1. Excel A Brief Overview

3. The Excel Window ROW 3 COLUMN F Column labels Row labels Worksheet tabs Active Cell F 3 Fill handle Menu bar Tool bar Formula Bar gridlines

5. Entering Data When you enter data, the characters appear simultaneously in the Formula Bar and cell. The characters do not actually go into the cell until you press Enter or Tab. To enter data into a cell, first click the cell in which you want to enter your information. Then type the data in either the cell or Formula Bar and press Enter or Tab. Pressing Enter moves you to the next cell down, while pressing Tab moves you to the next cell to the right. When working with cells, your mouse pointer becomes a plus icon

6. Resize a Column In a cell, text can be any combination of numbers, spaces, and non-numeric characters. If the entered text exceeds the column width it will overlap the boundary into the next column when that column is blank. If the next column already contains data, text that does not fit in the cell is hidden. Clicking the cell, however, reveals its entire contents in the Formula Bar. To increase column width, drag the right side of the column header with the double-headed pointer. To make the column width fit the contents of its widest cell, double-click the boundary on the right side of the column

7. Insert/delete a row or column To insert: Select a column to the right of where you want to insert a new one. Or select a row beneath where you want to insert a new one. From the INSERT menu choose row or column. If you want to insert more than one, select more than one column or row. To delete: Select either the row or column you wish to delete and press the del key or choose “delete” from the EDIT menu. You can also access all of these commands from the context menu -RIGHT CLICK!!

10. Formatting Dialog Box This dialog box is very similar to what you learned about in MS Word. You should be able to experiment with the tools found on each of the tabs.

15. Formula Operators There are four basic Mathematical Operators when writing a formula. These operators are used to tell the formula what action to perform. The following table lists the operators, its symbol. The next table lists the order of operation for each mathematical operator. As you begin to write your formulas, keep in mind that information in parenthesis ( ) is always performed first while everything outside the parenthesis is performed left to right. Operator Operation Order of Calculation AND, OR, NOT Logic Test: AND, OR, NOT 1 + or - Positive or Negative Value 2 ^ Exponentiation 3 * or / Multiplication or Division 4 + - Addition or Subtraction 5 & Text Concatenation 6 Logic Test 7 = Equal to 7 <> Not Equal To 7 <= Less than or Equal to 7 >= Greater than or Equal to 7 Operation Symbol Symbol Name Addition + Plus Sign Subtraction - Dash or hyphen Multiplication * Asterisk Division / Forward slash

18. AutoSum AutoSum button In Excel, the standard toolbar has a button that simplifies adding a column or row of numbers. The AutoSum button, which resembles the Greek letter Sigma (shown above), automatically creates a SUM( ) function. When you click the AutoSum button Excel creates a sum function for the column of numbers directly above or the row of numbers to the left. Excel pastes the SUM( ) function and the range to sum into the formula bar. If the range is not correct, simply select the proper range with your mouse on the worksheet. When you have the correct range entered, press the <Enter> key to complete the function.

19. Autofilling Functions Autofill can also be used to copy functions. In the example below, column A and column B each contain lists of numbers and column C contains the sums of columns A and B for each row. The function in cell C2 would be &quot;=SUM(A2:B2)&quot;. This function can then be copied to the remaining cells of column C by activating cell C2 and dragging the handle down to fill in the remaining cells. The autofill feature will automatically update the row numbers as shown below if the cells are reference relatively

20. Cell Reference There are two basic types of cell references in Excel: relative and absolute. The difference between absolute and relative cell references becomes apparent when you copy formulas from one cell to another. When you copy a formula containing relative references, the references are adjusted to reflect the new location. Absolute references always refer to the same cell, regardless of where the formula is copied. Relative references are the default. To create an absolute reference, type $ before each part of the cell address.

22. Merge cells A shortcut to merge cells and center data is the icon on the formatting toolbar. Select the cells you want to merge and click the icon on the toolbar

23. The Auto Calculate Space Select any cells with numbers in them, the sum of those numbers automatically display in the “auto Calc” space.

25. Page Set Up Tips Two handy items in the PAGE SETUP dialog box (under the FILE menu) Fit to ___ pages Excel will fit your document into the number of pages you specify. If you are working on a chart or diagram that is just a bit over the size for a page, checking the “fit to” button will shrink your document proportionally to fit. Print your document without those pesky grey gridlines by unchecking the button on the “Sheet” tab of the page setup dialog box.

26. Charts A chart is a graphic representation of data. Charts are often used to make large quantities of data more easily understandable, and recognizable on first view. Charts represent data in different ways depending on the type of data that is presented. Sem girls come from all over Western New York

27. Chart Wizard Select all the cells containing the data you want to chart. Click the Chart Wizard button on the Standard toolbar.

28. The Chart Wizard will present a selection of chart types, each of which includes several subtypes. If none of these options suits your needs, you can click the Custom Types tab to access a list of specialized chart types. Click Next, and the Chart Wizard will present a screen verifying the range of data you want to include in your chart. You can change the range if necessary—just click in your worksheet and drag to select the appropriate cells.

29. Click Next again, and the Chart Wizard will present options that govern which elements are included in your chart. For instance, you can click the Titles tab and enter a title for the chart and for the chart axes. Click Next once more to advance to the Chart Wizard’s final screen. Here you can specify whether to insert the chart on its own chart sheet or embed it on a worksheet. If you select the first option, type a new sheet name in the As New Sheet: text box. If you select the second option, just use the As Object In: drop-down list to choose the sheet where you want the chart to appear. (The current sheet is the default.) After you make a selection, click Finish. Excel will create your new chart.

31. After you’ve created a chart, you can still modify any specification made while running the Chart Wizard. The Chart menu and the Chart toolbar, which appear whenever a chart or chart sheet is selected, include options that correspond to the choices the Wizard offers. You can also click the Chart Wizard button to run the wizard again and revise their original choices. You can right click to format any item on your chart. The format dialog box should be familiar to you by now!