Rationale for selection
It is difficult to believe but there isn't a graphing software program that can actually do everything. Microsoft Excel is currently the best program to do graphs for IB Chemistry, but until a few years ago it was LoggerPro. OpenOffice Calc also gets a mention because it is very similar to Microsoft but free. I have used all three for over a decade both personally and teaching students for their science reports. You can make any program work to give you what you need, but some require more creativity and effort than others. That's why the preference is Excel. All three graphs drawn are exemplars I've done in the past as the best I can do on the program.
Microsoft Excel graphing software
 |  |
Microsoft Excel recently updated the way it added error bars which made it significantly easier. They have the best settings for allowing significant figures for the axis values. Their biggest plus are settings with fine grid lines, but really they could do better and have finer ones still. On top of that this setting doesn't allow the labels to have any lowercase! The axis value marks are also not as clear as they could be. These can be fixed by overlaying text boxes etc. as is sometimes necessary.
OpenOffice Calc graphing software
 |  |
Open office is basically just a free imitation of Microsoft Office Suite. Their Calc is the imitation of Excel. They fall a short on an important point of having grid lines and error bars. The error bars could be skipped but certainly not the grid lines. The fix for this is to overlay a grid line by downloading and inserting a picture of a grid in png format (not jpeg etc...). I've made a video showing how to do that here:
Vernier LoggerPro graphing software
 |  |
The fact that they have never updated or improved their program and were the best up until a few years ago is very sad. They could have easily dominated the market with minimal effort. They have a huge advantage in that the data is inserted directly into tables and even the graph in real time while you are doing the experiment right from the data loggers. For this reason they will always have the potential to crush Excel for use in science. They have the same issue with grid lines - I've tweaked this graph to make it the best it can be besides doing the png picture overlay trick as with OpenOffice Calc. The other problem is making the axis values the correct number of significant figures and increasing the size of the labeling text. Again problems that are fixed with overlaying text boxes etc. Their strongest point is for some IB complicated graphing analysis you need several lines of best fit in a single graph (energetics for one). LoggerPro does this so easily. You have to be creative with Excel and copy and split the table to get the same effect.
Conclusion
Excel is always going to be a major player as formulas, calculations etc mean you can't possibly find a better program for doing tables. However, their graphing functions now have taken them also to the top. It seems amazing that LoggerPro haven't done any significant updating in decades as by simply allowing more text editing, grid lines on their graphs and significant figures on the axis they would automatically be number one for graphs again...
For a full list of videos on details taking you through how to make specific tables and graphs please go the Science Report tab on this website or my YouTube playlist on How to write Science Reports.
For a full list of videos on details taking you through how to make specific tables and graphs please go the Science Report tab on this website or my YouTube playlist on How to write Science Reports.
No comments:
Post a Comment