Computer Science 1300
    Essential Computer Skills

    Fall, 1998

    Curtis Brown
    cbrown@trinity.edu

    Lab 14

      (Don't forget that in addition to this lab, the assignment for next Tuesday includes reading the first two parts of Easy Access '97 and simultaneously starting up Microsoft Access and beginning to get familiar with the look and feel of the program.  Experiment a little and see what happens.)

      This is another lab using Excel.  This one should be very easy, but will give you a little experience working with graphical representations of data.

      On your gradebook worksheet for lab 13, select the portion of the worksheet which contains student names and examination grades (cells A6 to E16).  Then produce two charts which represent this information in different formats.  Try to find styles of graphical presentation which make it easy to view and understand the data.  (Actually grade data doesn't really lend itself particularly well to graphical representation, but do the best you can with the data you've got!)

      Requirements for the assignment:
       

      • At least two charts.
      • Each chart should be included as a separate sheet in the workbook.
      • Each chart should have a title.
      • X and Y axes should have labels ("Student" and "Grade" or something like that).
      • Include a legend.  (The Chart Wizard should automatically include one.)
      • labels in legend should be "exam 1", "exam 2", etc. -- not just "Series 1", "Series 2", etc.!  (How?  Either of two ways.  (1) When you first select "insert chart," the first item in the Chart Wizard will include a tab for "Series"; select that tab and then enter names for the four series.  (2) Or, after the chart has been created, right-click on the chart and select "Source Data . . .", then select the "Series" tab and proceed as before.)
      • include a text box below each chart indicating what you take to be the advantages and disadvantages of that particular way of representing the data (as compared with your other choice).  (E.g.:  "Advantages:  much cuter than the other chart.  Disadvantages:  can't see most of the data.")  (How?  Under the View menu select Toolbars and then Drawing to make sure that the Drawing toolbar is displayed at the bottom of your screen.  Then, on the Drawing toolbar, select the Text Box button (it's the one that looks like a little page with text on it).  This will turn your cursor into a tool you can use to indicate the area where you want to text box to be placed.  You can always resize and/or move the box later, so don't worry too much initially about figuring out exactly how large it should be and where to put it.  Note:  you may need to resize and/or move your chart to make room for the text box.
      • Save the workbook including the two charts as "YourName_Lab14" or something similar and place it in the lab14 folder in our class folder.


      That's it!

      Due:  Tuesday, November 24.


      Last update:  November 19, 1998 
      Trinity University  | Curtis Brown  |  CSCI 1300:  Essential Computing Skills