Why bother with Excel?

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Welcome

• welcome to Why bother with Excel?
• this session is 🥬 - a non-technical introduction for pre-beginners
• if you can’t access the chat, you might need to join our Teams channel: tinyurl.com/kindnetwork

The KIND network

• a social learning space for staff working with knowledge, information, and data across health, social care, and housing in Scotland
• we offer social support, free training, mentoring, community events, …
• Teams channel / mailing list

Session outline

• two minute overview of Excel
• strengths and weaknesses
• making Excel work for you
• next steps and training

A brief overview of Excel

• one of the oldest, and most widely used, pieces of desktop software
• ubiquitous in business, finance, health and social care…
• proprietary, closed-source, paid-for
• many versions

Central idea

• pieces of data are stored in cells

  • one value, one cell

• cells are arranged into rows and columns

• arranging data like this allows us to analyse it

• good data analysis helps make services better

Data should help…

• answering which/when questions
• seeing effects of changes
• comparing different areas
• looking at services over time
• …

Excel uses demo

• re-arranging data with filters and sorting
• formulas
• lookups
• summarising

Five top tips

• keep data tidy (one value per cell, one row per thing, one column per measurement)
• keep things as simple as possible - but not simpler
• don’t tolerate lots of manual spreadsheet work
• take care with formatting and accessibility/reuse
• bet that your spreadsheet will last longer, and travel further, than you think