Module No. - 4

MS-Excel – an electronic workbook:

An electronic workbook is similar to electronic spreadsheet, but instead of having one sheet of rows

and columns it has multiple sheets. You can say that electronic spreadsheet is a single sheet while electronic

workbook is a complete copy.

MS-Excel is an example of electronic worksheet. It is complete software in itself, designed and

developed for computerizing spreadsheet related applications.

Using MS-Excel you can easily enter and edit data, perform calculations on it and analyze the results

and print them in the form of reports.

MS-Excel:

MS-Excel is a GUI (Graphic User Interface) based software and powerful workbook application. It has

almost similar in operations to that of Windows.

Getting Start with Excel:

Click the mouse on Start button of the status bar, a menu will appear on the screen. Select Program

option from this menu, a submenu will appear and finally select Microsoft Excel option from this submenu.

(a) (b)

Excel

Components:

Excel Window:

Excel screen is a combination of two windows, which are inter-nested with each other. The outer

window is called Application window, while the inner window is called Document window.

Control Menu Button

Title Bar

Bar Menu

Close Button

Maximize Button

Minimize Button

Standard Toolbar

Formula Bar

Vertical Scroll Bar

Worksheet Area

Format Toolbar

Cell Pointer

Worksheet Tab Scroll Button

Sheet Tab Status Bar Horizontal Scroll Bar

Application Window:

Most of the Excel commands can be executed through this window. A brief introduction of its

components is as follows:

Title Bar:

Excel title bar appears at the top of the screen and displays the title Microsoft Excel. This identifies the

software. There are various buttons available on this bar such as Minimize button, Maximize button and Close

button. They function in the same way as the buttons of the other window applications do.

Bar Menu:

Bar menu have nine options, viz. File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Data, Window, and Help.

Using these options you can perform different types of activities.

Standard Tool Bar:

Standard tool bar is a collection of various buttons and each button is capable of performing an action.

If you keep the mouse on any button for few seconds, it would display the name of that button. Clicking the

mouse on it can perform the corresponding action. This toolbar consists of some important button like Save,

Cut, Copy and Paste. Besides this, there are various other buttons available to perform quick actions.

Formula Bar:

The formula bar looks as follows.

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This bar is divided into different parts:

(i) Reference Area - This area displays the address of currently selected cel

(ii) Formula Entry Area - This is basically the text entry area. Whatever you type here is later

transferred to the required cell. All modifications in the full cell entries are done in this area.

(iii) Tick Button - The click on tick button makes Excel accepts the entry in the Formula bar. It acts as an

Enter key of the keyboard.

(iv) Cross Button - Working of cross button is similar to Cancel button. When we click on this button, the

data written in the Formula area is erased and the area becomes blank.

(v) Equal to Sign Button - When we click on this button, function wizard appears on the screen and starts

functioning.

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Reference Area

Cross Button

Tick Button

Equal Button

Formula Entry Area

Status Bar:

Status bar has two parts. Left-hand side part displays help messages of the actions that need to be

performed. The right hand side part displays the status of the keyboard. For example if the CAPS LOCK or

NUM LOCK etc. are on or off.

Document Window:

Description of different components of Excels' document window is as follows:

Title Bar -

It appears at the top of document window. Besides the usual control menu, minimize and maximize

buttons, it also displays the book number and the window number. If you have opened multiple windows, then

the title bar of the document window shows the corresponding book number and the window number.

Work Sheet Area -

Worksheet area is a grid of rows and columns. There are 65536 rows and 256 columns in the

worksheet. At the top, across the worksheet area, there are labels, such as A, B, ………. X, Y, Z, etc. These

area the name of the columns. The last column is listed as IV. Down the left side are, row headers, labeled as 1,

2, 3 and so on till 65536.

The intersection of rows and columns in the work sheet is called "Cell". Each cell is identified by its

position of intersection, called the address. Address of a cell is defined as column number, row number.

For example, if a cell is made from the intersection of second column (B) and second row then it will

be called B2. Similarly the address D5 represents the cell, which is formed by the intersection of fourth column

and fifth row.

Note that, by this convention the cell address of the first cell in the worksheet is A1 and the last cell

will be addressed as IV65536.

Assignment No. – 4

Q.1 What is electronic spreadsheet/ worksheet

Q.2. What is a cell in MS Excel?

Q.2. What is the significance of Formula bar in Excel Workbook?

Q.3. What is the difference between workbook and worksheet?

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