Excel 2008

[captain.joco]

I am a physics undergrad, and I always need some data analysis tool. Excel was always recommended, so I used 2004 version for over a year now. It's the only microsoft app I got, and it worked ok. Then the version 2008 came out, and I thought to give it a try.

I got the normal pack, even thought I am only interested in excel. Big surprise, most of my data analysis tools that I often use where gone! No custom error bars on the graphs, and by the way it takes ages to do a graph. The formatting of the graph is nightmare as well. Except the different somewhat interesting interface ( that I don't really care about ) , seems that everything else went downhill. Am I missing something here, or... ?

Also I got numbers as part of iWork08, but they still don't have error bars at all, and I don't think you can do best fit lines in there yet ( or best weighted lines ). Now I am forced to reinstall thy old stuff... Does anybody know any other software capable of doing things like excel ( best fit lines " = linest " in excel, or custom error bars, and other data analysis tools ).

Thanks

 

[MisterMe]

Excel is a good business tool. It is a passable tool for data analysis. As a graphing/charting app, Excel sucks in ways that I didn't know that sucking was possible. DeltaGraph has long been considered to be the best way to graph Excel data.

For my money, you cannot beat KaleidaGraph for doing the 2-D graphs so important to physics. It builds on the paradigm pioneered by the original [and now defunct] Cricket Graph. KaleidaGraph is powerful and easy to use. It will probably do all of the data analysis that you need. Once you use KaleidaGraph, you will slap anyone who even utters the word Excel.

 

[eduviges]

KaleidaGraph is very good.
Another option for simple graphs is Chartsmith. Great looking graphs, and easy to use.