Survey says… Excel can do that?
A common frustration in the analog world was how to disperse, collect and analyze a survey. Today, services like Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey and Google Forms make the process cheap and fast.
While each of these tools provide great features for data collection and analysis, those of us living in the real world know that Excel remains the queen of data analysis. Fortunately for us realists, Microsoft has cut out the middle-man and created Excel surveys.
1. Log into OneDrive
This is Microsoft’s file-hosting service, somewhat akin to Google Drive or iCloud. It’s really an under-rated service, especially for Windows users.
Click the “New” tab, then “Excel survey.”
2. Build your survey
The Edit Survey menu offers a range of common questionnaire types. Point and drag your way to the ideal survey.
3. Preview and share your survey
When you are finish, you can preview, save and share your survey.
Viewing your survey, you’ll see something like the below:
Now you will get a link, such as this one. Feel free to fill it out — if I get cool responses, I’d love to make it a blog post!
4. Access the results from Excel.
Now is where the really cool part happens. If you are a Windows user, you will automatically have a link to your OneDrive on your File Explorer:
Navigate to find your Excel (survey) workbook. You will see every entry has been added to a beautiful Excel table:
Now your data is already where you want it — no clumsy data exports required.
While lacking some of the jazz of SurveyMonkey or Google Forms, the utility of having survey data feed directly into Excel makes this a great choice for many small-scale campaigns.
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