This chapter serves as an introductory overview of Excel If you re

Transcription

1 This chapter serves as a itroductory overview of Excel If you re already familiar with a previous versio of Excel, readig this chapter is still a good idea. Excel 2007 is differet from every previous versio very differet. What Is Excel Good For? Excel, as you probably kow, is the world s most widely-used spreadsheet program, ad is part of the Microsoft Office suite. Other spreadsheet programs are available, but Excel is by far the most popular ad has become the world stadard. Much of the appeal of Excel is due to the fact that it s so versatile. Excel s forte, of course, is performig umerical calculatios, but Excel is also very useful for o-umerical applicatios. Here are just a few of the uses for Excel: Itroducig Excel Number cruchig: Create budgets, aalyze survey results, ad perform just about ay type of fiacial aalysis you ca thik of. Creatig charts: Create a wide variety of highly customizable charts. Orgaizig lists: Use the row-ad-colum layout to store lists efficietly. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL Accessig other data: Import data from a wide variety of sources. Creatig graphics ad diagrams: Use Shapes ad the ew SmartArt to create professioal-lookig diagrams. Automatig complex tasks: Perform a tedious task with a sigle mouse click with Excel s macro capabilities. IN THIS CHAPTER Uderstadig what Excel is used for Learig the parts of Excel s widow Itroducig the Ribbo user iterface, shortcut meus, ad dialog boxes Navigatig Excel worksheets Itroducig Excel with a quick hads-o sessio 3

2 Part I Gettig Started with Excel Uderstadig Workbooks ad Worksheets The work you do i Excel is performed i a workbook file, which appears i its ow widow. You ca have as may workbooks ope as you eed. By default, Excel 2007 workbooks use a XLSX file extesio. Each workbook is comprised of oe or more worksheets, ad each worksheet is made up of idividual cells. Each cell cotais a value, a formula, or text. A worksheet also has a ivisible draw layer, which holds charts, images, ad diagrams. Each worksheet i a workbook is accessible by clickig the tab at the bottom of the workbook widow. I additio, workbooks ca store chart sheets. A chart sheet displays a sigle chart ad is also accessible by clickig a tab. Newcomers to Excel are ofte itimidated by all the differet elemets that appear withi Excel s widow. Oce you become familiar with the various parts, it all starts to make sese. Figure 1.1 shows you the more importat bits ad pieces of Excel. As you look at the figure, refer to Table 1.1 for a brief explaatio of the items show i the figure. TABLE 1.1 Name Parts of the Excel Scree That You Need to Kow Descriptio Active cell idicator Applicatio close butto Widow close butto Colum letters Office butto Formula bar Horizotal scrollbar Maximize/Restore butto Miimize applicatio butto Miimize widow butto Name box Page view buttos Quick Access Toolbar Ribbo Row umbers Sheet tabs This dark outlie idicates the curretly active cell (oe of the 17,179,869,184 cells o each worksheet). Clickig this butto closes Excel. Clickig this butto closes the active workbook widow. Letters rage from A to IXFD oe for each of the 16,384 colums i the worksheet. You ca click a colum headig to select a etire colum of cells. This butto leads to lots of optios for workig with your documet, or Excel i geeral. Whe you eter iformatio or formulas ito Excel, they appear i this lie. Eables you to scroll the sheet horizotally. Clickig this butto icreases the workbook widow s size to fill Excel s complete workspace. If the widow is already maximized, clickig this butto umaximizes Excel s widow so that it o loger fills the etire scree. Clickig this butto miimizes Excel s widow. Clickig this butto miimizes the workbook widow. Displays the active cell address or the ame of the selected cell, rage, or object. Chage the way the worksheet is displayed by clickig oe of these buttos. A toolbar that you customize to hold commoly-used commads The mai locatio to fid Excel s commads. Clickig a item i the Tab list chages the ribbo that s displayed. Numbers rage from 1 to 1,048,576 oe for each row i the worksheet. You ca click a row umber to select a etire row of cells. Each of these otebook-like tabs represets a differet sheet i the workbook. A workbook ca have ay umber of sheets, ad each sheet has its ame displayed i a sheet tab. By default, each ew workbook that you create cotais three sheets. Add a ew sheet by clickig the Isert Worksheet butto (which is displayed after the last sheet tab). 4

