Colectica for Excel: Increasing Data Accessibility Using Open Standards

Traditionally, data in spreadsheets and plain text formats do not contain rich documentation. Often, single-word column headers are the only hint given to data users, making it difficult to make sense of the data. Colectica for Microsoft Excel is a new, free tool to document your spreadsheet data using DDI, the open standard for data documentation. With this Excel add-in, users can add extensive information about each column of data. Variables, Code Lists, and the datasets can be globally identified and described in a standard format. This documentation is embedded with the spreadsheet, ensuring the information is available when data are shared. The add-in also adds support for SPSS and Stata formats to Excel. When opening an SPSS or Stata file in Excel, standard metadata is automatically created from the variable and value labels. Colectica for Excel can create print-ready reports based on the data documentation. The information can also be exported to the DDI standard, which can be ingested into other standards-based tools. This presentation will include a live demonstration of the Colectica for Excel tool, showing how to document the contents of a spreadsheet, publish the information, and use the documentation to access data in an informed way.