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#1
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Feedback Statistics?
I send out forms to gather feedback on performers/programs that my company
has to entertain patrons. I gather feedback from both staff and patrons. Staff feedback includes how well the performer did (were they on time? prepared? etc.) and how well they were received by the audience (1-5 rating). Patron feedback includes how they found out about the program, how they'd rate the program and what other types of programs they would like to see. I currently keep the statistics in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and send out quarterly reports using the stats. However, the spreadsheet has so much information, I feel like Excel isn't a good choice. I have a Staff tab, Patron tab and two other tabs for general market research. The Staff and Patron ratings though fill up so much of the spreadsheet it's hard to use it to really gather stats aside from the complete results (# of patrons surveyed, # of surveys sent, etc.) Is there a good template or even better program that I can use? I tried transferring it all to Access, but that seemed just as messy. Thanks. |
#2
Posted to microsoft.public.excel.misc
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Feedback Statistics?
Rachel,
Part way into reading your request I was going to suggest a relational database program, such as Access since Excel is seemingly overloading you with information. Generally I'm thinking it is probably the tool for this type of situation. If you were just trying to analyze the results of a single survey, or even the same survey given at different points in time, Excel would probably handle it pretty well. But with a mix of several types of surveys (those tabs) and a variety of each of those (for each performer) taken over a long period of time, Access or a similar RDBMS would seem to me the way to go. I suspect that the problem in moving your data from Excel into Access may be that once you got it all into Excel you may not have examined it to see how you could optimize it's organization to obtain the information you want easily. I don't know how familiar you are with Access, but this is a typical problem with people trying to move from Excel into Access - they still think '2-dimensionally' rather than '3-dimensionally'; i.e. they leave their data in the tables created by the data import rather than analyzing it to see how it can be restructured into multiple, related tables for efficient storage and data retrieval. There's a pretty good discussion of the basics of RDBMS published by Oracle he http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/...087688,00.html it gets a bit deep at times (well, those Oracle folks tend to go overboard at times), but it might be something to read up on. Another good place to look would be http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/he...563211033.aspx which is an article Microsoft has put up that uses data in Excel as an example of how to move it all into Access in a 'better' way. Beth Melton has a good article on normalization also: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...icle.asp?ID=88 One more good read on normalization is at http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/...alization.html by the MySQL folks - an open source RDBMS that is often used to drive dynamic page providing websites. While I don't adhere to strict normalization (there are always exceptions to the rules), until you have a grasp of this basic fundamental of RDBMS architecture, any attempt to set up a smoothly functioning database is going to be tough going and you'll probably end up with the attitude of 'there is so much work to be done to get anything out of it' that so many end up with. That's mostly because they are trying to make the database look and function like Excel. Kind of like trying to use the heel of a shoe to hammer a nail: it can be done, but not nearly as well as with a real hammer. With the Excel setup you have, I can imagine it's difficult or at least tedious, to find out what performer was well accepted by both the patrons and your staff - with Access it would be an easy task. But you have to do some more learning in the area of creating queries and reports - luckily, Access has some great wizards to help you do exactly that. "Rachel" wrote: I send out forms to gather feedback on performers/programs that my company has to entertain patrons. I gather feedback from both staff and patrons. Staff feedback includes how well the performer did (were they on time? prepared? etc.) and how well they were received by the audience (1-5 rating). Patron feedback includes how they found out about the program, how they'd rate the program and what other types of programs they would like to see. I currently keep the statistics in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and send out quarterly reports using the stats. However, the spreadsheet has so much information, I feel like Excel isn't a good choice. I have a Staff tab, Patron tab and two other tabs for general market research. The Staff and Patron ratings though fill up so much of the spreadsheet it's hard to use it to really gather stats aside from the complete results (# of patrons surveyed, # of surveys sent, etc.) Is there a good template or even better program that I can use? I tried transferring it all to Access, but that seemed just as messy. Thanks. |
#3
Posted to microsoft.public.excel.misc
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Feedback Statistics?
Thank you!
