Defining nomenclature for fields to reduce data issues

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Learn how to define a clear nomenclature to make your data instantly more readable and actionable. Data can be confusing when key identifiers aren’t meaningful—but a structured naming system changes that. In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin walks through creating a nomenclature for property data, showing how to abbreviate cities, merge IDs, and build…

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Visualizing subgroups when searching for insights

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Learn how to uncover deeper insights by analyzing subgroups in your data. Demographics aren’t the only way to slice a dataset—sometimes the most meaningful patterns appear in behavioral subgroups. In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin shows how to clean and restructure survey responses to highlight groups based on how they receive data: direct access,…

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Cleaning Survey Data for the Purposes of Analysis

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Learn how to fix messy text data with a simple control table in Power Query. In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin demonstrates how to take inconsistent survey responses—like multiple spellings of the same tour name—and map them to one clean, official list. By walking through step-by-step examples, she shows how to remove duplicates, create…

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Working with Different Group Sizes

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Learn how to compare uneven group sizes with PivotTables and charts in Excel. Not all data sets are balanced—sometimes one subgroup is much larger than another. In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin shows how to analyze analysts vs. non-analysts by building PivotTables and transforming the results into 100% stacked charts. By restructuring the data,…

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Understanding and Communicating Impacts

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Learn how to uncover the real impact behind a single number with Excel’s loan amortization tools. A monthly payment might look affordable at first glance—but what about the total cost over time? In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin shows how to use Excel’s built-in loan amortization calculator to break down a $250,000, 30-year loan…

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Creating subgroups for use in visuals and basic analysis

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Learn how to clean and restructure survey data to uncover insights about tool usage across different groups. In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin demonstrates how to transform messy survey exports by selecting the right columns, handling null values, and renaming fields for clarity. By walking through step-by-step examples, she shows how to unpivot multi-select…

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Planning a Basic System for Data Collection

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Learn how to turn multiple data sources into a unified collection that drives real insights. In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin explores the fundamentals of data collections—how to identify which datasets matter, where they come from, and how to prepare them for analysis. Using examples from event management and HR systems, you’ll see how…

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Scripting views for SQL databases

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Tired of re-running queries and exporting CSVs? 🚀 In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin shows how to use SQL views to turn one-time queries into reusable datasets. With SQL Server Management Studio, she walks through saving a query as a view, using an example of tracking the most popular tour package. Once saved, views…

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Use Copilot to Create a Draft Presentation about your Data Project

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Learn how to build smarter presentations with Microsoft Copilot in PowerPoint. Every data story needs a strong first draft. In this Data Survival Skills session, you’ll see how to turn Word documents and Excel spreadsheets into presentation-ready slides—complete with outlines, speaker notes, and visuals—using Copilot. By iterating between your data sources and AI-powered drafting, you’ll…

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Using Remove Duplicates to Find the Latest or Earliest Record in Excel

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Learn how to find the latest or earliest customer orders using Remove Duplicates in Excel. Sometimes you just need a clean list of customers with their most recent order—but sorting through all the data manually can be tedious. In this Data Survival Skills session, Robin shows how to sort by customer ID and order date,…

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