26. What's the problem? Statistical functions in Excel Anyone using Excel — not just those using statistical functions — encounters these problems. The main thing is to use the right function and to know how to write a proper formula. Using an incorrectly written formula — or the wrong function — usually results in an incorrect answer. Incorrectly written formulas return error messages.
60. USING THIS TEMPLATE See the notes pane or view the full notes page (View menu) for detailed help on this template.
Editor's Notes
[ Note to trainer: People taking this course should have some basic knowledge of using formulas in Excel. Excel experts might prefer to jump straight to Lesson 3 to read about some improvements to statistical formulas in Excel 2003. For detailed help in customizing this template, see the last slide. Also, look for additional lesson text in the notes pane of some slides.]
A novice will learn the basics of building formulas in Excel. More experienced users will learn how to choose the right function to use, and how to troubleshoot some common problems.
Note: Don't confuse functions and formulas: A function is just the name, for example, STDEV or TREND. A formula is a function in action, including arguments, for example, =AVERAGE(A1:A33).
You likely have your own reasons for wanting to use statistical functions in Excel.
You'll get to try the variance function in the practice session.
Note: With statistical formulas, the arguments are frequently a range, as you can see in the illustration on the slide. [ Note to trainer : Steps — given in either numbered or bulleted lists — are always shown in yellow text.]
Typical users of these types of programs are workers in a research lab or people who work in statistics at an academic institution.
[ Note to trainer: With Excel 2003 installed on your computer, you can click the link in the slide to go to an online practice session. In the practice session, you can work through each of these tasks in Excel with instructions to guide you. Important: If you don’t have Excel 2003, you won’t be able to access the practice instructions.]
This lesson looks at some of the problems you might have when writing formulas in Excel and how to avoid them.
For the basics on writing formulas in Excel, see the course “Find functions and enter arguments.”
You'll use the Insert Function dialog box in the practice session.
If you make the common error of misspelling the function name, you'll see either no answer or the wrong answer.
Probability is spread out in a way consistent with the Standard Normal Distribution's standard deviation of 1. This means that about 95 percent of the distribution lies between -2 and 2. As shown in the illustration, the area under the curve up to a particular point indicates the cumulative probability of getting that value; the total area under the curve is 1. The formula would be written =NORMSDIST( z ), where you want to know how much probability lies to the left of z on the curve. You can use this function instead of a table of Standard Normal Distribution probabilities, but you have to spell the function name correctly to get the right answer.
Note to trainer: You'll find a link to Help topics in the Quick Reference Card, which is linked to at the end of the presentation.
[ Note to trainer: With Excel 2003 installed on your computer, you can click the link in the slide to go to an online practice session. In the practice session, you can work through each of these tasks in Excel with instructions to guide you. Important : If you don’t have Excel 2003, you won’t be able to access the practice instructions.]
Choosing the right function to use isn't always easy. Maybe your statistics knowledge is a bit rusty, or perhaps you didn't realize there were so many related functions available.
Use the Insert Function dialog box to find out more about each of the four related variance functions available in Excel.
Note If a function you're looking for isn't available, you may need to install the Analysis ToolPak. For more information, including installation instructions, see the Quick Reference Card.
You'll use this in the practice session.
The difference between these functions is partly due to statistics and partly due to the way Excel calculates them.
Which function you choose depends on your data. Do you have only numeric values? Do you have data for an entire population or just for a sample?
For a full list of functions that have been updated, see the Quick Reference Card [ Note to trainer : this is linked to at the end of the presentation]. If you have worksheets in older versions of Excel that use any of these functions, you may want to recalculate your results in Excel 2003, as the new answers will be more accurate.
[ Note to trainer: With Excel 2003 installed on your computer, you can click the link in the slide to go to an online practice session. In the practice session, you can work through each of these tasks in Excel with instructions to guide you. Important: If you don’t have Excel 2003, you won’t be able to access the practice instructions.]
Using This Template This Microsoft PowerPoint ® template has training content about using statistical functions in Excel 2003. It's geared for you to present to a group and customize as necessary. This template's content is adapted from the Microsoft Office Online Training course “Excel statistical functions.” Features of the template Title slide: On the first slide, there are empty brackets over which you should type the name of your company. You can delete the text box if you don't want this text. Animations: Custom animation effects are applied throughout. They'll play in previous versions back to Microsoft PowerPoint 2000. They include the entrance effects called Peek and Stretch, and sometimes the Dissolve effect is used. To alter them, go to the Slide Show menu, click Custom Animation , and work with the options that appear. Slide transitions: The Wipe Down transition is applied throughout the show. If you want a different one, go to the Slide Show menu, click Slide Transition , and work with the options that appear. Hyperlinks to online course: The template contains links to the online version of this training course. The links take you to the hands-on practice session for each lesson and to the Quick Reference Card that is published for this course. Important: You must have Excel 2003 installed to view the hands-on practice sessions. Headers and footers: The template contains a footer that has the course title. You can change or remove the footers in the Header and Footer dialog box (which opens from the View menu).
![Course contents ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],Statistical functions in Excel Each lesson includes a list of suggested tasks and a set of test questions.](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)