Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet package.

It is a computer program created specifically to help in the processing of tabular information, usually numbers.

The spreadsheet stores information in rows (across the screen) and columns (down the screen), forming a worksheet (the Excel term for a spreadsheet)

Spreadsheets are most commonly used to manipulate figures.

They can be used for example for accounting, cash flows, budgeting, forecasts

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Any job that involves the use of numbers can be done on a spreadsheet.

The biggest advantage that a spreadsheet has over other methods of manipulating data is its ability to constantly update figures without the user having to do any calculations.

Once a spreadsheet is set up, its calculations will always be correct and any changes in data are automatically updated

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The Excel Window

Many items you see on the Excel 2003 screen are standard in most other Microsoft software programs like Word, PowerPoint and previous versions of Excel.

Some elements are specific to this version of Excel.

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Workbook: Workbook is a unique file created by Excel.

Title Bar: Displays both the name of the application and the name of the spreadsheet.

Figure

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Title Ba

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Menu Bar: Displays all the menus available for use in Excel 2003.

The contents of any menu can be displayed by clicking on the menu name with the left mouse button.

Toolbar: some commands in the Menus have pictures or Icons associated with them;

These pictures may also appear as shortcuts in the Toolbar.

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Fi: Toolbar

Column headings: Each Excel spreadsheet contains 256 columns.

Each column is named by a letter or combinations of letters

Figure

Source

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Row headings: Each spreadsheet contains 65,536 rows. Each row is named by number.

Name box: Name box shows the address of the current selection or active cell.

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Formula Bar: Displays information entered or being entered as you type in the current or active cell.

The contents of a cell can also be edited in the formula bar.

Cell: A cell is an intersection of a column and row.

Each cell has a unique cell address.

The heavy border around the selected cell is called the cell pointer.

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Navigation Buttons and Sheet Tabs

Navigation buttons allow you to move to another worksheet in an Excel workbook.

Used to display the first, previous, next or last worksheets in the workbook.

Sheet tabs separate a workbook into specific worksheets.

A Workbook defaults to three worksheets.

A Workbook must contain at least one worksheet

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Workbooks and Worksheets

A Workbook automatically shows in the workspace when you open Microsoft Excel 2003.

Each workbook contains three ‘worksheets’.

A worksheet is a grid of cells, consisting of 65,536 rows by 256 columns.

Spreadsheet information–text, numbers or mathematical formulas–is entered in the different cells.

The worksheets are labelled Sheet1, Sheet2, and Sheet3.

Each Excel worksheet is made up of columns and rows.

In order to access a worksheet, click on the tab that says Sheet#.

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Columns and Headings

Column headings are referenced by alphabetic characters in the gray boxes that run across the Excel screen, beginning with the Column A and ending with Column IV.

Rows are referenced by numbers that appear on the left and then run down the Excel screen.

The first row is named Row 1 and the last row is named 65536.

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The Cell

An Excel worksheet is made up of columns and rows.

Where these columns and rows intersect, they form little boxes called cells.

The active cell, or the cell that can be acted upon, reveals a dark border.

All other cells reveal a light gray border.

Each cell has a name.

Its name is comprised of two parts

The column letter and the row number.

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Moving Around the Worksheet

You can move around the spreadsheet in several different ways

Move the cell pointer.

To activate any cell, point to a cell with the mouse and click.

To move the pointer one cell to the left, right, up, or down, use the keyboard arrow keys.

To Scroll Through the Worksheet

The vertical scroll bar located along the right edge of the screen is used to move up or down the spreadsheet.

The horizontal scroll bar located at the bottom of the screen is used to move left or right across the spreadsheet.

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Page Up and Page Down

The Page Up and Page Down keys on the keyboard are used to move the cursor up or down one screen at a time.

Other keys that move the active cell are Home, which moves to the first column on the current row, and Ctrl + Home, which moves the cursor to the top left corner of the spreadsheet or cell A1.

To Move Between Worksheets

Each Workbook defaults to three worksheets.

These worksheets are represented by tabs-named Sheet1, Sheet2 and Sheet3-that appear at the bottom of the Excel window.

To Move from one worksheet to another worksheet

Click on the sheet tab (Sheet1, Sheet2 or Sheet 3) that you want to display.