I do know a little on Access as I use that for the basis of a Performer's Database that I also run. I tried to move things around a little, but to me it was seeming to look exactly as the Excel spreadsheet looks. The biggest problem with Access is that I have the data available for librarians to see and most of our Librarians (I work for a Library) do not know a thing about Access and may not completely understand. I will look into your suggestions though, thank you very much! "JLatham" wrote: Rachel, Part way into reading your request I was going to suggest a relational database program, such as Access since Excel is seemingly overloading you with information. Generally I'm thinking it is probably the tool for this type of situation. If you were just trying to analyze the results of a single survey, or even the same survey given at different points in time, Excel would probably handle it pretty well. But with a mix of several types of surveys (those tabs) and a variety of each of those (for each performer) taken over a long period of time, Access or a similar RDBMS would seem to me the way to go. I suspect that the problem in moving your data from Excel into Access may be that once you got it all into Excel you may not have examined it to see how you could optimize it's organization to obtain the information you want easily. I don't know how familiar you are with Access, but this is a typical problem with people trying to move from Excel into Access - they still think '2-dimensionally' rather than '3-dimensionally'; i.e. they leave their data in the tables created by the data import rather than analyzing it to see how it can be restructured into multiple, related tables for efficient storage and data retrieval. There's a pretty good discussion of the basics of RDBMS published by Oracle he http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/...087688,00.html it gets a bit deep at times (well, those Oracle folks tend to go overboard at times), but it might be something to read up on. Another good place to look would be http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/he...563211033.aspx which is an article Microsoft has put up that uses data in Excel as an example of how to move it all into Access in a 'better' way. Beth Melton has a good article on normalization also: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...icle.asp?ID=88 One more good read on normalization is at http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/...alization.html by the MySQL folks - an open source RDBMS that is often used to drive dynamic page providing websites. While I don't adhere to strict normalization (there are always exceptions to the rules), until you have a grasp of this basic fundamental of RDBMS architecture, any attempt to set up a smoothly functioning database is going to be tough going and you'll probably end up with the attitude of 'there is so much work to be done to get anything out of it' that so many end up with. That's mostly because they are trying to make the database look and function like Excel. Kind of like trying to use the heel of a shoe to hammer a nail: it can be done, but not nearly as well as with a real hammer. With the Excel setup you have, I can imagine it's difficult or at least tedious, to find out what performer was well accepted by both the patrons and your staff - with Access it would be an easy task. But you have to do some more learning in the area of creating queries and reports - luckily, Access has some great wizards to help you do exactly that. "Rachel" wrote: I send out forms to gather feedback on performers/programs that my company has to entertain patrons. I gather feedback from both staff and patrons. Staff feedback includes how well the performer did (were they on time? prepared? etc.) and how well they were received by the audience (1-5 rating). Patron feedback includes how they found out about the program, how they'd rate the program and what other types of programs they would like to see. I currently keep the statistics in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and send out quarterly reports using the stats. However, the spreadsheet has so much information, I feel like Excel isn't a good choice. I have a Staff tab, Patron tab and two other tabs for general market research. The Staff and Patron ratings though fill up so much of the spreadsheet it's hard to use it to really gather stats aside from the complete results (# of patrons surveyed, # of surveys sent, etc.) Is there a good template or even better program that I can use? I tried transferring it all to Access, but that seemed just as messy. Thanks. |
#4
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Feedback Statistics?
