Introduction to Excel 2007
Introduction To Excel 2007
Excel 2007 is a software program that creates a spreadsheet. It permits the user to
enter data and formulas to perform mathematical and Boolean (comparison) calculations
on the data entered and display the results in a format selected by the user.
Excel does not provide the intelligence for the user. If the user cannot manually calculate
the operations, then he/she cannot provide the directions for the excel software to
perform. Excel does offer pre-formatted functions/calculations that the user can insert
into the program, but the user must know how, where, and what the results should be.
Exercise – Using Pointers
Practice click and drag – Move the pointer to cell A1, click
and drag to D1. This
selects the cells. Now copy the cell information (text, numbers or formulas) by placing
your pointer at the bottom right of the last cell you copied. Your pointer will look like this
╋. So to select the cells use this pointer
to copy cells use this pointer ╋.
Start Excel
Start the excel program.
The Excel program screen (Figure #1) looks very much like all other
Microsoft program screens so the user only needs to learn new features.
Figure 1
This is called a spreadsheet and contains boxes or cells. The alphabetic designations at
the top are columns, which extend from A to IV. T he numbers down the left side are
rows and extend from 1 to 65,536. The number of cells in a fully utilized spreadsheet is
16,777,216.
Move the mouse pointer into one of the cells. Click once and see that the cell is now the
active cell. Note the box above column A that identifies the active cell’s designation.
You can locate the cell using the two coordinates, the alphabetic across the top are
columns and the numeric designations down the left side are rows.
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At the top of the page, just under the title bar, there are 7 tabs identifying 7 functions
and short cut icons.
The Home tab contains the basic function for the program including clipboard, font,
alignment, numbers, styles, cells, and editing. This is the tab where much of you work
will be performed. The other tabs, insert, page layout, formulas, data, review, and view
will be discussed later in this course.
Move the mouse pointer into one of the cells. Click once and see that the cell is now the
active cell. Note the box to the left of the display box and read the cell’s designation.
Returning to the Home tab, locate the Font group (font type and the font size boxes as
well as the buttons for bold, italic and underline).
Some Spreadsheet Activities
Try some simple operations.
1. Move the pointer to cell C3 and click once.
2. Type the number 10. Press the enter key, click the pointer into another cell or
press the tab key. This tells Excel that you are done with your entry and to accept
what you have typed.
3. Place the pointer in cell D1 and click once.
4. Type +4+6 and press enter. Note that the cell displays 10, the results of
your formula.
5. Click cell D1 and look at the cell display located just above the work
space area. The formula entered by you is displayed there while the cell shows the
result or that formula.
6. Now click cell C3. The cell display shows the number 10.
Stock Listing File – Open the stock file
Click the office button in the upper left corner and click open. Find the file named stocks
and double click. The file will open in the spreadsheet (Figure 2). There are four columns
of data. Column A contains the names of 5 stocks.
Figure 2
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Column B is the cost of each stock. Column C is the number of shares of each stock.
And, column D is the price per share for each stock.
Let’s make the spreadsheet more user friendly by including headings for each column.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Click in cell A1 and type Stock. Press Tab to complete the entry.
Click in cell B1 and type Cost of Stock. Press Tab to complete the entry.
Click in cell C1 and type Number of Shares. Press Tab.
Click in cell D1 and type Price per Share.
The headings overlap into the adjacent cells and are lost to the reader. There are several
options to correct this problem. First, the headings could be abbreviated until they fit
into the cell. Second, the cell could be stretched until the heading fits. Or, third, format
the cell to deal with long text phrases.
Chose option three format the cells - Formatting.
1. Move the pointer into cell A1. Click, hold and drag the pointer to cell D1
selecting the four cells.
2. Go to the cell group on the Home tab. Click the format button,
then select format cells (figure 3).
Figure 3
Figure 4
3. Select the alignment tab (figure 4).
4. Click the check box wrap text.
5. Check the horizontal alignment box and select center if it is not selected.
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Use the drop down arrows to display all options.
6. Check the vertical alignment box and select center using the drop
down menu.
7. Click okay
The cells in row 1 have expanded to hold all of the text in each cell. Notice that the box
height is larger than the cells below them. Also see that the text wraps from the first
line to following lines to be contained within the cell. The headings are also centered
both vertically and horizontally within each cell. Your spreadsheet should look like this.
(Figure 5)
Figure 5
Look at the cells and see how the spreadsheet is constructed.
1. Click in cell C2. The entry in C2 is just a number.
2. Click in cell D2. That entry is also a number.
3. Click in cell B2. Look in the cell display box. There is a formula in that box
(C2*D2). The user had excel calculate the total cost using number of shares and
price per share.
