Wrap text Wrapping text means you want your text to appear on multiple lines, rather than one long line of text. This allows you to keep the column width to a manageable size and consistent throughout your spreadsheet.  You will use the Home ribbon and Wrap Text in the Alignment group.

Try it out! Type Food technology into cell A1 of a new workbook. Wrap the text:

The words still don’t fit correctly so widen the column slightly so that the words appear like this: You can enhance this further by centre aligning the text:

Ribbon groups used You will be using these buttons from the Clipboard group on the Home ribbon and these buttons from the Window group on the View ribbon.

Functions

Working with spreadsheets Must understand how Excel functions work Should be able to use a range of functions Could be able to use a wide range of functions to improve efficiency

What is a function? A pre-defined formula used in a calculation. Excel provides over 300 but you will only be using a few of them at this stage. Load the workbook Stats (if you don’t have this, a copy can be saved from Student Public > ICT > ecdl > Year 11 MH). Delete the contents of cell C11. Type in =sum( Now click cell C4 and drag down to D10. Excel will fill in the range of cells. End the formula by typing ) and Enter

The AVERAGE function Click Cell C13 then click the arrow to the right of the AutoSum button (Editing group on the Home tab). Select Average from the list. Excel will try to guess what cells you want to use but this is wrong! Click cell C4 and drag to cell C10 to correct the formula. The answer displayed should be 3.47 Do the same for the average length. You can type directly into the cell as we did with the Sum function =average().

The MAX and MIN functions Click cell C15 then click the arrow on the right-hand side of the AutoSum button in the Editing group of the Home ribbon. Select Max from the list. You will notice that Excel has guessed the wrong cell range. Correct this as you did when finding the average. The answer should be 4.10 Now do the same for the maximum length. Use the MIN function to find the minimum weight and length.

It should look like this:

The COUNT function You will use this function to count the number of babies. You could use the Count Numbers option on the AutoSum button, but this time you are going to practise typing the function directly into the cell. Click cell C19 Type =count( Click cell C4 and drag to cell C10. Press Enter. Excel will automatically add the closing bracket for you. The answer 6.00 should appear (Excel has only counted the cells that contain a number). Repeat this for the length. Cells C19 and D19 need to be changed to whole numbers (Tip: select and reduce DP)

Your spreadsheet formulae should look like this: Extension: What does the COUNTA function do?

The ROUND function You have decided that you don’t need to know the total weight and length accurately – a rounded figure is sufficient. The ROUND function rounds the value of the cell for you. Type ROUND in cell A21 Type =round(C11,0) in cell C21. This means that the value has been rounded to a whole number (0 decimal places). In cell D21, round the total length to a whole number.

Adding another record Suppose another baby is born on the ward and needs to be added on the worksheet. Insert a new row after Victoria King. In the new row, enter the data for Jacob Walton, who weighs 3.7kg and is 51cm long. The formulae will have updated automatically. NOTE: If you didn’t include row 10 in your original formulae, the formula would not have adjusted when you entered a new row. Save your work.

Your spreadsheet should look like this: An alternative way to show a formula other than using the Ctrl + `  (grave accent key) is to click on the Formula ribbon and select Show Formulas in the Formula Auditing group.

Starter Complete the sheet by writing the correct formulae.

Starter answers

Filling a series You have already used the fill handle to fill down a formula in a spreadsheet, but it can fill other series too. Open a new spreadsheet. In cell A1 type Monday. Use the fill handle to fill in the other days of the week. In Cell B1 type January. Fill the remaining months in the same way. This also works if you type Mon or Jan Extension: Find out how you can fill dates

Copying data between sheets Make sure the Birth Stats worksheet tab is selected. Select cells A1 to E10. Click Copy in the clipboard Click the Daily Weights worksheet tab. Click cell A1 to make it the active cell. Paste the data into this cell and widen the columns so that the data is clear. Replace the text in cell C3 to read Day 1. Select cells D3 to D10 and press Delete.

Open the Daily Weights worksheet of your Stats workbook. Click Cell C3. Click and drag using the fill handle to cell G3 then release the mouse button. Excel shows the contents as you auto-fill them so you can check that Excel has ‘guessed’ correctly. Save your work.

Freezing row and column titles When you are working on a large spreadsheet, it is useful to be able to ‘freeze’ row or column titles so that wherever you scroll, you can see them. Make Daily Weights the active sheet. Click on cell G3. Use the fill handle to extend the headings to Day 50. Click on cell A11 and type Baby. Extend to row 63. Type 8 in cell B11 and 9 in cell B12. Select both cells and fill the series to 60.

Now time to freeze! We are going to freeze row 1 to 3 and columns A and B. Click on cell C4. On the View ribbon, select Freeze Panes in the Window group. When you scroll across or down the titles and names do not move.

Switching between open workbooks If you have two or more workbooks open, you can switch between them by selecting the View ribbon and Switch Windows in the Window group (you can also use the taskbar buttons at the bottom of the desktop).

Saving as a different file type The Excel default saves a workbook as a .xlsx file Saving in text format makes it easier to import into other spreadsheet applications, databases or operating systems. You can also save in formats used by earlier versions of Excel. Saving as a template lets you create a file that will keep the consistency of design or layout.

How to save in a different format Do not change the format of your Stats workbook as you may need to use it again.

Exercise 3 Independent assessment. Attempt all steps in the exercise. Make sure that your name is in the header. Before printing, make sure that the page setup is set to landscape, fit to one page and displays the gridlines and row and column headers.

Progress checklist 4 Do I know what an Excel function is? Name: Date: Progress checklist 4 Do I know what an Excel function is? Do I know what the SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, MIN, COUNT, COUNTA and ROUND functions are? Can I use the functions listed above? Can I copy and move single cells and ranges of cells? Can I copy and move rows and columns? Can I use auto-fill to create series and copy data/formats? Do I know how to freeze rows and columns? Do I know how to save spreadsheets in different formats?