Frequently Asked Questions

The latest version of statistiXL is always available as a free download from the downloads section of our website here. This is the fully functional version of statistiXL and includes all statistical modules, help files and example files. On install statistiXL will run for 30 days as a free trial, after which, if you want to keep using it, you will need to purchase a license key. (note: there is no need to re-install statistiXL if you decide to purchase a license after using the trial, you simply need to enter the purchased key into the registration screen of your existing installation).

We would encourage all users of statistiXL to participate in our Community area where you can post comments on statistiXL, request additional features for future versions, file bug reports, and read about the experiences of other users.

statistiXL licenses are available in two styles, one which doesn’t expire and another, cheaper one, which is only valid for 12 months. Both license types allow you to run statistiXL on a PC at work and a PC at home. Volume discounts are available for each so the prices of both license types get cheaper as you buy more copies.

Permanent License
This is the non-expiring license and it entitles you to run the version of statistiXL that is current at the time you purchase the license indefinitely. It also entitles you to any minor upgrades that are released for that version. Major version upgrades, however, would require the purchase of an upgrade license. As an example, if Version 2.0 is the latest version of statistiXL when you purchase a Permanent License you would be entitled to run Version 2.2 when that is released but would require an upgrade license if you wanted to move to Version 3.0 or above.

1 Year License
This is the time limited license and it allows you to run the latest version of statistiXL for 12 months from the date of purchase. If new versions of statistiXL are released during that 12 month period, minor or major, you can immediately switch to using them. At the end of 12 months, the license will expire and you will have to purchase a new license if you want to keep using statistiXL.

For pricing information please see our associated FAQ: How much does statistiXL cost?.

Prices for statistiXL licenses vary with both the type of license you purchase, Permanent or 1 Year, and the number of copies you order. Prices per Copy in US Dollars for license are as follows:

Copies purchased	Permanent	1 Year
1 to 2 copies	$75.00	$40.00
3 to 5 copies	$71.25	$38.00
6 to 9 copies	$67.50	$36.00
10 to 19 copies	$63.75	$34.00
20 to 34 copies	$60.00	$32.00
35 to 59 copies	$52.50	$28.00
60 to 99 copies	$45.00	$24.00
100 or more copies	$37.50	$20.00

Site licenses are also available on request for larger orders.

For information on the differences between the Permanent and 1 Year licenses see our associated FAQ: What are the licensing options for statistiXL?.

statistiXL runs as an add-in to Windows versions of Microsoft’s Excel spreadsheet package so the primary requirement for being able to run statistiXL is that you have a working version of Microsoft Excel installed. statistiXL is compatible with all Windows versions of Excel, from Excel 97 onwards. statistiXL Version 2.0 and later support both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Excel whereas statistiXL Version 1 will only run on 32 bit versions. statistiXL is not currently supported under Excel on the Apple Macintosh.

To be able to install statistiXL you will require just under 20MB of free disk space. This includes space for the application files, sample spreadsheets and the help file. Memory and processor requirements are similar to those for Excel so if you can run Excel you can run statistiXL!

statistiXL complements and expands on the statistical tools provided by the Analysis ToolPak that comes with Excel. statistiXL provides a greater range of more sophisticated analyses, including many that are not included in the ToolPak, and provides greater functionality where similar tests are included in both. Below I run through the modules provided by statistiXL and list the differences between it and the ToolPak.

Starting with the modules that overlap between statistiXL and the ToolPak:

