ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD TECHNIQUES (GEOG 2043): Lab Assignment 1

Help on the Web and Excel

Topic 1: Getting Started on the Computer

Using the computers in KESDA

To login, enter your user name and password.
To logout, double click on "logout" icon.
Remember to take your floppy disk/CD out of their drive slots when youleave the lab.

Getting Familiar with the mouse

Moving the mouse on the mouse pad in different directions moves the cursoron your computer screen in corresponding directions.
The mouse generally has two buttons, a left one and a right one. Some micemay have a middle button, but this button is seldom used. Some mice alsohave a belly button, but they are not very useful for computer work.
The left and right buttons have different functions. Try both of them outon a screen icon and see what their differences are.
A double-clicking technique is often used and only applies to the leftbutton of a mouse. Try the following:

Place your cursor on the "Netscape Communicator" icon.
Click once on that icon using the left button and see what happens.
After one second, click once again on that icon and see if anything changes.Nothing should have except that the icon is highlighted. Two consecutiveclicks with one second between clicks is not a double-click.
Now click twice on the icon very quickly. If the icon does not give wayto the Netscape browser your click speed is not quick enough!
Try again until the Netscape browser opens.

Creating a directory

Double-click on "My Computer" icon using the left button of your mouse.
Double-click on "(D:)" drive (in KESDA you only have access to create directorieson the D drive or onto a disk).
Select the "File" pull-down menu by placing your cursor on it and clicking.
Select the "New" option.
Select "Folder" and press on it.
A new directory with name "New Folder" should appear.
If "New Folder" is highlighted, you can type a more meaningful name forthis directory. A directory name should be short and often indicates fileor folder contents. You may use your name or initials as a directory namefor this excercise.
If "New Folder" is not highlighted, place the cursor on it and RIGHT-clickyour mouse. Select the "Rename" option and type in your directory's name.

Note: Remember to delete all files under that directory afteryou finish your lab. It is best not to occupy computer space beyond yourlab time. If you want to keep your stuff, save it onto a floppy or zipdisk. Click here on Deleting Directories and a Filesfor instructions on deleting. The D: drives are periodically emptied throughout the semester.

Saving a file onto your floppy disk

Use an IBM formatted disk. If it has been not already formatted, formatit. If you are not sure wheather or not it is formatted, ask your TA forhelp. To format your disk:

Insert it into the correct drive.
Double-click "My Computer" icon on your desk top to open it.
Right-click on the correct drive and select "Format..." from the drop-downmenu.
Follow the prompts to format your disk.

Insert your disk into correct drive (A: for a floppy and E: for a zip).
If the file is already open, select the "File" pull-down menu and thenselect the "Save" function.
When a dialog box appears, do the following:

Select directory "A:" in the "Save in" widget.
Type in an informative name in the "File name" widget. Note that it isbest to use an underscore instead of a space in file names.
Choose a file type in the "Save as type" widget. The file type will beautomatically shown there. You may not need to make any change to the filetype if you want to save the file in the same format it was created in.
Press "Save" button and your file will be saved ionto your disk.

Deleting files and a directories

Highlight the file/directory you want to delete with your cursor.
Select the "Delete" function from the key board to delete that file/directory.

Topic 2: Navigate the Web and Download Data

PCs or NT Stations generally use either Internet Explorer or Netscape orboth as a browser. You may use whichever one you prefer. The followingdescription outlines basic navigating skills for the Netscape browser.If you are already web-savy, skip this part.

Click once on the "Start" menu and a drop-down menu should appear.
Move your cursor to "Programs"; a sub-menu automatically appears.
Select the "Netscape Communicator" and another drop-down menu appears.
Click once on the "Netscape Communicator" and the browser should open.
You could also just double-click on the "Netscape" icon that should bedisplayed on your desk top. This is a much faster way of opening a browser.

In the "Location" widget, type the web address "http://culter.colorado.edu"and then press the "Return" key on your key board. You are now enteringinto the "Niwot Ridge LTER Home Page".

Note that:

Before you type your desired address in the "Location" widget, anotheraddress may already exist. To enter the address you want to go to, youneed to delete the old one. Put your cursor in that area and click onceto highlight that area. You can now delete the old address by pressingthe "Back Space" key on your key board or simply begin typing your desiredaddress and if the old address is highlighted the new address should over-writethe old one.
Depending on your computer, you may be able to find a web address you haveused previously in the drop-down menu associated with the "Location" widget.To re-enter a web address you have previously entered, click the trianglebutton at the end of the "Location" widget. Hold the left mouse button,drag your cursor to the address you want to visit, and release the leftmouse button. You should arrive somewhere on the web.

On the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Home Page, or anyother home page for that matter, you may find text, pictures and links.Links are usually highlighted in blue and are sometimes underscored. Ifyou select or click once on a link, you will be guided to another web siteor the different part on the same web page.