3 Itroducig Excel 1 Name Sheet tab scroll buttos Status bar Tab list Title bar Vertical scrollbar Zoom cotrol Descriptio These buttos let you scroll the sheet tabs to display tabs that are t visible. This bar displays various messages as well as the status of the Num Lock, Caps Lock, ad Scroll Lock keys o your keyboard. It also shows summary iformatio about the rage of cells that is selected. Right-click the status bar to chage the iformatio that s displayed Commads that display a differet ribbo, similar to a meu. All Widows programs have a title bar, which displays the ame of the program ad the ame of the curret workbook ad also holds some cotrol buttos that you ca use to modify the widow. Lets you scroll the sheet vertically. A scroller that lets you zoom your worksheet i ad out. FIGURE 1.1 The Excel scree has may useful elemets that you will use ofte. Name box Widow close butto Ribbo Formula bar Applicatio close butto Quick Access Toolbar Maximize/Restore butto Office butto Title bar Active cell idicator Tab list Miimize applicatio butto Miimize widow butto Status bar Sheet tabs Row umbers Colum letters Cells Page view buttos Zoom cotrol Sheet tab scroll buttos Horizotal scrollbar Vertical scrollbar 5

4 Part I Gettig Started with Excel Movig Aroud a Worksheet This sectio describes various ways to avigate through the cells i a worksheet. Every worksheet cosists of rows (umbered 1 through 1,048,576) ad colums (labeled A through XFD). After colum Z comes colum AA, which is followed by AB, AC, ad so o. After colum AZ comes BA, BB, ad so o. After colum ZZ is AAA, AAB, ad so o. The itersectio of a row ad a colum is a sigle cell. At ay give time, oe cell is the active cell. You ca idetify the active cell by its darker border, as show i Figure 1.2. Its address (its colum letter ad row umber) appears i the Name box. Depedig o the techique that you use to avigate through a workbook, you may or may ot chage the active cell whe you avigate. Notice that the row ad colum headigs of the active cell appear i differet colors to make it easier to idetify the row ad colum of the active cell. FIGURE 1.2 The active cell is the cell with the dark border i this case, cell C8. Navigatig with your keyboard As you probably already kow, you ca use the stadard avigatioal keys o your keyboard to move aroud a worksheet. These keys work just as you d expect: The dow arrow moves the active cell dow oe row, the right arrow moves it oe colum to the right, ad so o. PgUp ad PgD move the active cell up or dow oe full widow. (The actual umber of rows moved depeds o the umber of rows displayed i the widow.) TIP You ca use the keyboard to scroll through the worksheet without chagig the active cell by turig o Scroll Lock, which is useful if you eed to view aother area of your worksheet ad the quickly retur to your origial locatio. Just press Scroll Lock ad use the directio keys to scroll through the worksheet. Whe you wat to retur to the origial positio (the active cell), press Ctrl+Backspace. The, press Scroll Lock agai to tur it off. Whe Scroll Lock is tured o, Excel displays Scroll Lock i the status bar at the bottom of the widow. The Num Lock key o your keyboard cotrols how the keys o the umeric keypad behave. Whe Num Lock is o, Excel displays Num Lock i the status bar, ad the keys o your umeric keypad geerate umbers. Most keyboards have a separate set of avigatioal (arrow) keys located to the left of the umeric keypad. The state of the Num Lock key does t affect these keys. Table 1.2 summarizes all the worksheet movemet keys available i Excel. 6

