Table 1.

Instructions for creating a basic data collection table

Instruction	Description	Explanation	Alterations
1. Open a new Excel® workbook.	(a) Click on Excel® Icon
2. Label the interval column.	(a) Type “Interval” into cell A1	Do not include quotation marks unless they are used in a formula found in brackets.	“Interval” can be substituted with an appropriate label for another type of system such as “time” or “trial”
3. Fill in the interval times.	(a) Type “9:00 AM–10:00 AM” into cell A2. (b) Continue labeling the 60-min intervals (e.g., type “10:00 AM–11:00 AM” into cell A3) until you have completed “2:00 PM-3:00 PM” in cell A7. i. To stop the text from overlapping into the B cells, highlight cells A2:A7 on the HOME tab and select WRAP TEXT.	“A2:A7” stands for A2 through A7. Colons often mean “through” in Excel®	The interval times can be substituted with other time intervals or any other appropriate labels like a specific time (i.e., 12 p.m.) for a momentary time sampling system, or trial numbers for any trial-based system. Any number of rows can be added for a custom system.
4. Label the interval completion column.	(a) Type “Staff Initials” into cell B1.	The text or values entered into this column will be the source cell for the autofill feature described in Table 3.	Staff Initials can be substituted with something like “was the trial completed” with a dropdown menu of yes/no.
5. Label the target behaviors.	(a) Type “Physical Aggression”, “Self-Injurious Behavior”, “Elopement”, and “Property Destruction” into cells C1:F1, respectively. i. To stop the text from overlapping into the next cell, utilize the wrap text procedure described in step 3b(i).		The target behavior labels can be substituted with any behavior of interest, including behaviors with the goal of acquisition or reduction.