{"id":226,"date":"2011-12-01T16:23:12","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T16:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/?p=226"},"modified":"2021-10-18T08:26:24","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T08:26:24","slug":"links-how-to-use-spreadsheets-to-organize-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/2011\/12\/links-how-to-use-spreadsheets-to-organize-data\/","title":{"rendered":"How to: Use spreadsheets to organize data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"float: right;\" ><a class=\"twitter-share-button\"  data-via=\"\" data-count=\"none\" data-related=\"mohanjith:S H Mohanjith\" data-lang=\"en\" data-url=\"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/2011\/12\/links-how-to-use-spreadsheets-to-organize-data\/\" data-text=\"How to: Use spreadsheets to organize data\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?via=&#038;count=none&#038;related=mohanjith%3AS%20H%20Mohanjith&#038;lang=en&#038;url=http%3A%2F%2Fhelpmeinvestigate.com%2Feducation%2F2011%2F12%2Flinks-how-to-use-spreadsheets-to-organize-data%2F&#038;text=How%20to%3A%20Use%20spreadsheets%20to%20organize%20data\" >Tweet<\/a><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-227\" title=\"Screen Shot 2011-12-01 at 4.21.17 PM\" src=\"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Screen-Shot-2011-12-01-at-4.21.17-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"333\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Screen-Shot-2011-12-01-at-4.21.17-PM.png 333w, http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Screen-Shot-2011-12-01-at-4.21.17-PM-300x257.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 333px) 100vw, 333px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re dealing with a lot of data, one way to organize it is by using a spreadsheet, such as Excel. This is especially useful if you&#8217;re interested in data journalism. But the problem for many beginners is <strong>where do you start?<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Poynter, a resource for journalists in the United States, has a great article by Joshua Hatch on &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.poynter.org\/how-tos\/digital-strategies\/154584\/how-journalists-can-use-excel-to-organize-data-for-stories\/\" target=\"_blank\">How journalists can use Excel to organize data for stories<\/a>.&#8221; (It&#8217;s part of a series of articles Poynter is posting from Hacks\/Hackers featuring How Tos journalists can use.)<\/p>\n<p>Hatch specifically looks at Excel and breaks it down into the following categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Simple formulas;<\/li>\n<li>Data types;<\/li>\n<li>Separating columns;<\/li>\n<li>Using headers;<\/li>\n<li>Sorting and filtering;<\/li>\n<li>and Pivot tables.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The article is a bit long but it uses pictures to very, very clearly explain how you can use a spreadsheet. As Hatch says, &#8220;Excel (and other spreadsheet programs) are powerful tools and a valuable part of a reporter\u2019s digital arsenal. Although this tutorial is by no means exhaustive, it should enable you to dig into the next spreadsheet you get without fear.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet If you&#8217;re dealing with a lot of data, one way to organize it is by using a spreadsheet, such as Excel. This is especially useful if you&#8217;re interested in data journalism. But the problem for many beginners is where &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/2011\/12\/links-how-to-use-spreadsheets-to-organize-data\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,11],"tags":[53,102,100,47,101,99],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1334,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226\/revisions\/1334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}