1. Analysis of Variance – Both statistiXL and the ToolPak support Analysis of Variance but the ToolPak only supports 1 and 2 factor ANOVA whereas statistiXL is only constrained by the size of your Excel Spreadsheet or your PCs memory. The ToolPak also only supports full factorial ANOVA whereas statistiXL lets you specify user defined models enabling you to analyse experimental designs, such as Split Plot , Latin Square or Nesting. statistiXL also allows you to control for one or more covariates into your analysis (i.e. Analysis of Covariance) and can perform post hoc test on your results to show where differences between groups lie.
2. Correlation – The overlap between the correlation modules provided by statistiXL and the ToolPak is very limited. Excel’s ToolPak simply tabulates the correlation coefficient for adjacent columns of variables. statistiXL goes far beyond this, providing Simple, Multiple, Partial and Canonical Correlation. Coefficients are provided along with appropriate tests for significance. statistiXL can also produce appropriate graphs for each analysis where applicable (e.g. scatter plots for Simple Correlations of plots of the variates for Canonical Correlations).
3. Descriptive Statistics – The ToolPak provides a basic Descriptive Statistics module for basic linear descriptive statistics. statistiXL provides an enhanced module with additional statistics (such as Percentiles and the Coefficient of Variation) and the ability to output Box and Whisker Plots and Error Bar Plots. statistiXL also provides separate modules for descriptive statistics for circular variables (such as time, compass point measurements etc) and for frequency analysis.
4. Linear Regression – Both the ToolPak and statistiXL can perform Simple Linear Regression on a pair of dependent variables, outputting an F test of the relationship and various plots, such as scatter plots and Normal Probability Plots. statistiXL however extends Linear Regression to cover Weighted Regression, Multiple Regression and also Forward and Backward Stepwise Regression.
5. t Tests – The ToolPak supports 2 Sample Paired and Unpaired tests and tests can be performed assuming equal variances or unequal variances but the user must specify which to use. statistiXL also supports Paired and Unpaired 2 Sample t Tests. The user can specify whether variances are assumed to be equal or not or the appropriate method can be chosen automatically based on the results of an F test. statistiXL also supports single sample t Tests (i.e. tests against a hypothesised mean) and multivariate t Tests.

In addition to these modules, statistiXL provides a range of other tools not included in the Analysis ToolPak. The following list is taken from the Features section of our website:

1. Clustering – Hierarchical clustering of binomial, quantitative and mixed datasets is supported as is clustering based on a predetermined distance matrix. A wide variety of similarity/distance estimates and clustering methods are available and the resultant clustering strategy can be graphically displayed as both a text based and/or graphical dendrogram.
2. Contingency Tables – Both 2-way and multi-way contingency data can be analysed.
3. Discriminant Analysis – Both Grouping and Classification methods of Discriminant Analysis are supported. For Grouping Discriminant Analysis, scatterplots of case scores can be produced for each pair of components. For Classification Discriminant Analysis, an alternate dataset can be classified based on the discriminant functions determined for the primary set.
4. Factor Analysis – Factor Analysis can be performed on either the correlation or covariance matrix of the raw data set. A variety of component extraction and rotation methods are supported and both scree and scatterplots of case scores can be produced.
5. Goodness of Fit – A wide variety of tests for the Goodness of Fit of datasets to theoretical distributions are provided including those for Binomial, Circular, Normal, Poisson and Uniform distributions. The level of fit to user specified distributions can also be calculated.
6. Nonparametric Tests – Numerous Nonparametric Tests are supported including Friedman, Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney, Mood’s Median, Sign, Spearman, Wald-Wolfowitz and Wilcoxon Paired-Sample tests.
7. Principal Components – Principal Component Analysis is provided as a means for the reduction of large multivariate data sets into simpler structures. Scree plots and Scatterplots of case scores can be produced.

The above provides a simple overview of some of the major differences between statistiXL and the Analysis ToolPak. statistiXL provides a range of tools and options that 1) are not available natively within Excel and 2) will address a wide range of analytical questions often posed by scientific research.

When you install statistiXL on you computer, statistiXL attempts to register itself with Excel so that the statistiXL menu or Ribbon Tab will automatically appear whenever you open Excel. Sometimes this process fails and you may need to manually register your new statistiXL add-in instead. If, after installing statistiXL, you open Excel and can see no sign of it then follow these 3 steps.

1. Open Excel
2. Once in Excel open the Add-Ins dialog box. The way to do this will vary depending on your version of Excel:

   Excel 2010 and later: In Excel 2010 and later click on the File Tab and choose Options to open the Options dialog box…

   

   Opening the Options Dialog in Excel 2013

   Then in the Excel Options dialog select Add-Ins from the menu on the left and then click the GO button next to Manage: Excel Add-Ins.

   

   Opening the Excel Add-Ins dialog in Excel 2013

   Excel 2007: In Excel 2007 click on the Office Globe and choose Excel Options to open the Options dialog box…

   

   Opening the Options Dialog in Excel 2007

   Then in the Excel Options dialog select Add-Ins from the menu on the left and then click the GO button next to Manage: Excel Add-Ins.

   

   Opening the Excel Add-Ins dialog in Excel 2007

   Excel 2003 and earlier: In versions without the new ribbon interface (i.e. those prior to Excel 2007) select Add-Ins from the Tools menu.