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Understanding File Terms

The File menu contains all the operations

New, Open, and Close, Save and Save As.

New: Used to create a new workbook.

Open: Used to open an existing file from a floppy disk or hard drive of your computer.

Close: Used to close a spreadsheet.

Save As: Used when to save a new file for the first time or save an existing file with a different name.

Save: Used to save a file that has had changes made to it.

If you close the workbook without saving then any changes made will be lost.

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Creating a Workbook

A blank workbook is displayed when Microsoft Excel is first opened.

You can type information or design a layout directly in this blank workbook.

To create an excel workbook

choose File  New from the menu bar.

The ‘New Workbook’ task pane opens on the right side of the screen.

Choose Blank Workbook under the New category heading.

A blank workbook opens in the Excel window, and the ‘New Workbook’ task pane is closed.

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Saving a Workbook

Every workbook created in Excel must be saved and assigned a name to distinguish it from other workbooks.

The first time you save a workbook, Excel will prompt you to assign a name through the Save As operation.

Once assigned a name, any additional changes made to the text, numbers or formulas need to be saved using the Save operation

The ‘Save As’ dialog box appears.

Click on the Save In: dropdown menu and locate where the file will be saved. Choose 3 1/2 Floppy (A:) to save the file to a floppy disk or Local Disk (C:)

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To Save a new Workbook

Choose File  Save As from the menu bar

To save the file to your computer

Type a name for your file in the File Name: box.

Click Save button.

To Save Changes Made to an Existing Workbook

Choose File Save from the menu bar,

OR

Click the Save button on the Standard toolbar.

If you’re saving the file for the first time and you do not choose a file name, Microsoft Excel will assign a file name for you.

It is a good idea to save frequently when working in a spreadsheet.

Losing information is very challenging.

You can quickly save your spreadsheet by using the quick-key combination Ctrl + S.

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Opening a Workbook

You can open any workbook that has previously been saved and given a name.

To open an existing Excel 2003 Workbook

Choose File Open from the menu bar.

The Open dialog box opens

Opening a File

In the Look in list, click the drive, folder, or Internet location that contains the file you want to open.

In the folder list, open the folder that contains the file.

Once the file is displayed, click on the file you want to open.

Click the Open button

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Closing a Workbook

To close an existing Excel 2003 Workbook.

Choose File Close from the menu bar.

The workbook in the Excel window is closed.

Excel 2003 will prompt you to save information if any has been typed between the last save and the time you close the file.

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Entering text in cell

You can enter three types of data in a cell: text, numbers and Formulas

Text: is an entry that is not a number or formula.

Numbers: are values used when making calculations.

Formulas: are mathematical calculations.

To enter data into a cell

Click the cell where you want to type information.

Type the data.

An insertion point appears in the cell as the data is typed.

The data can be typed in either a cell or formula bar

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To Cancel and Enter Buttons

Notice the cancel and enter buttons in the formula bar.

Click the enter buttons to end the entry and turn off the formula bar buttons.

Excel’s ‘AutoComplete’ feature keeps track of previously-entered text.

If the first few characters you type in a cell match an existing entry in that column, Microsoft Excel fills in the remaining characters for you.

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Editing Information in a Cell

Information in a spreadsheet is likely to change over time.

Information can be changed in either of two ways.

Quick and easy method

Click the cell that contains the information to be changed.

Type the new entry.

The old entry is replaced by the new entry.

Direct cell editing method

If the original entry is long and requires only a minor adjustment (in spelling, for example), then you can directly edit the information in the cell.

Double-click on the cell that contains the information to be changed.

The cell is opened for direct editing.

Make the necessary corrections.

Press Enter or click the Enter button on the Formula bar to complete the entry.

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Formula Bar Editing

Click the cell that contains the information to be changed.

Edit the entry in the formula bar.

Deleting Information in a Cell

Click the cell that contains the information to be deleted.

Press the Delete key.

OR

Right-click

choose Clear Contents from the shortcut menu.

To delete data being typed but not yet added to the cell, cancel an entry by pressing the Escape key.

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Performing Undo and Redo

Sometimes, you might do something to a spreadsheet that you didn’t mean to do, like type the wrong number in a cell.

Excel 2003 allows you to undo an operation.