Using that format, we are going to enter another stock that we own. The stock is to be
entered into the table as the second stock. Stock Illusion is already in the second row.
We will insert a new row to hold Nonesuch.
1. Place the cursor over the row number next to Illusion (row 3).
2. Right click and select insert from the menu.
A new empty row appears as row 3. Illusion moved down to row 4.
New Data Entry: The stock details are below.
Stock
Number of Shares
Price per Share
Nonesuch
60
$60
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Type the data into the appropriate columns. Leave column 2 blank for now. Click in cell B2
and see the formula that calculates the total cost. You could move the pointer to cell B3 and
type the formula or you can copy it into cell B3. To copy the formula:
1. Select cell B2.
2. Right click and select copy from the menu. Or go to the clipboard group and
select copy.
3. Move the pointer to cell B3 and right click. Select paste from the menu. Or
from the clipboard group click on the paste button.
The formula is copied into cell B3. Note that the cell references have changed to reflect
its new location. (C2 and D2 have become C3 and D3.) The cost of stock reflects the 60
shares at $60 per share or $3,600.
We want the spreadsheet to show the total cost of our stocks. We could add column 2
and type the total into an empty cell or we can let the software do the work for us.
1. Move the pointer to cell B8 and click to add Total Cost of the Stock
2. Look in the editing group and find the Σ icon AutoSum. Click the icon. A
formula appears in cell B8 and the cells above it are highlighted. Press the enter
key to accept the formula. Note that the sum of the stock costs are inserted into
cell B8.
If new stocks are added by inserting a new row, the sum formula will recognize the
entry and include it in the formula. Similarly, if a stock is removed from the list by
deleting an entire row, the formula will automatically adjust to the reduction.
Sorting
Let’s say we want the stocks listed in alphabetic order. To do this, we must:
1. Place the pointer in cell A1.
2. Click and drag the pointer to cell D7 and release the key. This will highlight all
of the data, including the headers. (If you don’t highlight all of the data, Excel
will execute the sort only on the highlighted part, thus mixing your data.)
3. Go to the editing group and click on the Sort & Filter button then click
on the Custom Sort option (figure 6a). In the Sort window that opens, click the check
box “My data has headers” if not selected. Using the Column drop-down menu,
Select Sort by Stock (figure 6b).
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Figure 6a
Figure 6b
Your spreadsheet should look like this. (Figure 7)
Figure 7
Now you can try out changes to your spreadsheet and see what happens. Try changing
some of the number of shares amounts and see the cost column reflect the changes. Try
the same with the price data.
Save your work. Click the Office button in the upper left corner. Click
save as, then select Excel 97-2003 Workbook (figure 8).
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Introduction To Excel 2007
Figure 8
Save the file with the name of my stocks.
Click the Office Button, Click Close to close the stock workbook file.
Checkbook file
Click the Office button and select open to display the open dialog box. Locate the file
named checkbook and double click to open it. (Figure 9)
Figure 9
This file is a checkbook register. We are going to fill-in the missing formulas and
then use the file to record and retrieve account activity.
Formatting - Let’s fix the headings.
1. Highlight row 2 by clicking in the left-hand designator.
2. Select the Cells group and click on the format button then click the tab named
alignment.
3. Check the box named text wrap.
4. Click the down arrow next to horizontal alignment and select center.
5. Click the down arrow next to vertical alignment and select center.
6. Click OK
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Notice that in column C and D the text wrap feature split a word to make it fit. Let’s
correct this.
1. Double Click in cell C2. This activates the edit function. Position
and click the cursor between the “/” mark and the A in activity. Press the space
bar. Excel moves the entire word activity to the second line.
2. Do the same edit in cell D2. See that the entire word Debit is now on
line 2.
The last column containing the word reconciled poses a different issue. The entire word
does not fit into the cell. Adjust the cell’s width to contain the word.
1. Go to the column designator. Place the cursor on the right edge of column G. The
cursor will change to a 4 –headed arrow. Click and drag the cell to the right to
manually expand its width until the word fits within the cell. (You can double
click and the column will expand to fit the largest cell’s content. However, this
automatic sizing does not work when text wrap is active.)
Now we will work on the columns.
Column A has a mix of date formats for its entries. To make them uniform, we must set a
format for dates. Click on the A at the top of the column to select the entire column.
Locate the Cells group and click on the format button and select format cells. Click on
the numbers tab and select the date option (Figure 10).
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Figure 10
Click on the format style M/DD/YY, then click ok. All dates entered into column A
will be shown in this format.
