Module Five: Customizing Excel Welcome to the fifth lesson in the PRC s Excel Workbooks Course 2. This lesson shows you how to make Excel easier and more productive through the customization. You will explore several pre-built sample workbooks and make minor modifications to each sample. The workbooks can be found on your computer. After completing this lesson, you will be able to modify your Excel working environment. Topics Customize the Quick Access Toolbar... 5.2 Learn Keyboard Shortcuts... 5.7 Use Workbook Templates... 5.12 Change Microsoft Excel options... 5.14 Exercises Exercise A Save Templates... 5.16 Exercise B Edit a Chart... 5.19 Summary... 5.22 Objectives Customize the Quick Access Toolbar Learn where keyboard shortcut keys are defined and explained Use templates as ready-made solutions for multi-step tasks Change selected options which affect the Microsoft Excel environment Edit a chart by directly selecting elements on the chart Excel II 2007 5.1 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Customizing Excel Previous versions of Microsoft Office Excel offered an array of toolbars and toolbar options to make the program easier to use. When Office 2007 was introduced toolbars were replaced with the Ribbon. The Ribbon is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. Commands are organized in logical groups, which are collected together under tabs. Each tab relates to a type of activity, such as writing or laying out a page. To reduce clutter, some tabs are shown only when needed. For example, the Chart Tools tabs are shown only when a chart is selected. There is no way to delete or replace the Ribbon with the toolbars and menus from the earlier versions of Microsoft Office. But there are still ways to customize the interface to your individual tastes. Customize the Quick Access Toolbar When you open Excel 2007 for the first time the Quick Access Toolbar will be located above the ribbon just to the right of the Office Button. By default it contains just a few icons: Figure 5.1 The Quick Access Toolbar Click on the arrow at the end of the toolbar to reveal the Customize Quick Access Toolbar dropdown menu. Figure 5.2 The Quick Access Toolbar dropdown menu Click on the Show Below the Ribbon option and your Toolbar will appear below the ribbon. Click on the arrow again and choose the Show Above the Ribbon option if that s your preference. Excel II 2007 5.2 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Figure 5.3 Showing the Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon You will notice that the Customize Quick Access Toolbar dropdown menu has other options available. Click on the the Quick Print option and a printer icon will be added to your Quick Access Toolbar. Again open the Customize Quick Access Toolbar dropdown menu and select other options that you want to always appear on your customized toolbar. Using this dropdown also allows you to show or hide the ribbon itself. Figure 5.4 How to minimize the Ribbon When the ribbon is minimized just the tab titles appear at the top of your screen: Figure 5.5 The minimized Ribbon To use the Ribbon while it is minimized, click the tab then click the option or command you want to use. For example, with the Ribbon minimized, you can select the cells in your worksheet you want to print then click the Page Layout tab and, in the Page Setup group, click the Print Area icon and select Set Print Area. After you ve made the selection, the Ribbon goes back to being minimized. There is also a keyboard shortcut toggle between minimizing and restoring the Ribbon. Hold the CTRL key then press the F1 key and if the ribbon is minimized it will be maximized and vice versa. We ll talk more about keyboard shortcuts in the next section. Excel II 2007 5.3 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
A quick and easy way to add a command to the Quick Access Toolbar is to simply right-click on a command on the Ribbon Bar. For example, if you find yourself frequently using the Bold command, just right click on the B or Bold icon on the Home Tab, in the Font group. This displays the four item dropdown menu as shown below. Click on the first selection, Add to Quick Access Toolbar. The command will appear on the Quick Access Toolbar. Figure 5.6 Adding the Bold function to the Quick Access Toolbar To add multiple or many commands to the Quick Access Toolbar use the More Commands option on the Customize Quick Access Toolbar drop down menu. Figure 5.7 Accessing the Customize the Quick Access Toolbar dialog Excel II 2007 5.4 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
