A basic training module for beginners to understand and use MS Excel and make the work easier. It is specifically designed for PR professionals who require basic calculations and understanding of the workings of MS Excel.

1. MS Excel
The geek who doesn’t get you

2. Say hello
• Excel is like Sheldon Cooper
– It doesn’t understand you
• Meet a common friend
– The easiest way to ask Excel
• What it means, when …
– You say something to Excel
• An honest-to-god intelligent friend
– How to make Excel work for you
• Get to know the genius
– Tips and tricks to make things faster
• Spit it Out!
– Printing Excel Sheets
• An un-adjusting flat mate
– Dealing with Excel’s difficulties
• Let’s sort this sh*t
– Have any of your own problems?

3. IT DOESN’T UNDERSTAND YOU
Excel is like Sheldon Cooper

4. THE PROBLEM ABOUT LOGIC
My mom said:
“Honey, please go to the market and buy a
bottle of milk. If they have eggs, bring six.”
I came back with six bottles of milk.
She said: “Why the hell did you buy 6
bottles of milk?”
I said “Because they HAD eggs”

5. UNDERSTOOD?
You have to UNDERSTAND what it UNDERSTANDS to be
able to make it UNDERSTAND what you UNDERSTAND

6. So what does it understand?
Everything you say to excel is
general text, unless it is…
• Text categories that it is pre-
programmed to understand.
– Dates
– Months
– Days of the week
– Mathematical functions (If,
And, Or, Sum)
– We’ll see some more in the
next slide
Every cell has a format that can
be adjusted to suit requirements

7. Every cell has an identity
General
•Word
•Anything you write, unless specified, is just meaningless words to it
Number
•12,34,56,789
•It recognizes a number in International and Indian systems
Currency
•$12,34,567.00
•most currencies can be automatically represented in excel which allows you to just type numbers (which it recognizes as numbers as
opposed to text), allowing you to make calculations while still showcasing currency values.
Dates
•24-May-2012
•Excel recognizes the american MM/DD/YYYY format and will show dates in this format so 07/13/2012 is the 13th of July and there are
several ways you can ask excel to present the date
Time
•2:00 PM
•you can present time in a number of fashions just like dates, Excel understands ":" as time separaters and also gets AM and PM
Percentage
•65.00%
•it understands percentage which makes it a lot easier to get %age values of various figures

8. It’s well trained
• Excel recognizes series
like 1,2,3,4 or Mon,
Tue, Wed, or Jan, Feb,
Mar
• Excel is excellent at
understanding
patterns like even and
odd numbers

9. Simplest way to create a series
• Fill two
consecutive
entries from the
series and then
drag down to
the final

10. =
Meet a common friend

11. Meet a common friend
• Calculations are a primary function of Excel so get rid of the
old calculators.
• You can program a cell to calculate something when you use
the “equal to” “=“ sign
• PR’s most common calculations
– Coverage Size = (Length)*(Breadth)
• E.g. =6.7*5.8
– Ad Value = (Ad Rate)*(Coverage Size)
• E.g. =D5*E5

12. Meet a common friend
• All calculations start with “=“, even the slightly complex
ones
– =SUM(D5:D19) or =COUNTA(F9:J7)
• And the very complex ones
– =OFFSET(K$32,MATCH(SMALL(J$32:J$41,ROW()-
ROW(E$32)+1),J$32:J$41,0)-1,0)

13. Predefined functions you can use
• SUM
– Calculate the sum of a range of cells =SUM(D5:D9) or several different
subtotals =SUM(D5,D9,D15,D19)
• AVERAGE
– Works just like SUM =AVERAGE(D5:D15)
• COUNTA
– calculate the number of filled entries in a range of cells
=COUNTA(D5:D15)
• COUNTIF
– calculate the number of entries of a type
=COUNTIF(D12:D28, "New Delhi")

14. YOU SAY SOMETHING TO EXCEL
What it means, when …

15. It notices the slightest differences
• When you want excel to
recognize similar items, you
have to be consistent in the
way they are represented
• Use auto-correct to your
advantage
U CN RAED TIHS, ECEXL CANONT

16. Auto Correct can save your life (time really)
And not just in excel
File
Excel Options
Proofing
Auto Correct Options
Add Custom entries

17. HOW TO MAKE EXCEL WORK FOR YOU
An honest-to-god intelligent friend

18. Lists in Excel
• Two ways to list things in Excel
– Merge Several Cells as headline
column
– List within the same cell (auto list
not available in excel)
– Shortcut
• Alt+Enter the way to add a line break
in a cell

19. Sorting in Excel
• Basic Sorting
– A-Z function
• Multi level sorting (City wise, Publication wise and Date Wise)
– Pick the order in which you would like data sorted
– Sort the last priority column first and the first priority column last
– Your data can be therefore sorted Date Wise, and within date
wise, city wise and within city wise, publication wise
• Category Sorting
– Sorting by a parameter you don’t want listed (metro market vs non
metro market or category A publication vs Category B)
• Create an additional column that you can hide later (YES YOU CAN HIDE A
COLUMN or ROW)

20. Formatted Tables in Excel
(From the series “the super genius within”)
• Formatted tables act
like a group of cells
with higher
understanding
• You can select certain
kinds of entries from
the drop down menu
of individual columns

21. Pasting from Other Formats
• Excel, like all Office programs will copy original
format which takes longer.
– Solution - paste to notepad first
• In unformatted text
– Line break (enter) is the same as pasting to the
cell below
– Tab is the same as pasting to the cell to the right
• Have you heard of convert text to columns?

