course, you will learn:

 Shortcuts to assist data entry
 Fill
 Data filter
 How to move data around
 How to sort data
 How to delete and clear data
 How to format data
 Different colours
 Different fonts
 Different data types
 Different borders
 How to interpret a prepared data sheet

In the third session of this course, you will learn:

 How to change a column of data (multiplying, adding, subtracting etc.)
 How to link two columns of data
 How to apply formulas
 Means, standard deviations, maximum, minimum, percentiles
 Change data
 How to apply statistics tests
 T-test, ANOVA, linear regression

In the fourth session of this course, you will learn:

 How to make graphs
 How to change graphs
 How to convert data from Word to Excel and back
 How to manage audit data

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Self-check to complete at the end of the booklet

How well do you understand these aspects of MSExcel?
My understanding is:
Core competencies Good OK Poor

About the properties of MS Excel

Why use MS Excel
The difference between a spread sheet, a database and
a word document
How to get into Excel
How to open a new file
How to enter data
How to save a file
How to open an existing file
How to copy and paste data
Paste Special
Shortcuts to assist data entry
 Fill
 Drag Cells
 Data filter
How to move data around
How to sort data
How to delete and clear data
How to format data
 Different colours
 Different fonts
 Different data types
 Different borders
How to interpret a prepared data sheet
How to change a column of data
How to link two columns of data
How to apply formulas
 Means, standard deviations etc
How to apply statistics tests
 T-test, ANOVA, linear regression, chi square
How to make graphs
How to change graphs
How to convert data from Word to Excel and back
How to manage audit data

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Important Information

This booklet is based on MSOffice 2010.

If you have an older version of MSOffice on your laptop and/or computer, please make sure to
save all your files in the 97-2003 formats.
93-2003 formats are saved as *.doc or *.xls or *.ppt
2010 files are saved as *docx, *.xlsx or *.pptx
MSOffice 2010 has the option of saving files compatible to an older version in all of their
individual programs like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint etc.

This is how you can do it: -

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About the properties of MS Excel

Excel is a spreadsheet – what you see on the screen is a series of cells, into which data can be
entered. The spreadsheet offers a simple way of collecting and examining data. Moving from
one cell to the next is by cursors, or your mouse. To embed a value in a cell, or to complete a
calculation, hit the ENTER key.

REMEMBER: if you make a mistake, DON’T PANIC! Immediately go to the undo button
[the little back arrow] and click – that will take you back 1 step. So if you do something
that you aren’t happy with, think before you attempt to do anything else to retrieve a
situation!

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How to open a file

To open a file in Excel, you have a number of options.
1. If you are working from a USB, you can double click the USB icon under Computer in
Windows, and you will see all of the existing files on the USB. Double click on the file
that you want, to open it.
2. You can open up MSExcel from the green MSExcel icon, or from the program files, and
then open up your file by going through the File tab. Again, double click on the file you
want to open.

Option 1

Option 2

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If you are opening a NEW file (i.e. one that doesn’t have any data it in) click your cursor on
NEW.
If you are opening an existing file (one that already has some data it in) click your cursor on
OPEN.
You can always tell which files have been generated and saved in MS Excel because they have
the file extension of .xls or .xlsx.
Similarly a Word file has an extension .doc or .docx and a MS Powerpoint file has an extension
of .ppt or .pptx.

Exercise 1
You have been given one MS Excel file (Excel Course Data Entry.xlsx) with three named sheets
in it, as a practice piece. Practice opening and closing the file and looking at each of the sheets.

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How to enter data

Page 5 shows you an example of what a NEW Excel file looks like (a clean spreadsheet into
which you can enter data). You can put names in for each column which make sense to you,
colour cells to code or organize data, add, remove or change boarders and you can also nominate
the type of data that you expect to find in each column. Like this…

Mother's Father's
ID Today’s Date of Dominant Country of Bag
MAIN HEADING Country of Country Bag type
number Date Birth Hand Birth brand
Birth of Birth

SUB HEADING

ANSWER DETAILS Question 1 Question 2

1_2_3
10
characters
4 digits 11 digits 11 digits R_L 8 characters max 8 characters max 8 characters max max
QUESTION CODE date03 dob03 hand03 born03 p1brn03 p2brn03 bagt03 brand03
04-Mar- 27-Jun-
EXAMPLE ANSWERS 1001 02 86 R Australia Australia England 1 hot chilli
04-Mar- 16-Nov-
1003 02 85 R Australia Australia England 1 blackwolf
05-Mar- 25-Nov-
1004 02 85 R Australia Australia Australia 1 go pak

How to save a file

To save a file, always go ‘SAVE AS’ instead of save, because that allows you to double check
your file name before saving. This stops you saving over the top of another file. When you go
‘SAVE AS’ check the location of where you are saving the file to, as well as its name.
Sometimes a lot of work gets lost because the file was saved to the wrong directory! The first
example Excel page on the next page of this workbook shows you where to find the ‘Save’ and
‘Save As’ commands.

