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Welcome to XLKitLearn!

Latest Version: 12.03

XLKitLearn was designed to teach machine learning to non-technical students without the distraction of code - it exposes the power of scikit-learn through Excel, and works on PC and Mac computers. This page contains installation instructions - for more background, demos, and pedagogical notes, click on "more info" below.


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Windows
Installation
Mac
Installation
Documentation

Windows Installation

(Do you have a corporate computer that doesn't allow you to run .exe file? See this page).
  1. Download the XLKitLearn installer.
  2. Run the download file. Your computer may pause for 10-20 seconds. You may then be shown a Windows security warning. Click on "Yes"
  3. The installer will then launch. Click on "Install", and let the installer do its thing.
  4. Once the progress bar has completed, a black window will pop up that looks something like this - let it do its thing (note: XLKitLearn will not interfere with any version of Python already installed on your computer)
  5. If you have Malwarebytes, you will need to disable part of it to allow XLKitLearn to run; see this page for instructions (if the installer detects you have Malwarebytes, it will bring you to that page automatically).
  6. Click on "Finish" to exit the installer.
The installation is now complete. Every time you want to launch a new instance of XLKitLearn, carry out the following steps:
  1. Open Excel.
  2. Go to the start menu, scroll down your list of programs, and find the "XLKitLearn" folder. Select the "XLKitLearn" item therein.
  3. In the resulting window, click on "Enable Content"
  4. You will immediately be prompted to save the file as follows:
    Click "OK" and immediately press Ctrl+S save the file somewhere - XLKitLearn cannot be used before the file is saved. Please note that the latest version of OneDrive seems to cause some issues when used with the add-in. We'll fix this in the future, but in the meantime, please save the file outside of OneDrive to avoid these errors. When are you done using the add-in after the class, you can move it back to OneDrive.
  5. If you are using XLKitLearn for the first time, check whether the installation worked by entering your email address into the Excel and clicking on the first "Run" button
  6. If the add-in runs successfully, the following screen should show up (note that the contents of cell D13 have been obscured. If you are installing this add-in as part of a class, your instructor might ask you to report the value in that cell to verify you've installed the add-in correctly)

Mac Installation

  1. Bring up Spotlight Search by pressing Command + Space, and type "terminal" in the search bar. Click on the terminal icon:
  2. Click to copy and paste the following line exactly into the terminal:

    curl -sSL https://github.com/danguetta/xlkitlearn/releases/latest/download/XLKitLearn_installer.sh | bash

    and then press Enter:
  3. The command should take between 3 and 6 minutes to run, and end with the text Successfully installed XLKitLearn! in green:
    If your run ends with an error message in red instead, please read it carefully and follow the instructions contained therein. If you have any issues, reach out to whoever gave you the add-in.
  4. You may see the dialogue below after the operation above is done. If you do, click on "OK"
  5. You can now close the terminal window.
The installation is now complete. Every time you want to launch a new instance of XLKitLearn, carry out the following steps:
  1. Open Excel.
  2. Go to your desktop and find the XLKitLearn.xltm file. Open it. (You will need to open this file every time you want to launch a blank version of XLKitLearn).
  3. You will be asked to enable Macros - click "Enable Macros":
  4. You will immediately be prompted to save the file as follows:
    Click "OK" and immediately press Command+S save the file somewhere - XLKitLearn cannot be used before the file is saved.
  5. If you are using XLKitLearn for the first time, check whether the installation worked by entering your email address into the Excel and clicking on the first "Run" button
  6. If the add-in runs successfully, the following screen should show up (note that the contents of cell D13 have been obscured. If you are installing this add-in as part of a class, your instructor might ask you to report the value in that cell to verify you've installed the add-in correctly)
  7. Finally, click on the first "Edit Settings" button on the spreadsheet:
    And click "Select" and then "Grant Access"
    (Because of Excel+Mac's truly Kafkaesque - and ineffectual - approach to file security, you might have to do this a few times).