Introduction to Excel
This booklet
These training materials adapted with permission from @ONE, http://one.fhda.edu, 5/29/2012
Table of Contents
Getting Started .............................................................................................................. 2
What is Excel? ............................................................................................................................................ 2
Opening Excel ............................................................................................................................................ 2
What You See ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Try It! .......................................................................................................................................................... 4
The Basics: Inputting Data ........................................................................................... 5
AutoFill........................................................................................................................................................ 6
Copying and Pasting .................................................................................................................................. 7
The Undo & Redo Button............................................................................................................................ 7
Try It! .......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Samples: Addition....................................................................................................................................... 8
Samples: Average ...................................................................................................................................... 9
Other Common Numeric Syntax ................................................................................................................. 9
Calculating Numbers in Non-Adjacent Cells ............................................................................................... 9
Editing Formulas......................................................................................................................................... 9
Try It! .........................................................................................................................................................10
Getting Started
What is Excel?
Excel is a multi-functional spreadsheet program you can use to calculate and analyze
numbers and organize data. When you’re working in Excel, you are placing data inside a
worksheet that is part of an entire workbook. You can have multiple sheets in a
Workbook or just a single sheet.
Opening Excel
Microsoft Excel is located in your Start menu under All Programs Microsoft Office.
To Open Excel:
1. Go to Start All Programs Microsoft Office and select Microsoft
Excel 2010.
2. Excel will start up and a new Workbook, called Book1, will
automatically open.
What You See
The Workbook Window
Select All: Click this
button to select all
the cells in your
Worksheet.
Active Cell: Click in
a cell to make it
active. Once it’s
active, you can type
in it.
Row headers are
represented by
numbers. Click on a
row number to
select an entire row.
Column headers are
represented by
letters. Click on a
column letter to
select an entire
column.
Scroll buttons: Use
these to scroll up,
down, left and right
in your worksheet.
Sheet buttons: By
default, an Excel
Workbook starts with
three sheets. You can
add or delete sheets as
necessary.
Ribbon
The Ribbon contains all the Command Tabs, such as the Home tab, which has the
commands that you will need in an Excel session. You will find all the formatting
features you had access to in older Excel versions.
Command Tabs
If you can’t see the Command Tabs with their respective groups, double click on the tab
to view groups.
Formatting features are located within groups in the Home Command tab.
Formula Bar
The Formula Bar is a place where you can create and edit formulas and text in your
cells. The box on the far left tells you your active cell.
If you don’t see your Formula Bar, double click on any of the Command Tabs.
Excel Help
You can get help by clicking on the question mark located on the upper right
hand corner under the Close button or simply press F1 key located at the top of
your keyboard.
Try It!
Use the instructions in this chapter to complete the following tasks.
1. Close all workbooks you have open. If asked if you want to save changes to these
workbooks, click the “no” button.
2. Start a new workbook.
3. Save the workbook on your desktop and name it “Practice.” Leave this workbook
open.
4. Start another new workbook.
5. Save the workbook and name it “Activity.” Leave this workbook open, too.
You should now have two workbooks open: “Practice” and “Activity.” If you go to your
Window pull-down menu, both workbooks should be listed there and you will be able to
switch between them.
In the upcoming chapters, use the “Practice” workbook to practice the new skills
introduced. The “Activity” will be developed in the “Try It” sections throughout the
remainder of this document.
The Basics: Inputting Data
Throughout this chapter, use your workbook named “Practice” to try out the features
mentioned, unless directed otherwise.
Moving Around Your Worksheet
Remember, in Excel you have multiple Worksheets within a Workbook. For now, we’ll
focus on working within an individual Worksheet. More information on Workbook
management will be discussed on page 25.
Making Cells Active/Selecting Cells
There are several ways to move around your worksheet and make cells active. Cells
must be active in order to type in them.
To Make Cells Active:
 Click in the cell you want to make active. You will see the name of the active
cell (for instance, A1) in the far left of your Formula Bar, OR
 Use your tab key to move across your cells from left to right until you reach
the cell you want to be active, OR
 Use your enter key to move down your cells until you reach the cell you want
to be active, OR
 Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move left, right, up and down in your
cells until your reach the cell you want to be active.
