Selecting Cells: Step 1: Click and drag to select the cells you want. Naming Cells: Viewlet available Step 2: To select different cells that are not next to each other, hold down <ctrl> as you click and drag over the different areas you want to select. Step 2: Click on the Name Box (it will contain cell reference e.g. C2). Type the name you want and press enter. Step 1: Click on the cell you want to name. Note: There are some names you cannot give a cell (like the reference of a different cell) and you cannot have spaces in the name of a cell. Deleting Names: If you want to take away the name of a cell, you must click on Insert, Name, Define then select the name to delete, and click Delete. 37
Resizing Rows or Columns: Step 1: Select the row/column you want to resize. Step 2: Click on Format, then Row / Column then Height / Width Step 3: Type in the height/width you want to make your row/column. 38
Adding Borders to Cells: Step 1: Select the cells you want to put a border around. Step 2: Click on the Format menu at the top of the screen and choose Cells Step 3: Click on the tab at the top of the window that comes up, which says Border. Change the style of borders here. Change the position of borders here. Change the colour of borders here. 39
Fill Down (copying the contents of a cell into ones below it): Step 1: Select the cells you want the contents to be copied to (starting from the cell containing these contents). Step 2: Click on the Edit menu at the top of the screen, choose Fill and then click on Down. NB: Notice how when you fill down with a formula, the cell references in the formula change accordingly. 40
Formatting Cells: Step 1: Select the cells you want to format. Step 2: Click on the Format menu at the top of the screen and select Cells Step 3: In the Number section, choose a category for the cell (usually General for text and Number if the cell contains numbers). NB: In the Number category, you can choose the number of decimal places you want the spreadsheet to display in these cells. 41
Merging Cells: Step 1: Select the cells you want to merge into one large cell. Step 2: Click on the Format menu at the top of the screen and select Cells Step 3: Click on the Alignment tab. Step 4: Tick the Merge cells box. Your cells should now be merged. NB: If more than one of the cells you merge contain text, you will lose the contents of some of them. 42
Getting Started with Plotting Graphs: Viewlet available Step 1: Select the cells containing the data for your graph. Step 2: Click on the Insert menu at the top of the screen and select Chart Step 3: Select the type of graph you want. A scatter graph is the type you will need most often. Step 4: Press enter twice to get to Chart Options. Here you can label your axis and give the graph a title. Step 5: If, as in this case you have only one set of data on your graph you may want to hide the legend. Do this by clicking the legend tab. 43
Rounding Numbers: The formula we use takes the form: =ROUND(number, number of decimal places) Step 1: Click on the cell you want the rounded number to go into. Step 2: Type the formula for rounding numbers as shown. Step 3: Press enter and the spreadsheet will round this number to the number of decimal places you gave. NB: You can format cells to display numbers in them to a certain number of decimal place, as shown above. However, the spreadsheet will remember the exact value and use this for any formulae/graphs etc. This is why we have to use the ROUND function if we need our numbers rounded. 44
Generating Random Numbers: Step 1: Select the cell you want your random number to go into. Step 2: Type =RAND() into the cell and press enter. This generates a random number between 0 and 1. Step 3: Multiply by an appropriate number to get a number of the size you want. (eg. For a number between 0 and 10, multiply by 10) NB: Every time you change something in your spreadsheet, or press F9, any random numbers generated like this will change. 45