Exercise 2
Now, open your practice MS Excel file (Excel course data entry.xls). Go to the Sheet named
‘Descriptive’. Enter data for another five subjects into this file (make up anything you want),
and save your file using a new file name ‘My File.xlsx. Close the file. Now open it up again and
check that your new data is there, on the same sheet!!! The second example on the next page is
of the data you should expect to find on the sheet named ‘Descriptive’ when you first open it up.

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Exercise 3.
Open a new Excel file, and label the first four columns ID, gender, age, height, and then enter
fictitious data for five people. Give the file a name and save it to your USB. Now save the file
into the computer hard drive. Close and open both files to see that you have saved and labeled
them correctly.

Naming sheets
Excel files are workbooks which contain a lot of sheets (or pages). Imagine your Excel file like
an exercise book, a really big one that you can keep adding to! You can put your calculations on
different sheets and give each sheet a unique name so you know where everything is stored.
Your practice Excel file is an example of an Excel file in which the first three sheets have been
renamed to reflect the type of data found in each sheet.
You rename a sheet by either
 going to the Format button on the home ribbon (circled in red on the next page), and selecting
rename sheet (all using the left mouse button) OR
 putting the cursor on the sheet label (at the bottom) that you want to rename, and using the
right mouse button, click the name, choose ‘rename’ from the pop up menu and enter in
another name. OR
 using the left mouse button, double click on the name you wish to change and type in the new
name

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Try renaming the sheets in your course file ‘Excel course data entry.xlsx’, using names that are
logical to you.

Right click and select ‘Rename’ from the

pop up menu, OR double left click.

How to copy and paste data

Using your left mouse button, highlight the data in one column, go to the Menu and click on
COPY (or CUT) and then click your cursor into the first cell of the new column into which you
want to paste your data.
Then put your cursor on the PASTE icon and Click!!! The data then appears in the new column.
It is wise if you are uncertain to always use COPY rather than CUT, and then when you are sure
that your data is securely placed in the new location, you can always delete the old column!

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Exercise 4
Copy three columns of data from the ‘Descriptive’ sheet in your new MS Excel file (my
File.xlsx) and paste them in other places on the sheet. Practice deleting the original column of
data, and then copying the information back. Don’t worry if you cannot retrieve it because you
have a backup of the original file (Excel Course Data entry.xlsx)!!!

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Paste Special
PASTE SPECIAL (found in the drop down menu under the paste button on the home ribbon) is
the function that you use if you want to paste information into a cell in other than number form.
It is particularly useful if you are transferring formulae around your excel sheet, or if you want to
transpose numbers (from vertical to horizontal).

Exercise 5
Highlight data in one of the columns in the sheet ‘Descriptive’ and copy it. Go to PASTE
SPECIAL, select ‘Transpose’. Click your cursor into a cell on a new sheet in the same
workbook, and click on PASTE. Notice what happens to the data.

How to copy a sheet

If you are using data for statistical calculations, it is really important that you keep your raw data
intact (that is, don’t do any calculations on it!!). This is so that you always have a correct set of
data in case you make a mistake!! Make sure that you have a spare sheet in your workbook
(you know it is spare because it hasn’t been renamed, and is blank). Right click on the name tab
of the sheet you wish to copy and select Move or Copy from the pop up menu.

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Select the page you want your copy to

appear

To create a copy you must select this

box!

Select ‘create a copy’ if you click on this, it will copy all the information in ‘descriptive’ (or
whatever sheet you are currently viewing) to your new location. A new sheet will appear in the
workbook called ‘descriptive (2)’. Now rename the sheet that you copied (in this instance
descriptive) as ‘Raw Data’ and the newly copied sheet as ‘worksheet’ or something else that will
remind you of what you are doing in this sheet. Now it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake in
the copied sheet, because you can always retrieve information from your raw data sheet.
Remember once you have a Raw Data sheet, never do any calculations on it, in case you
need to retrieve anything!!

Exercise 6
Practice copying, moving and deleting sheets in you’re my File.xlsx workbook, and renaming
them, so that you really understand these functions.

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The Fill Function

The Fill function allows you to enter one value and then ‘Fill’ down by holding the left cursor
down and highlighting the cells that you want to fill. You can put the same value in all these
highlighted cells (for instance if you want to enter data that was all collected on the same day you
would enter the date and then FILL down and the same date would appears in as many cells as
you had highlighted) or you can use the Series function in FILL to change the values (usually in
increments). So you could enter value 1, go to FILL, select series, indicate that you want to stop
at 10, highlight the next 9 cells, and MSExcel would automatically fill those cells 2-10.

