Excel Project

This week I worked on the Excel Project. To be honest, I thought that this project was going to be a lot more difficult and time-consuming than it actually was. Of course, there were several times when my frustration got the better of me, but I think this project was extremely useful. Not only did it require the manipulation of a "normal" table of data, (that which was featured in the "Raw Data" sheet), it also required the creation of not just one, but two(!) pivot tables. 
For me, the pivot tables were probably the most challenging since you had to place certain categories in either the row or the column, and then having to change from the defaulted sum to the average, or the count of the numbers. As I read through the discussion boards, I came upon the same problem as several other students where the percentages featured in the "Average Increase" pivot table (featured above) were in the thousands. After playing with the decimal places and the number formats for several minutes, I realized that I was using "sum" instead of "average." After switching, my numbers fixed themselves and I simply changed the percentages to one decimal place. I also decided to add a little color to the pivot table by using the "Pivot Style Dark 9" option under design. I thought this made the table a little more appealing and user friendly instead of being all white like the "raw data" table.
One reason that this project didn't seem that difficult was because a large portion of it was adding and manipulating a basic excel table. I actually found this part kind of fun because it included the usage of formulas. The formulas function of excel made calculating the data so much simpler, especially considering that there were about 500 rows of data! Also, the fact that this project was displayed as a real-life situation with the gym owner made me realize how useful Excel really is for a multitude of reasons. 

Week Nine: Clear

With the use of Microsoft Excel, the creation of spreadsheets is made simple. Not only does Excel allow the user to create one spreadsheet, but to create multiple spreadsheets together in a workbook. This week, learning about some of the basic functions of Excel, has been a review for me. Although I don't regularly use Excel, it is true that it is a very powerful tool. I originally learned the basics of Excel, along with some of its other functions in another computer class. Through ISM3004, more emphasis was put onto some of the functions that Excel is capable, one of which was the formulas ability.

The availability of formulas makes creating spreadsheets easier for users, especially when there are large amounts of data being used. Such formulas as =AVERAGE(), allows the user to average together a small, or a large amount of numbers. For example, if a user has 267 rows of data that they have to average together, instead of adding all the numbers together, and then dividing it by 267, they simply enter the formula =AVERAGE(A1:A267), and Excel will immediately give the answer. 
Along with the average formula, a user has the ability to add together data, subtract, multiply, divide, even look up data from a specific chart located on the spreadsheet. This can be an especially useful to a teacher who wants to see the letter grade for their students based on the total number of points received in the class. The can be down by using the =VLOOKUP() function. With the VLOOKUP function, the user enters the values which make the statement either true or false. In the case of a teacher, given in the example in the lecture, if they wish to record a students grade as unsatisfactory or satisfactory, the user only enters which value is to be marked as satisfactory and all that is not, will be marked as unsatisfactory.