Excel Spreadsheets Basics
Excel definition: a software program created by Microsoft that uses
spreadsheets to organize numbers and data with formulas and functions.
Excel analysis is ubiquitous around the world and used by businesses of all
sizes to perform financial analysis.
What is Excel used for?
Excel is typically used to organize data and perform financial analysis. It is used across all business functions and at companies from
small to large.
The main uses of Excel include:
Data entry
Data management
Accounting
Financial analysis
Charting and graphing
Programming
Time management
Task management
Financial modeling
Customer relationship management (CRM)
Almost anything that needs to be organized!
4 Loading Excel
Double click the Excel icon on
the desktop (if you have this)
OR
Click on
Start
All Programs
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office Excel 2010
5 The opening screen
Formatting
Standard Toolbar Toolbar
Name of
Active Cell
Click here
to close the
Task Pane
Active Cell
Row
Column
Task Pane
Sheet Tabs
6
What all the different parts mean
Worksheets A worksheet consists of a grid containing 256 columns and 65,536 rows.
The columns are labelled A, B, C, etc. The rows are labelled 1, 2, 3, etc.
Toolbars These contain a number of icons which can be clicked to use frequently
used commands.
Cells The address of the cell in the top left-hand corner is A1 because it is in
column A and row 1. You can type a number, label or formula into a cell.
Active cell When you click or type into a cell, this is surrounded by a black border,
making it the active cell. When you view a blank file, this will be cell A1.
Rows and If you click on the column or row headers (the letters or numbers to the top
columns and left of the worksheet area, the entire column or row will be highlighted.
Workbooks Workbooks contain several blank worksheets usually named Sheet1,
Sheet2, Sheet3, etc which are shown on the sheet tabs at the bottom.
Task pane This area lists workbooks recently opened and other options. You can
close this by clicking on the Close icon in the top right hand corner.
Row and Column Basics
MS Excel is in tabular format
consisting of rows and columns.
Row runs horizontally
while Column runs vertically.
Each row is identified
by row number, which runs
vertically at the left side of the
sheet.
Each column is identified
by column header, which runs
horizontally at the top of the sheet.
Each cell is the intersection of a
column and a row. i.e. A2, B7, D3
8 Moving around the worksheet
You can move the pointer You can press the Tab key to
using the mouse and clicking move right and hold down the
the left mouse button in the Shift key and press the Tab key
cell you want. to move back to the left.
You can use the Page Up or If you hold down the Ctrl key
Page Down keys to move up and press the Home key from
and down the spreadsheet. anywhere in the spreadsheet,
this will take you back to cell
A1.
9 Entering data
As you type in text Excel may
Click on the cell where you type in a previous entry
want the data to appear If you carry on typing this will
and type in the data disappear
To type data into the next
cell, press the right arrow
key (or click in the cell)
If you press the Enter key
the active cell will move to
the cell below
Note how text is
automatically aligned to
the left of the cell and
numbers are aligned to the
right
10 Editing data
First Way Second Way
Click on the cell to be Click on the cell to be
changed changed
The cell contents will appear Type in the new text and press
in the Formula bar the Enter key
Move the insertion point to the The old text will disappear and
appropriate place be replaced by your new text!
Press Backspace or Delete to
delete text or type in text to
be inserted
Press the Enter key to confirm
the change
11 Deleting Data
Click on the cell (or click and
drag to highlight the cells to
be deleted)
Press the Backspace or Delete
key
The contents of the cell will be
deleted
12 Inserting/deleting rows & columns
To delete a row, right click
the row number and left click
Delete (see below)
To insert a row, right click the
row number and select Insert
To insert a spreadsheet title,
highlight row 1, right click and
select Insert – type the title in
the top row
Handy Hint: to insert or delete
a column, right click the
column header and select
Insert or Delete as
appropriate
13 Saving your work
From the main menu, click
File, Save (or click on the Save
button on the standard
toolbar).
Make sure the right location is
displayed in the save in box.
Type a suitable filename (eg
HolidayDays) in the File name Workbook name Save button
box
Click the Save button to save
the workbook.
14
Closing a workbook and exiting Excel
From the main menu, select
File, Close to close the
workbook.