Selecting Multiple Cells
Once you start formatting the data in your cells, you may want to select multiple cells at
once.
 To select a group of neighboring cells, hold down
on your shift key while clicking in the Cells, or click
and drag over the cells you want to highlight.
 To select non-neighboring cells, hold down on your
Ctrl key while clicking in cells.
 To select an entire row or column, click on the row number or column letter.
 To select multiple neighboring rows, click and drag over several row numbers
or column letters.
 To select non-neighboring rows or columns, hold down on the Ctrl key while
clicking on row numbers or column letters.
 To select your entire worksheet, click the empty gray box in the upper left
corner of your (directly above the #1 row).
Entering and Deleting Text
Entering Text
1. Click in a cell to make it active.
2. Type your text.
3. Press enter to move to the cell below or tab to move to the
right. You can also use your arrow keys.
When you type numbers, Excel will automatically right-align the numbers in the cell.
Text, by default, is left aligned.
Deleting Text
There are several ways to delete the text you’ve typed if you make a mistake:
 Click in a cell and then type over your text.
 Double-click in a cell and edit the text directly within the cell.
 Click in a cell and then edit your text in the edit line in your Formula Toolbar.
You can edit your text directly within your cell or in the edit line of your
Formula Toolbar.
AutoFill
If you want a range of cells to contain the same data, sequential numbers or dates, or
numbers and dates in a certain pattern, you can use the AutoFill feature to place the
appropriate data into the range of cells.
You use the AutoFill feature by grabbing on to the lower right corner of
an active cell that contains a date or number and dragging down.
Autofilling With the Same Data
1. Type your text/number into the cell.
2. Click and hold down on the icon (three or four small squares) in
the lower right corner of the cell.
3.
4. Drag down until you’ve filled the cells of your choice.
Autofilling with Sequential Numbers
1. Type your number into the cell.
2. Press and hold down on your Ctrl key. Continue to hold this key in
steps 4 and 5.
3. Click and hold down on the icon (three or four small squares) in the
lower right corner of your cell.
4. Drag down until you’ve filled the cells of your choice.
5. Release your mouse and your Ctrl key.
Other AutoFill Features:
 To fill in dates or months, type your date/month and then drag down.
 To fill in a number ever other cell
o Type 1
o Skip a cell and Type 2
o Highlight both the cell containing 1 and 2 and the empty cells between the
numbers and after the 2.
o Grab the icon in the lower right corner and drag down.
Highlight all four
cells, then drag
down to get
numbers in ever
other cell.
Copying and Pasting
If you have text or formulas in your cells that you want to appear in more than one place,
or if you have text in one or more cells that you want to place in another worksheet or
workbook, you can accomplish this by using the copy and paste feature.
To Copy and Paste:
1.
2. Highlight the text or formula you want to copy by clicking in the cell or clicking
and dragging over multiple cells.
3. Click on the Home tab and click the Copy button in your Clipboard group OR
press Ctrl + C on your keyboard.
4. Go to the place in your worksheet or workbook where you want to place your
copied data and click your mouse to place your insertion point there.
5. Click on the Home tab and click the Paste button in your Clipboard group OR
press Ctrl + V on your keyboard. The text you copied will be placed there.
Note: If you’d like to “cut” text or formulas from your worksheet and paste it in another
area, use the Cut button instead of the Copy button OR go to the Clipboard group-->Cut
OR press Ctrl + X on your keyboard. Cutting deletes the text from its original location.
The Undo & Redo Button
You can “undo” mistakes you make using the Undo command. The Undo button
comes in handy when you’re not quite sure how you made the mistake you made (it
happens!). For instance, if you realize that you’ve accidentally deleted the wrong text
and want to get it back, you can click the Undo button until the text you deleted comes
back. You can undo over 500 of your last actions as long as your document remains
open (you can’t undo what you did once you close your document).
You can use the Redo command if you accidentally undo too much. You can only redo
the command or commands that have just been undone.
To Undo One or More Actions
1. Go to the Quick Access Toolbar, click on the Undo button OR press Ctrl + Z
on your keyboard. Continue this until your mistake has been corrected.
To Redo One or More Actions
1. Go to the Quick Access Toolbar, click on the Redo OR press Ctrl + Y on
your keyboard. Continue this until your document is corrected.