Scroll down the LTER home page by dragging down the rolling bar on thefar right side of the screen and you will see a list of Niwot Ridge LTERlinks. The following steps will guide you to the data file we are interestedin for this excercise.
Click once on the "Data" link.
Find the link "Data set catalog and keyword/investigator search" and selectit.
Find and click on "Meteorology and Climatology" link.
Now, you should see a list of directories and files under the header of"Gopher Menu".
Select the link named "Saddle (3525m) Clomate Station".
Select the file named "Precipitation Data" and open this file. If you havegotten this far you have succesfully downloaded a file on the web.

Sometimes you want to go back to the previous page/site. To go back, hitthe "Back" button in the upper left corner of your screen and you willeffectively go back to a page/site. There is also a "Forward" button thataloows you to turn the page forward after you have gone back.

To save a file you have opened on the web you need to go through the followingsteps in Netscape:

Select the "File" from the upper left corner of your screen.
Select "Save As" and a small window should appear, called a dialogue box.
Select the directories under which you are going to save your file at thetop widget of the samll window (You should create a directory before yousave a file. Click Create Directory for reference).
Type your file name in the "File name" widget.
Select the file type from the widget at the bottom of this dialogue boxwith "Save as type". For this excercise, select "Plain Text (*.txt)". Theplain text is also known as ASCII format.
Finally, click once on the "Save" button to save your file.

Topic 3: Basic EXCEL Skills

EXCEL is one of the software packages in the Microsoft Office series. Itis used on PCs and NT Stations to store and manipulate data, andto make graphs. To open an EXCEL worksheet, do the following:

As with opening a web browser, first select "Start" from the start menuin the bottom left corner of your screen.
Go to "Programs".
Select the "Microsoft EXCEL" and the EXCEL worksheet should open.

EXCEL has its own data format and its files can be recognized by the suffix".xls". To open an EXCEL-formated data file, go through the following steps:

Select the "File" menu and press the "Open" button.
Select the directory that contains your file (if you are opening a filefrom a floppy disk you would navigate to the A: drive or the 3.5" drive).To navigate through the file directories you just wander around and selectwhere you want to go based on the location of the file you want to open.You can click in the "look in:" widget to help you navigate around.
When you find the file you are looking for, double-click it to open itor select the "Open" option displayed in the dialogue box.

Data files that are downloaded from a web site are generally not in EXCELformat, but a plain text or ASCII format. However, EXCEL can still openand manipulate these data files with a few extra steps.

Navigate to the directory that contains the file you saved from the LTERsite.
If you have navigated to the directory that should contain your LTER fileand you do not see it, this may be because the "Files of Type" widget atthe bottom of the dialogue box is set at the default setting which is probablythe EXCEL files. To change the file type displayed click the triangle atthe end of the "File of type" widget and select "All files". Your file(along with all of the other files on that directory) will appear.
Double-click on your file to open it and a new window should appear. Clickon the "Next" button.
Another window should appear. In this window, select the type of delimitersyour data is separated with and click once on "Next" button (I.E.: tabdelimited, space delimited, or both).
Another window should appear giving you the option to "Finish". Press the"Finish" button and your data should appear in an EXCEL spreadsheet. Youcan save this data as an EXCEL file if you want. Do you remember how?

You may find your data file is too large and and contains lots of stuffyou are not interested in. It is best to clean up the file so it containsonly the information you want.

To delete a column, first highlight that column by clicking once on theletter in the table header representing that column.
Second, click once on "Edit" menu and select the "Delete" function; thehighlighted column will be deleted.
If you want to delete more than one column and these columns are adjacentto each other, you can delete them together by the following steps:

Click on the letter of the first column you want to delete, continuouslyhold the left button of your mouse, and drag your cursor to the last columnyou want to delete.
Release your mouse button and repeat the second step to delete these columns.

Deleting rows is similar in procedure to deleting columns. For large files,however, you may find it inefficient to highlight row by row, orit may be too tedious to continuously drag your cursor highlighting adjacentrows. There is a nifty way to delete many rows (and columns too) in EXCEL.

Highlight the first row you want to delete and press the "Shift" key onyour key board.
Use the scroll bar to scroll down to the place containing the last rowyou want to delete.
Click once on the row number of the last row you want to delete; releasethe "Shift" key. The entire area should be marked and highlighted for deletion.
Hit the "Delete" key on the key board or repeat the steps described aboveto delete rows.

Topic 4: EXCEL Arithmetic

From the previous topics, you may have learned that data on EXCEL worksheetare arranged in rows and columns. It is also important to know that eachvalue occupies a CELL. Cells are easily recognized because they are visuallygrided. The position of each cell can be represented by a unique symbol,or address, that is a combination of letters and numbers. The letter indicatesa column, while the number indicates a row. For example, the B3 cell islocated in the second column and the third row.