Drag cells or formulae

One of the most useful features of Excel is the DRAG feature. It is particularly useful for filling
cells with values or to calculate formulae without having to retype information. The FILL
function is a type of DRAG feature. To be really useful the DRAG feature can be used to copy
formulae from one set of data to another with minimum typing. To learn to DRAG you need to
learn a little bit about turning Excel from a spread sheet to a calculator.

Set’s set up the following example. In your MS Excel My File.xlsx, the page tabs at the bottom
and click on the new page tab. A new numbered worksheet will be inserted.

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Enter the data as outlined on the page below. Imagine that Column 1 is the code for 20 different
items, and Column B is the price per item. The manager has decided that everything will be
increased by $0.10. You can recalculate the price of the items by typing = into cell C2, clicking
into cell B2 (or typing B2 in Cell C2) and then typing + 0.10.

You hit the ENTER key, and the new price for the first item will appear. Take your cursor to the
bottom right corner of this cell (C2) and watch it change from an open white cross to a hard black
cross. Holding the left mouse button down and moving this hard black cross down the column,
will fill the cells below with the new formula. Watch the new prices appear, using the formula
that you put into cell C2 (which references to each subsequent B column reference).
You can do exactly the same feature using the PASTE SPECIAL function. Instead of dragging
the formula, you could copy what is in Cell C2 (a formula), and PASTE SPECIAL it into Cell D2
(or somewhere else) by clicking into the PASTE FORMULAS function. Dragging is a lot

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quicker! The advantage of the PASTE SPECIAL function is that if you want to copy the actual
value that you have created from the formula (say, for further analysis), you can use the PASTE
VALUE facture, and it gets rid of the formula and leaves you only with the value.

Words of warning:
When you are creating formulae, don’t enter the actual value that is in cell B2 (12.55) after the =
sign in C2, always enter the cell reference (ie B2). If you enter the value for cell B2 and add 10c,
and then drag down, all the rest of the cells in column C will have the same value (12.65)
Now, let’s try increasing the price of each item by 10%. We will need to use a different formula
in cell D2. Type =, click into cell B2, then type *110/100 (which will increase the value in B2
by 110 and divide it by 100 (a quick way of adding 10%)). If you hit the ENTER key, and then
drag this formula down you can see there is a different set of values appearing.

Remember the DRAG function when we come to applying statistical tests!!

Exercise 7.
Open a new MS Excel file and using the FILL and DRAG functions, enter 10 rows of data,
assigning an ID number of 1, today’s date and a score of 10 to the first row, and then
automatically complete the remaining 9 rows of data (without any further manual data entry).
Increase the ID number by one for each row, retain the date, and increase the score by 2 for each
subsequent row. Play around with this data, once you have completed this task. Save the file
onto your USB using another file name.

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Data filter
The data filter is another Excel wonder! Click your cursor into any one of the heading cells (the
names that you give to your columns of data). Point your cursor at DATA in the Menu, and click
on FILTER. This brings up a little button on the side of each of the header cells.

If you click onto any of the buttons, you can see all of the values that have been entered into this
column (not how many of them at the moment, simply all the possible choices). So now you can
start to see the value of this function. If for instance when entering data, if you are putting

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information on gender into this column, you would only realistically expect to find M or F. Any
other value is probably an error, so you can highlight the error, which will bring up the row (or
rows) which have this value in it, and you can change it to the correct value (first checking your
raw data of course!)

So what do you do now?

If you click on the value that you want to check, this filters out all of the occurrences of the value
that you have selected in the column. You will notice that when Excel is in Filter mode, all of
the filtered values appear in blue in the row header. This is a very good reminder that you are in
filter mode.
You will notice that down in the bottom left corner of the program page you are told how many
of the values you selected are to be found in the filtered column of data – a very useful feature
when you have lots of data!!!

A word of warning:
When you are in filter mode, never attempt to conduct any calculations on your filtered data.
Always copy the filtered data into another sheet for analysis purposes. If you forget to do this,
you will find that while MS Excel tells you it is in FILTER MODE, it actually will do all
calculation on all of the underlying data. So BEWARE!!!!

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How to sort data

You can sort data by selecting the whole page (use the little arrow in the top left of the row
header), then go to the Data ribbon and going to the SORT function, you can put some order into
your data if it is jumbled up (like our Excel course data set Descriptive Sheet!).