22. Copying tables from Excel to Word
• Simpler than making a table in Word
– Excel is already a table
– You just need to paste
• Can be reformatted to suit your needs
– Change Colour,
– size of text,
– easier to make lists
• Does your table look weird?
– If it goes out of your page, just right click to use Auto Fit
Options and click on Fit to Window

23. TIPS AND TRICKS TO MAKE THINGS
FASTER
Get to know the genius

24. Managing Media Coverage Index
• Make this chart once and you never have to calculate ad
value on a calculator again
• Just add clip size and ad rate, the rest will be calculated
automatically
• Copy and paste the formula for all entries
A B C D E F G H I J
S.No. Date Media Edition Headline Page
Clip
Size
Ad
Rate
Ad Value
(Size*Ad Rate)
PR Value (Size*Ad Rate*3
[Credibility Factor])
1 02-Jan DNA Mumbai Mumbai
The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival - January 21 to
25
11 40.5 2750 =H5*G5 =H5*G5*3
2 02-Jan
Financial
Express
All Editions A new script 5 90 850 INR 76,500 INR 2,29,500

25. Shortcuts
• Obvious
– Cut – Ctrl+X, Copy – Ctrl+C, Paste – Ctrl+V,
– Find and Replace – Ctrl+F
– Undo – Ctrl+Z, Redo – F4,
– Save – Ctrl+S, Close – Alt+F4
• Move between programs
– Alt+Tab
• Insert line break within cell
– Alt+Enter

26. Other usable functions
• Formatting on paste
– Right click on the little button that appears
• Keep source formatting or match destination formatting
• Copy Format only
• Copy values and number
• Advanced Find and Replace
– Highlight cells that contain a particular word
– Replace all similar entries with a different entry
• Remove Duplicates
– When using media lists
• Freeze Panes
– Pick a cell and freeze columns and rows to the left of it and above it

27. Other usable functions
• Fractions
– Magazine Ad Value
• Under “Size of coverage” just type =1/7
• Use standard multiplication formula for ad value
• Charts
– Create chart within Excel
– Use Excel data to create chart in Word or Powerpoint
• Chart Data entry in PPT has a predefined set of values and selected area
• Remember to edit the fields to suit your requirement depending on what
kind of chart you make
• Ensure that you have enough rows and columns available before pasting
data from excel
• Preferably paste via notepad

28. PRINTING FROM EXCEL
Spit it out

29. Basic Printing
• Do your excel sheets
turn into more than one
sheet?
• Noticed the sheet view
options?
• Ever heard of Page
Layouts?
• Let’s Learn how to print
large sheets
Normal
Page Layout
Page Break Preview

30. Headers and Footers
• Adding Headers and Footers to your Excel Sheet
• Let’s go to the Page Layout View
• Can you think of documents that would require
headers and footers?
– Media Registration Sheets
– Coverage Indices
– ???

31. DEALING WITH EXCEL’S DIFFICULTIES
An Un adjusting Flatmate

32. Merged Cells
Don’t overdo them
• Merged cells interfere with most functions like
Cut and Paste, Sorting, even selecting a column
or row
• Only required when you are using excel for
tabular text display (mostly when making plans),
• and don’t intend to mine data from it (mostly for
coverage analysis).

33. Hyperlinks
• Excel recognizes web and email addresses and automatically hyperlinks
the cell
• A simple Ctrl+Z after pasting an address will remove this hyperlink (it
undoes an automatic function)
• When dealing with media lists
– select the entire range of email addresses ,
– paste it to notepad (removes all formatting)
– Delete the range from the excel
– Paste back from notepad (you will need to reformat the cells or else they will
be blue and underlined)
• When dealing with online index
– Use the same steps as above

34. When formulae don’t work…
• Check that the reference cells are filled correctly (excel will
prompt you to anyway)
• Check the format of the cell where the formulae are used
• If you have copy-pasted a formula, the reference cell will
change according to the original location of the formula
– Remember if you copy =A2+B2 from cell C2 to cell D2 the formula will
automatically change to =B2+C2

35. HAVE ANY OF YOUR OWN PROBLEMS??
Let’s sort this shit

36. Anything Else?
On your mind?