Formulas are one of the most useful and time saving features of the excel program. Instead of typing a whole column of data, the same outcome can be obtained typing a short formula into the input box. This method is more reliable and less time consuming than working out sums manually.
On a few occasions, I used the ‘auto-sum’ button. This gives you the option of adding different data values in the click of a single button. Again this is a time consuming feature. E.g. if we wanted to add to numbers together like 54.6789 and 789654. By highlighting the desired values and clicking the auto-sum button the values will be added automatically.
Another obvious and simple feature that can be used in excel is the ‘insert rows and columns’ option. This allows you to insert any amount of rows or columns into a list of data values.
There are many other less obvious features of excel that I have used, but these are only a short few that I am most familiar with.
Overall, use of the ‘Excel’ program went reasonably smoothly. However there were minor complications that formed as the course progressed.
The most major of all complications was forcing the computer to adjust the results and final prices, if a single price was altered. This caused confusion for quite a considerable time, but the complication was soon resolved once shown by the teacher.
Another stage that caused confusion was the use of different formulas in order to obtain wanted information quickly. The thing that made these difficult was forgetting the different formulas. Again after practice, and once I became familiar with them they were also common knowledge.
If I was to give the program a mark out of ten for ease of use, the mark would probably lie somewhere between 8 and 9.
Again the spreadsheets were reasonably easy to set up, which I have mostly explained in the ‘ease of use’ section. As we all know, in order to enter the excel program, all you are required to do is double click on the logo and your in.
The next stage is entering the needed data. This can cause some confusion if wrong digits are entered. However there are methods that can be used to detect these mistakes. With careful typing and regular checking of work, this process is reasonably easy.
- My view of excel and its suitability
From my point of view excel is a straightforward and user friendly program that is very well suited to this type of spreadsheet. The reasons for this, is the amount of options that ‘excel’ has to offer in order to make life a little bit easier for the user.
However if you are not an experienced user, and there are no experienced users present at the time of use, then there are some complications that may arise. For example the formulas that I have covered (=D6*90%). If you have had no previous experience of using this program, then it could be a lot more time consuming, and mistakes will be much more common and likely.
- The efficiency of the project and whether or not my solution was appropriate.
Although I did come across some stages of the project that were very time consuming, being as this was the first time that I had created a large spreadsheet, I felt that the project was not substantial enough. By this, I mean there were areas of the project that could be completed in several minutes, and did not take anywhere near the duration of the lesson to complete.
My final spreadsheet that I produced was very reliable and was an appropriate solution for the criteria. As you may see, I have analysed each spreadsheet in the process, labelling good and bad points about each of the different stages. This finally led me to a suitable spreadsheet.
After completing the project, I feel as though it was truly worthwhile, as my understanding of the excel program is now much better.
- Problems that I encountered and how I overcome them.
A problem that occurred while I was producing the spreadsheet very commonly was error messages appearing on the screen. At one point this happened without me saving my work, and the work that I was producing at the time was lost. This however forced me to save my work often from the.0.0n on, fortunately because of this I saved my work more often, and when error messages occurred again, not a major amount of my work was lost.
Another problem that I occurred was the formulas that were needed to save to, and give you a more reliable outcome. I was forced to ask for information from other members of the class and even the teacher, on how to obtain the right answers. However with much practice with these, I was able to master these formulas, and not help was required.
Another problem that occurred, was the fact that if you wanted to change a single data value, and then wanted other relevant data values to change automatically in order for the spreadsheet to be correct, there are a number of steps that you must take. This caused me a large amount of confusion. Eventually however I corrected this problem.
- Did my project do all the things that I set out to achieve.
From my point of view, I have successfully completed the list of objectives and criteria in an appropriate and methodical way. I have taken care when creating spreadsheets in order to make the solution correct, and I have analysed them, and made any changes that I think relevant in order to improve the reliability of my final spreadsheet.
Also, I now have a much clearer insight to what the ‘excel’ program involves and I now feel more experienced with using the program also.
- Improvements that I feel may be possible in the future.
Taking into account the amount of resources that we have, and the understanding of the program that we also have, I feel that there are no further improvements that we could have made to the project. There are no major stages of the project that I feel needed desperately changing, however there may be minor areas that I could find if I had a better and more experienced insight to what Excel involves.