Word of warning:
You MUST select the whole page when you are sorting data that has more than one column per
row. If you only select the column you want to sort it will change your dataset and unlink the data
that should be connected (ie: ID number 25 may end up with ID number 11’s data for the column
you have sorted, you can see how this could be a problem!)

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If you choose ascending order for the column of data for ‘favorite foods’, and sort, this is what
you will get!! You can see that the whole data set has been rearranged and sorted alphabetically
by ‘favorite foods’. To be certain that your data is the same (just rearranged) check that you have
the same other values linked with the favorite foods by checking the earlier dataset. Practice
changing the order of (sorting) some of the other variables in this dataset.

Remember how you applied the data filter to find out how many times one type of data entry
occurred in a column of data? The SORT function is similar, as you can see how many there are
of different types of data in a column. If there are lots of data then you can still use the FILTER
function to automatically count how many times a particular value has been entered.

Practice playing around with the SORT and FILTER functions in this file!! Don’t worry if
you make mistakes because we won’t be saving the file!

Clearing data (or deleting it)

We did a little of this previously. Highlight the column of data that you want to clear (or delete).
Go to home ribbon in the Menu Bar; select the CLEAR button and then Clear All from the drop
down menu. All the values will be cleared in that column but the column space will remain
intact. If you choose the DELETE button on the Home ribbon, not only will the values disappear

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but the column space will also disappear. Remember that if you delete a column of data in error,
there is always the UNDO button (the little back arrow) on the top of the page. If you aren’t sure
that you really won’t need this data again, copy your data onto a new sheet and then delete the
column of data in the copy – that way you always have a backup!! (Remember to always keep
the raw data sheet “clean” (unused) so that you could go back to this if you needed it!)

How to link two columns of data

How to apply formulas
You have already attempted some of this task when you learnt about the DRAG feature. Let’s
look at linking two columns of data first. First consider your data set with the item codes and
prices. Add another column that includes the number of times each item has been purchased. To
calculate the total cost of this item, you would put an = sign into the first cell of the column into
which you want the new information to go, and then put in a formula that multiplies the dollar
cost by the number of times the item had been purchased. Remember to use the cell references,
not the actual value!

As you have done previously, hit the ENTER key and the value for the first item appears. Then
drag this formula down for all of the other items and the total cost of each item appears.

The columns of data that you want to link by formula don’t have to be next to one another – they
can be anywhere on the data sheet – they can even be on other sheets of data in the one workbook
(file). As long as your formula and the cell references are correct you can use the DRAG
function and the formula entry function to link any number of columns of data.

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Now, another wonderful Excel feature! If the price of any item changes, instead of recalculating
everything, simply change the value in the appropriate cell, and watch Excel recalculate
everything automatically!

Exercise 8.
Using the price file, practice applying formulae and dragging. You can choose what formulae
you want to apply, and to what columns of data, but be ready to explain what you are doing to the
tutor or the class!!

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Descriptive stats and statistical tests

Calculating AVERAGES (Means)

On the sheet called TEST-RETEST, imagine that it has been generated on a timed up and go test
which has been measured by 20 members of a student group in an exercise on reliability of
measurement technique. Each of the students has recorded three measurements of the test, in an
attempt to demonstrate that they are reliable. This is the way that the data might look. To start
with you want to calculate the AVERAGE value for the group for Test 1, 2 and 3. Leave a row
under your raw data, and insert a column to the left of your first column of data, so that it gives
you a new column into which to add some references for yourself. Now keep your eye on these
boxes!!!!

In your new column, type mean (or AVERAGE) for your own reference (leaving a blank row
first!) Under the Test 1 data, type =. You will notice that the left hand box that you have your
eye on changes, and lists for you (if you click on the button on the right) all the recently used
statistical tests.

You select the statistical function that you want. Each of the function names are shortened, so
you should expect that you will know what you are looking for! But if in doubt, you can click on
a function and it will tell you what it does. The Right hand box (the Comments Box), is where

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your formula appears. If you aren’t sure what formula (or value) is in a cell, click into the cell,
and look at what appears in the comments box.

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To calculate the average (or the mean) for TEST 1, now select (or type) AVERAGE after the =
sign under the data for Test 1 (leaving your row). This is so that you don’t mix up your statistics
with your raw data. Then the program asks you to define the range of variables from which you
want to calculate the average (mean). You can enter these by clicking into the first cell of data,
holding your Left mouse button down, and dragging down to the last cell. You can also type the
cell references directly into the reference cell, but this can be slow and prone to error. Hit the
RETURN key, and there is your Average value for that column of data!!

