1. Excel Spreadsheet basics

2. Excel Sheets and Books  Spreadsheet: tool to analyze, chart and manage data for personal, business and financial use Worksheet: individual sheet within a workbook, default name Sheet1, default total 3 sheets  Workbook: spreadsheet file, default name Book1, extension.xls

3. Interface  The spreadsheet is laid out as a grid of rows and columns.  Columns are vertical and are labeled with letters.  Rows are horizontal and are labeled with numbers.  Cells are the intersection of columns and rows.

4. The Excel Window  The name box  The active cell  The formula bar  Sheet tabs

5. The cell  The basic unit of a spreadsheet is a cell, it is rectangular shaped.  Cells are used as containers.  A cell is referenced by letter/number, such as: A3, K908  Numbers, text or formulas can be stored in a cell.

6. Entering data into a cell  Data is entered into the active cell by typing or pasting it.  The data appears both in the cell and in the formula bar  Pressing Enter, Tab or an arrow key completes the entry.  No other work can be done until the entry of data into a cell is completed.  Editing cells Changing the data stored in a cell go to the active cell, double click in cell, or hit F2 or go to the formula bar

7. Data types  Excel determines if the data entered is numeric, text or formula.  If the data entered is only numbers (in correct form) the data is numeric.  If the data contains any non number characters the data is treated as text.  If the data entry starts with an “=“ the data is a formula.

8. Formula Data  A formula is a math expression the spreadsheet calculates and show the result of in the cell where the formula is stored.  All formulas begin with an “=“ sign.  The math operators are: Multiplication * Division / Addition + Subtraction –

9. Formula example  Start a formula with the equal sign  Use cell references to add the cells If you use the cell reference instead of the number in the cell you can change the number and the answer will change  Note that Excel color codes the cells involved.