Workbook
The StatsDirect workbook operates like spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel. If you know how to use Excel then you will find your way around the StatsDirect worksheet easily.
This page gives the basic information that you need to get started using the StatsDirect workbook. You may also wish to try one of the many Excel tutorials on the Web if you are new to working with spreadsheets.
You can work with up to 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows, but in reality you are limited by the amount of memory your computer has: Very large spreadsheets will run slowly unless you have a large amount of memory and run StatsDirect on a 64-bit version of Windows.
WORKING WITH DATA IN WORKSHEETS
INTRODUCTION
A workbook consists of worksheets that are divided into rows and columns forming a matrix of cells. You may enter data or formulae into cells. The active cell is highlighted with a rectangular border, you can move the active cell by clicking on another cell with the mouse or by using the cursor keys (arrows).
ENTERING DATA
Numbers entered can range from -1E-307 to 1E+307. Text is any sequence of letters and numbers which the workbook does not recognise as another form of data. If you want to enter numbers as labels then you must put quotes around them, i.e. "2" is treated as a string and 2 is treated as a number. See dates and times for more information on these data forms. Logical data are true or false, true is represented by 1 and false by 0 in any analysis you perform. If you want to enter coded data such as M, F, Male, female etc. then please use the search and replace function to convert them to numerical codes before analysis.
COPYING AND MOVING DATA
Most spreadsheet software enables you to select cells and copy/paste/delete/move them. Selected cells are displayed with a black background instead of white. To select an entire sheet you can click on the top left hand cell where row headings intersect with column headings. To select a single range of cells hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse over them, or hold down the shift key and use the arrow keys to highlight the range. To select more than one range at a time hold down the Ctrl key and select ranges as described. Once you have the range(s) you want selected you can copy, delete, paste or move the data. To copy the selected range(s) to memory, hold down the Ctrl key and press the C key. You can then hold down the control (Ctrl) key and press the V key to retrieve the range and paste them into the same workbook at a different location, another StatsDirect workbook or an external application such as Microsoft Excel. Data can be copied from external spreadsheets into StatsDirect in this way also. To move a selected range, position the mouse cursor over a border of the range and drag the range using the mouse. You can also use cut and paste operations to move ranges. The delete key clears a selected range. If you accidentally delete or move data then press Ctrl+Z or select "Undo" from the edit menu to undo the change.
LABELLING COLUMNS
StatsDirect analyses most data in columns. The label for a column can be put in the first row or in any other area of that column which might be selected as a sub-column to analyse, i.e. one column of the workbook can contain more than one column for analysis. If a selected range of cells does not contain a string at the top then StatsDirect uses the workbook column label as its heading otherwise the first string in a selected range is used as the label for that selection. The test data file supplied with StatsDirect uses text strings in row 1 as labels for each column. You can set the header label of a column by double clicking on it with the left mouse button. Row labels can be set in the same way.
ENTERING FORMULAE
If you are familiar with using formulae in spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel then you will be able to use formulae in StatsDirect workbooks without further instruction. An entry is treated as a formula if you start with the equal to sign "=", i.e. =A1-B1 gives the subtraction of column 1 row 1 from column 2 row 2. A range of cells is represented by a colon, i.e. A1:B10 is the rage from column 1 row 1 to column 2 row 10. If you want to repeat a formula but make it relevant to the columns below or to the right then enter the first formula and move the mouse cursor to the bottom right hand corner of the cell. Now hold down the left mouse button and drag down; you will see that the formulae below are not just copies of the parent formulae but that all cell references have been translated to those relevant to the particular row/column you have dragged to. Here the cell references change because they are relative, if you want to make them absolute then put a dollar sign "$" before either part of the reference, i.e. $A1 is absolute column 1 relative row 1 and $A$1 is absolute column 1 row 1. See Worksheet Functions for information on the functions most commonly used in formulae.