Now, using that DRAG option (move the cursor down to the bottom right corner of the cell into
which you typed the AVERAGE formula and watch it change in nature), move the cursor across
to the next two columns to calculate the group means for Test 2 and Test 3. This DRAG option
will only work if you have the same number of cells with data in them as the column in which
you first calculated the formula. Don’t worry, if you have missing data in a cell within the cell
references in the formula, MS Excel treats it as missing data (no value) and calculates over the
top of it!!
Now you can apply exactly the same approach to calculate the Standard Deviation (STDEV).

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Other descriptive data functions in MS Excel that you can obtain in exactly the same way are
MEDIAN, MODE, PERCENTILE, MIN(imum), MAX(imum). AVERAGES (or means),
Standard Deviations, Medians, Percentiles can only be calculated for equal interval data (number
data). You cannot calculate these statistical tests on categorical data (such as a, b, c etc).

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Exercise 9
Check that you have calculated the same value for the Average and Standard Deviation as the
person sitting next to you. Now calculate all the descriptive data techniques listed above for the
equal interval data Test-retest’ sheet.

Exercise 10.
Go to the Sheet ‘Experimental’ in Excel Course Data Entry.xlsx and calculate all the descriptive
data techniques listed above for the equal interval data in age, length of hair 1, and length of hair
2.

Exercise for the people who want more challenge

As a way of reflecting on what you have learnt so far, open a new MS Excel file, and identify in
the first row, the header names of the likely expenses that you will have whilst living in Adelaide.
Label column 1 ‘DATE’, and then list at least another 5 columns of your likely types of expenses
(Transport, food, dinning etc)

Now make up some costs for each of the next seven days (one day per row). Play around with
the numbers, working out (using your formulae skills), how much living in Adelaide could cost
you each day, and across a week. Calculate average costs across a week for your expenses, and
see what happens when you increase or decrease your expenses by a percentage.

If you are working to a budget, type your budget for a week into another column, and practice
taking away from this amount the money you are spending each day. Don’t worry if you blow
your budget – this is pretend!! But this is a very good way of keeping track of what you are
spending, and how you could change your spending patterns.

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Statistical calculations
Remember the TEST-RETEST sheet in your Excel file? We now need to test whether there are
significant differences between the three sets of measurements to see whether the students were
reliable
We do this in 3 ways

1. We conduct a paired t-test on the data.

Choose a cell into which you want your t-test result to go (usually under the descriptive
statistics), type =T.test into the Comments Box, and a small box will appear under it outlining the
format of the equation you need to enter. Alternatively you can click on the function button and
select TTEST from the menu and a pop up box will appear.

For T-tests (in our example there is an initial and then 2 repeat measures on same group of
subjects), you pair sets of these measures (set 1 compared with 2, set 2 compared with 3, set 1
compared with 3), and test significant differences (seeking to accept the null hypothesis and
demonstrate that the measures are no different from each other). First is array 1 put the cell
references for the raw data for test 1 in first, second is array 2, put the cell references for raw
data for test 2 (making sure that you don’t include the AVERAGE value) in here (make sure you
separate each data set with a comma, as seen in the little box), the 3rd is the number of tails (1 or
2) (put in 2 for 2 tailed t-test, always do this!!!) and the 4th is type, type 1 is for paired t-tests
(important to remember when you are doing reliability tests). The answer is the p value
associated with the T-test. If it is less than 0.05 then the two sets of measurements are
significantly different.
Sometimes the p value is so small that Excel expresses it as an exponential value (E5.0006) for
instance, which indicates that there are 5 0’s after the decimal point (a sure indication that the p
value is very small indeed and therefore definitely significant!!!! In that the p value is definitely
less than 0.05)

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2. We can also test for significance using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

To test significance on this same set of data using ANOVA, use single factor ANOVA (the
initial data and the 2 repeats all considered together), and test significant differences (seeking
to accept the null hypothesis and demonstrate that the measures are no different from each
other).
You will need to go to the Data ribbon, and select Data Analysis. Sometimes the computers
that you are using will need to be primed first, as you may not find Data Analysis in the list.
If this is the case, go to the FILE TAB, choose OPTIONS, ADD INS, and click GO next to
the manage add ins drop down box. Tick both box for Analysis Toolpak. Wait until the Data
Analysis tools have been retrieved and activated, and then you will find Data Analysis on that
computer every time you go back to it.
For a simple replication test on this type of data you need to test the Single factor ANOVA
model. Click on this option and follow the prompts. If you want to calculate an Intraclass
Correlation to test for reliability, you will need to calculate an ANOVA first.

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This is the output from the ANOVA model, which appears after you have completed all the steps
as outlined in the DATA ANALYSIS process. You are not surprised to find that the p value is
not significant, as it was not significant when you tested differences in the data using the T-test
statistic. If you wanted to calculate an ICC, you would use these values from the ANOVA output
in your formula (the within subject mean square, and the within-group mean square).