5 Itroducig Excel 1 TABLE 1.2 Key Up arrow Dow arrow Left arrow of Shift+Tab Right arrow or Tab PgUp PgD Alt+PgD Alt+PgUp Ctrl+Backspace Up arrow* Dow arrow* Left arrow* Right arrow* Excel s Worksheet Movemet Keys Actio Moves the active cell up oe row. Moves the active cell dow oe row. Moves the active cell oe colum to the left. Moves the active cell oe colum to the right. Moves the active cell up oe scree. Moves the active cell dow oe scree. Moves the active cell right oe scree. Moves the active cell left oe scree. Scrolls the scree so that the active cell is visible. Scrolls the scree up oe row (active cell does ot chage). Scrolls the scree dow oe row (active cell does ot chage). Scrolls the scree left oe colum (active cell does ot chage). Scrolls the scree right oe colum (active cell does ot chage). * With Scroll Lock o Navigatig with your mouse To chage the active cell by usig the mouse, click aother cell; it becomes the active cell. If the cell that you wat to activate is t visible i the workbook widow, you ca use the scrollbars to scroll the widow i ay directio. To scroll oe cell, click either of the arrows o the scrollbar. To scroll by a complete scree, click either side of the scrollbar s scroll box. You also ca drag the scroll box for faster scrollig. TIP If your mouse has a wheel o it, you ca use the mouse wheel to scroll vertically. Also, if you click the wheel ad move the mouse i ay directio, the worksheet scrolls automatically i that directio. The more you move the mouse, the faster the scrollig. Press Ctrl while you use the mouse wheel to zoom the worksheet. If you prefer to use the mouse wheel to zoom the worksheet without pressig Ctrl, choose Office Excel Optios ad select the Advaced sectio. Place a check mark ext to the Zoom O Roll With Itellimouse check box. Usig the scrollbars or scrollig with your mouse does t chage the active cell. It simply scrolls the worksheet. To chage the active cell, you must click a ew cell after scrollig. Itroducig the Ribbo The most dramatic chage i Office 2007 is the ew user iterface. Traditioal meus ad toolbars are goe, ad they ve bee replaced with the Ribbo. Office 2007 is the first software i history to use this ew iterface, ad it remais to be see whether it will catch o ad replace traditioal meus ad toolbars. 7

6 Part I Gettig Started with Excel Ribbo tabs The commads available i the Ribbo vary, depedig upo which tab is selected. The Ribbo is arraged ito groups of related commads. Here s a quick overview of Excel s tabs. Home: You ll probably sped most of your time with the Home tab selected. This tab cotais the basic Clipboard commads, formattig commads, style commads, commads to isert ad delete rows or colums, plus a assortmet of worksheet editig commads Isert: Select this tab whe you eed to isert somethig i a worksheet a table, a diagram, a chart, a symbol, ad so o. Page Layout: This tab cotais commads that affect the overall appearace of your worksheet, icludig settigs that deal with pritig. Formulas: Use this tab to isert a formula, ame a rage, access the formula auditig tools, or cotrol how Excel performs calculatios. Data: Excel s data-related commads are o this tab. Review: This tab cotais tools to check spellig, traslate words, add commets, or protect sheets. View: The View tab cotais commads that cotrol various aspects of how a sheet is viewed. Some commads o this tab are also available i the status bar. Developer: This tab is t visible by default. It cotais commads that are useful for programmers. To display the Developer tab, choose Office Excel Optios ad the select Popular. Place a check mark ext to Show Developer Tab I The Ribbo. Add-Is: This tab is visible oly if you ve loaded a workbook or add-i that customizes the meu or toolbars. Because meus ad toolbars are o loger available i Excel 2007, these customizatios appear i the Add-Is tab. The appearace of the commads o the ribbo varies, depedig o the width of Excel widow. Whe the widow is too arrow to display everythig, the commads adapt ad may seem to be missig. But the commads are still available. Figure 1.3 shows the Home tab of the Ribbo with all cotrols fully visible. Figure 1.4 shows the Ribbo whe Excel s widow is made more arrow. Notice that some of the descriptive text is goe, but the icos remai. Figure 1.5 shows the extreme case whe the widow is made very arrow. Some groups display a sigle ico. However, if you click the ico, all the group commads are available to you. FIGURE 1.3 The Home tab of the Ribbo. 8

