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The Fundamentals of Data-driven Storytelling
The Fundamentals of Data-driven Storytelling
  • About this course
    • Course Introduction
  • Module 1 - Find
    • 1.1 How to Find Data for Storytelling and journalism
      • Starting with a question
      • Open data portals and platforms
      • Other sources of data
    • 1.2 How to get better data from a Goolge Search
      • Searching for filetypes and formats
      • More on Advanced Search operators
      • Other common Google Search operators
    • 1.3 Sourcing your own data
      • Creating a Google Form for Research
      • Creating a questionnaire with TypeForm
      • Using quizzes and comments as a sources of data
  • Module 2 - Get
    • 2.1 Turning websites and PDFs into machine readable data
      • Scraping data with Tabula
    • 2.2 An introduction to spreadsheet software
      • Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel and Libre Office Calc.
      • Finding your way around a spreadsheet
      • Simple web scraping with Google Sheets
  • Module 3 - Verify
    • 3.1 Can I use this data in my work?
      • Initial steps for verification
      • What do these column headings mean?
  • Module 4 - Clean
    • 4.1 What to do with disorganised data?
      • Why is clean data important?
      • Keep your data organised
      • Cleaning data cheatsheet
  • Module 5 - Analyse
    • 5.1 What is the story within the data?
      • Spreadsheet rows, columns, cells and tabs
        • Spreadsheet formats, forumlas and essential shortcuts
          • Using the VLOOKUP Function
            • Combine Data From Multiple Spreadsheets
    • 5.2 How to turn numbers into stories
  • Module 6 - Visualise
    • 6.1 Ways we visualise data
    • 6.2 Why we visualize Data
    • 6.3 How to visualise data
  • Course Testing & Feedback
    • ⏱️Quick course exam
    • 🎓Extended course exam
    • 📝Survey and feedback
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  1. Module 5 - Analyse
  2. 5.1 What is the story within the data?

Spreadsheet rows, columns, cells and tabs

Previous5.1 What is the story within the data?NextSpreadsheet formats, forumlas and essential shortcuts

Last updated 2 years ago

Be aware - Spreadsheets often auto-format your data

Particularly with numeric data

Numbers formatted as text will cause formula errors

Select the relevant column, and then click “Format”:

Filtering your data enables:

  • Sorting of values (without mis-sorting the dataset!)

  • Organisation of data

  • A quick way to view and work with a subset of the data

Select the top row (column headings), and then click Data > Filter:

You can sort the data:

  • From highest to lowest

  • From lowest to highest

  • Using other variables

Re-ordering with the data filter only allows you to filter on one column at a time:

  • Sort by Gender

  • Then sort by Motivation Level

When you sort by Motivation Level, you lose the sort by Gender!

Therefore you need to define sort “levels” in order to sort first by Gender, and then by the Motivation Level.

Now try this, sort by Gender and then by Motivation Level:

  • Select the full range of data: Click in Cell A1 > then hold Shift + Ctrl + Arrow Down and then Arrow Right).

  • Then click Data > Sort Range

  • And then define the levels you wish to sort by.