1. Computer Applications for Business
Week 4a
Intro to Spreadsheets

2. Business Application Packages
Last Week
Templates
Newsletters and brochures
Keeping track of changes
Electronic Mail
This week –Spreadsheets [Knight (1999) Ch.5]
Introduction to Spreadsheets
“What if” models

3. Spreadsheets
Started off in Finance industry, as way of doing “what if” calculations to model business decisions
If I charge x for each gizmo, and it costs y to build the production line, plus z for each gizmo I make
What is profit at various production volumes?
When will I pay for the initial investment and break even?
Does it as a table of cells, each one related to another with a (usually) simple formula
So cost of producing n gizmos is cost of production-line plus volume-related cost
Profit is sales minus cost of production
Done on paper – a pain to recalculate!
Early PC application – that’s why the Apple II sold .

4. Simple Business Tasks Consider an Invoice
For each item line, we have a quantity and a price
and can derive a total cost for the items on the line
Then need to add them up
and usually add VAT to the total to get the invoice total
Let’s lay out an invoice of that kind
How do we get the computer to do the multiplication?
What about doing the same on the next line?
Is there a short cut to getting the total?

5. Using Excel Excel is the Microsoft Office Spreadsheet program
You can start it from the College desktop bar
Creates empty book of spreadsheets
With three tabs at bottom for holding multiple sheets
Usually you won’t start with an empty book, though
New spreadsheet usually uses ideas from a previous one
Best to load old one, Save it under a new name, then modify this to do what you want
Another job for Windows Explorer

6. Cut, Copy and Paste The Clipboard Move/copy data via the clipboard
Storage shared by all applications
Each use overwrites previous contents
Move/copy data via the clipboard
Select data item
Cut /Copy to the clipboard (Cut removes the source text)
Position the Insertion Point at the target
Paste
Excel modifies formulae as it copies
Usually does what you want
The clipboard is a concept within Windows, and you can think of it as a hidden area of memory that holds whatever you choose to put on it. You transfer selected data to the clipboard with Edit Copy (or by pressing a Copy button on the toolbar). You can then Paste in the current contents of the clipboard (with Edit Paste).
The clipboard is very versatile, and can hold text, graphics, and even files. That doesn’t mean that every program can interpret anything stored there by every other program, but there are defined standards to ensure that a useful subset of clipboard contents is always available. Within a collection such as Office 97, you can expect the full capabilities of the clipboard to be available. So when you store a piece of a Word table, you can expect other programs in the suite to be able to paste in not only the text, but also the font, and the fact that the clipboard contents are divided into cells.
Edit Cut is similar to Copy, except that it automatically removes the selected area from the source document. Depending on application, this may happen immediately, or not until the data is pasted in to the target location.
In addition, the clipboard contains hidden information about where the data was copied from, which will prove valuable later.
Because there’s only one clipboard, every time you Copy or Cut, you overwrite what is there at the time. This is potentially a problem if you spot a couple of transposed words in the middle of a major move. Fortunately, most Windows applications let you drag selected text with the mouse, and drop it in a new location without needing to go through the clipboard.

7. Cut, Copy and Paste – Details
The clipboard is a concept within Windows, and you can think of it as a hidden area of memory that holds whatever you choose to put on it. You transfer selected data to the clipboard with Edit Copy (or by pressing a Copy button on the toolbar). You can then Paste in the current contents of the clipboard (with Edit Paste).
The clipboard is very versatile, and can hold text, graphics, and even files. That doesn’t mean that every program can interpret anything stored there by every other program, but there are defined standards to ensure that a useful subset of clipboard contents is always available. Within a collection such as Office 97, you can expect the full capabilities of the clipboard to be available. So when you store a piece of a Word table, you can expect other programs in the suite to be able to paste in not only the text, but also the font, and the fact that the clipboard contents are divided into cells.
Edit Cut is similar to Copy, except that it automatically removes the selected area from the source document. Depending on application, this may happen immediately, or not until the data is pasted in to the target location.
In addition, the clipboard contains hidden information about where the data was copied from, which will prove valuable later..

8. Modelling Business Problems
Investment Decision often requires seeing what will happen in several possible scenarios
If I charge x for each gizmo, and it costs y to build the production line, plus z for each gizmo I make
What is profit at various production volumes?
When will I pay for the initial investment and break even?
Things not all confined to columns this time
Price, overhead and input cost need to be input
Then outcome computed for each production volume
How do we handle data outside main table columns?

9. Formulae in Excel
Contents of a cell are treated as literal unless you signal that they are part of a formula;
thus B1 + B2 will appear exactly as you typed it
Formulae identified by = sign at start
=B1+B2 will produce sum of these two cells
Have seen Functions like SUM and AVERAGE (remember how Ranges are written A3:C7)
You can name cells in field at left of formula bar: give a helpful name like “VAT rate” instead of co-ordinates
To avoid co-ordinates changing on Copy/Move, prefix the co-ordinate with $ – e.g. $A$1

10. More about replication
Dragging to replicate the contents of a cell
Place cursor in bottom right of cell
Drag horizontally or vertically
Excel copies your cell into the cells you’re “painting”
Like Copy/Paste, it adjusts what is copied
Usually what you want – but not always!
Adjusts column/row references
So dragging a column total right will create a correct total on the next column to the right
Increments numbers
Dragging 1999 produces 2000 on right
Or 1998 if you drag to the left
The clipboard is a concept within Windows, and you can think of it as a hidden area of memory that holds whatever you choose to put on it. You transfer selected data to the clipboard with Edit Copy (or by pressing a Copy button on the toolbar). You can then Paste in the current contents of the clipboard (with Edit Paste).
The clipboard is very versatile, and can hold text, graphics, and even files. That doesn’t mean that every program can interpret anything stored there by every other program, but there are defined standards to ensure that a useful subset of clipboard contents is always available. Within a collection such as Office 97, you can expect the full capabilities of the clipboard to be available. So when you store a piece of a Word table, you can expect other programs in the suite to be able to paste in not only the text, but also the font, and the fact that the clipboard contents are divided into cells.
Edit Cut is similar to Copy, except that it automatically removes the selected area from the source document. Depending on application, this may happen immediately, or not until the data is pasted in to the target location.
In addition, the clipboard contains hidden information about where the data was copied from, which will prove valuable later.
Because there’s only one clipboard, every time you Copy or Cut, you overwrite what is there at the time. This is potentially a problem if you spot a couple of transposed words in the middle of a major move. Fortunately, most Windows applications let you drag selected text with the mouse, and drop it in a new location without needing to go through the clipboard.

11. Spreadsheet Hands-on 1. Creating a Spreadsheet 
Practical Exercises handout:
1. Creating a Spreadsheet 
2. Changing the Look and Style
3. Adding Formulae 
4. Adding a Row to the Spreadsheet

12. Questions ?