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Microsoft Excel Basics
Launch the Microsoft Excel Program Click on the program icon in Launcher or the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar. A worksheet is a grid, made up of columns, which are lettered and rows, which are numbered. At the intersection of each row and column is a cell, which has a coordinate address called a "Cell Reference" (A1 or C5, etc.). The Menu and Toolbar in Excel (see below) look much like the Word tools and most tools behave as you would expect. Use Help on the Menu Bar or click on the ? icon on the Toolbar. 
To select a single cell-click on it with the pointer. Moving from One Cell to the Next
|Top of Page | When you select a single cell, it becomes active with a heavy dark border around it. In the upper left-hand corner of the spreadsheet, you will see the cell reference for the active cell (A1 in the figure below). All typing enters first into the Formula Bar, which is to the right of the cell reference. When you press <Enter>, all information typed in the Formula bar is entered into the active cell on the worksheet. 
You can use copy and paste cells. One shortcut is to click on the little box in the lower right hand corner of the active cell frame (the cursor becomes a crosshair), and drag it across the columns or rows. Another neat trick is to first select the range of cells into which you will enter data. This allows you to tab from one cell to the next within this range of cells. If you are entering data into three columns (e.g. B, C and D) when you reach column D, the tab key will automatically return you to the next row in column B. If you are still in the formula bar when you realize that you have made an error, just delete backwards by pressing <Delete> or use your mouse to correct the mistake like you would in any word processor. If you have made a mistake in a cell that has already been entered into the spreadsheet, first click on the cell with the error. Then, click in the Formula Bar and edit the error. After you have finished editing, hit enter. Hitting the "X" box will "cancel" your new work and will return the cell back to its original state. In addition to the basic formatting effects (Bold, Italics and Underline), there are several other formatting options in Excel. Slowly pass the mouse over the icons on the formatting toolbar to find the tools for Currency, Percent, Comma and Increase or Decrease Decimal places. These are the most common formatting tools used in Excel. You can also select Format --> Cells from the Menu Bar (or Right Click menu). You will find there options to format cells as dates or text, align or wrap text, merge cells, apply borders or shading or colors. Look at the available options. A formula is used to calculate results from some collection of data. The most common function is to sum a range of numbers using the common mathematical operations of addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*) and division (/). Formulae can also be used to count data, average data, and perform more advanced functions. To construct a sum, for example, do the following:
An even quicker way to Sum a column or row is to click on the SUM icon on the toolbar. Look carefully at the range of cells that are selected. If one row is blank, the formula will only select up to the first empty row. If you want to select a different range of cells, simply click and drag the mouse over the range to select it. Notice: When you click on the cell containing a total, you will see the formula in the formula Bar. You can change a formula by clicking in the Formula Bar and editing as described earlier in "Correcting a mistake". To save time and keep your spreadsheet accurate, once you have the formula you need, copy the formula into the remaining "Total" cells:
One way to view the page on the screen more clearly is to Freeze Panes. This makes the column headings and row descriptions you choose to remain in view when you scroll through a large sheet. This option is found under the Window Menu. Select the cell just below the row containing column headings and to the right of any column that contains row descriptions. Then, select Window --> Freeze Panes. To turn off this feature, you will see that the same option under the Window menu now reads "Unfreeze Panes". |Top of Page | Margins, paper orientation, headers/footers and print size can be set from the File --> Page Setup Menu. If a spreadsheet nearly fits on one page, it is usually preferable to select the "Print to 1 page wide by 1 page tall" option. This avoids a single column or a few rows printing on a separate page. On the Sheets tab, you can also choose whether to print the gridlines or not. Also on the File --> Page Setup window in the Sheets tab is an option to select any column headings ("Rows to repeat at top") or row labels ("Columns to repeat at left.") that you want to print on subsequent pages if your spreadsheet is long enough to print on more than one page. You do this by first clicking in the Rows to Repeat and Columns to Repeat boxes on the Sheet tab then click on the rows or columns in your spreadsheet. You can also specify the print area in this window, which may be only a section of the full spreadsheet. Always use Print Preview before printing a spreadsheet to verify that you will print only what you want to print, and that the printout will look the way you expect it to look on the page. You can set the margins and layout in this view. When you have finished adjusting the spreadsheet in Print Preview mode, click on the Close button to return to the spreadsheet for editing. When you are sure the spreadsheet looks the way you intend, select File --> Print from the Menu Bar and specify the printer you want the spreadsheet printed to, if it is not the default. Spreadsheets can be printed in color to capture special details, such as red fonts for negative numbers, or colored bars or pie sections in charts. |Top of Page | Click on Insert --> Chart and follow the on-screen instructions. Advanced techniques for working with Charts will be provided in the Advanced Excel workshop. 
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October 7, 2005
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