Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Tools
—Various software apps and plug-ins are available to make data
access for a particular type of data easier. For example, NodeXL
provides point-and-click access from Excel to social network data,
including Twitter and Facebook. Examples of NodeXL and social data
are shown in Chapters 7 (“Point-and-Click Graph Tools”) and Chapter
11 (“Communities”). Google Spreadsheet provides formulas that can
directly pull data from web sources such as RSS feeds and web pages.
•
Programming
—Both Internet sources and internal data sources such
as databases can be accessed programmatically. (See Chapter 8,
“Lightweight Programming,” for more about this.)
•
Cut and paste
—When all else fails, sometimes cut and paste works.
Some web-based publications use a PDF file format, and data can be cut
and pasted into spreadsheets. In many software solutions, data is
presented in tables where items can be selected. Try selecting data in a
table-like interface and then attempt to copy it. For example, you can
cut and paste e-mail data out of Outlook, as shown in
Figure 3-2
and
Figure 3-3
. In Outlook, the e-mail list pane is a customizable table:
columns such as To and Cc can be added, and columns such as Size and
Date can be reformatted via right-clicks on the column headers. Then,
multiple rows can be selected via Shift+click and pasted into a
spreadsheet or text editor.