We now need to test for the correlations in the data, to see how valid and stable the measures
were that the students took. This is usually undertaken by graphing the data, and then by a
statistical test (Pearson r) for correlation. Using two of the columns of equal interval measures
(tests 1 and 2), click on the drop down arrow (bottom right) in ‘Charts’ on the insert ribbon and
follow the steps.

You want to select the scatter plot graph, which arranges the Test 1 data on one axis (usually the
x or horizontal axis) against the Test 2 data (usually on the y or vertical axis). To be assured that
the data is reliable it needs to be arranged closely around a line of 45 degrees (the line of best fit).
You can superimpose this line once the graph has been made, or you can ‘eyeball’ it!!

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If you follow the instructions for graph making, you will produce a graph such as this. This
shows that when linked together the repeated test data is scattered variably around a straight line.

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To impose the line of best fit on this graph, after the graph has been constructed and is sitting on
the Excel sheet, click on the graph to highlight it, go to Chart Tools, select the Layout tab, and
select the Trendline button. You have a choice then of all sorts of trend lines, what you want to
test correlation in a linear sense is a Linear Trendline.

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Correlation Coefficients
To put a value on the correlation outlined in this graphical display, use Pearson r statistics.
When you calculate the Pearson r value, you go back to the two columns of data (Tests 1 and 2)
and select a cell into which you want the calculation to appear. Remember how you calculated
the AVERAGE and the STANDARD DEVIATION (STDEV)?
Type = PEARSON (you might need to go looking for this statistical function in the other
statistical tests as it may not have been a regularly used feature). The program asks you to define
the range of data (again Test 1 and Test 2) and then it calculates the statistic for you. The closer
the r value is to 1 the better it is!
See the example on the next page. The Pearson r value for the test-retest is 0.98 (or 98%). This
indicates that 98% of the values in the initial test are explained by the values in the second test.
So there is 2% variability overall, which is influencing the variability of the measures. If you
were the statistician on the students’ team, you would be happy with this result. Ideally there
should be a close correlation between data from the two tests, because the test isn’t changing – so
any error must be coming from the students! We will talk more about this in class!

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Exercise 11.
Practice constructing these graphs and doing statistical tests for the paired data in the Test-Retest
sheet.

Now how to we treat categorical data?

Let’s imagine that the students have viewed a video of someone undertaking a specified test. It
can be correctly or incorrectly performed (Yes = correct, No = incorrect). You want to see how
good the agreement was between the students in whether the test was correctly performed or not.
The students have viewed the video twice and have provided a response on two separate
occasions. This is how your data might look. Can you enter this data (outlined in the next page)
onto a new worksheet in your MS Excel workbook?

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To make sense of this data, and to summarise it, use the Filter Feature in the Data option on the
Menu Bar. Filter the data into a 2x2 table so that you can see how many students said the test
was successful on both occasions of testing, how many said that the test was unsuccessful on the
two occasions of testing, and how many students disagreed on the two occasions of testing (YN,
or NY).

Yes1 No1

Yes2

No2

Total

You could calculate % agreement (the YES1_Yes2 and the No1_No2) scores as a percentage of
the Total, however this doesn’t make a lot of sense because you want all the students to either
agree that the test was completed successfully or that it was not completed successfully.

If however you wanted to test the differences between the values provided in Test1 and the values
provided in Test2 (the distributions of data as outlined below), you would use a chi square

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statistic, which looks at the difference between the expected values and the actual values. Type
=CHITEST from the statistical functions list. You will get a box like this…………………..

The actual data is the data from Test 1 and the expected data is from Test 2. The p value from the
chi square test is 1, which indicates that there were no differences between tests 1 and 2.
However, this doesn’t really help us because we don’t know whether the test itself was conducted
correctly or not! The p value that demonstrates reliability is always greater than 0.05. If it is
less, then you have significant differences. You can calculate chi squared statistics from any
number of categories in MSExcel.

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Exercise 12.
Go to the Test-retest sheet and use the repeated categorical data. Work out how to apply the
statistics from this section to the three sets of categories.

Making graphs
One of the wonderful features of Excel is its great graph making facilities. You have already
made a scatter plot. Let’s look at the Descriptive sheet (the favourite foods information) in the
Excel file. To make sense of the information on the favourite food column, first you have to
summarise it by using the Data filer function, and then once you have summarised the
information in a couple of new columns, click on Charts. Summarising the category information
will allow you to put it into a summary graph like a column graph, or a bar graph!

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At this stage in the graph making, you can decide how you want your axes to be labelled (if at
all), whether you want a legend, whether you want those gridlines – all by clicking onto the Chart
Tools ribbons and turning things off and on, or putting in the text for your labels.

