Beginning Excel for Windows Version: 2002 Academic Computing Support Information Technology Services Tennessee Technological University September 2003 1. Opening Excel for Windows and Setting the Toolbars In the PC labs, under the Start menu, All Programs Microsoft Office XP Microsoft Excel. Otherwise, under the Start menu, select Programs Microsoft Excel. In the PC Labs, the Standard and Formatting toolbars are set to share one row. If you prefer to have them one above the other, you may either: Click and drag the formatting toolbar below the standard toolbar, or from the menu, select Tools Customize Options tab and check Show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows. See the opening view of Excel below. Cell locations are specified by the column letter and the row number. You may open multiple spreadsheets in one Excel document. 2. Moving Through the Spreadsheet The Excel program opens with a blank spreadsheet. You can move through the spreadsheet using these keys: Cell Right Cell Left Cell Up Cell Down Beginning of Row Home Edit a Cell F2 Beginning of Worksheet Ctrl + Home Last cell in Worksheet Ctrl + End Help F1 Cancel Esc
Beginning Excel for Windows Page 2 3. Entering Data in the Spreadsheet Press Ctrl + Home to move the cursor to cell A1. Type the title for this spreadsheet: S.T.A.R., Inc. Payroll Report. The text appears to extend over several cells, but its storage location is A1. Click into cell A5. Type Anderson and Enter. Type Chapman and Enter. Type Curtis and Enter. Type Dexter and Enter. Type Matthews and Enter. Click into cell B5. Type 23 and Enter. Type 32 and Enter. Type 45 and Enter. Type 40 and Enter. Type 37 and Enter. Note that the names are left aligned in the cells and the numbers entered are right aligned. These are the defaults when entering text or numbers. 4. Saving Your Work It is helpful to save frequently while you are working so that you do not lose changes. In the PC Labs, save to My Documents (U: drive) and to the C: drive, in a folder such as My Documents, in your office. Select File Save As or click on the Save icon in the toolbar. Type payroll in the File name box. The Save as type box should show: Microsoft Excel worksheet. Note: The filename extension is.xls Excel will add this extension to your filename. A filename must have this extension to be recognized as an Excel file. Click the Save button. 5. Formatting Cell Borders To create borders within your spreadsheet: Select cells A4...B4 by clicking in cell A4 and dragging across to cell B4. Place the cursor over the selected cells and right-click In the pulldown menu, select Format Cells... Click on the Border tab.
Beginning Excel for Windows Page 3 5. Cell Borders (cont.) Select the next to thickest line under Style: Click on the border button showing a bottom border or click in the white box near the bottom crop marks. Select cells A10...B10 and Right click Select Format Cells... Select the next to thickest line. Click on the top border button. Tip: Choose the location of your borders (under column titles, not above Anderson the first name listed) so that you can easily insert additional names without resetting the borders. 6. Creating Formulas To create a formula that gives a total: Click into cell A10. Type Total: and press the right arrow key In cell B10, type =b5+b6+b7+b8+b9 Press Enter and you will see the value 177. Click into cell B6 and type the value to 40. Enter and note the total changes to 185. Select Edit Undo typing or click on the Undo button in the toolbar Note the cell value returns to 32 and the total to 177. Click into cell A11 and type Average: Press the right arrow key and type the formula to compute an average: =b10/5 Press Enter to see the average of these five values: 35.4 (Note: In formulas multiplication is represented by an asterisk * and division by a slash /.) 7. Changing Column Widths To alter the width of a column by dragging: Click on the column header for column A. Move the mouse pointer to the right boundary of the column until it changes to a double headed arrow Click and drag to widen the column.
