Thanks! I have MS Access and will check it out. On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 2:56 PM, Ethan White <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 12:39 PM, Caroline Li <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I've heard that entering data manually into spreadsheets (which I've >> always done) is frowned upon. Is there free software available for data >> entry? Apparently some people use Google Forms, but maybe there's an option >> better geared to scientific data? >> > > I prefer entering data via a database management system because they can > be configured to offer a lot of quality control to prevent bad data from > being entered. We have tended to use MS Access, but there is an open source > equivalent in Libre Office Base. Any data entry into a database management > system will at least enforce types (you can't accidentally enter a letter > when it should be a number) and will force the data to be properly > structured. By doing data entry through "forms" you can make entry easier > and more robust. For example, instead of typing in a species name you could > have the user select it from a drop down (no more typos) and if a value is > logically bounded between 0 and 100 you could prevent it from taking other > values. >
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