The More Commands menu is divided into two areas. On the left is an area with options to choose from and on the right are the options that are chosen or added. Let s say that you frequently use borders and shading to customize your worksheets. To add an icon to your Quick Access Toolbar select the Borders and Shading command from the list on the left side of the screen then click on the Add button in the center and the Borders and Shading will appear at the bottom of the list on the right side of the screen. Click OK and notice the icon is now part of your Quick Access Toolbar. There s no need to try to recall which tab or group contains the command it s there whenever you need it. Figure 5.8 Customize the Quick Access Toolbar dialog The Customize the Quick Access Toolbar screen also allows you to change the order that the commands appear on the Quick Access Toolbar. On the right side of the screen are Up and Down arrows. By highlighting a command and then clicking either the up or down arrow you can change the order of the commands. When you ve finished re-ordering the commands, click OK at the bottom of the screen to save the order you ve chosen. Excel II 2007 5.5 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Figure 5.9 Changing button positions on the Quick Access Toolbar Excel II 2007 5.6 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Keyboard Shortcuts Another way to facilitate working with Excel is to use keyboard shortcuts. For example, the F7 key calls up the spelling checker. In many ways keeping your hands on the keyboard, and using F7, is much better than manipulating the mouse to put the cursor onto the Spelling Checker button on the Review tab, Proofing group. Figure 5.10 Review Tab of the Ribbon The rub is learning the keyboard shortcuts, just as it is in learning which tab contains which commands. Excel offers many keyboard shortcuts but that can be a two-edged sword. It is handy to have lots of shortcuts but learning them all is not easy. But Office 2007 does try to help. For example, let s say you frequently need to Bold text in your worksheet. Go to the Home Tab and in the Font group hover your cursor over the B or Bold icon. A message appears below the group advising you that there is a keyboard shortcut available for this command - in this case Ctrl + B. Figure 5.11 Keyboard Shortcut is shown when you hover over an icon Select a cell or group of cells with text or formulas that you want to appear bold. Now press and hold the Ctrl key on the lower left side of your keyboard then press the letter B. The contents of the cell or cells you highlighted will be bold. The shortcut key acts as a toggle turning the option on or off so if a cell or group of cells is bold and you don t want them to be bold, use the keyboard shortcut to turn the option off. Excel II 2007 5.7 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
There are many more shortcut keys available for you to use. Here are a few of the more commonly used options: Figure 5.12 A few Keyboard Shortcuts You will find an extensive list of shortcut options by using Excel Help. In the upper right corner of your screen to the left of the minimize-maximize-quit buttons for the workbook is a blue question mark icon. Click on that icon and the Excel Help dialog will open. Figure 5.13 Excel Help Button Excel II 2007 5.8 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
In the Search box at the top of that screen type in Keyboard Shortcuts and then click on Search. There is extensive help information made available on your computer when Microsoft Office 2007 is installed. However, if your computer is connected to the internet, as indicated in the lower right corner of the help screen, many more help answers may be available from Office Online. Figure 5.14 The Excel Help window The Search Results list is presented to you. Just under the words Search Results. Click on the tab marked Office then click on the topic in the list as indicated here (use the scroll bar to move down until you can see the topic): Excel II 2007 5.9 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
This topic is like an index to find shortcut keys for many of the Mirosoft Office programs. Click on the option highlighted below: Sometimes using a cheat sheet helps the learning process. To print a copy of this Help topic that you can refer to without calling up the help screen, see the Tip: Excel II 2007 5.10 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Again, the objective is ease of use. If you find yourself repeatedly going to a certain tab and group to invoke a specific command then it is probably worth your while to look up, and memorize, the keyboard shortcut for it. Excel II 2007 5.11 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Workbook Templates One of the most difficult jobs in working with Excel is the initial design of a workbook what is the objective of the complete workbook, what elements must be combined to reach that objective, how should those elements be laid out in the workbook. These are tough questions, solved mostly through trial and error, which can consume an inordinate amount of time. Templates are the shortcut. A template is a complete workbook, ready-made, awaiting only your data input to provide an answer. A template is a re-usable workbook. It may reside on your computer or it may be downloaded from the internet. Templates are accessed by clicking on the Office Button then New. The Template dialog is shown below. On the left you choose from the various options which are installed on your computer or you may select from Online templates that can be downloaded. You may have noticed that even a blank workbook comes from a template. Figure 5.18 Templates Since templates can take a lot of time and effort to design, they require some special treatment to protect them from being overwritten. For example, suppose there is a template called The Big Picture that appears in the New dialog list. When selected, it opens as a workbook and that workbook is automatically named The Big Picture1. The Big Picture1 Excel II 2007 5.12 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