Beginning Excel for Windows Page 4 7. Changing Column Widths (cont.) To alter the width of a column using the menu: Click on the column header A to select it. From the menu, select Format Column Width Type 20 to change the width to 20 characters. 8. Editing Cells To edit a cell using the function keys: Click on cell A5. Press the F2 key above the regular keyboard. Type, Donna to append this text to the end of the name Anderson and Enter. You are now in cell A6. To edit a cell using the Edit Bar: Click into the edit bar and add, Jim Press Enter. Edit in the first names of the rest as shown in the table using either method. 9. Alignment Add headings to Columns A and B. Click into cell A4, type Name and Enter. Click into B4, type Hours and Enter. Click into cell B4. Right-click and select Format Cells. Select the Alignment tab. Under Horizontal:, select Right to align the text to the right side of the cell. Select cells A10...A11. Click on the Align Right icon in the toolbar. 10. Saving a File Under a New Name From the menu, select File Save As. Again save it to My Documents (U: drive) for this class. Type payroll2 as the new file name. It should have the extension.xls
Beginning Excel for Windows Page 5 11. Inserting a New Row and a New Column To add a new row into your spreadsheet: Click into cell A6. From the menu, select Insert Rows. (Or click on the row header, right-click and select insert.) Note that a new row is created above Chapman. Type Campbell, Trish and Enter. Click into cell B6, type 53 and Enter. To add a new column: Click on B in the column header to select that column. Right-click and select Insert A new column is inserted to the left of your selected position. Click into B4, type Pay Rate as the column heading and Enter. Type in the following pay rates Enter after each. 12. Using Functions Click into cell C12 and note that since you have added two new names, the calculations you originally entered are no longer correct. A better way to do calculations is to use functions which will automatically adjust as you add new rows. Sum Function: Click into cell C11 and press Delete to clear the contents of the cell. Click into cell C5 and drag down to cell C11 to select. Click on the AutoSum icon in the toolbar to create the Sum function. The total is now 230. Average Function: Click into cell C12 and note that the current formula assumes only 5 employees. Type =average(c5:c10) and Enter. The average is now 38.3333 Note: In the Average function, empty cells are not counted, but those with zeros are included in the count of the total number. Insert another employee and note how functions are updated: Click on the number 10 in the row heading to select that row. Right-click and select Insert or from the menu, select Insert Rows Click on cell A10 and type Key, Carole and Enter. Enter 16.05 in cell B10. Enter 38 in cell C10. Note that both formulas were updated. The total is 268 and average is 38.285714
Beginning Excel for Windows Page 6 13. Formatting Headers Select cells A4...C4. Click on the Bold icon in the toolbar to make the headings bold. 14. Copying Cell Contents Enter a column for Gross Pay: Click in cell D4, type Gross Pay as the column header and Enter. Click in cell D4. Select Format Column AutoFit Selection. Enter a formula to compute the Gross Pay: Click in cell D5 Type =b5*c5 as the formula and Enter. Copy the formula to the remaining cells: Click in cell D5. Click on the Copy icon in the toolbar to copy the cell contents to the clipboard. Click and drag from D6 to D11 to select those cells as a block. Click on the Paste icon in the toolbar to paste the contents from the clipboard. To copy cell formulas into the Gross Pay column: Select cells C12...C13 Click on the Copy icon Select cells D12...D13 Click on the Paste icon Click in cell D12 and note that the formula is adjusted for the new row. To change the format for numeric data: Select cells B5...B13. Right-click, select Format Cells Select the Number tab. Select Currency Note that the Decimal places are 2, the Symbol is $, and Negative numbers will be displayed as -$1,234.10
Beginning Excel for Windows Page 7 15. Changing Cell Formats To copy cell formats into the Gross Pay column: Select cells B4...B13 Select Edit Copy Select cells D4...D13 Select Edit Paste Special Select Formats Click OK To change the number of decimal points: Select cells C5...C13. Select Format Cells Click on the Number tab. Select Number as the category. Click down to 1 in the Decimal places box. To center the heading over the table: Select cell A1. Click the Bold icon in the toolbar. Change the font size to 14. Highlight cells A1...D1 Click the Merge and Center icon. 16. Printing a Spreadsheet Highlight the area of the spreadsheet that you want to print. Select File Print. Click OK to print the spreadsheet.
Beginning Excel for Windows Page 8 17. Getting Help One of the easiest ways to get help with Microsoft Excel is the comprehensive online help included with it, as shown below. Just click on Help Microsoft Excel Help. You can also learn more about Excel at the Microsoft web site: http://office.microsoft.com Should you have a question that the online help does not address, please email MicroSupport@tnech.edu or phone 372-6315 or contact your college contact. Students may call the Help Desk at 372-3975 or get assistance in the PC labs in person. Handouts on using Excel and other programs are available on the web under Documentation on the ITS home page: http://www.tntech.edu/its/pubs/