Eric Phetteplace
Library Assessment Working Group GA
phettep1[at]illinois[dot]edu
How To Use the Desk Tracker Excel Macro
V2-0
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Library Assessment Working Group
Compatible Programs: Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, Excel for Mac 2011
Uncompatible: Microsoft Excel 2008, Excel for Mac 2008, Office Live Excel
Untested: Microsoft Excel 2003
Instructions
1. Make sure you have the DTMacro1V2-0.xls file. You will need to open this file in
order to run the Excel Macro. It is recommended that you save the file locally to
your hard drive, rather than try to run it over the G Drive or other shared space.
2. If you already have a Desk Tracker report which you would like to analyze, you
can skip ahead to Step 6. If not, log into your library’s Desk Tracker account,
click the Reports tab, and under the Tools category select Data File Generator.
3. Under Report Options, click [Show Options] and select "Flat Format (.CSV)" in
the File Format field. The Macro only works with Flat Format data.
4. From here, you can select the options which you want reflected in your report's
output, including Branch, Date Range, and Recurring Period.
a. It is important to limit your report to the right time period in this step
because the Macro cannot do that for you. Thus, if you want to see a
library's busyness on Monday evenings during Spring Semester, you
would use the Date Range field to limit to Spring Semester, the
Recurring Period field to limit to Mondays, and the "Beginning
(hh:mm):" and "Ending (hh:mm):" parameters (on the right-hand side
of the Recurring Period options) to limit to evening hours.
b. If you are unsure about which options to use, please review the
Reports In Desk Tracker document, available here on the library's
Assessment website.
c. Please note that the Macro is only able to manipulate the most
common data collected across all libraries: reference interactions in
their various modes (In Person, IM/Chat, Phone, and Email). Other
fields such as Gate Count, Head Count, Patron Type, “This Question is
About,” and other customized data will not be processed.
1
Eric Phetteplace
Library Assessment Working Group GA
phettep1[at]illinois[dot]edu
5. Click the
button and select Save to save the report to your hard
drive.
6. Before you open either the Desk Tracker report or DTMacro1V2-0.xls, you will
need to use the Macros menu in Excel.
a. In Excel 2010, Macros are not automatically enabled. You will need to
follow these steps to activate them:
i. Click the green File tab in the upper-left corner, then select the
Options button from the bottom of the menu.
ii.
Inside the Customize Ribbon tab, put a check mark in
the Developer box in the right-hand column.
iii.
Click OK. Macros are now enabled and accessible from
the Developer tab all the way on the right, next to View.
b. In Excel 2007, Macros are not automatically enabled. You will need to
follow these steps:
i. Right click on the blue bar at the very top of the application and
select Customize Quick Access Toolbar.
2
Eric Phetteplace
Library Assessment Working Group GA
phettep1[at]illinois[dot]edu
ii.
In the Excel Options menu, select the Popular tab (the very
first one listed).
iii.
Under the Top options for working with Excel category,
check the box next to Show Developer tab in the Ribbon.
iv.
Click the OK button at the bottom. Back inside the Excel
worksheet, select the now-visible Developer tab up at the top; it
should be the right-most tab, next to View.
v.
Click Macros, the second button from the left.
c. In Excel 2008 and Excel for Mac 2008, Macros are not enabled at all.
You will have to go to another computer to run the Desk Tracker Macro;
most of the library's computers have either Excel 2007 or 2010.
7. The default Security Settings in Excel often prevent Macros from being run. You
would receive an error message similar to this if you clicked on a Macro:
To enable Macros in Excel 2007 or 2010, click on the right-most tab, Developer.
a. Select the Macro Security button from the menu.
3
Eric Phetteplace
Library Assessment Working Group GA
phettep1[at]illinois[dot]edu
b. In the Macro Settings options, select the very bottom radio button,
labeled “Enable all macros (not recommended; potentially
dangerous code can run)”. The Desk Tracker Macro is not
dangerous! You can disable Macros after you have finished by
returning to this menu.
8. Now open both DTMacro1V2-0.xls and the report you have created, which by
default is named “Desk_Tracker_flat_[Start Date]_through_[End Date].csv”. To
use the Macro effectively, you will need to be looking at your report in Excel, but
with DTMacro1V2-0.xls open in another window as well.
9. Click the Macros button from within your Desk Tracker report. You should see a
list of several Macros on the left-hand side and some buttons on the right:
If you are not seeing “DTMacro1V2-0.xls!” in front of each item on this list, then
you are probably looking at the menu from within the DTMacro1V2-0.xls file itself
and not from within your report. You can minimize DTMacro1V2-0.xls and work
within your Desk Tracker report.
10. Select the first item on the list, which will be titled “DTMacro1V2-0.xls!aDTMacro”
or “DTMacro1V2-0.xls!AllDTMacroSubs.aDTMacro,” and click the Run button. The
other list items can be ignored; they are internal elements of this first program.
4
Eric Phetteplace
Library Assessment Working Group GA
phettep1[at]illinois[dot]edu
11. The Macro will ask you how you want your data collected. You can click the
button corresponding to how you want your reference interactions totaled: by
hour, by day, by month, or by weekday.
Appendix A provides sample tables for the options above. If you want to look at
year-over-year trends, Month may be the best choice. If you are trying to
determine how to staff your reference desk on Monday evenings in the Spring
Semester (see Step 4 for information on how to limit your Desk Tracker report to
this time period) then selecting Hour is the most appropriate option.
12. The Macro takes a few seconds to finish, depending on the size of your data set.
Very large (a thousand rows or more) spreadsheets may take a few minutes; do
not worry if it looks like nothing is happening. You can use non-Excel programs
without interrupting the Macro’s work.
13. After you have processed the data with this first program, a message will appear
announcing “Processing complete!” This means that the macro has finished and
now you can easily design your own graphs in Excel.
14. Please direct any comments or constructive criticism to the Library Assessment
Working Group’s graduate assistant, Eric Phetteplace, at his email address
phettep1[at]illinois[dot]edu. He would be happy to address any confusions you
have, correct errors that occur, and may be able to develop additional features if
given sufficient time.
5
Eric Phetteplace
Library Assessment Working Group GA
phettep1[at]illinois[dot]edu
Appendix A: Sample Tables
Due to space considerations, each of these tables is only a partial
representation of the Desk Tracker Macro's finished product. While below you will
only see the “In Person” statistics, normally there would be three more sets of five
columns representing each of the other three modes of reference (Phone, Email, and
IM/Chat) and one final set (“All Modes”) which is a total across all four modes.
Hour
Day
Month
Weekday
6