Conversational ExcelA Spreadsheet

Excel - Terms Columns Rows Cells Ranges Cell addresses Column headers Row headers Formulas Spreadsheet

Excel - Icon Let’s start with the desktop Icon.

The first two are probably the ones you’ll see the most often.

When you double-click on the Excel Icon on your desktop…

Excel… Is known as a Spreadsheet. Is really just a fancy calculator. Is not for keeping records If you want to keep records, use MS

Access.

Excel - the basics -

This is a column

It’s not one of those “Up and down things”

It’s a Column. Don’t call it anything else.

It has a Column Header. The letter A .

ROWS

This is a Row. It’s not a horizontal thing It’s a Row, don’t call it anything else. It has a Row header 1

Excel - CELLS Where a Column and a Row Intersect is called

a… CELL. Don’t call it anything else. It’s a cell.

Excel - Cell ADDRESSES Each cell has an ADDRESS. Each column and each row has a Header.

The first Column is A The first Row is 1 Starting with the Column Header, the cell

address is...Notice the address is named in the box in the upper leftA 1

Excel - Cell Addresses What if the Column header is C ? And the Row header is 3 ?

Cell Address The cell address is… (Starting with the

column header)?

C 3

Excel – What If? Now you know a lot of what you

need to know about spreadsheetsA Spreadsheet allows you to ask the

question:

What if?We’ll get back to that

Excel The Active cell is the cell that is

highlighted.

Notice the bold black line around the cell this is the ACTIVE cell.

This is the business part of the program. You start typing here.

Excel Make cell C3 the Active cell. Type the words:

› “Starting in Cell C3, is the contents of the cell just in cell C3 or is it in cells C3 through J3?”

Hit Enter to lock in your entry

Excel - Active Cell.

Is the contents only in cell C3 or is it in cells C3 through J3?That whole line of text is contained in Cell C3 alone

Hit your up arrow to make cell C3 the active Cell again.

Excel The Cursor is the flashing line that

appears in the active cell.

Excel - RANGES A Range is a group of cells all

highlighted

Notice that an entire group of cells is highlighted. This is called a Range

Columns E through H and Rows 4 through 9 or E4 through H9

Excel Now, this is going to be a little harder

to explain. Remember how each cell has an

address? THAT’S IMPORTANT!

In this example there are 5 cells.Cell F5 contains the word CadillacCell F6 contains the word PontiacCell F7 contains the word OldsmobileCell F8 contains the word ChevyCell F9 contains the letters GMC

Excel Question: Does Excel know you’re talking

about a Cadillac? NO, only you understand that. So let’s add some rows. (Make more

empty Rows available). We’re going to add five Rows for each make

of vehicle and add more text.

Excel Starting with Row 6 we’re going to put our

mouse pointer over the “Row 6” header which is the number “6”.

We’re going to hold down the left mouse button and drag down 5 rows…

(Insertion) Excel Notice, when you click your left mouse

button on the Row 6 header, the entire Row becomes highlighted.

Then, while holding down the left mouse button you drag down 5 rows. You are highlighting each of the rows below Row 5.

This means exactly that, you have highlighted the entire Rows for 5 Rows below Row 5 Starting with Row 6

Excel …to Row 10 Let up the left mouse button.

Excel – Menu’s - Insert Now, let’s click the

Right mouse button.

A menu appears. One of the menu

options is the word “Insert”

With your left mouse button, click the word “Insert”

Excel Notice, that 5

empty Rows have been added below the word Cadillac.

The menu closes… The Rows are still

highlighted. Repeat this step for

three of the 4 other manufacturers.

The last 5 rows are assumed for GMC since it will not be necessary to add Rows for that.

Click anywhere in the grid to deactivate the highlighted cells.

Excel Now we have 5

new rows below each manufacturer.

Now let’s add some new headings for each manufacturer but in the next column…

…column G

Excel Go ahead, you

do it.

Excel. Now let’s format

each of the words so that they start at the Right side of each cell.

Highlight the entire range of cells as shown here.

Excel. With all of the

text highlighted, go up and click the “Right – Justify” button.

Excel Notice that each

of the manufacturers and models is now at the right edge of each cell as if they were the beginning of each line.

Excel Oops, we forgot to

add an extra Row Highlight the Rows

with the words, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Chevy & GMC by clicking the row numbers

Right-click your mouse, and from the menu, click the “Insert” option.

This puts an extra empty Row below each category.

You can accomplish this by holding down the Ctrl key and select the Row Headers separately. Often, the Ctrl key allows you to select or highlight things individually.

Excel Now add pricing

for each model of car.

Excel Notice that the

pricing has no formatting.

We need comma’s and some dollar signs.

Highlight all the pricing.

Excel Click the dollar

sign in the number formatting portion of your HOME tab.

Excel - Formatting

Notice that the pricing now has formatting.

When you add a dollar sign and comma’s to a price, this is called Formatting.

There are many different ways to format something

Excel - Summing Now let’s add the word

“Total” at the bottom of each column of models.

Does the computer know you’re totaling?

No, Total is just a word, it only means something to you.

Excel - Summing Make the active cell the cell just to the right

of the word “Total”.

Put your mouse pointer over the SUM Button. This is the button with the small sideways M

Here is where we start summing

Excel – Summing – Formula’s

The word “SUM” does what it says. It sums a group of numbers.

The word “SUM” in Excel is the name of a Formula.

The proper syntax for the “SUM” formula is =SUM()

All formula’s begin with an Equals sign “=“. This tells Excel that you are about to implement a formula.

