No one person on the Excel team is focused on the macro recorder.

The macro recorder doesn't work!

Four tips for using the macro recorder

Never use AutoSum or Quick Analysis while recording a macro.

Assigning a macro to a form control, text box, or shape

Creating a macro button on the Quick Access Toolbar

Creating a macro button on the ribbon

Running a macro

Filling out the Record Macro dialog box

Overview of recording, storing, and running a macro

As corporate IT departments have found themselves with long backlogs of requests, Excel users have discovered that they can produce the reports needed to run their businesses themselves using the macro language Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).

VBA enables you to achieve tremendous efficiencies in your day-to-day use of Excel. VBA helps you figure out how to import data and produce reports in Excel so that you don't have to wait for the IT department to help you.

Such points about the origins of data and the processes of their collection are a key factor in civic text visualization. Indeed, a shift to emphasizing paradata can help draw attention to the representativeness of data.

On the other side of this spectrum, at the detail level, articulating nuanced information present in raw text data can enable civic leaders to peruse and sublimate critical insights.

In contrast, we could consider designing explicitly for multiple users. Doing so requires more than designing for different levels of expertise (see the following subsection for more on expertise) or designing for collaborative use, though both those things may be valuable in their own right. Rather, this dimension encourages accounting for the different types of relationalities that users may have with a system [cf. BB17].

Civic text visualizations similarly designed to foreground interpretation could help make clearer who is making these interpretive decisions, thereby highlighting the lack of neutrality and objectivity in data [DK20].

work on visualization evaluation [SP06; IZCC08; LBI*12] has emphasized the importance of close attention to the various contexts in which a visualization will be applied.

It is informative to contrast this analytic emphasis with other evolving discourses in information visualization. The prior work reviewed above illustrates a few alternative orientations, including rhetoric [HD11], feminism [DK16; DK20], ethics [Cor19], and others [DFCC13; VW08].

work in the digital humanities often explicitly emphasizes the interpretation both of texts themselves and of computational analysis thereof [Ram03; Joc13; Und14; BSM*20].

For instance, CommunityPulse provides a scaffolding for multifaceted public input analysis using visualizations [JHSM21], and MultiConVis enables multilevel exploration and analysis of threaded conversations [HC16b].

For example, CommunityPulse [JHSM21] uses common, simple visualizations and iconography, such as bar charts and emojis, to provide overviews of people's emotions towards civic agendas and ideas. Similarly, ConsiderIt [KMF*12b] uses bar charts to visualize people's stance towards ballot measures.

For instance, visual analytic systems such as MultiConVis [HC16b] use multiple connected views to enable analysts to filter and explore text data at multiple levels.

Tools such as ConsiderIt [KMF*12b] or Opinion Space [FBRG10] are designed specifically for the public. In contrast, tools such as CommunityPulse [JHSM21] or CommunityClick [JKW*21] are focused more on supporting community leaders and decision makers.

For example, MultiConVis [HC16b] makes prescriptive statements not only as to the sentimental valence of individual conversations but also as to the topics that each conversation is about. Similarly, ConsiderIt [KMF*12b] asks participants to place individual statements as either supporting or opposing a given ballot proposition.

Consider how systems such as MutiConVis [HC16b] and CommunityClick [JKW*21] provide visual representations to help the viewer understand the structure and content of conversations.

tools such as ConsiderIt [KMF*12b] and CommunityPulse [JHSM21] prominently feature specific comments from members of the public (i.e., the data).

Some tools provide both computational and visualization features. For instance, CommunityPulse provides a scaffolding for multifaceted public input analysis using visualizations [JHSM21], and MultiConVis enables multilevel exploration and analysis of threaded conversations [HC16b].

Researchers in HCI and digital civics have begun to explore methods to improve the analysis capabilities of visual analytics tools [JHSM21; MJS20b]. Although the broader community of visualization researchers acknowledges the importance of designing for varied levels of expertise [Mun14; GTS10; SNHS13], existing work on text analytics in general, as well as civic text visualizations in particular, focuses research efforts towards designing for analysts. Less effort has been put on designing and developing text visualization for non-experts—people who are not trained in or have had limited exposure to visualization and analytics.