Use the Undo button on the Standard toolbar to recover an error.

The last single action is recoverable.

To undo recent actions (e.g. typing, formatting), one at a time.

Click the Undo button.

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To Undo Several Recent Actions at Once

Click the arrow next to the Undo button.

Select the desired Undo operation(s) from the list.

An Undo operation can be cancelled by applying a Redo.

This is useful when an Undo operation was mistakenly applied.

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Redo

To redo an operation, press the Redo button.

To redo several recent undo actions at once

Click the arrow next to Redo button.

Select the desired Redo operation from the list.

Microsoft Excel reverses the Undo operation.

Selecting Multiple Cells

The currently-selected cell in Excel is called the ‘active cell’.

You can also select a group of adjacent cells, or a ‘cell range’.

Many operations can be done against a cell range

move, copy, delete or format it.

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select a specific range of cells, select multiple columns or rows, or select the entire worksheet

To Select a Range of Cells

Move to the first cell in the range.

The mouse pointer becomes a large cross.

Click-and-hold the left mouse button and drag left or right, up or down to the last cell you want to select.

Release the mouse button.

Click the gray column heading to select the entire column

Click and drag the cursor across other column headings to select those column

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Selecting all cells in a Column or Row

Click the gray row heading to select the entire row.

Click and drag the cursor down through the row headings select those rows.

To Select the Entire Worksheet

Click the gray rectangle in the upper left corner to select entire worksheet.

If the cells and columns you want to select are not directly next to one another, select one of the ranges you want to select, and hold down the Ctrl key while selecting other ranges.

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Cut, Copy and Paste are very useful operations in Excel.

You can quickly copy and/or cut information in cells (text, numbers or formulas) and paste them into other cells.

These operations save you a lot of time from having to type and retype the same information.

The Cut, Copy and Paste buttons are located on the Standard toolbar, and are also choices in the Edit menu.

The Cut, Copy and Paste operations can also be performed through shortcut keys:

Cut: Ctrl + X

Copy: Ctrl + C

Paste: Ctrl + V

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Copy and Paste Cell Contents

The Copy feature allows you to copy selected information from the spreadsheet and temporarily place it on the clipboard, which is a temporary storage file in your computer’s memory.

The Paste feature allows you to select any of the collected items on the Clipboard and paste it in a cell of the same or different spreadsheet.

To copy and paste

Select a cell or cells to be duplicated.

Click on the Copy button on the standard toolbar.

The border of the copied cell(s) takes on the appearance of marching ants

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Copy and Paste in More Than One Cell

Click on the cell where you want to place the duplicated information.

The cell will be highlighted.

If you are copying contents into more than one cell, click the first cell where you want to place the duplicated information.

Press the Enter key.

Your information is copied to the new location.

Be careful if you paste copied cell information into cells that already contain data.

If you do, the existing data is overwritten.

You can copy information from many different sources including Web sites, emails or other Office applications like Word and PowerPoint and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet

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Cut and Paste Cell Contents

The Cut feature allows you to remove information from cells in the spreadsheet.

Information that is cut can be pasted in another cell, as long as the pasting occurs before you perform another operation.

If you don’t paste the cut information immediately, it is removed from the Office clipboard.

To cut and paste

Select a cell or cells to be cut.

Click on the Cut button on the Standard toolbar.

The information in the cell is deleted.

The border of the cut cell(s) take on the appearance of marching ants.

Click on the cell where you want to place the duplicated information.

The cell will be highlighted

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If you want to paste the contents into more than one cell, click the first cell where you want to place the duplicated information.

Press the Enter key.

Your information is pasted to the new location.

You do not have to paste information that has been cut.

You can use Cut to delete information from a cell.

Moving Information Using Drag-and-Drop

Another way to move information from one cell to another is to use the drag-and-drop method.

You use the cursor to point to the information to be moved and then drag the cell to its new location.

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To use drag and drop

Highlight and select the cell(s) you want to move to a new location. o Position the mouse pointer near one of the outside edges of the selected cell(s).

The mouse pointer changes from a large, white cross and becomes a slender, black cross with arrows at all ends.

Keep the mouse pointer on the outer edge of the selected cell, click and hold the left mouse button and drag the cell(s) to a new location.

Release the mouse button to move the information to its new location.

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