Saving data to a disk and opening data in computer applications

These are general guidelines to keep in mind when trying to save and open statistical data on a computer. For basic information about opening and saving files on your computer, consult the Computing Documentation page. If you have questions about using statistics on your computer, the best place to ask is on the Computing Questions conference in FirstClass.

Not all online statistics can be saved or manipulated on your computer. Some PDF files can only be read, like the page in a book, and some statistics on HTML pages may need to be massaged a great deal before a program like Excel or SPSS can read the data and put it in the appropriate form. Depending on how much data there is, it may be easier to retype the statistics into Excel or SPSS.

Saving an entire data file to use in Excel, SPSS, or another data program

If the data can be saved directly to your computer, this is the best option. In this case, there is often a link that says something about downloading the data, or if you are using a CD-ROM, you can look for a menu option about saving. If you have a choice of formats in which to save the data, pick the one for your program, if it is available. Excel files have a .XLS extension, SPSS often uses .SAV, and Lotus 1-2-3 has an extension that starts with .WK and has a third character. If it is not available, choose either tab-delimited (.TAB) or comma-delimited (.CSV). If you choose PDF, you may not be able to manipulate the data. See the section on PDF below for more details. If these choices are not available, or someone has given you a file with an unfamiliar extension, try opening it in a spreadsheet program such as Excel.

If you are doing complicated statistical analysis, you may have to use a statistical program, such as SPSS. If you have questions about using SPSS, talk to your professor or post to the Computing Questions conference on FirstClass.

Once you have the data downloaded or saved, you will need to open the program you will be using to view and manipulate it. If you are using Excel:

1. Open the program, pull down the File menu and choose Open. A window will appear that lists files on your computer or your disk.
2. Make sure the Look in: box at the top of the window has the name of the folder or the disk where you have saved the data.
3. Then make sure that the Files of type box says All files (*.*); if it doesn't, click on the triangle at the end of the box, and choose it from the list. Find the data file and double-click on the filename in the window. Your data may open immediately, or you may have to use the Text Import Wizard, which will appear on your screen, if needed.
4. In the Text Import Wizard read through the screen and pick the choices you think look best. On the first screen, you will usually want to choose Delimited, but experiment with choices and use the preview at the bottom of the screen to help you decide. You may have to use the back button or go through the Wizard a few times to find the right setup. When you click Finish, the data will be put into Excel and you can proof it to make sure it imported correctly.
5. The data should know appear in Excel and you can manipulate it or copy and paste it into a report.

Copying data from a PDF document

You may be given the option of saving a file in .pdf format from a .html document, or if you are looking at a .pdf file in Adobe Acrobat, you can often save it. If there is not a link to automatically download the file, open it in Adobe Acrobat and click on the floppy disk icon on the toolbar in middle of the window. The Save As... window will appear and you can choose where to save a copy of the .pdf file.

Some .pdf files allow the user to select text (data) in the file and copy it into another program, then turn the text into a table, which can be opened in Excel. When this is possible, you can:

1. Use the Text Tool to select the text on the screen by clicking on the Text Tool icon on the Adobe Acrobat toolbar, and then selecting the data you would like to copy. If the Text Tool is not available, you cannot copy data from the .pdf file.
2. After selecting it, click on the copy icon on the toolbar.
3. Open a word processing program (i.e. Microsoft Word) and paste the text into a new document.
4. You will have to format the text so that it can be easily divided up into rows and columns. Make a separate paragraph for each row of data, even if the text wraps to a new line. Pick a character that indicates where a new column should start (commas, spaces, and tabs are most common). Make sure that character is in the appropriate place. Keep in mind that a new column will start each time it is present in a row, so if "District of Columbia" is one of the entries, the 3 words will be in different columns, and if there are more spaces between Utah and the first value in that row than there are spaces between Massachusetts and the first value, a the first value will appear in different columns. In these two examples, you would have to change District of Columbia to DC or DistrictofColumbia, and delete all the spaces except one between the last letter of each state name and the first value in its row.
5. Once the text is formatted, select the text in Microsoft Word that you would like to convert into a table.
6. Pull down the Table menu and choose Convert Text to Table...
7. Type in the number of columns the table should have, and click on the appropriate button for the character that designates where new columns should start. Click OK.
8. If the table has data in the correct rows and columns, highlight the entire table, pull down the Edit menu, and choose Copy.
9. Open Microsoft Excel and click in the cell where you want the upper left corner of the table to start. Pull down the Edit menu and choose Paste.
10. You are now ready to use the data in Excel.

Copying data from an HTML document

1. Highlight the data on the web page, pull down the Edit menu and choose Copy.
2. Open a word processing program (i.e. Microsoft Word) and paste the text into a new document.
3. You will have to format the text so that it can be easily divided up into rows and columns. Make a separate paragraph for each row of data, even if the text wraps to a new line. Pick a character that indicates where a new column should start (commas, spaces, and tabs are most common). Make sure that character is in the appropriate place. Keep in mind that a new column will start each time it is present in a row, so if "District of Columbia" is one of the entries, the 3 words will be in different columns, and if there are more spaces between Utah and the first value in that row than there are spaces between Massachusetts and the first value, a the first value will appear in different columns. In these two examples, you would have to change District of Columbia to DC or DistrictofColumbia, and delete all the spaces except one between the last letter of each state name and the first value in its row.
4. Once the text is formatted, select the text in Microsoft Word that you would like to convert into a table.
5. Pull down the Table menu and choose Convert Text to Table...
6. Type in the number of columns the table should have, and click on the appropriate button for the character that designates where new columns should start. Click OK.
7. If the table has data in the correct rows and columns, highlight the entire table, pull down the Edit menu, and choose Copy.
8. Open Microsoft Excel and click in the cell where you want the upper left corner of the table to start. Pull down the Edit menu and choose Paste.
9. You are now ready to use the data in Excel

• Leslie Lapham
• Information Services
• Date created: June 20, 2001
• Date modified:June 12, 2002
• Expires: September 1, 2002