Data Entry with Excel

Data collection is an important part of research that aims to answer a specific research question. The logical step, after data collection, is to analyze the collected data and make meaningful and appropriate interpretations of the data.

Microsoft Excel is a commonly used and rather popular tool for data entry and manipulation. Excel has some statistical capabilities and you can download several add on plug-ins that increase the statistical capabilities of Excel. However, I prefer using statistical software for data analysis as opposed to Excel- call it a personal preference or bias, but somehow, I have not been entirely convinced with the statistical manipulations possible with Excel.

We could use one of several databases for data entry and storage. Excel, is however widely available and used, thanks to the market advantage of Microsoft. We shall look at making use of excel for data entry.

This guide is based on the use of Excel 2007 and upwards for data entry.

Data Entry with Excel