Understanding Microsoft Excel Lesson 1 – Microsoft Excel 2013

What is Excel? A spreadsheet program where you can do things such as calculations, graphs, and statistical analysis quickly. Uses: – Calculating inventory – Creating a household budget – Calculating grades

Spreadsheet Terms Spreadsheet – The type of program that is used to perform calculations. Worksheet – A blank page in a Workbook. Workbook – A collection of worksheets.

More Spreadsheet Terms Formula Bar Column Headers Row Headers Active Cell Name Box Title Bar

Opening and Closing Workbooks When you first open Excel, there is 1 worksheet present but more can be added using the + sign File (Backstage) is where you open and close a workbook. Close a workbook Open a blank workbook

Naming and Saving a Workbook A filename and location should be assigned the first time a workbook is saved. Save often!!! The file name can be up to 255 characters in length. The / \ * ? " | : ; characters may not be used when naming a workbook. Save a workbook for the first time using either the Save option in Backstage view or by clicking the Save icon on the Quick Access Toolbar. Save it with a new name or new file type by clicking “Save As” in the Backstage view.

Templates For spreadsheets that have already been set up for specific purposes, use a template You can save spreadsheets that you create to use as templates later. What would be the benefit of using a template? It’s already premade (set up)

Selecting Cells You can select 1 cell or a group of cells (a range). Use the “select all” button to select all cells. Cell ranges are identified by the first cell address and the last cell address, separated by a colon. How would you identify the cell range shown?

Cell Selection, continued. The “Name Box” shows the address of the active cell. Click the row or column header to select an entire row or column. Select non-adjacent cells by holding down CTRL.

Entering Data into a Worksheet Text (sometimes called labels) – words or numbers that won’t be used in math Values – Numbers that will be used in math Formula - a mathematical equation used to calculate a value. Notice that anything typed in the active cell appears in the formula bar.

Cell Alignment By default, text is left aligned and values are right aligned. You can also adjust vertical alignment. Alignment group on Home tab Right click on cell and select “Format Cells”…Alignment tab

Row and Column Size Row height is measured in points. – A point is a unit of measurement that determines the height of a character. – A point is approximately 1/72 of an inch How tall is 72 point font? Excel’s default column width is 8.43 characters A cell can contain up to 32,000 characters.

What if it Doesn’t Fit in the Cell? Non-formatted values (numbers) are shown in scientific notation. Text spills over if there is room, cuts off if there isn’t. Numbers that will not fit into a cell are replaced with ####.

Adjusting Row and Column Size Mouse over the border between rows or columns until the cursor changes to a double arrow as shown. To resize a column – Hold down the left mouse button and drag to the desired size. – Double click to autofit the size to the cell’s contents. – Right click to choose Column Width You can resize several rows or columns at once by selecting them all and the resizing using the same methods. Which do you prefer?

Adjusting Row and Column Size To resize a row – Place cursor between two rows and then click and drag when it becomes a double arrow – Right click a row and choose Row Height to type in your desired height

Entering a Range of Data To enter data in a range more easily select the range and start typing. Press “Enter” or “Tab” to move to the next cell in the range. What is a range???

Numeric Data in a Spreadsheet Consists of – Currency (money!) Percentages Decimals Fractions Exponents Which are negative???

Entering Dates in a Worksheet Dates can be entered using a combination of text and numbers, or just numbers. Change the format on the Home tab in the Number group. Regardless, dates are serial numbers and can added, subtracted, and used in other calculations. When might you use dates in a calculation?

Editing Data in a Cell Double click on a cell or click in a cell and then in the formula bar to edit its contents. You can click the Enter button or the Enter key to complete an entry. Use the “cancel” or the ESC key to cancel an entry before it is actually entered in the worksheet, restore the cell’s contents, and exit Edit mode.

Finding and Replacing Cell Contents A worksheet contains more than 65,000 rows and 256 columns. The Find and Replace option can quickly search a large worksheet and replace erroneous data with correct data. A formula can be typed into a search string by choosing formulas in the Look In drop down option. Data can be searched for by using a search string as well as matching the case of the data or matching the entire contents of the cell.

Inserting and Deleting Cells, Rows, and Columns Insert or delete rows or columns by – Right clicking on the heading and choosing your option. – Using the Cell group on the Home tab. New rows are inserted about the selected row, new columns to the left.

Cutting, Copying, Pasting, and Clearing Cells Cutting data from a cell and pasting it to a new cell is actually moving the data. Copying data from a cell and pasting into another location actually makes a duplicate of the data without affecting the original cell. Contents can be removed from a cell without removing the cell formats.

Moving to a New Worksheet Remember that each workbook is made up of one worksheets by default. Click the Sheet Tabs at the bottom of the page to change the active worksheet. You can move data between worksheets. Insert a new worksheet by clicking the + sign

Renaming a Worksheet Worksheets are named Sheet1, Sheet2, etc. by default, according to their location in the workbook. Workbooks should be named appropriately based upon their contents. Double-click the sheet tab and enter the new sheet tab name to rename the sheet. You can change the tab color by right clicking on the tab.

Previewing and Printing a Worksheet Viewing a spreadsheet prior to printing it is important to pinpoint errors in a worksheet. Clicking anywhere on the preview will toggle the zoom. An entire worksheet, a selected range in a worksheet, or an entire workbook can be printed.