The American University in Cairo Excel 2000 prepared by Maha Amer Spring 2001
Table of Contents: Opening the Excel Program Creating, Opening and Saving Excel Worksheets Sheet Structure Formatting Text in a Cell Row and Column Resize Adding Borders Inserting Functions Drawing Charts Inserting Header and Footer Setting the Page Attributes Previewing the Sheet Printing the Sheet Saving and Closing Excel Sheets More Features 1
Opening the Excel Program The Excel program is part of the Microsoft Office suite. To run this program, press the Start button A menu pops up; choose Programs. Another menu will pop up; choose Microsoft Office. The menu that appears includes the Microsoft Office suite products. Choose Microsoft Excel. Another way to call this program is from the Microsoft Office shortcut bar. Excel icon is. This is the shortcut bar. Creating, Opening and Saving Excel worksheets To create an Excel Worksheet Choose File menu, New item or press the New button A new sheet is open. It is given a default name Book1 until you save it with another name. To open an Excel Worksheet Choose File menu, Open item or press the Open button A window pops up asking for the filename of the sheet and the directory in which it is saved. Choose the directory and the filename. Press the Open button. The worksheet will show up in front of you. To save an Excel Worksheet Choose File menu, Save item or press the Save button A window pops up asking for the filename of the sheet and the directory in which it will be saved. Choose the directory and the filename. Press the Save button. The sheet is saved on your drive with the new filename. Sheet Structure The Excel Worksheet consists of rows and columns. The small unit of the sheet is called a cell. The whole document initially contains 3 sheets but you can add new sheets. Each sheet consists of 16384 rows and 257 columns. The rows are numbered from 1,2, 3 and so on. The columns are ordered from A up to IV. To call a certain cell, you input its column alphabet then its row number. To select a cell or a group of cells, click the mouse on the first cell, then drag to highlight the rest of the cells. You ll notice that the first cell will be selected in White while the rest of the cells will be selected in Black. 2
To select a whole row, click the mouse on its corresponding number. The whole row will be highlighted in black. To select a column, click the mouse on its corresponding alphabet. The whole column will be highlighted in black. To type text in a certain cell, select the cell with a mouse click and type the contents. Formatting Text in a cell To change the format of the text or numbers you ve written in a cell or a group of cells, follow these steps: Select the text to be formatted. Choose the menu of the font type and click the arrow next to it. A list of fonts will appear. Choose the font type you want. Choose the menu of the font size and click the arrow next to it. A list of available sizes will appear. Choose the font size you want. Changing the text color To change the color of some text, select it and choose the Font color button A list of colors will appear. Choose the appropriate color. Notice that choosing the White color will cause the disappearance of the text, because you re typing white text on white background. Changing the background color To change the color of the cell s background, select it and choose the Color button A list of colors will appear. Choose the appropriate color. Notice that choosing the Black color will cause the disappearance of the text, because you re typing black text on black background. Alternatively, you can set the cell shading by selecting Format menu, Cells item. The below window pops up where you can choose Patterns tab. You then can select the color you desire and the Fill Pattern if you want. Row and Column Resize 3
Rows Height To change the height of all the rows, choose Format menu then Row item. Select the height option. Set the height you want. Another alternative is to place the mouse between the 2 rows numbers and drag the mouse to resize one of the two rows. Columns Width To change the width of all the columns, choose Format menu then Column item. Select the width option. Set the width you want. Alternatively, place the mouse between the 2 columns alphabets and drag the mouse to change the resize one of the two columns. Adding Borders You can add borders to cells from the Borders Toolbar that is accessible from the border button. As you press the border button, a menu of borders options pops up. You can create any combination of these borders. For instance, you can press to add a border to the left of the selected cells To remove a border from the selection press Generally speaking, you can change the format of the selected cells by choosing Format menu, Cells item. A window pops up including all the cell properties. Select the Border tab. You can change the borders, the line style of the drawn borders and the color of the borders. 4
Inserting Functions 1. To apply one of the functions on your data, use the function wizard button If you can t find it press on the more buttons button 2. A window will pop up listing the available functions in Excel. The functions are categorized as financial, logical, mathematical, and more. 3. Choose the function you want. You ll notice that the output is mentioned at the bottom of the window. Press the OK button. 4. Another window will pop up with the chosen function. It asks for the needed arguments to calculate the function. 5. Each argument can be one cell in the sheet (e.g. A3), a group of cells (e.g. C14:D18), a constant value (e.g. 25), or another function (e.g. Max(D7:D8,C3:C4) ). 6. To type a function as one of the arguments press the button at the top of this window (in this example, it displays SUM). If you press the arrow next to it, a list of functions appears. If the one you 5
