How to use Excel's Data Analysis Toolpak on a Chromebook

If you use one of the best Chromebooks as your daily driver for work or school, you probably want to run at least one Microsoft app. From word processing to computational tasks with Excel, Office has everything you need to get the job done. While Microsoft doesn’t offer a native Excel Chrome OS app, you can run Office on a Chromebook with the web app. You also can use the Google Sheets app as an alternative, too. In this article, we’ll look at extending that Excel and Google Sheets functionality on your Chromebook with the Data Analysis Toolpak.

Run Microsoft Office 365 web apps

We’ve already covered some of the most popular ways to get Microsoft Excel on your Chromebook, namely using web apps. If you just need basic Excel functions for school, here’s a quick refresher on that option.

The best option for running Microsoft Office on a Chromebook is via the Microsoft 365 web app suite. With this suite, you can use Office for the web in your browser to create, edit and collaborate on files from your Chromebook. This approach also feels very natural since your Chromebook was built for cloud computing. One key advantage of web apps is you don’t need to install anything, saving storage space on your device.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote are all present as web apps, as is Outlook, OneDrive, Skype, People, Calendar, Sway, and Forms. All of these web apps have limited free functionality, so to get the full feature set you’ll need to pay for a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. If you’re a student or teacher, you can likely get Microsoft 365 for free through your school or university. Anyone can also get a free one-month trial of Office 365.

Those planning to use the web app approach to Office should consider adding shortcuts for the web apps to your app drawer. You can also pin them to your shelf if you want Office always a click away. There’s also a nifty Chrome extension for Microsoft Office, allowing even easier access right inside your browser.

As for The Data Analysis Toolpak, this is a very important feature in Excel for students. Luckily, you can easily get all the Data Analysis Toolpak functionality with an Add-on for Excel. You also can use it on Google Sheets, too. Most of the basic functionality and UI elements work as you’d expect. So, let’s talk about how to enable the Data Analysis Toolpak.

The Microsoft 365 Microsoft Excel web app is now compatible with add-ins. This means you can technically add and use the Data Analysis Tookpak to Excel on the web on your Chromebook without worry. Here’s how you can do that. Note that You’ll have to sign in with a Microsoft Account or a Work or School account that has an active Microsoft 365 subscription for this to work.

Launch the Microsoft Excel Web app by clicking here or going to Office.com and choosing Excel in the sidebar.
Create a new blank workbook
- Alternatively, choose Upload and open… and follow the instructions on your screen to upload an existing workbook
Choose File
Choose Get Add-ins
Click Visit the add-in store
In the search box, type in XLMiner Analysis TookPak
Click the green Add button on the first result and agree to the terms and conditions
After you install it, the Data Analysis Toolpak add-in will appear on the right side of your screen.

Once installed, you’ll see a list of functions in the right of your spreadsheet, just as the image at the top of this section shows. Click them to get started based on the data in your Excel spreadsheet.

If you prefer to use the Google Sheets app on your Chromebook, then the Data Analysis Toolpak can work there, too. In fact, you can find Google Sheets in your Chromebook’s app drawer by default, and you can also visit sheets.google.com to open a new sheet. Here’s how to use the Data Analysis Toolpak on Google Sheets on a Chromebook.

Open your file in Google Sheets by clicking File then Open. You also can import an existing Excel file by clicking Import
Next, head to the top menu bar in Google Sheets and select Extensions
Select Add-ons then Get add-ons
In the list, search for XLMiner Analysis Toolpak
Click the first result, on the left
Click Install and Continue
In the popup, choose the Google Account you want to use with the extension and click Allow
Click Done and then the X to close the Google Workspace Marketplace window
Go back to your worksheet and choose Extensions then choose XLMiner Analysis ToolPak and Start

A window will open on the right with all of the Toolpak functions. The list of available functions coincides completely with the standard Data Analysis Toolpak in Microsoft Excel for Mac or Windows. From here, you can use any of the available statistical tools you need to complete your work.

You may notice the XLMiner Analysis Toolpak doesn’t have the best reviews in the Google Workspace store. However, the UI is incredibly intuitive and matches what you see in Excel. That’s pretty much all there is to it. A quick and easy process on how to use Excel Data Analysis Toolpak on a Chromebook in the Microsoft Excel Web app, or in Google Sheets. All you need to do is install the XLMiner Analysis Toolpak. For other basic Excel functions, you can continue working in the official Excel web app. Either way, if you work with spreadsheets and documents all day, consider a nice docking station to simplify your workflow.