To Undo or Redo Multiple Actions At Once
1. Click on the small arrow to the right of the Undo or Redo button on your
Standard Toolbar. A pull-down menu will appear. Select all the actions
you want to undo or redo by dragging your mouse. When you are
finished, release your mouse. All the actions you selected will be
undone or redone.
Try It!
Use the instructions in this chapter to complete the following tasks.
1. Switch to your “Activity” workbook.
2. Fill in cells so they look similar to the image below. Note: When you are
creating this worksheet, Excel may ask if you want to convert the data into
a list---click NO in this window.
3. Save your work.
Samples: Addition
As mentioned previously, there are several ways to perform addition in Excel. It is
important to be familiar with each method as it will be useful when creating more
complex formulas.
For instance, you have the following numbers in your
worksheet that you want to add and you want the sum to
appear in A6.
Using the Addition Operator, you would type in cell A6:
=A1+A2+A3+A4+A5 and then press enter to see the sum.
Using the SUM syntax, you would type in cell A6:
=SUM(A1:A5) and then press enter to see the sum.
Using the AutoSum button, you would click in cell A6, and then click the AutoSum
button. A formula will be created for you and when you press enter you will see the
sum.
Samples: Average
You can find the average of a series of numbers using syntax.
For instance, you have the following numbers in your worksheet that you want to find the
average of and display that number in cell H1.
Using the AVERAGE syntax, you would type in cell H1: =AVERAGE(D1:G1) and then
press enter to see the average.
Other Common Numeric Syntax
MIN: Finds the lowest number in a series. For instance, =MIN(A1:A5) would find the
lowest number in cells A1 through A5.
MAX: Finds the highest number in a series. For instance, =MAX(A1:A5) would find the
lowest number in cells A1 through A5.
COUNT: Counts the number of times a number appears in a range of cells. For
instance, =COUNT(D1:H1) based on the example below would return the number 4 as
four of the five cells contain a number.
Calculating Numbers in Non-Adjacent Cells
In order to perform calculations on non-adjacent cells you will need to use the
appropriate syntax or operators. You can manually type the cells you want to calculate
into your formula or you can click in the cell to have it appear in your formula.
For instance if you want to add the numbers in cells A1, B4, C10, and D11, you could
type =A1+B4+C10+D11 or you could type your equal sign (=) and then click in A1, B4,
C10, and D11 and Excel will develop your formula.
Editing Formulas
The best place to edit formulas is in the Edit Line in your Formula bar. You edit formulas
the same as you would any text; however, you need to be careful with formulas!
When you double-click in a cell with a formula, that formula becomes active and any
other cell you click in will become part of the formula. This could create a big mess (the
Undo button will come in handy if this happens to you). To prevent this from happening
remember to press enter every time you finish creating or editing a formula before
clicking in another cell.
Try It!
Use the instructions in this chapter to complete the following tasks.
1. Switch to your Activity workbook. The image below is the worksheet you created
on page 13. It’s now time to start creating formulas for this worksheet. The
outcome of these formulas is as follows:
- Column F under Paper Ave. should calculate the average for the two papers.
- Column I under Exam Ave. should calculate the average for the two exams.
- Column K under Grade should calculate the grade with these guidelines:
- The paper average is worth 30%
- The exam average is worth 30%
- The final is worth 40%
Your formulas should all be cell-based, meaning that if you changed a number in
the formulas it would automatically recalculate.
2. Create your formulas using the guidelines above. When you are finished, the
result of your formulas should match the image below. Remember, once you
create the correct formula in cell F2, I2, and K2, you can use the AutoFill feature
to copy that formula to the cells below.
If you get stuck, the answers are on the next page.
3. Save your work.
Answers:
The formula for cell F2 under Paper Ave. should be =AVERAGE(D2:E2). After you press
enter, click in the cell again and then place your pointer over the boxes
in the lower right corner of the cell. Click and drag down to cell F5. Your
formula will copy to those cells.
The formula for cell I2 under Exam Ave. should be =AVERAGE(G2:H2). Use your
AutoFill feature to copy the formula to cells I3-I5.
The formula for cell K2 under Grade should be =F2*0.3+I2*0.3+J2*0.4. Use your AutoFill
feature to copy the formula to cells K3-K5.