7 Itroducig Excel 1 FIGURE 1.4 The Home tab whe Excel s widow is made arrower. FIGURE 1.5 The Home tab whe Excel s widow is made very arrow. TIP If you would like to hide the Ribbo to icrease your worksheet view, just double-click ay of the tabs. The Ribbo goes away, ad you re able to see about five additioal rows of your worksheet. Whe you eed to use the Ribbo agai, just click a tab, ad it comes back temporarily. To keep the ribbo tured o, double-click a tab. You ca also press Ctrl+F1 to toggle the Ribbo display o ad off. Cotextual tabs I additio to the stadard tabs, Excel 2007 also icludes cotextual tabs. Wheever a object (such as a chart, a table, or a SmartArt diagram) is selected, specific tools for workig with that object are made available i the Ribbo. Figure 1.6 shows the cotextual tab that appears whe a chart is selected. I this case, it has three cotextual tabs: Desig, Layout, ad Format. Notice that the cotextual tabs cotai a descriptio (Chart Tools) i Excel s title bar. Whe cotextual tabs appear, you ca, of course, cotiue to use all the other tabs. 9

8 Part I Gettig Started with Excel FIGURE 1.6 Whe you select a object, cotextual tabs cotai tools for workig with that object. Types of commads o the Ribbo Whe you hover your mouse poiter over a Ribbo commad, you ll see a pop-up box that cotais the commad s ame, ad a brief descriptio. For the most part, the commads i the Ribbo work just as you would expect them to. You do ecouter several differet styles of commads o the Ribbo: Simple buttos: Click the butto, ad it does its thig. A example of a simple butto is the Icrease Fot Size butto i the Fot group of the Home tab. Some buttos perform the actio immediately; others display a dialog box so that you ca eter additioal iformatio. Butto cotrols may or may ot be accompaied by text. Toggle buttos: A toggle butto is clickable ad also coveys some type of iformatio by displayig two differet colors. A example is the Bold butto i the Fot group of the Home tab. If the active cell is ot bold, the Bold butto displays i its ormal color. But if the active cell is already bold, the Bold butto displays a differet backgroud color. If you click this butto, it toggles the Bold attribute for the selectio. Simple drop-dows: If the Ribbo commad has a small dowward poitig arrow, the the commad is a drop-dow. Click it, ad additioal commads appear below it. A example of a simple drop-dow is The Coditioal Formattig commad i the Styles group of the Home Tab. Whe you click this cotrol, you see several optios related to coditioal formattig. Split buttos: A split butto cotrol combies a oe-click butto with a drop-dow. If you click the butto part, the commad is executed. If you click the drop-dow part (a dow-poitig arrowhead), you choose from a list of related commads. You ca idetify a split butto commad because it displays i two colors whe you hover the mouse over it. A example of a split butto is the Merge & Ceter commad i the Aligmet group of the Home tab (see Figure 1.7). Clickig the left part of this cotrol merges ad ceters the selected cells. If you click the arrow part of the cotrol (o the right), you get a list of commads related to mergig cells. 10

9 Itroducig Excel 1 Check boxes: A check box cotrol turs somethig o or off. A example is the Gridlies cotrol i the Show/Hide group of the View tab. Whe the Gridlies check box is checked, the sheet displays gridlies. Whe the cotrol is t checked, the sheet gridlies do t appear. Spiers: Excel s Ribbo has oly oe spier cotrol. It s i the Scale To Fit group of the Page Layout tab. Click the top part of the spier to icrease the value; click the bottom part of the spier to decrease the value. Some of the Ribbo groups cotai a small ico o the right side, kow as a dialog laucher. For example, if you examie the Home Aligmet group, you see this ico (refer to Figure 1.8). Click it, ad Excel displays the Format Cells dialog box, with the Aligmet tab pre-selected. The dialog lauchers geerally provide optios that are t available i the Ribbo. FIGURE 1.7 The Merge & Ceter commad is a split butto cotrol. FIGURE 1.8 Some of the Ribbo groups cotai a small ico o the right side, kow as a dialog laucher. Accessig the Ribbo usig your keyboard At first glace, you may thik that the Ribbo is completely mouse-cetric. After all, oe of the commads have the traditioal uderlie letter to idicate the Alt+keystrokes. But i fact, the Ribbo is very keyboard friedly. The trick is to press the Alt key to display the pop-up keytips. Each Ribbo cotrol has a letter (or series of letters) that you type to issue the commad. TIP You do t eed to hold dow the Alt key as you type the keytip letters. 11

