Updated: 28 April 2017
Level 1 MS Excel
Written by Gerry Kruyer
http://www.gerrykruyer.com
Teach Yourself Microsoft Excel
Topic 4 – Drag & Drop, Cut/Copy/Paste and Formulae: Part 3
In this last topic, you will create a more complex Excel spreadsheet and investigate Excel’s “drag and drop” as well
as cut/copy/paste and clipboard features.
Windows Clipboard
Whatever the type of computer operating system that you are using, there is an area within your computer’s memory
that is used to store the last item that you have either cut out or copied from a document that you are currently working
on.
Many software applications include cut and copy features and this includes MS Word, MS Excel and in fact all MS
Office applications. This copied or cut out data can then be pasted to somewhere else in that document; or to some
other similar documents; and even, depending on application compatibility issues, pasted to other files that are created
using completely different types of software applications.
The area where copied or cut information is stored is often called a clipboard. (On a Windows computer this is
called the Windows Clipboard.) When you then paste an item, it is taken from this clipboard. If you copy or cut a
new item, then it then takes the place of the current stored item and the old item that was stored there is lost.
Cut, Copy, Paste
To copy something from any Office document to the Windows Clipboard, select/highlight it and then either click
on the
button which is in the Home ribbon’s Clipboard group, or right-click with your mouse and choose
, or simply use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C.
To cut something from any Office document to the Windows Clipboard, select/highlight it and then either click on
the
button which is in the Home ribbon’s Clipboard group, or right-click with your mouse and choose
, or simply use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + X. (Memory tip: The X key looks like scissor blades for cutting.)
Question 1. What is the difference between cutting something out of a document and copying something from a
document?
To paste something from the Windows Clipboard into a cell or other document, click in the cell where you want
to insert the clipboard item (or in the case of MS Word, place the insertion point at the spot where you want to insert
the clipboard item) and then either click on the
button which is in the Home ribbon’s Clipboard group, or right-
click with your mouse and choose
, or simply use the keyboard shortcut
(Memory tip: The V key is right next to the cut and copy keys.)
Ctrl
+
V.
You will use Copy and Paste in the exercise that follows.
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Level 1 MS Excel
Creating More Complex Formulae
In the exercise below, you will find out how to solve a more complex formula than what you have seen so far. You
will calculate the total cost of the GST (Goods & Servicing Tax) for a SPAN afternoon tea business.
To do this calculation you will:
i.
Multiply the prices of each of your items by the 10% GST rate (written as 0.1) to calculate the tax that is to
be paid on each baked item.
ii.
Then you will work out the final selling price for each of your items.
iii.
Multiply this final unit price by number sold of that item.
iv.
Work out the total amount of money brought in for all the goods sold.
v.
Subtract the price of all of the ingredients that went into making the baked items.
Skills Check 4a
Imagine that SPAN is running a small business from its main kitchen making cakes, scones, muffins, tarts etc. and
inviting the locals to come in on a Wednesday. For a small price anyone can enjoy a lovely afternoon tea with
proceeds going to improving SPAN facilities and provide a combination of business, hospitality and baking training
to local people.
Below is the start of an Excel spreadsheet that could be used to work out profits roughly based on previous sales:
1. Open a new Microsoft Excel workbook.
2. Enter the data shown in the table above and include formula for each cell in the:
a.
GST per Unit column: Unit Price * 0.1
or
Unit Price * 10%
b. Selling Price column:
Unit Price + GST
c.
Selling Price * Quantity Sold
Total column:
(Either formula is correct.)
3. Include a formula for the Overall sales total.
4. Include a formula for the Total GST to be paid:
Overall sales total / 11
5. Format headings and row 8 as shown.
6. Format currency data as shown in the table.
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Level 1 MS Excel
Written by Gerry Kruyer
7. Save your spreadsheet as task-4a.xlsx
8. Let’s assume that the cost of ingredients for all cakes/tarts/scones/muffins including eggs, cream etc. for an
afternoon tea was $67.50. Include a Cost of Ingredients underneath the Total GST to be paid along with a
suitable red label to the left of this.
9. Now work out an Overall Profit for the Wednesday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN underneath the Cost of
Ingredients:
Question 1.
Overall sales total - Total GST to be paid - Cost of Ingredients
One really cold autumn day Wednesday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN only had five customers and sold
only four scones, one muffin, no tea cake and two apple tarts. Did they make a profit or a loss? How
much was this profit/loss?
Let’s assume that, on the whole, Wednesday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN is a success despite that one abysmal cold
afternoon. SPAN wants to repeat the afternoon teas on Fridays calling it Friday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN.
You will repeat the table this time using the much faster Copy/Paste method.
10. Select your entire Wednesday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN table by using the Name box
and typing into it the top-left:bottom-right cell addresses of this table as shown right:
11. Press Enter to complete the selection process.
Your entire table should now be selected as shown on the right:
Question 2.
What is another way to select the entire Wednesday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN table?
