Microsoft Excel Basics

Excel’s spreadsheets and formulas offer ways to explore data. First familiarize yourself with
the essential features of Excel.

1. Ribbon
2. Formula Bar
1. Ribbon: Each
menu listed in the
ribbon at the top
of the
spreadsheet
contains its own
set of tools. The
key tools in the
File menu are
3. Active Cell Save, Print, Open
and New. The
Home menu
contains font and
4. Worksheets cell formatting
options and the
data sorting and
filtering tool. The
Insert menu
allows you to
insert charts, tables, images, links, and other objects into your spreadsheets. Page Layout
has margin, orientation and other display tools. Use the Formulas menu to set up functions
and formulas. The Data menu sorts, filters, and further explores the data in your
spreadsheets. Use the Review menu to add comments, set protections, and spell check.
The View menu will freeze panes, zoom in and out, and toggle between windows.

2. Formula Bar: The Formula Bar displays any formula or function set up for the selected
cell. To set up a formula, select a cell and type the formula directly into the formula bar, or
use the Formulas ribbon to choose a function or formula for the cell.

3. Active Cell: This box indicates which cell is the active cell. To jump to another cell, type
the column and row number of the cell directly in this box, or click on the desired cell.

4. Worksheets: You will always begin with three worksheets, which you can toggle
between at the bottom left. The file as a whole is called a workbook. You may only need one
worksheet, or you may need more than three. Click on the button to the right of Sheet 3 to
add another worksheet. To rename a worksheet, right click on its name, then click rename.
Practice Creating a Spreadsheet
Open Excel, click on File, then click on New. There are a number of templates available here
if you are creating a specific type of spreadsheet and do not want to start from scratch. To
practice creating a spreadsheet, we will start with a blank workbook. Make sure Blank
Workbook is selected at the top and then click on Create at the right.

Before we begin entering data, let’s get familiar with the different shapes your cursor will
take while you use Excel and some of the keyboard shortcuts to make things easier.

Excel Cursor Shapes

Select a single cell by clicking once or a range of cells by clicking and

dragging across multiple cells.
This appears when the cursor is on the edge of a window. Click and
drag to resize the window.
This appears when the cursor is on the edge of a row or column.
Click and drag to manually resize a column. Double click to
automatically resize so all the data fits.
This appears when you are editing the contents of a cell. Select a
cell, then press F2 to edit the cell.
This appears when the cursor is on a column or row heading. Click to
select the entire column or row.
This appears when the cursor is on a cell border, chart, or other
object. Click and drag to move the cell or object.

This appears when the cursor is on the bottom right corner of a

selected cell or cell range. Click and drag to fill down data or a
formula to adjacent cells.

Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

File Options Editing Formatting

Ctrl +O Open F2 Edit active cell Ctrl + B Bold
Ctrl +S Save Ctrl + A Select All Ctrl + I Italics
Ctrl +N New Ctrl + Space Select Column Ctrl + U Underline
Ctrl +P Print Shift + Space Select Row Ctrl + Shift + $ Currency format
F1 Help Ctrl + X Cut
Ctrl + C Copy Alt + Enter Start a new line
Ctrl + V Paste in the same cell
Ctrl + Z Undo
Ctrl + Y Redo Ctrl + Arrow Move to edge of
F7 Spell check current data
Ctrl + ; Enter today’s date region
We are going to create an order of books. In Column A, enter the titles of the books. In
Column B, enter the names of the authors. In Column C, enter the prices of the books. Here
is the data:

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead $16.17

The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis $15.91
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance $16.79
The Nix by Nathan Hill 16.77
Pumpkin Flowers by Matti Friedman 16.68
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley $17.89
Swing Time by Zadie Smith 16.20
Moonglow by Michael Chabon $17.39
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 16.19
Evicted by Matthew Desmond 17.03
The Gene by Siddhartha Murkherjee $21.20
The Trespasser by Tana French $15.88
The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney 17.85
Grunt by Mary Roach 16.71
Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick 21.00
Truevine by Beth Macy 14.00
Kill ‘Em and Leave by James McBride $18.30
Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer $14
The Girls by Emma Cline $17.52
Barkskins by Annie Proulx 18.54
Morning Star by Pierce Brown 16.99
The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer $16.17
Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen 19.50
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 16.56
The Mathews Men by William Geroux 17.28
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders 15.99
Dimestore by Lee Smith 14.85
A Hundered Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl $17.10
Miss Jane by Brad Watson 18.49
I’m Supposed to Protect You From All This by Nadja Spiegelman $16.30
To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey 19.87
The Wangs Vs. the World by Jade Chang 16.87
Messy by Tim Harford 19.59
You Will Not Have My Hate by Antoine Leiris 13.68
American Housewife by Helen Ellis 16.32
The Longest Night by Andria Willliams 18.53
Orphan X by Gregg Hurwitz 17.82

Creating an Invoice
Let’s turn this order into an invoice. We’ll need to add a few blank rows at the top. Right
click on the number 1 to the left of cell A1, then click on Insert. Repeat this twice so you
have three blank rows at the top. The first row should just say INVOICE in the center.
Select cells A1 – C1 and then click on Merge & Center. This combines the three cells into
one. Now type INVOICE in large, bold letters and center the text in that cell. Next, let’s
leave a space for the date. Type Date: in cell A2. You can easily enter today’s date by
hitting Ctrl + ; on the keyboard. Row 3 can be used for column labels for the title author
and price. Bold these headings in cells A3 – C3. We want these column labels to remain
visible as you scroll down the worksheet. We can freeze the rows above the data by clicking
on the number 4 next to cell A4 (the first row of data). In the View tab of the ribbon, click
on Freeze Panes, then choose Freeze Panes. Now when you scroll down, you can still see
the invoice header.

Excel can calculate the total cost of this order. Type Total: in cell D2 and we will use cell E2
for the calculation. Select cell E2. Click on the small down arrow next to AutoSum in the
Home tab of the ribbon, then click on Sum. Now we need to select the range of data of
which we want Excel to calculate the sum. Select all your price cells by clicking and
dragging from the first one to the last one. These should be in column C, starting with cell
C4. When you finish you selection, the formula bar should read =SUM(C4:C53) (your last
number will be different). Hit Enter on the keyboard. The sum appears in cell E2. When you
click on cell E2 the formula bar will display the Sum formula at work in the cell. This is
where you can check on the formula if something does not seem right.

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