10 Part I Gettig Started with Excel Chagig Your Mid You ca reverse just about every actio i Excel by usig the Udo commad, located i the Quick Access Toolbar. Click Udo (or press Ctrl+Z) after issuig a commad i error, ad it s as if you ever issued the commad. You ca reverse the effects of the last 100 actios that you performed by executig Udo more tha oce. If you click the arrow o the right side of the Udo butto, you see a descriptio of the actio that you ca reverse. If you click a item i that list, that actio ad all the subsequet actios will be udoe. You ca t reverse every actio, however. Geerally, aythig that you do usig the Office butto ca t be udoe. For example, if you save a file ad realize that you ve overwritte a good copy with a bad oe, you re just out of luck. The Repeat butto, also i the Quick Access Toolbar, performs i the opposite directio of the Udo butto: Repeat re-issues commads that have bee udoe. If othig has bee udoe, the you ca use the Repeat butto (or Ctrl+Y) to repeat the last commad that you performed. For example if you applied a particular style to a cell (by choosig Home Styles Cell Styles), you ca activate aother cell ad press Ctrl+Y to repeat the commad. Figure 1.9 shows how the Home tab looks after I hit the Alt key to display the keytips. If you press oe of the keytips, the scree the displays more keytips. For example, to use the keyboard to alig the cell cotets to the left, press Alt, followed by H (for Home) ad the AL (for Alig Left). If you re a keyboard fa (like me), it takes just a few times before you memorize the keystrokes required for commads that you use frequetly. FIGURE 1.9 Pressig Alt displays the keytips. After you press Alt, you ca also use the left ad right arrow keys to scroll through the tabs. Whe you reach the proper tab, press dow arrow to eter the Ribbo. The use left ad right arrow keys to scroll through the Ribbo commads. Whe you reach the commad you eed, press Eter to execute it. This method is t as efficiet as usig the keytips, but it s a quick way to take a look at the commads available. 12

11 Itroducig Excel 1 Usig the shortcut meus I additio to the Ribbo, Excel features a slew of shortcut meus, which you access by right-clickig just about aythig withi Excel. Shortcut meus do t cotai every relevat commad, just those that are most commoly used for whatever is selected. As a example, Figure 1.10 shows the shortcut meu that appears whe you right-click a cell. The shortcut meu appears at the mouse-poiter positio, which makes selectig a commad fast ad efficiet. The shortcut meu that appears depeds o what you re doig at the time. For example, if you re workig with a chart, the right-click shortcut meu cotais commads that are pertiet to what is selected. FIGURE 1.10 Click the right mouse butto to display a shortcut meu with the commads that you re most likely to use. The box above the shortcut meu is kow as the Mii toolbar ad cotais commoly used tools from the Home tab. The Mii toolbar was desiged to reduce the distace your mouse has to travel aroud the scree. Just right-click, ad commo formattig tools are withi a ich from your mouse poiter. The Mii toolbar is particularly useful whe a tab other tha Home is displayed. If you use a tool o the Mii toolbar, the the toolbar remais displayed i case you wat to perform other formattig o the selectio. TIP Selectio. If you fid the Mii toolbar too distractig, you ca tur if off. Choose Office Excel Optios. Click the Popular tab ad remove the check mark from Show Mii Toolbar O 13

