Microsoft Excel – Intermediate Topics

April 14, 2008Abby Wiertzema

wiertzem@oswego.eduhttp://www.oswego.edu/~wiertzem

Topics

General Information Protecting your data Excel Tricks Formatting of cells Conditional formatting Functions – Mathematical, Text, Dates Multiple worksheets Error Handling Sorting

General Information A Cell is the intersection of one row & one column

Rows (1 - 65,536) & columns (A-IV, 256) A Worksheet is one tab within a Workbook A Workbook is a file saved with .xls extension To delete a cell(s), highlight and select Edit,

Delete – you may be prompted for more info Undo/Repeat – Undo only works for 16 steps Tools, Options – many ways to individualize your

installation and the open spreadsheet For HELP, select F1 or Help, Microsoft Excel Help

Protecting your Data

Multiple copies of different media and locations Local hard drive Server hard drive Diskette, CD, USB drive

Autosave – set a period of time you are willing to re-do your work (Tools, Options)

Save before attempting something new and unsure; undo may not work (macros & some sorts)

Trick 1 – Fill Handle and Ranges

Fill Handle Selecting a range

To select a range – use the mouse or keyboard

SHIFT key selects everything between clicks CTRL selects cells individually

Selecting several ranges To select multiple ranges, use mouse and hold

CTRL key

Trick 2 – Paste Special

Paste will copy the exact information from one cell to another.

Paste Special allows you to: Copy the values calculated from functions into

another cells Copy previously done formatting of cells Copy formulas Perform calculations between data of copy

area and paste area Transpose cells

Trick 3 – Print Area

To print only a portion of a worksheet, highlight the range of cells, then select File, Print Area, Set Print Area

To print multiple Print Areas, select different ranges before doing the Set Print Area command.

Multiple print areas print on different pages

To remove the print areas, select File, Print Area, Clear Print Area

Trick 4 – Multiple Ways to use Common Commands

Using a Menu Using keystrokes Using icons

Open Go to File, Open Ctrl-O

Save Go to File, Save or File, Save As Ctrl-S

Print Go to File. Print Ctrl-P

Cut Go to Edit, Cut Ctrl-X

Copy Go to Edit, Copy Ctrl-C

Paste Go to Edit, Paste Ctrl-V

Undo Go to Edit, Undo Ctrl-Z

Redo Go to Edit, Redo Ctrl-Y

Function Go to Insert, Function -

Chart Go to Insert, Chart -

Trick 5 – Page Setup

Select File menu Four tabs – printer options on each tab

Page – set portrait/landscape, adjust to fit Margins – set top/bottom/left/right margins, set

header/footer margins Header/Footer – add date/page#/text/title in a

header or a footer Sheet – set columns or rows to appear on

each printed sheet, set gridlines

Trick 6 – Row Height & Column Width

To change the Row Height Select Format, Row, Height & enter a value Drag the boundary below the row

To change the Column Width Select Format, Column, Width & enter a value Drag the boundary below the row Double-click right boundary to Auto-Fit

Highlight for multiple rows or column

Formatting of Cells

Select Format, Cells Number tab – specify the type of data Alignment tab – Center across selection,

Orientation, Wrap text Font tab – change the font, size, and style;

can select underline, color, and strikethrough

Border tab – place borders around cells Patterns tab – put color or texture in cells Center across selection – can use icon

Conditional Formatting

This is a format Excel automatically applies if a certain condition is encountered

Use Format, Conditional Formatting Can have 3 conditional formats on a set of cells

Functions (1 of 2)

Use Menu bar (Insert, Function) or or type “=“ Functions start with “=“ For a list of all functions, see

http://www.oswego.edu/~wiertzem/Excel_Functions.doc

Functions work on these types of data: Numerical Text Dates

Functions (2 of 2)

Function Arguments provides help in completing the function

Use then select a function, for example SUM

Multiple Worksheets (1 of 2)

One workbook can contain multiple worksheets.

Right-clicking on tab: Insert a new worksheet Delete a worksheet Rename the worksheet Rearrange tab order Change tab color

Multiple Worksheets (2 of 2)

"=SUM('c:\Documents and Settings\wiertzem\

My Documents\[Budget.xls]Annual'!a1:a6)"

Data from different worksheets can be used in calculations.

Use ‘ ‘ to identify the tab name and file name.

Use ! to separate tab name from cell (or cell range).

=SUM(‘Cell Formats’!F6:F8)

Error Handling (1 of 3)

If you make a mistake in a function, you will see an error displayed as: ###### - column too narrow to display data #VALUE! – wrong type of argument #NAME? – unrecognized text #REF! – cell in formula does not exist #DIV/0 – formula divides by zero

Error Handling (2 of 3)

Click on the error symbol for an explanation of what went wrong

Click on Help on this error to get Microsoft Help

Error Handling 3 of 3

To correct Error Indicators (Tools, Options, Error Checking tab)

Check Enable background error checking & Number stored as text

Highlight cell or range of adjacent cells that has an error indicator in the upper-left corner

Click the error button that appears and use the menu options

Sorting

Use icons for a simple sort Will do either ascending or descending For a more complicated sort, use Data, Sort Can sort on 3 columns at once

Online Help

Go to Help, Microsoft Excel Help or use the F1 key

Type your question Microsoft’s Office home page:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx

The home page also contains clip art and templates