ME 142 Engineering Computation I Excel Basics

Active Cell Each rectangle of the spreadsheet grid is called a cell Each cell is identified by its cell address, made up of a column letter and row number The active cell is identified by: A heavy border Row/column headings highlighted Cell address shown in the name box Information is entered through the active cell

Text, Numbers, & Formula The most common types of data used in a spreadsheet are Text Numbers Formulas

Text, Numbers, & Formula Numbers – numeric value May be integer or real numbers Text – character, word, label By default Text is left justified Formula – equation Begin with equal sign (=) Formula shown in formula bar Results of calculation shown in the cell

Entering/Editing Data & Formulas Entering data similar to word processor Mouse, arrow keys, enter, tab, … May use the mouse to select appropriate cells while entering formula May edit in formula bar

Moving/Copying Data & Formulas Many methods to move/copy data Cut, copy, and paste to clipboard Move by dragging Copy/move single or multiple cells Try [Shift] and [End] keys Fill handles

Relative & Absolute Addressing Relative Addressing refers to the automatic incrementing of a cell address during the copying process It is an extremely important feature of spreadsheets Copying down increments row numbers Copying across increments column numbers Absolute Addresses are constant and do not change or increment when copied A dollar sign “$” in front of a row or column number denotes an absolute address

Relative & Absolute Addressing Relative Addressing is the default: (example D5) Copying down increments row numbers (example: D6) Copying across increments column letters (example: E5) Use $ to change from relative to absolute Example $D$5 May use in combination Example $D5 or D$5 Use [F4] key to toggle

Named Cells Using named cells in your formulas can make them easier to comprehend Enter a cell name in the Name box Individual cells or ranges may be named A cell name acts as an absolute address is not modified when a formula is copied To remove a name use Ribbon commands Formulas/Name Manager

Conditional Formatting With conditional formatting, particular format attributes are applied only if a certain condition is met Makes it easy to spot extreme data values

Built-in Functions Hundreds of built-in functions available See formula ribbon Formulas contain arguments in parenthesis We’ll cover a number of those useful to engineers throughout the semester

Error Messages Understanding excel error messages can be useful in finding spreadsheet errors: #DIV/0 divide by zero #N/A result is not available #NAME? Function name not recognized #NUM! Not a valid number (too large…) #REF! Invalid cell referenced #VALUE! Wrong type of argument

Formatting Numbers Variety of formats available within Excel, including Custom Formats

Formatting Numbers Engineering typically requires specific number of decimal places or significant digits General, Number and Scientific formats common Engineering notation available as Custom format

Row & Column Manipulation Entire Rows and Columns may be moved, copied, inserted (added), hidden, and deleted Columns/Row width/height may be resized