12 Part I Gettig Started with Excel Customizig your Quick Access Toolbar I previous versios of Excel, ed users were free to customize their meus ad toolbars. Thigs have chaged i Excel Now, the oly ed user customizatio optio is the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). Normally, the QAT appears o the left side of the title bar. Alteratively, you ca display the QAT below the ribbo. Right-click the QAT ad select Show Quick Access Toolbar Below Ribbo. By default, the QAT cotais three tools: Save, Udo, ad Repeat. You ca, of course, customize the QAT by addig other commads that you use ofte. To add a commad from the Ribbo to your QAT, right-click the commad ad choose Add To Quick Access Toolbar. If you click the dowward-poitig arrow to the right of the QAT, you see a drop-dow meu with some additioal commads that you might wat to place i your QAT. Excel has commads that are t available i the Ribbo. I most cases, the oly way to access these commads is to add them to your QAT. Figure 1.11 shows the Customizatio sectio of the Excel Optios dialog box. This sectio is your oe-stop shop for QAT customizatio. A quick way to display this dialog box is to right-click the QAT ad choose Customize Quick Access Toolbar. FIGURE 1.11 Add ew icos to your QAT by usig the Customizatio sectio of the Excel Optios dialog box. CROSS-REF Refer to Chapter 23 for more iformatio about customizig your QAT. 14

13 Itroducig Excel 1 Workig with Dialog Boxes May Excel commads display a dialog box, which is simply a way of gettig more iformatio from you. For example, if you choose Review Chages Protect Sheet, Excel ca t carry out the commad util you tell it what parts of the sheet you wat to protect. Therefore, it displays the Protect Sheet dialog box, show i Figure FIGURE 1.12 Excel uses a dialog box to get additioal iformatio about a commad. The Excel dialog boxes vary i how they work. Excel uses two types of dialog boxes: Normal dialog box: A modal dialog box, which takes the focus away from the spreadsheet. Whe this type of dialog box is displayed, you ca t do aythig i the worksheet util you dismiss the dialog box. Clickig the OK butto performs the specified actios, ad clickig Cacel (or pressig Esc) closes the dialog box without takig ay actio. Most Excel dialog boxes are of this type. Stay-o-top dialog box: A modeless dialog box, which works i a maer similar to a toolbar. Whe a modeless dialog box is displayed, you ca cotiue workig i Excel, ad the dialog box remais ope. Chages made i a modeless dialog box take effect immediately. For example, if you re applyig formattig to a chart, chages you make i the Format dialog box appear i the chart as soo as you make them. Modeless dialog boxes have a Close butto istead of a OK butto. Most people fid workig with dialog boxes to be quite straightforward ad atural. If you ve used other programs, you ll feel right at home. You ca maipulate the cotrols either with your mouse or directly from the keyboard. Navigatig dialog boxes Navigatig dialog boxes is geerally very easy you simply click the cotrol you wat to activate. 15

14 Part I Gettig Started with Excel Although dialog boxes were desiged with mouse users i mid, you ca also use the keyboard. Every dialog box cotrol has text associated with it, ad this text always has oe uderlied letter (a hot key or accelerator key). You ca access the cotrol from the keyboard by pressig the Alt key ad the the uderlied letter. You also ca use Tab to cycle through all the cotrols o a dialog box. Shift+Tab cycles through the cotrols i reverse order. TIP Whe a cotrol is selected, it appears with a darker outlie. You ca use the spacebar to activate a selected cotrol. Usig tabbed dialog boxes May of Excel s dialog boxes are tabbed dialog boxes. A tabbed dialog box icludes otebook-like tabs, each of which is associated with a differet pael. Whe you click a tab, the dialog box chages to display a ew pael cotaiig a ew set of cotrols. The Format Cells dialog box is a good example. This dialog box is show i Figure 1.13; it has six tabs, which makes it fuctioally equivalet to six differet dialog boxes. FIGURE 1.13 Use the dialog box tabs to select differet fuctioal areas i the dialog box. 16

