1. CS 106 Computing Fundamentals II Chapter 5 “Excel Basics for Windows”
Herbert G. Mayer, PSU CS
status 6/17/2013
Initial content copied verbatim from
CS 106 material developed by
CS professors: Cynthia Brown & Robert Martin

2. Syllabus Excel Versions Workbook Excel Sheets Controls Adding Data
Excel Formulae
Absolute and Relative Names
Functions

3. Excel Versions
You can use Excel 2010 or 2007 on Windows. They are quite similar
You can use Excel 2011 on a Mac. Earlier versions do not work

4. Open Excel to get a Workbook

5. Workbook Consist of Spreadsheets
Tabs let you switch between sheets

6. You can rename a sheet by double clicking and typing a new name
Here I renamed Sheet1 as tab1

7. Adding Sheets
Just click here

8. Multiple Sheets Many times you will only need one sheet
Multiple sheets can help you organize your work
For example, you might want a sheet for each time period, like a week, month, or quarter
Or, if you have multiple stores, you might want one for each store

9. Controls

10. Ribbons, Not Menus
The newest Microsoft Office programs under Windows have eliminated menus in favor of ribbons that run across the top of the window
Controls are grouped into tabs and within the tabs are grouped into functional categories
On some items, a small downward triangle can be clicked to show options

11. This shows the Home tab Main ribbon tabs Qi Group names
Quick access items

12. Using the Controls
Many of the controls you will frequently use are on the home tab
Check out the other tabs to get a feeling for what is there; we’ll discuss individual controls as we use them
The built-in help is very good
In a separate short presentation, we show you how to make the Developer tab show up

13. Structure of a spreadsheet

14. A sheet is a grid of cells
Column names
Row numbers

15. A cell is named by column and row
Cell A1 is selected and its name
is shown in the name box; you
select a cell by clicking it

16. Cell C1

17. Cell B2

18. Cell G17

19. Adding Data

20. You can type directly into a selected cell

21. Types of Data
Excel can handle various kinds of numbers, strings of characters (text), and dates
Most of the ordinary formatting you might want to do can be handled by the home tab controls

22. Number formatting group
Use this group to format
numbers as currency, percent,
etc.
To format a whole column or row,
click on the column letter or row
number

23. Tapping the Power of Excel
Suppose I want to fill the first column with numbers 1000, 2000, 3000 etc up to 20,000
I could just type them but that would be silly
Instead, I will use an Excel formula to accomplish this task
To type a formula you must start with an = sign

24. A Formula: =A1+1000 When writing a formula, you don’t have to type
the name of a cell you want to use. Just click on it
and it will show up in the formula.

25. Now push return…

26. Now the good part…
I’m going to copy the formula by selecting the cell it’s in and clicking the copy icon in the clipboard group at the left of the home ribbon
Then I will drag the cursor down the A column from row 3 to 20; Excel will highlight it
Then I will click the paste icon

27. Just before clicking Paste

28. Just after clicking Paste
Note that cell A3 has formula
A2+1000!

29. Relative Names
So when I copy formula =A from cell A2 into cell A3, it becomes A2+1000
When I copy it to cell A4, it becomes A3+1000
This is because the A1 in the original formula is a RELATIVE name. It is the cell directly above cell A2, where I am writing the formula
When I copy the formula, Excel replaces A1 with the name of the cell directly above the one where I’m putting the copy

30. Relative Name Illustration
Here I put 50 in cell E1 and then copied the formula from cell A2 to cell E2. You can see that Excel changed the formula to use E1 instead of A1, because E1 is directly above E2

31. Absolute Names
Suppose I really want to use a particular cell, and don’t want Excel to change it in the formula when I copy the formula
Let’s say I want to put a number in cell A1, another number in A2, and then add them and put the answer in A3. Then for subsequent rows I want to add A1 each time. So if I start with 10 in A1 and 20 in A2, I should then get 30, 40, 50 etc.
Let’s look at what happens if I go with my first idea: to put =A1+A2 in A3 and then copy it

32. Instead I got this I wanted the formula for A4 to be
=A1+A3, but instead it is =A2+A3
Instead of keeping the A1, Excel used the two preceding cells, A2 and A3

33. To get an absolute name, use $
$ fixes the row and/or column of a cell name
So instead of =A1+A2, I’ll use =$A$1+A2
Let’s see what happens…

34. This is what I wanted!

35. Change numbers in A1 and A2?
Excel automatically recomputes the rest of the column based on the formula! This is one of the great things about using Excel: it lets you try different numbers in “what if” scenarios.

36. Use Similar Formula in Other Col?
I can make a formula where the row is fixed and the column is relative, or vice versa
In this case, instead of =$A$1+A2, I’ll use the formula =A$1+A2. So the column is relative, but I am always using the item in row 1. Let’s copy it to column G, put some numbers in row 1 and 2 of that column, and give it a try…

37. Here the Result The formula =A$1+A2 copied over to be
=G$1+Gn, where n is the number of the preceding row

38. Actual Names
You can give any cell an actual made-up name that will be absolute and usable on every sheet in the workbook and in all its formulas
Just click on the cell, type the name in the name box, and hit return
This can render a formula more readable!

39. Functions These are found in the Formulas tab
Excel has many useful functions for you to use
They are in categories such as Financial, Logical, Text, etc., and there are many math and statistical functions
We’ll write our own functions, too

40. The formulas tab, function library
The formulas tab, function library. Note all the choices for types of functions.

41. The function TODAY returns
today’s date

42. I clicked on the function to insert it in a formula

43. Here’s the resulting value. It will update to the
current date whenever you open the workbook,
so don’t use it if you want it to stay on a particular
day.

44. More Complex Functions
“TODAY” is a pretty simple example. It doesn’t take any arguments
More complex functions can be applied to spreadsheet cells or even to groups of cells (as in SUM or AVERAGE)
Use them in your formulae when you need them; it saves time over writing your own calculation

45. Here I want to add a list of numbers. So I typed
“=SUM(“ and then selected the list of numbers.
You can see how Excel has filled in the notation
A1:A17, which refers to this list. I’ll finish by typing
the closing parenthesis and pushing Return.

46. Here’s the final result.

47. Try It!
If any of this is new to you, open up a spreadsheet and try these ideas for yourself
Experiment with relative and absolute names and with formulas
We have only scratched the surface of Excel