Basic arithmetic: You can perform arithmetic on any group of cells,but generally you choose a group of cells within a row or within a column.Practice a few easy examples to understand how arithmetic calculationswork on EXCEL. Enter 5 in A1 cell and 2 in A2 cell. Typing the followingstarting in the A3 cell:

"=A1+A2" and press "Return".
"=A1-A2" and press "Return".
"=A1*A2" and press "Return".
"=A1/A2" and press "Return".

Arithmetic expression: To create a general arithmetic equation,the steps are:

Click once on a cell in which you want to put your result. This cell isgenerally located just below or behind your last row or column.
Type an "equals" sign and then an expression, or command. An example ofan expression looks like:

= AVERAGE(C1:C9)

This expression consists of three parts: an equals sign, a command,and a cell range. The equals sign means you want to place the results ofyour calculation in that cell. The command tells EXCEL what operation youwant to perform, and the cell range tells EXCEL the range to which thiscommand applies. In this example, the expression denotes an average ofvalues in cells C1 to C9.

Note: You will see that the expression appears in two locations.One location is the cell and the other is the long and flat widget justabove the letter header row. You can enter or modify expression at eitherlocation. Howeevr, later you may find that it is more convenient to enterexpressions or numbers in cells and cell contents in the widget space.

Cell ranges: Commands and parentheses should be used to indicatethe order of operation in an equation. Cell ranges are indicated by twocell addresses separated by a colon. For a large data set it is more convenientto use the scroll bar to set the data range.

Start with an equals sign.
Type your desired command and the first half of a pair of parenthesis.
Click once on the first cell on which you want to perform some mathematicaloperation.
Type a colon.
Scroll down using the scroll bar and click once on the last cell of yourrange.
Close the parenthesis and press "Return" key.

Topic 5: More Basic EXCEL Skills

To find more EXCEL commands, you may use the "Help" menu provided by EXCELprogram. The steps to find a command on "Help" are:

Hit "Help" button on main window of EXCEL.
Go to "Contents and Index" and click it.
Click the "Index" button at the top.
On the space under "1 Type the first few letters of the word you are lookingfor", type a few letters of the command you are looking for.
While typing, you need to pay attention to the "Display" area and see ifthe words that describe your command appear.
If the word or words you are looking for appear, double-click on one andthe contents of this "Help" menu should be displayed, including conceptof this command and the exact expression of this command.

A practice example: you are looking for the command to calculate StandardDeviation of a data set.

After you type "standard", you may find that "standard" appearsand is highlighted in the option menu of the EXCEL help.
Also, you may find that under the term "standard", there are three moreterms: "deviation", "error", and "normal comulative distribution".
Double-click "deviation", and another small window appears where you mayget more choices related to your search topic.
Double-click "STDEV" and the information about this command should be displayed.
Here you can read the description of the "STDEV" command and you will findthat the "STDEV" is the command to use to calculate standard deviation.

Arithmetic expressions are also often used in EXCEL.

Assuming that the table below is the EXCEL spreadsheet. Figures in A1...B3cells are original data and you are going to make some calculations inthe fourth row and the column C.
Enter the data as seen in columns A and B.
In cell A4, type "=(A1+A2+A3)/2" and you will get 20. This is equal touse the "AVERAGE" command.
In cell C1, type "=(A1-B1)/2" and you will get 5. If you type"=5+(A1-B1)/2", you will get 10. Pretty cool, huh?
QUESTION? If I wish to make the same calculations in B4 or C2 andC3, should I type the same expressions in each row in columns B andC?
The answer is No. It takes time to type in each one of the equationsyou want to use (Just imagine if you had a spreadsheet that contained 500cells of data you wanted to manipulate. You would be in front of your computerfor a long time...!) Instead, EXCEL has an efficient way to replicate orreuse numbers and equations.
Try using the fill-down function of EXCEL. The steps are:

Put your cursor on the cell from which you want to copy an expression.
When you move the cursor over this cell, there is a symbol with a "+" signin the bottom right corner.
Put your cursor on the "+" sign, hold the left-click button down(don't release) and drag it to the last cell in a column or a row of cellswhere you want this equation to operate, and then release the mouse button.You should have a column or row of cells with similar equations in them.They should only differ by the range of cells as the range should changerelative to a cell's position.
You may want to check the equation in any given cell. To do this, clickon the cell and the equation will appear in the formula bar above the spreadsheet.

Note:

I recommend that you repeat this excercise as many timesas you need to in order to get familiar with this important function. Itis very important to understand how cell letters and numbers change whenyou copy an equation in this way!

	A	B	C
1	20	10	=(A1-B1)/2
2	15	5	=(A2-B2)/2
3	25	30	=(A3-B3)/2
4	=(A1+A2+A3)/3	=(B1+B2+B3)/3