Electronic Spreadsheets CIT-101

Electronic Spreadsheet Definition  A grid of rows and columns.  A computerized equivalent of an accountant’s ledger.  When values change, formulas are automatically recalculated.

Electronic Spreadsheets  Electronic spreadsheets answer a type of question called “What if?” This is a way of predicting how change will affect the company.

Who uses Electronic Spreadsheets?  Financial institutions  Business and industry  Building contractors  Anyone who needs to budget

Terms:  Rows – numeric (Max. 65,536)  Columns - alphabetic (Max. 256)  A-Z  AA to AZ  BA to BZ  Etc, until IV.

Terms:  Cell - The intersection of a row and column  Active Cell – The cell with the heavy border around it. You make a cell active when you click it.  Cell Reference– A unique reference.  Example, the cell at the intersection of the first column and the 9 th row is A9.

Menu Bar Name Box Cell Pointer Formula Box Title Bar Standard & Formatting Bar Active Sheet Status Bar Elements of an Excel Worksheet:

Terms:  Value (number) example: 4,325  Label (descriptive text) example: January

Terms: FORMULAS are a combination of:  numeric constants  cell references  arithmetic operators

Terms: Formulas always begin with an = mark Followed by cell references and arithmetic operators. Example: =B4+E4

Terms:  Arithmetic operators are as follows:  + for addition  - for subtraction  * for multiplication  / for division  ^ for exponentiation

Formulas  Follow the normal rules of precedence:  1st - expression in parenthesis  2nd - exponentiation  3rd - multiplication and division (left to right)  4th - addition and subtraction (left to right)

Terms:  Function -A predefined computational task (more than 100 available)  For example, the function AVERAGE: =AVERAGE(B1:B4) We could write the formula: =(B1 + B2 + B3 + B4)/4

Terms:  Range (Block, Series) – a selected, contiguous block of cells.  Ranges are represented within parentheses. Example: (B4:D4)

Terms:  In Excel, our files are called “Workbooks” and have an extension of.xls.  Each Workbook has, by default, three worksheets (spreadsheets).

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