12. Press Ctrl + C. Remember that this is the shortcut for copy.
13. Select cell A15.
14. Press Ctrl + V. Remember that this is the shortcut for paste.
15. Select cell A15 again.
16. Change the text and formatting to Friday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN
17. Change the quantities sold for Friday to that shown on the right:
Question 3.
Scones/jam/cream
Muffins/butter
49
25
Tea cake/strawberries/cream
Apple tart/custard/cream
26
20
How can you make sure that all formulae in the Friday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN table are using
the correct referencing cells?
18. In Cell E29 type the label: Weekly Overall Profit
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Level 1 MS Excel
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19. In cell F29 enter a formula for the weekly overall profit.
20. Type your first and last name and the date in cell A29.
21. Save all additions and changes.
22. As much as possible try to get your entire table to fit onto one A4 sheet of paper when printed out by altering
orientation, margins and column widths.
23. Preview your table. If you wanted to you could print it but do this at home. (Remember: This is the last class
and we can’t get to the printer which is locked in the main office and I don’t have the key to that room.)
Below is my final spreadsheet and yours should be very similar. Notice the dashed lines indicating where the A4
paper page breaks are:
24. Show all of your formulae.
25. If you have not already done so, make sure your page orientation is set to landscape.
26. Alter all margins to 1cm.
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27. As much as possible reduce all column widths so that you can still see all of your formulas but now everything
fits onto one A4 page as shown below. Notice the dashed lines here indicating that I have reduced column
widths so that it all fits onto one A4 page. I can still see all of my headings as well as all of my formulae:
28. If you wanted to you could print the formulas out but do this at home. (Remember: This is the last class.)
29. Ensure that all formulae are correct by scanning your preview’s cell references contained within each formula.
If there are any errors, then fix them up. (There shouldn’t be any errors!)
Question 4.
By looking at my MS Excel table showing my formulae above, how do I know that a printout of this
would fit onto one A4 sheet of paper?
30. Hide all your formulae.
31. You will have to readjust your column widths.
32. Save your changes to task-4a.xlsx
Question 5.
What have you learnt about Microsoft Excel copy/paste in relation to formulae?
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Level 1 MS Excel
Written by Gerry Kruyer
Drag-and-Drop
Some software applications including Microsoft Office applications allow you to highlight a section of a document
and then, using your mouse, drag it to another place in your document, or even between two open documents.
The four steps for a drag-and-drop are:
Step 1/ Select/highlight the range or section of your document that you want to move.
Step 2/
•
If you are using MS Excel, then move the cursor over the border. The cursor will change to a four headed
arrow:
. Click down with the left-mouse button and do not release the left-mouse button. Keep
pressing it down.
•
If you are using MS Word, then using your left-mouse button, click down anywhere in the highlighted
area. Do not release the left-mouse button. Keep pressing it down.
Step 3/ Drag the highlighted section to the desired cell or spot in the document, or even to a cell or spot in another
open document.
Step 4/ Release the left-mouse button.
Caution: When you perform an Excel drag and drop, the cells that you move your dragged data to may already
contain data and this old data will be lost. If you do not want to lose data, then make sure there is
enough empty cells available at your preferred destination.
➢ If you have closed task-4a.xlsx then open it up again.
➢ Highlight the entire Friday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN table and drag it to somewhere to the right of the
Wednesday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN section perhaps starting in cell H1.
➢ Using the same method drag and drop the Weekly Overall Profit including the label up to row 15 over on the
right as shown below:
➢ Save the change.
Question 6.
Are all of your formula still correct including the Weekly Overall Profit?
Question 7.
What have you learnt about Microsoft Excel drag and drop in relation to formulae?
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Level 1 MS Excel
Written by Gerry Kruyer
Microsoft Office Clipboard
Some software applications have their own dedicated clipboards which allow you to store more than just the last item
cut or copied and this includes Microsoft Office applications.
When you are using Microsoft Office applications, you can use the Windows Clipboard as you probably have been
using in the past but you can also use the dedicated Microsoft Office Clipboard which stores up to 24 clips. The
important thing to remember is that this is only available while you are using any MS Office application. Once you
close MS Office you only have access to the last clip and all other clips previous to that are lost.
To open the Microsoft Office Clipboard:
☺
In the Home ribbon’s Clipboard group, click on the tiny clipboard launcher
button shown circled in red on the right:
Note: If you are using Outlook, then the tiny clipboard launcher button only appears
when you are writing a new e-mail message in a new e-mail window. You see
the launcher in the Message ribbon’s Clipboard group.
To paste a single clip from the MS Office clipboard into any Microsoft Office document
Step 1/
•
If you are using MS Excel, then select the cell where you want to insert the MS Office clipboard item.
•
If you are using MS Word, then place the insertion point at the spot where you want to insert the MS
Office clipboard item.
Step 2/ Do one of the following:
☺
Click on the item in the MS Office clipboard.
☺
Move your mouse cursor over the
item that you want to insert and then
click on the item’s down-arrow:
Step 3/ Next click on Paste as shown here:
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Level 1 MS Excel
To paste all clips from the MS Office clipboard:
Step 1/
•
If you are using MS Excel, then select the top most cell where you want to insert the MS Office clipboard
items. All items from the clipboard will be placed in cells from the selected cell downwards in the
column. Before proceeding to the next step, make sure that there are enough empty cells underneath the
selected cell to accommodate all items in the clipboard otherwise you may lose some spreadsheet data.