   

   Opening the Add-Ins Dialog in Excel 97

3. Finally, with the Add-ins list open, tick the statistiXL option if it exists.
   

   The Excel Add-ins dialog in Excel 2013

   If statistiXL doesn’t yet exist in the list you will need to click on the Browse button and navigate to the statistixl.xla file that was placed on your hard drive when statistiXL was installed. This will typically be in the “c:\program files\statistiXL” folder on 32 bit systems and the “c:\program files (x86)\statistiXL” folder on 64 bit systems.

   

   Navigating to the statistiXL.xla file

   Highlight statistixl.xla and click the OK button to add it to the Add-ins list.

The help file included with statistiXL includes worked examples for every statistics module that comes with statistiXL. You can open the workbooks containing the sample datasets used in these examples in order to follow through the steps listed in the help.

The easiest way to open these workbooks is from within the help file itself. Each example in the help file includes a reference to the original source of the data used followed by a link to the sample workbook containing the data. In the ANOVA example below, the data is from Zar 1999 and the sample workbook is called anova.xls.

Simply click on the name of the workbook to open it up in Excel. The workbooks are actually embedded within the help file so can be opened even if you only have the help file available and not the statistiXL add-in.

As an alternative to accessing the sample workbooks through the help file, they are also placed in an examples folder within the folder where you installed statistiXL on your hard drive. This is typically “c:\program files\statistixl” on 32 bit systems or “c:\program files (x86)\statistixl” on 64 bit systems. You can open these workbooks as you would any of your own workbooks, using the file/open option within Excel.

In modern versions of Excel, the features provided by statistiXL can be accessed from a dedicated ribbon, depicted below. Date analysis modules are grouped into categories and can be accessed by the menu associated with each category button. Buttons are multifunctional; clicking on the bottom part will display the menu of modules associated with that category, while clicking on the top part will automatically re-open the most recently used module within that category.

In modern versions of Excel, access to the various features and modules provided by statistiXL is typically through a new tab added to the Excel Ribbon.

If you can find it inconvenient to have to access the Ribbon to select your tests then you can also add a statistiXL menu to the Quick Access Toolbar that the top of Excel.

To add statistiXL to the Quick Access Toolbar select More Commands… from the Toolbar’s drop-down menu.

Next, in the dialog box that appears, select statistiXL Tab as the Choose Commands From: option, scroll down until you see the statistiXL Traditional Menu option and click the Add button. If you just want access a list of your most recently used tests rather than the full statistiXL menu you can choose the statistiXL Recently Used Tests option instead.

Finally click the OK button to confirm your addition.

While you can use the mouse to select the cells containing the data you want to analyse with statistiXL it is often quicker to use keyboard shortcuts instead. Here are some of the combinations you can use.

Press	To
CTRL+A	Select the entire worksheet
CTRL+SPACEBAR	Select the entire column
SHIFT+SPACEBAR	Select the entire row
F8	Turn on extending a selection by using the arrow keys
CTRL+SHIFT+END	Extend the selection to the last used cell on the worksheet (lower-right corner)
CTRL+SHIFT+HOME	Extend the selection to the beginning of the worksheet
CTRL+SHIFT+arrow key	Extend the selection to the last nonblank cell in the same column or row as the active cell
SHIFT+F8	Add another range of cells to the selection; or use the arrow keys to move to the start of the range you want to add, and then press F8 and the arrow keys to select the next range

Many users of Excel will be familiar with the use of shortcut key combinations to aid in the selection of ranges of cells. For example, holding down the SHIFT and CTRL keys and then pressing the DOWN arrow (with SHIFT and CTRL still pressed) will select all cells from the current cell down to the last nonblank cell in the same column of values. The other arrow keys work in a similar manner so that you can select all cells above, below, left or right of the current cell. Search for the term “shortcut” in the Excel Help File for more useful key combinations or visit our other FAQ, How can I quickly select cell ranges in Excel?.

Unfortunately, a bug crept in to some versions of Excel (Excel 2000 and later) that stopped this feature from working when selecting ranges from a custom form such as those used by statistiXL. If you are using Excel 2000 or later and you can’t use shortcut keys to select ranges then Microsoft Technical Article 291110 should fix the problem for you .

Go to Microsoft Technical Article 291110…