Tutorial 2/4: Calculations & Functions. Tutorial 1/4: Getting Started. Tutorial 3/4: Statistical Analysis. Tutorial 4/4: Basic Formatting

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1 Basic Microsoft Excel skills will be required for some of your Glenn College courses and may prove very helpful for others. This four-part tutorial addresses getting started with Excel, performing calculations and functions, conducting data analysis, and basic formatting. If you are interested in watching a 10-minute video overview of basic Excel data creation and formatting, here is a YouTube video link: Tutorial 1/4: Getting Started Tutorial 2/4: Calculations & Functions Tutorial 3/4: Statistical Analysis Tutorial 4/4: Basic Formatting Tutorial 1/4: Getting Started This document covers (click each link to skip to that section) Opening data in Excel o Copy/paste data into Excel o Resizing a column to fit the data o Renaming a worksheet Creating new worksheets Copy/paste between worksheets o Copying an entire worksheet Sorting data o Moving a cell and its contents Deleting extra columns or rows Opening data in Excel If you are using an existing Excel data file, open Excel. Click the File tab, then choose Open. Browse for the data file (ending in.xlsx or.xls) and double click the file name. The file will open to the last spreadsheet that was active when Excel was last closed. 1

2 Copy/paste data into Excel Sometimes you will find information and want to start a new Excel worksheet. For this example, navigate to the Business Insights Global database on OSU Library s Research Databases page. On the Research Databases List, select B (for databases beginning with the letter B) and go to page 3. Scroll down and click the Business Insights Global link Open the database. Under Comparison Charts (the fourth menu option), select Countries 2

3 Click the Add/Remove button on the right and type Botswana in the search window. A graph of Botswana s GDP by year will appear. Above it, click the Table button. The same information will appear in a table. Select all of the data in the table (years 2016 through 1960) and either Right click+copy or Ctrl+C Open Excel to a blank worksheet. Once the blank worksheet is open, either Right click+paste or Ctrl+V. Your newly pasted data will probably look like this: 3

4 The ###### mean that the data is too wide for the column s current width and you need to resize the column. Hold the cursor between columns B and C until it changes to a two-sided black arrow. Double click and Column B will be adjusted to the widest cell in the column. Now, your data should look like this: Right click the word Sheet1 (the worksheet name) rename it Botswana Raw. Save the workbook as Botswana GDP.xlsx 4

5 Creating New Worksheets In Excel, next to the Botswana Raw worksheet are two blank worksheets, Sheet2 and Sheet3. Either of these could be used for data from another country from the Business Insights Global database or for creating tables from the Botswana data. Let s assume we want a table showing only the last 10 years of GDP data. We wouldn t want to delete the rows from the data we copied into Excel, because we might want that information for another purpose later on. A good practice is to copy the data (or the worksheet) and do the manipulations while leaving the raw data intact. Copy/paste between worksheets First, let s try copying and pasting the data into Sheet2. Select all of the rows and columns. Right click+copy or Ctrl+C Click on the name of Sheet2 to open the blank worksheet. Click in the first cell, A1. Right click+paste or Ctrl+V. Resize column B so the GDP data in that column is visible (see above for instructions). Now the data is duplicated in two worksheets, Botswana Raw & Sheet2. Right click Sheet2 & rename it Botswana Decade. Now would be a good time to save this work and make sure your workbook looks like this: 5

6 Copying an entire worksheet Sometimes the data will be too large to copy/paste between workbooks. In this case, you might want to copy the entire worksheet, rather than a few columns/rows of information. Right click the Botswana Raw worksheet name. Select Move or Copy. Click the Create a copy checkbox at the bottom of the screen. Make sure the correct workbook (Botswana GDP.xlsx) appears in the To book: window Select Sheet3, so that the new worksheet is inserted between Botswana Decade and Sheet3. Click OK. A new worksheet named Botswana Raw (2) will appear. Right click the name and rename this worksheet, Botswana Sorted. 6

7 Sorting Data Let s assume we need a list of Botswana s annual GDP in order of oldest to most recent year. We can sort this data so that 1960 appears first. To start, we should move the heading of the year column so it is even with the Botswana heading of column B. We can move that cell and its contents to another cell position. Click the Year in cell A3. Move the cursor down slowly until it changes to a four-arrow black cross. Click and drag the cell down into A4, next to the Botswana heading in Column B. Now, use the cursor to select the data in columns A and B, rows 4 through the end, row 61. With the data still selected, click the Data tab at the top of the Excel ribbon, then click the Sort button 7

8 In the Sort window, in the Sort by dropdown menu, select Year. This tells Excel to sort the data in column A, the Year column. In the Order dropdown menu, make sure Smallest to Largest is selected so the years appear oldest to most recent. Click OK. The data in the worksheet now appears oldest to newest. Your Botswana Sorted worksheet should look like this: It is a good idea to save after each time you do an operation, data manipulation, or formatting change. 8

9 Deleting extra rows (or columns) Let s finish this tutorial by creating a table with only the most recent decade of GDP information. Click the title of the Botswana Decade worksheet to return to the data in that worksheet. Move the Year title of column A down one cell so that it appears in the same row as the Column B heading, Botswana. (Click here for a reminder about how to do this.) Delete the top row by holding the cursor over the row 1 title (the number 1 in the grey box) until the cursor turns to a single black arrow. Right click and select Delete. Your Botswana Decade worksheet should now look like this: Now, hold the cursor over the row title for year 2006 (row 12). When the black arrow appears, click to select that row then drag down to select every row underneath it. Stop when you come to the row containing the 1960 data (row 61). Right click (anywhere on the row title or in the selected cells) and select Delete. The process of deleting extra columns is the same as the process for deleting extra rows. Hold the cursor over the column name (the column letter(s) instead of row numbers) until the single black arrow appears. Click to select the column(s) then right click to choose Delete. Once all of the rows showing years between 1960 and 2006 have been selected, right click and select Delete. 9

10 Now, only GDP for years should appear in the Botswana Decade worksheet. Yours should look like this: If you would like more information or practice with these beginning skills, here are several useful videos: Microsoft Excel Tutorial for Beginners #1 - Overview Microsoft Excel Tutorial for Beginners #2 Get Started fzw5j2r0 Microsoft Excel Training 10 Created