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This is a very basic graph! Once it is made, you can double click onto any element of the graph
or in the Design, Layout or Format ribbons after it has been made, and change it. You can change
its colour (bars, background etc), its axes (font, scale) and its labels (font, size, orientation).
Remember, graphing needs to tell a story – if your graph doesn’t tell an interesting story then it
doesn’t add anything to your statistics!

Exercise 13.
Using the data in any of the sheets in the Excel file, create different types of graphs. It doesn’t
matter what you make, as long as you have a reason for doing what you are doing! Try to make
graphs that have some meaning.

Exercise 14
The dataset outlined in the sheet ‘Experimental’ was generated from a fictitious experimental
study. A summary of the research is……………………….

A chemical company tested two types of shampoo on the growth of hair (shampoo type 1 and 2).
It took measurements of hair length before and after application of the shampoo. The participants
were randomly allocated either shampoo 1 or 2, and used it the same number of times, in the
same way over the same time period. The length of their hair was measured again after the test
period. The shampoo company wanted to test whether the length of hair grown over the
specified time period differed depending on the type of shampoo used.

Do the following tests on this dataset, following all the instructions in the booklet

 Divide the data into men and women using the data filter function.
 Sort the male data into ascending age
 Calculate the mean age and Standard Deviation for females
 Calculate the individual difference between the two length of hair measurements, and then
calculate the mean difference, and the standard deviation
 Divide the data into the types of shampoo.
 Divide this into men and women
 Now calculate the mean difference in length of hair growth, for men and women, who used
the two types of shampoo.

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Making PivotTables
Another feature of MS Office is the function called PivotTable. A PivotTable report is useful to
summarise, analyse, explore, and present summary of your data. PivotTable enables you to easily
see comparisons, patterns and trends in data. For example, in the data set below, the summary
table (highlighted in red) could be automatically created.

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How to do it:
Select the cell or range of cells that contain the data, make sure that you include the column
headings in the selection. On the Insert tab, in the Tables group, click PivotTable

In the Create PivotTable dialog box, make sure Select a table or range is selected and then
select where to place the PivotTable, either a new worksheet or the existing worksheet. Click Ok.
The PivotTable Field List box will appear on right hand side of worksheet. Place the fields you
want summarized in the layout fields, by clicking and dragging the section to the field required.
Nonnumeric fields are added to the Row Labels area, numeric fields are added to the Values area,
and date and time hierarchies are added to the column labels area. For example, if you wanted to
summarise the number of people that selected the same favourite food, you would put Fav Food
in the Row Labels area and Gender or Employment or Marital Status (a field that is nonnumeric)
in Values area.

Go to the next page for the example

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By placing different fields into different areas, summary of various data are possible.

You can also apply further filters to your data, by adding Slicers. These allow you to filter based
on certain fields in an interactive way. For example, if you wanted to know how many females
said pizza was their favourite food. To add Slicers, go to the Options Tab in the PivotTable
Tools ribbon, click on Insert Slicer. In the Insert Slicers dialog box check the tick box of the
field you wish to filter based on, e.g. Gender, then OK. A dialog box will open and you can select
the particular value you would like to filter by, eg Male or Female.

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Numbers have now

changed to reflect the
favourite food of females
only.

PivotTable can automatically generate a graph of the summarized data by using the PivotChart
Tool. Instead of selecting PivotTable when creating a table at the start, click the drop down menu
of the Tables group in the Insert menu, select PivotChart.

By selecting PivotChart and then doing the same steps as above you would create both a
summary of the data and a graph representing the number of people who chose a certain favourite
food.

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Transferring data around the MS Office Suite

MS Office uses interactive programs that have similar Menu bars, and which will accept
information from all other programs. It is a good idea to become familiar with moving between
the programs in the MSOffice suite, as it saves you time and effort, and allows you to make very
professional presentations. This final section of the course gives you the opportunity to explore
copying information from one program to another. It also teaches you about the interactivity of

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the programs, whereby you can change a table or graph generated in Excel, in one of the other
programs.
Transferring data to and from MS Excel and MS Word
Open up a new MS Word file. Use the same approach as outlined in the beginning of this
workbook for MS Excel. Copy several columns from one of the MS Excel datasheets, go across
to the Word document, and paste them in. Now, do the same with one of the graphs that you
have made. See how the tables and graph transfer so easily. Whilst you have the MS Excel file
open behind the MS Word file, you can make changes to the graph in MSWord by clicking onto
the graph, changing the data table which appears behind it, and then clicking out of the graph.

Exercise 15a
Using your findings from Exercise 14, write 100 words or so on what you found from the
experiment. Illustrate your words with a table, and a graph or two of the findings.