15 Itroducig Excel 1 Tabbed dialog boxes are quite coveiet because you ca make several chages i a sigle dialog box. After you make all your settig chages, click OK or press Eter. TIP To select a tab by usig the keyboard, use Ctrl+PgUp or Ctrl+PgD, or simply press the first letter of the tab that you wat to activate. Excel 2007 itroduced a ew style of modeless tabbed dialog box i which the tabs are o the left, rather tha across the top. A example is show i Figure To select a tab usig the keyboard, use the up ad dow arrow keys ad the press Tab to access the cotrols. FIGURE 1.14 A ew style tabbed dialog box with tabs o the left. Usig the Taskbar The fial user iterface elemet that I discuss is the taskbar. The taskbar appears automatically i respose to several commads. For example, if you wat to isert a clip art image, choose Isert Illustratios Clip Art. Excel respods by displayig the Clip Art Task bar, show i Figure The taskbar is similar to a dialog box, except that you ca keep it visible as log as you like. There s o OK butto. Whe you re fiished usig a Task bar, click the Close butto i the upper right corer. By default, the taskbar is docked o the right side of the Excel widow, but you ca drag it aywhere you like. 17

16 Part I Gettig Started with Excel FIGURE 1.15 The Clip Art taskbar. Creatig Your First Excel Worksheet This sectio presets a itroductory hads-o sessio with Excel. If you have t used Excel, you may wat to follow alog o your computer to get a feel for how this software works. I this example, you create a simple mothly sales projectio table alog with a chart. Gettig started o your worksheet Start Excel ad make sure that you have a empty workbook displayed. To create a ew, blak workbook, press Ctrl+N. The sales projectio will cosist of two colums of iformatio. Colum A will cotai the moth ames, ad colum B will store the projected sales umbers. You start by eterig some descriptive titles ito the worksheet. Here s how to begi: 1. Move the cell poiter to cell A1 by usig the directio keys. The Name box displays the cell s address. 2. Eter Moth ito cell A1. Just type the text ad the press Eter. Depedig o your setup, Excel either moves the cell poiter to a differet cell, or the poiter remais i cell A1. 3. Move the cell poiter to B1, type Projected Sales, ad press Eter. 18

17 Itroducig Excel 1 Fillig i the moth ames I this step, you eter the moth ames i colum A. 1. Move the cell poiter to A2 ad type Ja (a abbreviatio for Jauary). At this poit, you ca eter the other moth ame abbreviatios maually, but we ll let Excel do some of the work by takig advatage of the AutoFill feature. 2. Make sure that cell A2 is selected. Notice that the active cell is displayed with a heavy outlie. At the bottom-right corer of the outlie, you ll see a small square kow as the fill hadle. Move your mouse poiter over the fill hadle, click, ad drag dow util you ve highlighted from A2 dow to A Release the mouse butto, ad Excel will automatically fill i the moth ames. Your worksheet should resemble the oe show i Figure FIGURE 1.16 Your worksheet, after eterig the colum headigs ad moth ames. Eterig the sales data Next, you provide the sales projectio umbers i colum B. Assume that Jauary s sales are projected to be $50,000, ad that sales will icrease by 3.5 percet i each of the subsequet moths. 1. Move the cell poiter to B2 ad type50000, the projected sales for Jauary. 2. To eter a formula to calculate the projected sales for February, move to cell B3 ad eter the followig: =B2*103.5%. Whe you press Eter, the cell will display The formula returs the cotets of cell B2, multiplied by 103.5%. I other words, February sales are projected to be 3.5% greater tha Jauary sales. 19

18 Part I Gettig Started with Excel 3. The projected sales for subsequet moths will use a similar formula. But rather tha retype the formula for each cell i colum B, oce agai take advatage of the AutoFill feature. Make sure that cell B3 is selected. Click the cell s fill hadle, drag dow to cell B13, ad release the mouse butto. At this poit, your worksheet should resemble the oe show i Figure Keep i mid that, except for cell B2, the values i colum B are calculated with formulas. To demostrate, try chagig the projected sales value for the iitial moth, Jauary (i cell B2). You ll fid that the formulas recalculate ad retur differet values. But these formulas all deped o the iitial value i cell B2. FIGURE 1.17 Your worksheet, after creatig the formulas. Formattig the umbers The values i the worksheet are difficult to read because they are t formatted. I this step, you apply a umber format to make the umbers easier to read ad more cosistet i appearace: 1. Select the umbers by clickig cell B2 ad draggig dow to cell B Choose Home Number, click the drop-dow Number Format cotrol (it iitially displays Geeral), ad select Currecy from the list. The umbers ow display with a currecy symbol ad two decimal places. Much better! Makig your worksheet look a bit facier At this poit, you have a fuctioal worksheet but it could use some help i the appearace departmet. Covertig this rage to a official (ad attractive) Excel table is a sap: 1. Move to ay cell withi the rage. 2. Choose Isert Tables Table. Excel displays its Create Table dialog box to make sure that it guessed the rage properly. 3. Click OK to close the Create Table dialog box. Excel applies its default table formattig ad also displays its Table Tools Desig cotextual tab. Your scree should look like Figure

