About the Microsoft Excel Analysis ToolPak

The Analysis ToolPak is an add-in for Microsoft Excel that comes with Microsoft Excel. An add-in is simply a hidden workbook that adds commands or features to Excel.

Typically the Analysis ToolPak is installed when one installs Excel. To see if this is the case for your machine select, in Excel, the Tools Menu and the menu item Add-ins. A dialog like the following will appear:

If you have the Analysis ToolPak installed it will be listed in the above add-ins available list. If it is there just click on its checkmark and then OK to open it. It will then open automatically each time you open Excel.

If you do not see the Analysis ToolPak in the above list then you need to get your Microsoft Office or Microsoft Excel CDs and do a custom install. Typically this would be done via the Control Panel and the Add/Remove Program Features. Select Microsoft Excel and the change option. Then drill down on the add/change features until you can select the Analysis ToolPak for installation.

Do not mistake the Analysis ToolPak - VBA for the Analysis ToolPak. The Analysis ToolPak - VBA is for use in macros. The Analysis ToolPak is for interactive use.

Once installed, the Analysis ToolPak adds a menu item to the Tools menu named "Data Analysis...". Clicking on this option displays the following dialog:

Excel Analysis ToolPak Data Analysis dialog

There are a total of 19 options available in the above dialog:

Anova: Single Factor
Anova: Two-Factor with Replication
Anova: Two-Factor Without Replication
Correlation
Covariance
Descriptive Statistics
Exponential Smoothing
F-Test Two Sample for Variance
Fourier Analysis
Histogram
Moving Average
Random Number Generation
Rank and Percents
Regression
Sampling
t-Test: Paired Two Sample for Means
t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Equal Variances
t-Test: Two-Sample Assuming Unequal Variances
Z-Test: Two-Samples for Mean

In addition to accessing these features via the above dialog you will find many new statistical functions to the available function list.

To use these tools you need to be familiar with the specific area of statistics or engineering that you want to develop analyses for. The following locations provide detailed explanations on using the above tools:

University of Leicester Analysis ToolPak write-up. Links at the bottom of this page provide detailed coverage of many of the Analysis ToolPak features.

If you prefer a book, Running Microsoft Excel 2000 by Mark Dodge and Craig Stinson and published by Microsoft Press, goes into great detail on the Analysis ToolPak. It most likely is available through Amazon.com.

Alternatives to the Analysis ToolPak

Histogram Creator - create great looking histograms via a menu driven approach
Random Number Generator- create random numbers the easy way
Random Sampler - Menu driven approach to sampling your data

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