tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36768584.post4862651504475425227..comments2024-03-03T18:49:34.382-05:00Comments on Omics! Omics!: Freely & Unrepentantly Confessing to HeresyKeith Robisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04765318239070312590noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36768584.post-55027144226203373652015-09-25T07:01:30.725-04:002015-09-25T07:01:30.725-04:00I have found that delivering reports in Excel enco...I have found that delivering reports in Excel encourages wet-lab colleagues to explore the data themselves in ways they will not do with any other format. I do wish there were a global setting that told Excel, "always ASK before assuming gene names are dates." My favorite cases of gene names that get munged are MARC1, MARC1, MARCH1, and MARCH2: if Excel thinks DEC1 is a date, I can figure out what the original data file said but it turns both MARC1 and MARCH1 into the first of March in the current year.<br /><br />Form Tools are a GREATLY underappreciated feature of Excel that enable really nice interactive reports. Below is an example I cooked up some years ago using data from the US Census website because most of the Excel tools I build have proprietary data from my workplace and I can't post those! Note that although I made this in an older version of Excel (hence the .xls file), it works fine in newer versions. Unfortunately doesn't work in Open Office or Libre Office:<br /><br />http://mdhealy.home.sprynet.com/WorldPopulationInteractiveEstimates.xls<br />MattHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09618723842334170654noreply@blogger.com