Learning More About
Microsoft Excel
Goochland County Public Schools
Staff Development
What is Excel?
 Excel
is one of Microsoft’s leading
products for Macs and PCs.
 It’s used by financial analysts,
scientists, economists, and people like
you!
 Spreadsheets have multiple functions,
including the ability to calculate, on
demand, and to create informative
charts
The Workbook
 One
Excel document can hold several
pages, or a “workbook”
 You can add pages to your workbook,
or flip between them
 Use the tabs at the bottom-left hand
side of the document window to “turn”
pages
Depth
 Since
Excel is used by so many people
to do so many different things, it’s a
complex piece of software that can take
a year to learn completely
 Today we will focus upon several steps
and build a single project: the
gradebook
Step 1




Open Excel and
produce a fresh
worksheet
Starting in Cell C-3,
type in a list of student
last names
We’ll Create 10
Students
Place the First Names
in Column D
Student Numbers

In the B-column,
add the student
numbers for your
students
 To make life easy,
give each student a
4-digit student
number
Adding Headings

Next, I want to add
headings.
 First, give headings
in the 2nd row for
your first three
columns;
 Next, create
headings for 5
assignments
Formatting

Lets make the
headings BOLD,
and add some color
to the background of
the cells
 Let’s also make
each column wide
enough to avoid
overlaps
A Title



Next add a title…
Let’s call it “Block 2 Grades”
Put the title in Cell A-1, and change the font and size
Add the Marks


Go ahead and give students their scores for the 5
assignments
For this demo, make each score out of 100 points
Add the Date



Let’s add the date for each assignment underneath the
assignment column
Start in Cell E-13
Then format to your heart’s content
Alignment is the name of the
game!



Next, let’s align our columns
First, left-align your student numbers
Second, Center your assignments, scores, and dates
Save Your Work…

Remember to
frequently save your
work
 Command-S saves
the worksheets
 For now, give it the
title of your last
name.xls
Step 2

Lets put Excel to
work!
 Let’s create
averages for all the
assignments,
underneath the date
 Click in cell E-15
and select INSERT>
Function command

Select the
AVERAGE function
 Move the next
dialog out of the
way, then drag over
the marks for the
first assignment.
 You’re telling Excel
which cells to
average.
The Result?



Try making averages for all of your columns.
Click in E-15 and drag right to I-15
Choose EDIT> Fill-Right and voila!
Let’s Make a Chart!

Show the kids how
the grades worked
out…
 First select the
Chart Wizard in the
toolbar
Pick a Chart Type, Add a Title

Select the Chart
Type you want, then
drag across your
data—including the
assignment names
and student
numbers
Append as an object, or a new
sheet

I chose the “Place Chart as New Sheet”,
which adds a page to my workbook
A 3-D Chart
Total Averages
Let’s Average each
student’s grade…
 Make a new column
for averages…
 Add the formula…
 Get the result…

Fill the Formula Down

Select the entire
column for
averages, starting
with the first
computed average
 Go to EDIT > Fill
Down
 Watch the averages
for each student
appear
Save your file again…
Let’s Sort Your List…




You can sort by any
column in your
spreadsheet…
Let’s sort by last
name…
First, highlight all the
names, student
numbers, and marks
data… then…
Choose DATA>Sort…
Result? A dynamic student
gradebook…

Congratulations!
Let’s Print…

First, select the cells
you want to print…
 Go to FILE>Print
Area>Set Print Area
 Check Print Preview
Questions?
This presentation was created by:
John G. Hendron
Goochland County Public Schools
[email protected]