Close Excel by clicking on the
Close icon in the top right
corner
OR
From the File menu Select Exit
15
Selecting Cells
Click in the intersection of row
and column headers to select
all cells
Click on a column header
to select a column
Click on a row header to select
a row
To select non adjacent cells
hold down the Ctrl key whilst
you click on cells or column or
row headers (the last cell
clicked will appear white)
When you select a range of
cells the first cell will be
coloured white, the rest pale
blue
16 Formatting cells
To format cells, select the
cells you want to format
and click on the bold,
italics, underline icons
To remove formatting,
select the cell(s) and click
on the icons again to
switch them off
To see more formatting
options, select the cells,
select Cells from the
Format menu and click on
the Font tab
17 Inserting a border
Select the cells you want
to apply a border to
From the Format menu
select Cells (or right click
and select Format cells)
Click the Border tab
First click in the Style
section to select a style
and/or colour
Next click on the border
icons to select non-
standard borders – the
preview will show your
choices
Click OK
18 Adding borders
You can add different borders
to improve the appearance of
your worksheet
Select cells A2 to F2
Click on the down arrow on
the Border icon
Select Outside Borders
An outside border will appear
around the selected cells
19 Other border options
If you wanted to delete a
border, select the cells, click
the down arrow on the Border
icon and select No borders
To draw a heavy border
around a range of cells, select
the cells then click on the
down-arrow on the Border
icon and select the Thick Box
Border icon
20 Adding some colour
To change the font colour,
select the cell(s), click the
down arrow on the Font
Colour icon and select a
colour
To change the background fill,
select the cell(s), click the
down arrow on the
Background fill icon and
select a colour
21 Aligning cell content
You can set where text
appears in a cell by clicking
on the left, centre or right align
icons on the Formatting
toolbar
You can also increase the
height of a row and change
the vertical alignment
Click and drag to increase the
row height
Right click on a selected cell
and select Format Cells from
the shortcut menu
22
Aligning cell content and text
orientation
Click the Alignment tab
Select Centre in the Vertical
Alignment box
You can also change the
orientation of text from here
Click and drag the red dot so
that text is slightly diagonal
Click OK
23
And the finished result?
24 Auto fit column width
When you type in a
spreadsheet title, it will
overflow
If there is nothing in the
next cell this is okay
When typing in row labels
you may need to change
the column width
Move the mouse pointer
to the column header
and drag to make the
column wider
Double-click on the
Column border and the
column will adjust itself to
the widest entry!
25 Worksheets
Excel by default gives you 3
sheets to work on – each
sheet has a tab at the bottom
of the Excel screen
To change the name of a
sheet, right click and select
Rename from the popup
menu
You can also rename a sheet
by double-clicking on the
sheet name and typing in a
new name
Changing a sheet tab color
You can also change a sheet tab color by right-clicking on the sheet and
click on tab color
27 Inserting and Deleting Sheets
To delete a sheet, right
click the sheet tab and
select Delete
To insert a new sheet (for
example between Birth
Stats and Daily Weights)
right-click the second
sheet and select Insert
from the shortcut menu
A new sheet will be
inserted with the name
Sheet(No) –you can
rename it if necessary!
28 Copying a Worksheet
You can copy a worksheet
within a spreadsheet or
open spreadsheets
To copy a sheet to a
different spreadsheet you
must have both
spreadsheets open
Right click the sheet you
want to copy
Select Move or Copy
Select the workbook you
want it to be copied to
Select where you want it to
go and click Create a copy
29 Moving a Worksheet
To move a worksheet follow
the previous instructions but
don’t tick Create a copy
You can also click and drag
the sheet tabs to move
worksheets within a workbook
As soon as the black arrow is in
the place you want, release
the left mouse button
This is useful for changing the
order of worksheets.
30
Filling a series
Type a numeric value in Click and drag across (a
the first cell (eg Day 1) tool tip will appear as you
drag!)
Move the mouse pointer Release the mouse button
to the bottom right corner
until the pointer changes Excel will automatically
increment the value!
to a black plus-sign (the fill
handle) Handy Hint: This also works
with Days, Months and plain
numbers!
31
Hiding and Unhiding Rows
To “hide” a row, click any-
where in the row (eg row
12)
From the Format menu,
select Row then Hide
The row will disappear from
view – the row number will
not display
To display the “hidden” row
select the row headers
above and below (eg 11
and 13)
From the Format menu
select Row then Unhide
32
Freezing row and column titles
When working on a big Click in the cell nearest to
A1 that you don’t want to
spreadsheet, it is useful to freeze (eg cell B4)
have either row labels or
column headings showing Select Window, Freeze
Panes from the menu –
no matter how far you black borders will appear
scroll in the spreadsheet next to the frozen panes
33 Unfreezing Panes
To “unfreeze” panes, select
Window then Unfreeze Panes
from the menu
The black borders will
disappear
It doesn’t matter where the
active cell is when doing this!
34
Opening several workbooks
If you have several
workbooks open, you will
see a taskbar button for
each one
To switch between open
workbooks, click the taskbar
button
You can also select Window
from the menu bar and
select the workbook you
want to work on!
This is handy if you have
more than 3 workbooks
open and Windows XP
“groups” the taskbar
buttons!
35 Saving under another file name
To save an existing workbook
with a different file name,
select File then
Save As from the menu
Type in the new file name in
the File Name box then click
Save
You can also use File,
Save As to save to a different
location
36 Saving as a different file type
You can choose to save a
workbook in a different file
format
Click File then Save As and
click in the File type box
Select the file type from the
drop down list
Scroll down to see
more options!
37 Different file formats
To post a spreadsheet file on
the web, save as a Single File
Web Page (.htm or .html)
To save as a text file that can
be read by other operating
systems, choose Text File For more information
on file formats,
To save as a template, select type File Formats into
Template Excel’s Help section!
To save in a format suitable for
older spreadsheet or database
programs, select csv format
You can also save as a Lotus
1-2-3 spreadsheet (.wk4) or
dBase (.dbf)