need is not directly listed, select the item named More Functions The function wizard window will appear once more, follow the steps 2 up to 5 then press OK button. This will lead you back to the first function you filled. 7. You can notice that the result of the function appears on the right corner of the window. 8. After entering all the arguments, press OK button. 9. The resulting formula will appear in the cell. If you press ENTER key, the result will appear in the cell (e.g. =SUM (B2, B3:B6, 25, MAX(D7:D8,C3:C4))). You can nest functions up to any level you want. Fill Functions If you want to repeat a certain function in several cells, formulate the function in a cell Highlight the cell that has the function and the ones you want to fill with the same function Choose Edit menu, Fill item. If the empty cells are on the right side of the cell that has the function then choose Right option. For instance, the function is in cell A2 and you need to repeat it in the cells B2 to D2, then fill right. If the empty cells are on the left side of the cell of the function then choose Left option. For instance, the function is in cell D2 and you need to repeat it in the cells A2 to C2, then fill left. If the empty cells are above the cell with the function then choose Up option. For instance, the function is in cell A12 and you need to repeat it in the cells A3 to A11, then fill up. If the empty cells are below the cell of the function then choose Down option. For instance, the function is in cell A2 and you need to repeat it in the cells A3 to A5, then fill down. Drawing Charts After filling the table, you may need to draw a chart explaining the data in the table. To draw a chart, follow these steps: 1. Press the Chart Wizard button. If you can t find it press on the more buttons button 2. You ll notice that the mouse shape will change into a plus sign shape. 3. Click the mouse in an empty area in the sheet - to draw the chart - drag the mouse up to the opposite corner of the chart area, and then release the mouse. 6
4. The Chart Wizard pops up giving you the different chart types to select one from. Choose the type you want then press Next button. 5. A window will pop up asking for the area in the sheet that holds the data to be illustrated in the chart. 6. Use the mouse to highlight the area of the table you ve created. If you can t view the set of data to highlight, you can press the button to minimize the current Chart Wizard window. This enables you to find and highlight the data in the worksheet. 7. Press the Next button to go to the next step. 4. Step 3 in the Chart Wizard asks for the title illustrated on the chart, the caption on the X-axis, the caption of the Y-axis, some options for the chart legend (the legend is the and more options. 7
5. After setting up all the options you want to apply to the chart press the Next button. 6. Step 4 of the Chart Wizard pops up asking you where do you want to store the chart. You have the option of keeping it in the same worksheet you are currently in or store it in a new sheet or to consider the chart itself as a separate sheet. Choose the option you want then press Finish button. 7. The resulting chart will appear where you have already set its position. 8
8. Once you click on the chart, black small squares on its corners show up. These are the control points through which you can resize the chart. To move the chart along the sheet, drag it with the mouse. 9. You can notice next to the chart a menu pops up that allows you change any property in the chart. This includes the chart type, formatting the chart, reconstructing the chart by row or by column and so forth. 10. To change the colors in the chart, double-click the mouse. A window with the colors and borders of the chart will appear. Change the colors and borders according to your taste. Once you re done, press the OK button. The chart s colors will change accordingly. N.B. whenever the data represented in the charts are changed the chart changes accordingly. Inserting a Header and a Footer If you want to have a header and/or a footer repeated in all the pages of the worksheet, apply the following steps: 1. Select File menu, Page Setup item. 9
2. A window with several panels will appear. Choose the Header/Footer panel. 3. This panel shows the current settings of the header and footer. To change the header/footer either you d choose one of the predefined headers from the Header menu (or the footer menu), or you d like to create your own header/footer then press the Custom Header button (or Custom Footer button). 4. A window pops up dividing the header area into 3 sections; the left section, center and right section. 5. You can type whatever you want in these sections. Moreover, you can insert the page numbering, the current date or the current time. 6. Whatever text you type you can edit its format via the text button 7. To add the current page number, press the Page number button 8. To add the total number pages in the sheets, press the Total Number of Pages button 9. To insert the current date, press the Date button 10. To insert the current time, press the Time button 11. When you finish editing your header or footer, press the OK button. The Page Setup will appear once more but with the updated header / footer setting. Press the OK button. Setting the Page Attributes 1. To setup the page attributes, choose File menu, Page Setup item. 10
2. A window will pop up with the 4 panels: Page, Margins, Header/Footer, and Sheet. For the Header/Footer see the previous part (Inserting a Header and a Footer). Page Panel 1. Through this panel you can set the orientation of the page to be portrait or landscape. 2. Moreover, you can scale the printed text with respect to the normal size. 3. You can set the Paper size to be A4, Letter, Envelope, or any user-defined size. 4. Even the printing quality can be set from this panel. Margins Panel 1. Through this panel you can set the margins of the page from left, right, bottom or top. 2. Moreover you can set the margins of the header and the footer. 3. If you want your text to be centered in the page horizontally or vertically, you can set that in the Center on Page part. 11