Rachel,
I think it would be worth the effort in the long run. You really have to sit down as a first step and think about the data you have and how it may need to be reorganized for database use. Sometimes that's difficult for people to get the hang of. Look at your data in Excel to see why you may have multiple rows in a sheet all regarding the results of a single survey. Look for the columns that the same information repeated many times. Those are columns that could probably be in a single table as a single entry, with related table(s) set up to hold the data that has forced the use of multiple rows on the sheets. I like to use a simple 'rolodex' type scenario as an example. A rolodex or contacts file usually consists of Names, Addresses, Phone numbers. Where all of your contacts each only have 1 address per name and 1 or 2 phone numbers per name, one card (row) per contact works fine. But if a contact has multiple addresses, and a varying number of phone #s at each address, then you either start really smudging up your cards trying to cram all the information into them, or you have many cards all relating to the same person and have to fumble through them to find the right person's info at whatever address they may be at today. Think about a situation where you need to keep up with a person's home and business information, and they may even have several business addresses (think of a doctor who works at several clinics, perhaps - as that's a real world scenario I've worked with in helping a national insurance company put together their physician's directory). With a RDBMS you'd start off with a top-level table that contained very unique information about the individual: name, SSAN, birthday, wife/children's names - things of that nature. Then you have a 'related' table that contains the address information for the person - one record in that table for each address associated with them. By the very nature of a RDBMS, each person can have none, one or many addresses. Then yet a 3rd table has the phone numbers associated with each address - and again they can have none, one or many phone numbers of various types (voice, data, cell, etc) associated with it. You can now rapidly get to Dr. Rachel's 'card' and immediately scroll through all addresses associated with Dr. Rachel while seeing all phone numbers associated with each address as you scroll through the addresses. If you'd like to continue working toward this end, I'd be willing to assist you on an "as time permits" basis with it. Perhaps help analyze the data you have to possibly suggest a table structure for the database to you, and help from time to time with questions about 'how to' or 'what's the best way' type questions about it. Although for some things, it could be more advantageous to ask through the Access support groups. If so, you can reach me through this email address (remove spaces to come up with the obvious email addy) Help From @ jlatham site.com "Rachel" wrote: Thank you! I do know a little on Access as I use that for the basis of a Performer's Database that I also run. I tried to move things around a little, but to me it was seeming to look exactly as the Excel spreadsheet looks. The biggest problem with Access is that I have the data available for librarians to see and most of our Librarians (I work for a Library) do not know a thing about Access and may not completely understand. I will look into your suggestions though, thank you very much! "JLatham" wrote: Rachel, Part way into reading your request I was going to suggest a relational database program, such as Access since Excel is seemingly overloading you with information. Generally I'm thinking it is probably the tool for this type of situation. If you were just trying to analyze the results of a single survey, or even the same survey given at different points in time, Excel would probably handle it pretty well. But with a mix of several types of surveys (those tabs) and a variety of each of those (for each performer) taken over a long period of time, Access or a similar RDBMS would seem to me the way to go. I suspect that the problem in moving your data from Excel into Access may be that once you got it all into Excel you may not have examined it to see how you could optimize it's organization to obtain the information you want easily. I don't know how familiar you are with Access, but this is a typical problem with people trying to move from Excel into Access - they still think '2-dimensionally' rather than '3-dimensionally'; i.e. they leave their data in the tables created by the data import rather than analyzing it to see how it can be restructured into multiple, related tables for efficient storage and data retrieval. There's a pretty good discussion of the basics of RDBMS published by Oracle he http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/...087688,00.html it gets a bit deep at times (well, those Oracle folks tend to go overboard at times), but it might be something to read up on. Another good place to look would be http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/he...563211033.aspx which is an article Microsoft has put up that uses data in Excel as an example of how to move it all into Access in a 'better' way. Beth Melton has a good article on normalization also: http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...icle.asp?ID=88 One more good read on normalization is at http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/...alization.html by the MySQL folks - an open source RDBMS that is often used to drive dynamic page providing websites. While I don't adhere to strict normalization (there are always exceptions to the rules), until you have a grasp of this basic fundamental of RDBMS architecture, any attempt to set up a smoothly functioning database is going to be tough going and you'll probably end up with the attitude of 'there is so much work to be done to get anything out of it' that so many end up with. That's mostly because they are trying to make the database look and function like Excel. Kind of like trying to use the heel of a shoe to hammer a nail: it can be done, but not nearly as well as with a real hammer. With the Excel setup you have, I can imagine it's difficult or at least tedious, to find out what performer was well accepted by both the patrons and your staff - with Access it would be an easy task. But you have to do some more learning in the area of creating queries and reports - luckily, Access has some great wizards to help you do exactly that. "Rachel" wrote: I send out forms to gather feedback on performers/programs that my company has to entertain patrons. I gather feedback from both staff and patrons. Staff feedback includes how well the performer did (were they on time? prepared? etc.) and how well they were received by the audience (1-5 rating). Patron feedback includes how they found out about the program, how they'd rate the program and what other types of programs they would like to see. I currently keep the statistics in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and send out quarterly reports using the stats. However, the spreadsheet has so much information, I feel like Excel isn't a good choice. I have a Staff tab, Patron tab and two other tabs for general market research. The Staff and Patron ratings though fill up so much of the spreadsheet it's hard to use it to really gather stats aside from the complete results (# of patrons surveyed, # of surveys sent, etc.) Is there a good template or even better program that I can use? I tried transferring it all to Access, but that seemed just as messy. Thanks. |
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