Improving the public input process has become an important goal in the field of digital civics [MNC*19; VCL*16; OW15]. To that end, researchers and practitioners have developed a variety of systems for, e.g., sharing public opinions [FBRG10], building consensus [KMF*12a; ZNB15], summarizing public input [19], or identifying people's priorities, reflections, and hidden insights [JHSM21].

Previous work has introduced several online engagement platforms to enable the public to asynchronously provide their comments, ideas, and feedback around civic issues [19; 20b; MJN*18]. These engagement tools have used micro-tasks [MJN*18], visualizations [19], and forum-like discussions [20b] to engage disconnected and disenfranchised populations [MNC*19]. Others have proposed technologies to promote in-person engagement of reticent participants during town halls [JKW*21] and public meetings [LLS] using clicker-like devices.

Despite their central importance in the civic engagement process, members of the general public are not necessarily involved in the analysis process. Hence, they are often left out of the loop when designing civic text visualizations—their requirements, aptitudes, knowledge, etc. are not given central consideration. Integrating participatory approaches in civic text visualization could pave the way not only for more inclusive analysis but also for leveraging the general public's knowledge to gather richer insights.

social dynamics, such as shyness and tendency to avoid confrontation with dominant personalities can also hinder opinion sharing in town halls by favoring privileged individuals who are comfortable or trained to take part in contentious public discussions [27, 127].

town halls inadvertently cater to a small number of privileged individuals, and silent participants often become disengaged despite physically attending the meetings [61]. Due to the lack of inclusivity, the outcome of such meetings often tends to feel unjust and opaque for the general public [39, 54].

designing communitysourcing technologies to include marginalized opinions and amplify participation alone may not be enough to solve inequality of sharing opinions in the civic domain [26, 126]. Despite the success of previous works [25, 53, 90], technology is rarely integrated with existing manual practices and follow-ups of engagements between government officials and community members are seldom propagated to the community.

Marginalization can be broadly defined as the exclusion of a population from mainstream social, economic, cultural, or political life [58], which still stands as a barrier to inclusive participation in the civic domain [48, 94]. Researchers in HCI and CSCW have explored various communitysourcing approaches to include marginalized populations in community activities, proceedings, and designs [48, 53, 81, 93, 132].

To increase broader civic participation, researchers in HCI have proposed both online [4, 5, 7, 81, 93] and face-to-face [21, 80, 91, 125] technological interventions that use the communitysourcing approach.

Prior investigations by Bryan [29] and Gastil [56] showed a steady decline in civic participation in town halls due to the growing disconnect between local government and community members and the decline in social capital [43, 111, 113]. Despite the introduction of online methods to increase public engagement in the last decade [4, 5, 7, 37, 81, 93], government officials continue to prefer face-to-face meetings to engage the community in the decision-making process [32, 52, 94].

To reengage disconnected, reticent, or disenfranchised community members, researchers in HCI and digital civics have offered novel strategies and technological interventions to increase engagement [60, 62, 94, 107, 130].

Bryan [29] and Gastil [56] investigated the state of town halls and demonstrated a steady decline in civic participation due to the growing disconnect between local government and the community.

Traditional community consultation methods, such as town halls, public forums, and workshops are the modus operandi for public engagement [52, 94]. For fair and impartial civic decision-making, the inclusivity of community members' feedback is paramount [60, 94, 126]. However, traditional methods rarely provide opportunities for inclusive public participation [30, 87, 95].

Murphy used such systems to promote democracy and community partnerships [103]. Similarly, Boulianne et al. deployed clicker devices in contentious public discussions about climate change to gauge public opinions [25]. Bergstrom et al. used a single button device where the attendees anonymously voted (agree/disagree) on issues during the meeting. They showed that back-channel voting helped underrepresented users get more involved in the meeting [22].