Sheet Panel 1. Through this panel you can set which area in the sheet to be printed. 2. Moreover, you can set some rows to be repeated at the top of each page you print. This could be quite useful if your data extend among the rows and takes several pages; you can repeat the row that has the titles of the data. 3. The same applies for columns; you can repeat specific columns on the left side of each printed page. If your data extends along the columns, you can print the title column in each page to make data readable. 12
4. In the Print section you can decide whether to print the gridlines of the sheet (the lines that outline each cell) or not, to print in Black and White or in Colors, print Notes, print in Draft Quality. If you want to print the row and column headings (The Alphabets along the columns and the numbers along the rows). 5. Finally you can set the order of printing the pages whether the pages are sequenced down then across or across then down. Previewing the Sheet Before printing the document, try to have an overview on it. Choose File menu, Print Preview item or press the Print Preview button. It will show you the pages with the header and footer and the margins settings. Usually the first page appears on screen. To view the next page, press the Next button. To view the previous page, press the Previous button. If you would like to have a closer look, zoom in the view by pressing the Zoom button. To setup the page attributes, press the Setup button and follow the steps mentioned in the Setting the page attributes section previously explained. To print the document, press the Print button. Printing the sheet To print some pages, choose File menu, Print item or press the Print button A window will pop up asking for the Printer name and its properties, whether to print the whole sheet or several sheets. You can set the number of copies to print. 13
If you do not want to print the whole sheet, you can set the pages to print from the Page Range section. When you set all the fields press the OK button. The printing process will start. Moreover, you can choose to print only the selected area, the selected chart or the entire workbook. Saving and Closing Excel sheets Save the worksheet To save your work for the first time, you can follow the steps mentioned in the Creating, Opening and Saving Excel worksheets section. Every now and then save your document through the Save button. The program will save the document with the current status and the name you gave to it. Save As To save the worksheet with another name, choose File menu, Save As item. You will be prompted to give a new filename to the document and the proper directory to put it in.. A copy of the worksheet will be created with the new filename. Close a worksheet To close the worksheet, choose File menu, Close item. To exit from Excel program, choose File menu, Exit item. More Features AutoCalculate A temporary calculator is available in the Status bar at the bottom of the screen. Once you highlight a cell or a group of cells, their sum will appear in the Status bar. Actually this AutoCalculate feature offers several other functions. To change the active function, press the right button of the mouse on the Status bar. A list of the functions will show up. This list includes Average, Count, Count Nums, Max, Min, and Sum. Choose the function you want. It becomes the active one. AutoComplete When you type part of a word in the cell, Excel can complete it for you based on the cell entries you have already typed in the previous cells in the same column. To see the custom list of the possible cell entries, click the right button of the mouse. A menu will pop up. Choose the pick from list item. A list of the cell entries you ve already entered in the column will appear. Choose the one you want. AutoCorrect Excel automatically corrects common spelling mistakes. Once you type a misspelled word and press ENTER key, Excel automatically replaces it with the correct word. AutoFilter This feature enables you to filter your data so that only a subset of it appears based on a certain criteria. 1. Select a cell in the column you want to apply autofiltering on. 2. Choose Data menu, Filter item then AutoFilter option. 14
3. The cell will appear with a down-pointing-arrow button. Click this button; a list of options will appear. 4. If you choose Custom option, a window will pop up asking for the criteria upon which you filter the data. 5. The first item lists the equality/inequality operators available. The box next to it asks for the item to compare against, whether this item is in the cells or any other value. 6. If you want a compound filtering criteria, you can use the And or the Or options then set the other criteria. 7. After formulating it press OK button. The column will show the rows that match the filter otherwise they don t appear in the sheet. They aren t gone forever, but they are temporarily hidden to give emphasis on the filtering feature. 8. If you want the top ten items only, choose Top Ten option. A window pops up asking whether you d like to show the top ten items or the last ten items, and whether you want them listed as items or percents. Office Assistant 1. This new feature can be accessed from the Help menu, Microsoft Excel Help, or from the button. 2. An animated character pops up and a window with suggested help topics appears. 3. A white space area is available for your question. After typing the question, press Search button. 4. A list of matching answers appears in the same window. Click the most appropriate solution to get more detailed help. 15
5. You can read the available tips by pressing the Tips button. Save As HTML This new feature allows you to create web pages through converting your Excel worksheets into html formatted documents. You can do this through the following steps: 1. Create your Excel worksheet. 2. Choose File menu, Save As HTML item. 3. An Internet Assistant Wizard window appears asking for the data to be converted, header information, and a set of other needed information including the filename of the html document to be created. It automatically sets the file type to HTML document. 16