•
If you are using MS Word, then place the insertion point at the spot where you want to insert all the MS
Office clipboard items.
Step 2/ Click on the Paste All button.
Caution: When you perform an Excel copy and paste, the cells that you move your dragged data to may already
contain data and this old data will be lost. If you do not want to lose data, then make sure there is
enough empty cells available at your preferred destination.
To delete clips from the MS Office clipboard:
Do one of the following:
☺ Click on the item in the MS Office clipboard.
Move your mouse cursor over the item that you want to delete, then click on the item’s
down-arrow and finally click on Delete as shown here:
☺ To delete all of the items that are currently in your MS Office clipboard, click on the Clear All button.
To set the clipboard options:
Step 1/ If you have closed the MS Office clipboard, then open it again.
Step 2/ Click on the Options  button at the bottom.
Step 3/ Now you see five options each of which you can set. Details are given below:
☺ Show Office Clipboard Automatically:
Automatically display the MS Office Clipboard
when you copy or cut.
☺ Show Office Clipboard When Ctrl+C Pressed Twice: Display the MS Office Clipboard when you use
the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + C twice fast.
☺ Collect Without Showing Office Clipboard:
Copied or cut items are added to the MS Office
Clipboard without opening the clipboard.
☺ Show Office Clipboard Icon on Taskbar:
Add a system tray icon:
for the MS Office
Clipboard when it is active. When your mouse
hovers over this icon it displays how many items
are currently saved in the MS Office Clipboard.
☺ Show Status Near Taskbar When Copying:
A status message appears when a new item is
added to the MS Office Clipboard.
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➢ Turn on the second and last two MS Office Clipboard options as listed above.
Skills Check 4b
Self-investigation…
1. Create a copy of task-4a.xlsx
2. Rename it as task-4b.xlsx
3. Open task-4b.xlsx
4. Highlight the entire Friday Afternoon Tea @ SPAN table.
5. Rather than simply using the drag and drop method that you used a few pages back, this time hold down the
Ctrl button before you drag and drop your table back to its original position.
Question 8.
What happens when you Ctrl + drag and drop?
An Introductory Exercise Related to Little Green Triangles and Functions
Skills Check 4c
1. Open a new Excel workbook.
2. Into cells A1, A2, A3 and A4 insert any four numbers.
3. In cell B1 enter the text: Total is:
4. Right justify the text in cell B1.
You want to find the total of your four numbers. To do this:
5. Click into cell C1.
6. Click on the Home tab’s Editing group Ʃ AutoSum
button This will place a SUM function into cell C1 but
it is not highlighting all of your four numbers.
Excel includes many pre-written formulae that perform
specific tasks and these are called Functions.
7. To fix your SUM function, you need to highlight cells
A1 to A4 cells (A1:A4) immediately after clicking on
the Ʃ AutoSum button. This is shown on the right:
8. Remember your answer.
9. Next add another six numbers to your list.
10. Check to see if your total has changed or is it still the same?
11. Check to see if you get a little green triangle in the top-left corner of cell C1.
Question 9.
What do you think this means?
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Written by Gerry Kruyer
12. To fix this problem, you could click on the
green triangle and then click on the tiny
yellow diamond
choosing Update
Formula to Include Cells as shown on
the right:
13. Double click on cell C1 to check that the
SUM function is now adding all 10 of
your numbers.
14.
Save your spreadsheet as task-4c.xlsx
If you ever see a tiny green triangle in the top-right corner of a cell containing a formula or function, then Excel is
telling you that there very well could be a problem with the formula or function in that cell.
More about formulae, functions, error messages and much more in the Level 2 Excel course.
 Have you backed up all your work at the end of this lesson to your USB thumb drive?
 Have you been saving your work to your server space every 10 minutes?
 Show your MS Excel documents to Mr Kruyer for assessment.
I hope you enjoyed this course and have learnt new skills from each of the eight lessons in this Level 1 Microsoft
Word & Excel course.
Please check the SPAN, The Bridge – Preston, and The Bridge - Thornbury Neighbourhood House’ websites before
the start of each new term for any other courses that may interest you in the future. My website will also keep you
informed of any upcoming ICT related courses that I am running either at SPAN, The Bridge – Preston, and The
Bridge - Thornbury.
Remember that subsidised course fees are available to students who are ACFE (Adult, Community and Further
Education) eligible. This brings the cost for any of my term long courses, which include all class notes, down to around
$80.00 or less. I consider this to be fantastic value and I don’t think you could find similar hands-on courses with a
qualified trainer anywhere else in Australia at this price.
Contact SPAN, The Bridge – Preston, or The Bridge - Thornbury to discuss whether you are eligible to receive ACFE
funding. Many neighbourhood houses also offer a discount if you sign up 10 working days prior to the start date of
any course.
Hope to see you all soon;
Gerry
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