Excel - Formula’s There are different types of Formula’s. Formula’s are dynamic. That means that

you can’t see them when you’re not working with an Active Formula.

Remember that each cell has an address? So the =SUM() formula might look like

this… =SUM(C3:C10). Notice the semi-colon in

between the two cell addresses.

Excel – Formula’s The semi-colon : is, in mathematical

terms the sign for a Ratio. It means “To”. =SUM(C3:C10) means that you are going

to sum the values stored in Column C Rows 3 To 10.

The =SUM(C3:C10) Formula is where the total of those values will be displayed. When you hit Enter, the SUM formula will be hidden and the answer will be displayed.

Excel – Formula’s Formula’s will always have

Parentheses. Parentheses work the same way in

Excel that they do in Math. =SUM(C3:C10)

Cell addresses will always be placed within the parentheses.

Where within the formula, would depend on the formula.

Excel – SUM - Formula Click the SUM Button with

your left mouse button.

Excel – SUM - Formula Notice that the

SUM formula kind of knows the section of pricing that you’re summing.

If this isn’t the case, then while the SUM function is still active, simply highlight the correct Range.

Then hit “Enter”

Excel – Cut & Paste

Highlight the two cells that say “Total:” and “$200,000.00”Hold down the Ctrl key and press the X key.

Ctrl X means (Cut)

Hold down the Ctrl key and press the V key.Ctrl V means (Paste)Notice that everything you have entered including the Sum formula has moved one cell to the right. This is called cutting and pasting.

Make the Active Cell, one cell to the right of the word “Total:” by clicking in it.

Total $200,000.00

NOW!

The total is $200,000.00

ExcelYou do this for totals of the rest of the

manufacturers.

ExcelNow let’s say that you want to add a title to your spread sheet

Click on the cell of your choice and begin typing, it’s really that simple

Excel - Editing

So you’ve typed in the heading “American Car Makes” and hit Enter to lock in your entry.

But then you decide you don’t like that heading and wish to change it. What do you do?

You have several options1. You can double-click in the active cell to put the cursor in for editing.2. You can press the F2 Function key at the top of your keyboard. This places the cursor at the end of your line of text and you can use your arrow keys or your mouse to move the cursor to a desired position. Or…

Excel - Editing

… you can click the main cell (the cell that contains all of your text) and…

… change it in the formula editing box above.

Excel - EditingYou’ve changed the text in cell B3 to “United States Automotive Review”

Hit Enter to lock in your changes

Excel - LocatingNow that you’ve added formatting to your prices and totaled each group of pricing…Let’s say an auditor comes in and wants to audit your paperwork.

You need to show him a total price of all the vehicles you have in stock.You’ll need to work below all the pricing. Make I39 your Active Cell.You can do this by pressing the F5 function

key which brings up a window called the Go To window.

Type I39 into the Reference: portion of the window and hit Enter.

Excel - Summing Type in the words “Grand Total:”

Now hit your Tab key. Tab moves the active cell one cell to the right. Enter either moves the Active cell down or to it’s original destination.

Excel - Summing The Active Cell should now be J39. Mouse up and click your (SUM)

formula button Now, since the Active cell doesn’t have a

designated area to Sum, the Auto sum feature doesn’t do anything.

While the (Sum) formula is still active, highlight all of the totals…

Excel – Summing a Range

Starting in Cell I10 hold down your left mouse button and drag downward to cell I38.Notice that the range of cells you have highlighted appears within the parentheses of the =SUM() formula. I10:I38Hit Enter.

Excel - Summing

The SUM formula disappears, the Active Cell is one cell down and the total of those values is in cell J39. $891,000.00

Excel When you added up all the cells for the

models under Cadillac. Remember, each cell has its own

address. So… you added the values stored in

cell’s H5, H6, H7, H8 & H9. You didn’t add up the values, you

(summed) the values stored in each of those cells.

Excel So cell I9 contains the “Total” value

$200,000.00 Then to get a Grand Total you

(summed) the values of cells I10, I17, I24, I31 & I38

Those cells contained the values of the totals for each model group.

You totaled the amount for each model group and came up with a Grand Total

Excel – What If? Remember in the beginning we said

that Excel (A spreadsheet) allows you to ask the question “What if”?

That’s next and that’s the greatest thing about a Spreadsheet.

Excel – What If

Let’s say the Auditor wants to know what would happen to the Grand total if you changed the value for one of the cars.

Remember, each cell has an address. The values of each cell is stored in that address (Per say)

Excel – What If

So we change the value for the Eldorado.

I know, Eldorado is spelled wrong in the Workbook.

ExcelSo we make the cell to the right of the word “Eldorado” the Active Cell and simply change the amount…Once you make that the Active Cell, just start typing. Let’s make that value 35262.99

35262.99

Hit Enter

You’ve changed the value of the cell to the right of Eldorado. Notice that the Active Cell is now the cell below the price for Eldorado. And the value to the right of the word “Total:” is changed and the formatting stays in the cells.

That, in effect, is the power of the Excel Spreadsheet. We said, What if we changed the Price for the Eldorado. (What would happen?)

ExcelThe value stored in the cell to the right of the word “Total:” was changed.

We didn’t do anything but change the value in the cell next to the word “Eldorado.”

This change effected the value in the cell to the right of the word “Total:”

Let’s see what happened to the Grand Total: The one the Auditor asked us to display once we’d changed the value for Eldorado.

Excel

The change for Eldorado, also effected the value in the cell next to the word “Grand Total:”

And that is what…

…Microsoft Excel can do.

And that’s it.