Transferring data to and from MS Excel and MS PowerPoint

Open up a new MS PowerPoint file. Use the same approach as outlined in the beginning of this
workbook for MS Excel. You will see a number of choices of slides. Choose one which you can
paste a graph into. Copy one of the graphs that you have made in Excel, and paste it in. See
how the graph transferred so easily. Whilst you have the MS Excel file open behind the MS
PowerPoint file, you can make changes to the graph in MS PowerPoint by clicking onto the
graph, changing the data table which appears behind it, and then clicking out of the graph. Play
around with MS PowerPoint, putting in headings and other text. There is a lot that you can do in
MS PowerPoint, including using different fonts and font sizes, different backgrounds, importing
pictures and logos etc. Think about the style of visual presentation that works best for you –
colors, fonts, backgrounds etc. When your lecturers present to you, think about what is the most
effective teaching approach using visual aids.

Exercise 15b
Using your findings from Exercise 14, construct 4-5 slides of what you found from the
experiment. Imagine that you are going to use these slides to illustrate a short presentation on the
experiment and the results.

Moving from Tables to Text and Back

Open the MS Word file ‘References for playing around with.doc’. Using the Tab key put a tab
between the separate sections of the reference (authors, date, title, journal, volume, and page
numbers). Do this only for the first few references as it soon gets boring. Now highlight the
references that you have ‘tabbed’, copy them, and put them on another new file. While they are
still highlighted, go to the Insert ribbon, click on the arrow under Table, and select Convert Text
to Table, and see if you can put your references into a multiple column table form in Word. You
should have as many columns in your table as you have tabs. If your tables haven’t worked as
expected, make sure that you have put in the Tabs as you were instructed. Now copy this table
across into MS Excel. To do this, open a new sheet, click into the first cell of the sheet, and
PASTE what you have copied. You will notice that the word data is now arranged in columns

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that you can SORT, FILTER etc. You can also sort in MSWord. Think about the usefulness of
being able to move this sort of data around between MSWord and MS Excel. Could you use this
technique to keep track of your references this year, or your weekly timetable?

Exercise 16
Go to the checklist at the front of the workbook and rate yourself. If you rate OK or Good for
every one of the competencies, you have successfully completed this course. You might need to
practice the skills to keep yourself fit!!! If you don’t rate yourself as highly, this book provides
you with all the information you need to repeat MS Excel steps. Using MS Excel has lots of
benefits. It is simply a tool that makes light work of statistical and descriptive calculations. It
can help you to store your personal data; it is great for making graphs and keeping lists (like
references). It is great for quick calculations that you would normally make mistakes when using
pen and paper, or a calculator.

Audits

MS Excel is a great tool for undertaking audits. For instance you could take a pre-established and
piloted MS Excel sheet on a laptop to the records office (or wherever you are accessing the
patient records) and you could enter your data without having to use an interim paper-based step.
You can also enter more columns of data as you need them (make sure you only put one piece
of information in each cell), and the MS Excel sheets can hold thousands of rows of patient data.
Keep your raw data collection to a minimum (only collect what you need). Remember that MS
Excel formulae features readily assist you to calculate derived data such as Length of Stay (LOS)
(subtracting the admissions date from the discharge data), or the delay between admission and
therapy assessment dates etc.

Exercise 17
Look at the sample audit data (Audit) in the practice MS Excel file. This is ‘made up’ data which
could well be from an audit that aimed to describe features of a hospital admission for patients
admitted to two hospital wards (2A, 2B) for hip and knee replacements. Now add another 10
rows of information for this (pretend) patient population. Be outrageous in your numbers so that
you have something to play with. NB Notice that there is no need to enter information on LOS, or
delay in therapy, as this can be derived from raw data using the appropriate formulae. Practice
populating new columns of derived data. The formulas for LOS and therapy delay are provided
in the first cell for your reference.
What other ‘new’ data could be derived from these existing data items? Practice establishing and
then calculating other derived data.

NOW…..go to the Sheet ‘Audit Benchmarks’. These are ‘hypothetical’ benchmarks for average
LOS for the different diagnoses and age groups (and the allowable variability to extend the LOS
for a particular reason), and also the average expected delay between admission and therapy
assessment, and between therapy assessment and commencement of therapy.
Considering only the data in the Audit sheet, what descriptive audit (research) questions could be
asked? Are there any cross-correlations which could be undertaken between the data items?

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Using the Audit Benchmark data, superimpose one of the benchmarks on your audit data. How
does your sample comply with the benchmark (% compliance?) Could this audit have collected
other information which might have explained variations in compliance?

Go to the checklist at the front of the booklet, and see how many of the items in it you feel
you are now competent in!!!

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