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Column B needs to be centered. Click on the B at the top. Find the center align in the
Alignment group on the Home tab and click it.
The names in column C do not fit within the cell’s boundaries. To expand the cell, move
the cursor to the right side line of column C. The cursor will become a 4-headed arrow.
Double click and the column will automatically expand or contract to fit the widest text
or number entered.
The numbers in column D need a uniform format showing dollars and cents. Click
on the D column header and click the comma sign in the Numbers group on the
Home tab.
Column E needs to be updated with entries for each line. For the opening balance line
(first line of entries) the value in column E is equal to the value in column D.
Formulas
1. Click in cell E3.
2. Type the + sign.
3. Click cell D3.
4. Press enter to complete the entry.
Cell E3 now displays 1000. The content display at the top shows the formula +D3.
Cell E4 will contain the balance from the previous line and the amount added or
subtracted in the current activity.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Click in cell E4.
Type + then click cell E3.
Type + then click cell D4.
Press enter to complete.
Cell E4 contains the value 937.07. The contents bar displays the formula
+E3+D4.
The formula must be copied to every other cell in column E. We could do this manually
or use Excel’s copy feature to accomplish the task. Click in cell E4. Notice the little
rectangle in the lower right corner of the cell, this is called a handle. It can be grabbed and
dragged across other cells. Place the mouse over the little rectangle. See that it becomes a
plus sign. Click, hold and drag downward until you reach cell E10. Release the mouse
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button. Values have appeared in each cell that was included in the drag- over. Click in
cell E10. The formula reads +E9+D10.
Column E should be formatted just the same as column D. Apply the format to
column E.
Columns F and G are to be centered. Select both columns and click on the center align
button in the Alignment group on the Home tab.
The checkbook file should look like figure 11.
Figure 11
There are two entry errors in the checkbook file, checks nos.102 and 104. They have
been entered as positive values and are added to the balance not subtracted.
Let’s correct those entries. Click in cell D6. Double click the cell to enter the edit mode.
Use the left arrow key to move to the beginning of the entry and type a minus sign before
the 2. Press the enter key to complete the edit
To correct check 104, click cell D8 and type -15. Press the enter key to complete the
edit
Save your work by clicking the Office button and selecting save as.
Name the file my checkbook.
Columns F and G are manual entries made at the time of activity entering (column F)
and when a check or activity has been reported by the bank and cleared by the
user(column G).
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Data Manipulation
Click cell A2, hold the left mouse key and drag the cursor to cell G10.
Release the left mouse key. This should highlight the entire database.
Click on Sort & Filter in the editing group. Go to the data menu, click filter, and select
filter. Excel will add data selection menus to the spreadsheet (figure 12). Each cell will
have a drop-down menu associated with it in the lower right portion of the heading cell.
Clicking on the down arrow in the payee cell, the menu displays the entries made into
column C. If we were to choose an entry, the program will
display only those records (lines) with that name in cell 3.
Figure 12
In a similar fashion, at tax time, the user could display every activity that had a tax
implication to it by clicking on the down arrow in the tax box and selecting Y for yes.
The resulting display is show in figure 13 below.
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To restore your spreadsheet, you can go to the drop-down menu and select clear filter
from Tax to show all of the entries. Note the down arrow on the Tax heading indicating
that the filter was done from that particular column
Auto-fill
Look at the auto fill feature that is very handy for repeating or numerical lists. In our file
we have in column B the check numbers. We can enter the correct number each time we
make an entry or we can pre-number a
group of numbers.
To auto fill the check number column. You must first highlight two or more consecutive
cells. Then click on the handle in the last cell and drag it to its final location. In this
example, the last check does not have a preceding check number to highlight. So, we
must do the following:
1. Click cell B11 and type 106.
2. Click in cell B10 and drag to cell B11 so both are highlighted.
Release the mouse button.
3. Locate the handle and click and drag it down to cell B15.
Cell B15 now contains the number 110.
If we had highlighted just one cell and then clicked and dragged it, its value would have
been entered into each cell that we dragged over.
Additional activities
•
Try the auto fill feature using non-consecutive numbers such as 1, 5,
9. In a cell type 1, tab type 5 in that cell, tab again and type 9 in that cell.
Select those 3 cells and using the handle drag down several rows.
•
Enter the days of the week. Enter Mon, Tue
•
Enter Mon, Wed, Fri
•
Enter Mon, Wed, Fri. Mon, Wed, Fri
RESOURCES
Free computer tutorials http://www.free-computer-tutorials.net
Free computer training http://www.gcflearnfree.org/computers
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