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Welcome to the wonderful world of EXCEL!
You can use the same copy, paste, cut shortcut keys that you use in Microsoft Word in EXCEL, or mouse right click.
Contol-x: cut
Control-c: copy
Control-p: paste
When dealing with data:
Always double check your numbers after you enter the data.
If you see a value that looks really weird, try to see if there was a mistake or if there is a reason for an extremely
high or low value (so if you see a caterpillar value that looks ‘off’ ask the person whose caterpillar it is.)
Keep one copy of your raw data untouched, copy the values to another worksheet and work with the data there.
Functions: in EXCEL anytime you type ‘=’ into a cell then EXCEL expects a function or formula to follow. EXCEL can
calculate hundreds of formulas/function. To search for a specific function (or browse them all for fun), click on the
formula tab at the top of your screen.
A few common functions:
To calculate a column or row mean:
o =average(highlight row or column that you want to average)
o Example: To calculate the average of all the values A1 – A25, =average(A1:A25)
To calculate the sum of all values: =sum(A1:A21)
To count all the values (i.e. determine sample size): =count(A1:A25)
To calculate standard deviation =stdev.s (range of values)
To calculate a square root: =sqrt(value)
1. Copy the raw data into another worksheet (this way if you inadvertently delete or change a data value, you still
have a clean copy of your data).
2. Sort the data based on treatment type.
3. Optional: Cut and paste the data into separate treatment columns.
4. Calculate the average and standard deviation for each treatment group.
EXCEL does not have a standard error function. So you’ll have to calculate standard deviation and then use that to
calculate standard error (standard error = standard deviation / square root of the sample size).