Create dictionary
Get the tools ready 🛠
Download the files from github to get the most updated versions and unzip it.
Save the empty setup file in you working directory, locally. Open the file using Desktop Excel (web-based Excel cannot run macros).
OneDrive and macro-enabled Excel files do not work well together in general. To avoid random file corruption, we advise that you work in a non synchronise folder, or that you disable OneDrive while you are writting the setup file.
Grow your setup file 🌱
The first step is to create the variable dictionary. The other steps are optional and can be completed if and when needed.
Create the variable dictionary 📘
Aka fill the Dictionary and Choices sheets. The first sheet is a database about all the variables present in the linelist you want to create. The Choices sheet contains the categories for categorical variables.
The different sections of the Dictionary sheet will define, for each variable:
- name, label, sublabel, notes
- sheet, section, subsection, hence also defining the structure of the linelist sheets and tables
- variable visibility
- variable type (e.g. a date or a decimal), format (e.g. the number of decimals in a case of a decimal), control (is it free text, a dropdown menu, a formula, a fancy geo section etc.)
- export status: should the variable be exported in one or more exports
- data validation rules: define min and max values, as well as error messages for values that do not respect rules
- whether to apply special formatting and how
- and more!
When you have first draft of your dictionary, go to the OutbreakTools ribbon and click on the button “Check current setup for errors”. This will run a couple of automatic checks on the setup and raise warnings and errors.
Fill other sheets as needed
Fill the Exports sheet to define one or more personalised exports: their names, pseudo-anonymisation, the label of their button, whether to export variable names or labels, how much metadata to export etc.
Fill the Analyses sheet to define basic analyses to include in the linelist:
- uni and bivariate analyses (figures and tables)
- temporal analyses (epicurves and corresponding tables)
- spatial analyses: top X location with… (most case, most deceased, most…)
- spatio-temporal analyses: temporal analyses but for a couple of user-specified places
Fill the Translations sheet to translate strings of text so that the linelist can automatically be built in other languages than the one in the setup.
As for when defining the dictionary, check for errors regularly with the “Check current setup for errors”.
Build the linelist and stress-test it ✔
After correcting errors and checking warnings, you can go to the next step and compile the setup to build the linelist using the designer file. This will create the linelist.
Test you linelist! Enter false data and check your variables:
- is the format of the variable correct?
- are the formulas working as expected?
- is the formatting applied correctly (which boils down to a formula problem, SEE SECTION)?
- do the analyses work as expected?
In all likelihood, you will need a couple of cycles “improve setup -> build linelist -> debug” to get a working linelist, do not despair!
Don’t hesitate to manually unhide all columns in the created linelist to check hidden columns formulas, you have the user rights to do it.
Reverse to the original state by going to the “Advanced” section of the OutbreakTools ribbon, and click on the “Restore state of hidden columns”
If you spend time entering false data to check your linelist, you can save this data for your next test, to avoid spending time re-entering it.
To do that, go to the “Advanced” section of the OutbreakTools ribbon and click on the “Export for migration” button. This will create a data export, that can be later imported in a new empty linelist by clicking on the “Import data” button from the same ribbon.