19 Itroducig Excel 1 FIGURE 1.18 Your worksheet, after covertig the rage to a table. 4. If you do t like the default table style, just select aother oe from the Table Tools Desig Table Styles group. Notice that you ca get a preview of differet table styles by movig your mouse over the ribbo. Whe you fid oe you like, click it, ad style will be applied to your table. Summig the values The worksheet displays the mothly projected sales, but what about the total sales for the year? Because this rage is a table, it s simple: 1. Activate ay cell i the table 2. Choose Table Tools Desig Table Style Optios Totals Row. Excel automatically adds a ew row to the bottom of your table, icludig a formula that calculated the total of the Projected Sales colum. 3. If you d prefer to see a differet summary formula (for example, average), click cell B14 ad choose a differet summary formula from the drop-dow list. Creatig a chart How about a chart that shows the projected sales for each moth? 1. Activate ay cell i the table. 2. Choose Isert Charts Colum ad the select oe of the 2-D colum chart types. Excel iserts the chart i the ceter of your scree. 3. To move the chart to aother locatio, click its border ad drag it. 4. To chage the appearace ad style of the chart, use the commads i the Chart Tools cotext tab. Figure 1.19 shows the worksheet after creatig the chart. Your chart may look differet, depedig o the chart layout or style you selected. 21

20 Part I Gettig Started with Excel FIGURE 1.19 The table ad chart. ON the CD-ROM This workbook is available o the compaio CD-ROM. The fileame is table ad chart.xlsx. Pritig your worksheet Pritig your worksheet is very easy (assumig that you have a priter attached ad that it works properly). 1. First, make sure that the chart is t selected. If a chart is selected, it will prit o a page by itself. To deselect the chart, just press Esc or click ay cell. 2. To make use of Excel s hady ew page layout view, click the Page Layout View butto o the right side of the status bar. Excel will the display the worksheet page by page (see Figure 1.20) so that you ca easily see how your prited output will look. For example, you ca tell immediately if the chart is too wide to fit o oe page. If the chart is too wide, click ad drag its lower right corer to resize it. FIGURE 1.20 Viewig the worksheet i Page Layout mode. 22

21 Itroducig Excel 1 3. Whe you re ready to prit, choose Office Prit Quick Prit The worksheet is prited usig the default settigs. Savig your workbook Util ow, everythig that you ve doe has occurred i your computer s memory. If the power should fail, all may be lost uless Excel s AutoRecover feature happeed to kick i. It s time to save your work to a file o your hard drive. 1. Click the Save butto o the Quick Access Toolbar. (This butto looks like a old-fashioed floppy disk.) Because the workbook has t bee saved yet ad still has its default ame, Excel respods with the Save As dialog box. 2. I the box labeled File Name, eter a ame such as Mothly Sales Projectio, ad the click Save or press Eter. Excel saves the workbook as a file. The workbook remais ope so that you ca work with it some more. By default, Excel saves a copy of your work automatically every te miutes. To adjust this settig (or tur if off), use the Save tab of the Excel Optios dialog box. To display this dialog box, choose File Excel Optios. However, you should ever rely o Excel s AutoRecover feature. Savig your work frequetly is a good idea. NOTE If you ve followed alog, you may have realized that creatig this workbook was ot at all difficult. But, of course, you ve barely scratched the surface. The remaider of this book will cover these tasks (ad may, may more) i much greater detail. 23

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