3.2 KiB
title, date, draft
| title | date | draft |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel's XL Toolbox | 2026-08-08T11:47:23+0200 | false |
{{< figure src="banner-2013.png" alt="Daniel's XL Toolbox" class="text-center mb-5" >}}
This is the home of Daniel's XL Toolbox, an add-in for a popular spreadsheet program that is aimed at scientists and other people who work with data and visualizations. The add-in has been downloaded well over 200,000 times, and it has been cited several hundred times in the life science literature.
This add-in was actively developed between 2008 and 2018, but is no longer actively maintained. It is still useful though and does work with even with current, up-to-date versions of the spreadsheet software.
However, because this is no longer an active project, I have decided to retire the old homepage which had not been updated for several years.
You can still download and install the add-in -- in fact, I still use it whenever I use spreadsheet software. Which, admittedly, does not happen that often anymore nowadays. But everybody should use the tool that serves them best to accomplish a task.
What this add-in can do
This add-in provides a number of functions that assist with data analysis and visualization and with repetitive everyday tasks.
Data analysis: Compute 1-way and 1-way ANOVAs, perform correlation and regression analyses, build spreadsheet formulas automatically, allocate subjects to treatment groups ("randomization"), produce complex histograms, and transpose data such as multiwell plate reader data.
Data visualization: Produce high-quality graphic files from your scientific charts, export charts in batches, add error bars to charts, assist with uniform chart design, add watermarks to your charts, add multiple new data series at once, change and normalize chart sizes, copy a chart's format to another, scale the text in a chart, point a chart to a different source data range, change the order of data series in a chart, and spread (jitter) overlapping data points.
Productivity: Automatically save a time-stamped backup file whenever you save your spreadsheet, manage multiple worksheets in your file, use keyboard shortcuts for extra productivity, jump to a cell or range of cells given an address that is written in plain text in another cell, copy a print page setup, and make complex selections of cells.
What to do if you want to obtain publication-grade figures
If you need high-quality graphs for a publication, you can of course still use this add-on. There are modern alternatives, ranging from paid software to software that you can use free of charge.
I have become very fond of R, ggplot2, and the entire Tidyverse ecossystem. These tools allow me to analyze the data efficiently and obtain extactly the results that I want, including vector-based figures, rather than raster images. It is not easy to learn, but it is worth it!
Archive
Here is a little archive of the old website: [Entrance to the museum]({{< relref "archive" >}}).