MS Office 2013 – Excel for beginners
The Classroom has version “2013” installed, the Commons has “2010”.
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Exercise #1 – try it out
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Open the file Class work.xlsx, select the tab “Try It”.
Click on an open cell and type in empty cells.
When you enter data in a cell, that info will also appear in the formula bar.
Now, click in a cell with data. Click your mouse in the formula bar and modify the
data.
Click on the “Save” icon in the Quick Access Bar.
Select one cell by clicking on it.
Select a second (or more) cell by:
a. Hold down the shift key
b. With the mouse, click on another cell
c. Release the shift key.
Bonus: Click on the different tabs in the Ribbon
Exercise #2 – Use Autoformat
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Enter a number in a cell that has several empty cells underneath. Press Enter.
Click on the lower right corner’s handle. Watch the cursor turn into a thin plus sign.
Press down and “hold” the click on the left mouse.
Drag the cursor down (or over) a few cells. Excel will Autofill the same data.
Release the cursor.
Now, enter different data in 2 adjacent cells.
Select both cells.
Click / drag / drop. Autofill will fill in with “series” data.
Exercise #3 – Change fonts, size, and other formatting
Using the tab “Pretty”, try out the different ways to change formatting.
 Right click a cell (use the right mouse button on the mouse) and use the mini-tool
bar to change the cell’s font. (or whatever)
 Right click on a Column Letter and use the mini-tool bar to change the formatting
on an entire column. Now do the same for a Row.
 On the Home Tab, see the Font subgroup menu for many choices.
Exercise #4 – Format numbers
1. Select a column of numbers.
2. From the Home tab, select the Number “more info” thing in the bottom right corner.
3. Familiarize yourself with a few of the options:
a. numbers can be currency
b. can limit the number of decimals
c. numbers can turn red if they are negative
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Notes on cell name
An address is the Column letter + Row number, ex: A1 or F5
When using an address in a formula, Excel has two types of references, the relative reference
and the absolute reference. Absolute references are noted with a $ sign, ex: $A1 or $A$1
A common example is when you want to put a SUM something in a free cell just to the right of
a bunch of other cells, and then apply that logic all the way down to other rows. You want to
sum all the row 1 info and put it in F1, sum all the row 2 info and put it in F2, etc. Excel will figure
out the relative position of what you want to sum by the row number. Cool.
Absolute referencing is done when you want to apply one field, say a salary increase, to many
rows throughout the worksheet. (advanced topic) For now, just know that if you see $A$2,
something different is going on.
Exercise #5 Formulas and functions
A function is a built-in operation, such as SUM(), AVERAGE() etc. Functions are always
capitalized. What you need to put between the parentheses is called the argument, and it
must be the right type of data, etc. For example, you wouldn’t want to sum a date, you’d
want to sum a number.
A formula starts with an = sign. Ex: =(D1+D2) or =(2+4)
A formula can use functions. Ex: =AVERAGE(A1:A40)
To do math in a formula, use these operators: ( ) - + * / or: parenthesis, minus, plus,
multiplication, and divide . Excel uses regular mathematical order of operations.
So, 6 + 4/2 = 8. And (6+4) / 2 = 5
1. Click on an empty cell underneath several numbers, not interrupted by any blanks
2. From the Formulas tab, click on the drop down arrow by AutoSum (left hand corner of the
Function Library group)
3. Select Sum. Press enter
4. Now the sum of all the above cells are displayed. With the Summed cell active, look at the
Formula bar, and see something like =SUM(D2:D6)
5. Try it again with Average, etc.
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Exercise #6 Print a worksheet
1. Go to tab Coffee. Click on Normal Layout at the bottom of the page.
2. Scroll down around row 98. Notice the little dotted line – this where the page will break.
3. Now click on Page Layout. Scroll to the very top, and type report name where it says
“Add Header”. Scroll down and “Add Footer”. Look at the Ribbon – in the Header &
Footer Tools tab, you can add a page number, etc.
4. Click File > Print. If you like what you see, click the printer icon.
5215 Oakton Street / Skokie, IL 60077 / 847-673-7774 / www.skokielibrary.info
Move data around
CTNL C – to copy selected cells
CNTL X – to cut selected cells
CNTL V – to copy from clipboard
CNTL Z – to undo typing
CNTL Y – to redo typing
CNTL F – to find something
Excel 2013 Helpful links
Excel 2013 Training
http://www.gcflearnfree.org/excel2013
http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/index.php
http://www.tutorialspoint.com/excel/index.htm
http://excelcentral.com/
https://www.lynda.com/portal/patron?org=skokielibrary.info
- (Log-in with your SPL card number or create an account if you are a first time
user. Then search “Excel 2013” classes.)
Excel 2013 Real World exercises
http://web.utk.edu/~dhouston/excel/exercise.html
http://excelexposure.com/2013/07/23/excel-2013-examples-of-new-functions/
http://excelcentral.com/excel2013/essential/samplefiles.aspx
Training on Microsoft Office Products
http://tiny.cc/excel2013tutorials
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/
5215 Oakton Street / Skokie, IL 60077 / 847-673-7774 / www.skokielibrary.info