Understanding Microsoft Excel

Lesson 1 – Microsoft Excel 2010

History of Excel, Part 1

History of Excel, Part 2

Learning Goals

• The goal of this lesson is for students to successfully explore and describe the Excel window and to create a new worksheet. The student will learn to edit a worksheet, save the workbook and properly exit the program.

Learning Objectives• On completion of this lesson, students will be able to do the following:

– Create a workbook– Understand Microsoft Excel window elements– Select cells– Enter text, numbers, and dates in a worksheet– Enter a range of data– Edit cell contents– Adjust the size of rows and columns– Align cell contents– Find and replace cell contents– Insert and delete cells, rows, and columns– Cut, copy, paste, and clear cells– Use additional paste techniques– Move between worksheets– Name and save a workbook– Open a workbook– Rename a worksheet– Preview and print a worksheet– Close a workbook and exit Excel

What is Excel?

• Lets you put numbers into a spreadsheet so that you can do things such as calculations, graphs, and statistical analysis quickly.

• Uses:– Logging my daily workouts– Creating a household

budget– Calculating grades

Starting Excel

Clicking on an Icon on the Desktop

Using the Start Menu

What else???

Spreadsheet Terms

• Spreadsheet – The type of program that is used to perform calculations.

• Worksheet – A blank page in a spreadsheet file.• Workbook – A collection of worksheets.

More Spreadsheet Terms

Formula Bar Row

Headers

Column Headers

Active Cell

Name Box Title Bar

Opening and Closing Worksheets

• When you first open Excel, you see one blank worksheet.

• The visible worksheet is actually part of a workbook that contains three sheets. (Sheet1, Sheet2, Sheet3).

Close a worksheet

Open a blank worksheet

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?

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 WorksheetText (sometimes called labels)

– words or numbers that won’t be used in math

Numbers – Values 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.

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 wide

• A cell can contain up to 32,000 characters.

What if it Doesn’t Fit?

Non-formatted values (numbers) are shown in scientific notation.

Text spills over if there is room, cuts off if there isn’t.

Formatted numbers are replaced by ####.

Adjusting Row and Column Size

• Mouse over the border between rows or columns until the cursor changes as shown.

• To resize-– Hold down the left

mouse button and drag to the desired size.

– Double click to autofit the size to the cell’s contents.

• Which do you prefer?

You can resize several rows or columns at once by selecting them all and the resizing using the same methods.

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 above 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 three worksheets by default.

• Click the Sheet Tabs at the bottom of the page to change the active worksheet.

• You can move data between worksheets.

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.

Closing a Workbook and Quitting Excel

• Closing the file and quitting Excel will keep the task bar uncluttered.

• Closing a workbook window will not close the Excel window.

• Close a workbook window by choosing Close found under the File Tab.

• Close Excel by choosing Exit from the File Tab menu list.