Numbers

These programs are useful in research of all types - gathering, storing, sorting, selecting, organizing, generating data, hypotheses, concepts.

Name	Comments
MS Excel	What it Does: The standard spreadsheet Runs on: PC, Mac Drexel Site License Best Feature: Easy lists Worst Feature: Time to learn its vast array of features. Learning Time: Hours --- Export/Import: Good My use: Daily --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: For any heavy user it's worth adding the spreadsheet assistant mentioned elsewhere, and then learning how to record/write macros (VBA). Numbers note: Classroom demos of relationships
Simple Concordance	What it Does: Create document concordances - text analysis Runs on: PC, Mac Free Uniqueness: It's one of only a few tools to provide this combination of functions Best Feature: Amazing concordance Worst Feature: Requires text files - must save Word file as text first. Learning Time: Hours --- Export/Import: Medium My use: Infrequent --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: One of the gems. Months of work can be performed (better) in minutes. Obviously valuable only for those who need concordances. To save the analyses you will probably use copy and paste. Numbers note: For statistics on documents
Spreadsheet Assistant	What it Does: Excel macros to improve heavy-user efficiency Runs on: PC only Price: $40 Uniqueness: It's one of only a few tools to provide this combination of functions Best Feature: The added features become "natural" - such as "select to end" of column or row. Worst Feature: You have to pay for it. Learning Time: Hours --- My use: Regular --- Confidence in Evaluation: Good Comment: Not likely to be useful for somebody who doesn't regularly use Excel. Review & Comments about Spreadsheet Assistant in Academic Tools Blog

 

 

Update: 2006-11-26