Josephy Lab Software Handbook
Spreadsheets.
We have Quattro Pro (Corel) and Excel (MS). Again, the programs have largely converged and offer similar features. I use Excel.Always use a spreadsheet when you need to do repeated routine calculations. For example, if you need to convert ten doses in mg into equivalent doses in nmol, don't use a calculator, converting the numbers one at a time: the spreadsheet will do them all at once. There are also many useful short-cut features. For example, if you enter 1, 2, 3, in the first three cells of Excel, you can drag the list down to fill in, say, 100 consecutively numbered cells.
I like to set up a whole experiment on Excel. For example, you can set up the protocol for a mutagenicity assay, so that doses are calculated automatically, plate counts are averaged, etc. If you do this once, you can modify and re-use the sheet for every subsequent experiment.
February 1, 2000