is a copy of the original template and it has already been given a name that prevents one from inadvertently replacing or overwriting the original template. Once you have completed your data entry into The Big Picture1 and then try to Save the file, you will be offered a location on your hard drive that is not the location of the template another safeguard against replacing or overwriting the template. The final safeguard against overwriting a template is that Templates are stored in a special folder(s) determined by Excel. Click on the Office Button, then New and then click on Installed Templates. In the center section of the dialog the first template, Billing Statement, is highlighted and in the right section a larger representation of that workbook is shown. Scroll down in the center section until you see the Loan Amortization template and click on it. The right pane changes to show a small representation of this workbook. Click on Create to open a new workbook based on this template. In Module 03, we learned about the PMT function which calculates the amount of a loan payment given specific information. This workbook will give us a wealth of information with just a few items of input. Let s say you re negotiating a new car and you want to know the financial impact of the loan you ve been offered. Enter the following information in the table and see what this templates does: Figure 5.19 Loan Amortization Template All of the available workbook templates did not come bundled with your Microsoft software. Click on the Office Button, then New and this time on the left side of the dialog click on Budgets under Microsoft Office Online. In the center section click on the Home budgets option and you ll be offered many different home budget workbook templates. However, this time instead of a Create button at the bottom of the screen you have a download button (assuming your computer has access to the internet). Clicking that button will bring that template down to your computer for you to use anytime. There are many categories of templates and many optional templates available from Microsoft. Take advantage of other people s time and effort. Before trying to design a complicated workbook from scratch, go to this dialog to see if there is something that might work for you. Excel II 2007 5.13 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Changing Microsoft Excel Options NOTE: In this class you will not make any changes to Excel using these options. PRC courses depend on the default settings provided by Microsoft. However, on your home computer you may find a change or two to be very appropriate. In the Excel 2 Module 2 we looked at this area when we talked about Global Formatting. You may help to go back and review the information in that module. Click on the Office Button and at the bottom of the dialog is an Excel Options button. Figure 5.20 Excel Options button The Excel Options dialog opens with the Popular category selected in the left panel. Changes made on this screen affect how the interface will appear and how each new workbook will look. You can designate such things as the color scheme of the interface as well as the font and font size used in a new workbook. If you communicate in a language other than English, you can change Language settings here. You ve already learned out to use Autofill to create common lists like days of the week or months of the year. Suppose you were required to track a repetitive list of things in a database application of Excel; a list of products or charities or the people who give to charities. Excel II 2007 5.14 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
You can create a custom list in Excel and use it when you need to create that list. From the Popular menu under Excel Options click on the button labeled Edit Custom Lists. Figure 5.21 Popular Options Click in the open box labeled List Entries and type the names of the items in your desired list. You can put the items on separate lines or enter them separated by commas. When finished, click on the Add button. You should see your list appear on the left hand side. Click OK and close the dialog box and OK again to exit out of Excel Options. Now in a blank worksheet, type the first name on your custom list. Use autofill button to fill down or across from your entry and you ll see the names in your custom list get filled in. Figure 5.22 Custom Lists dialog box Excel II 2007 5.15 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Another important menu under the Excel Options is the Save menu. From the Save screen you can set the default folders for where files are saved. Figure 5.23 Save Options dialog box The Advanced category in the Excel Options dialog allows you to change the settings for using Excel. Review the options under the category and see what changes you can make from this screen. Figure 5.24 Advanced Options dialog box Excel II 2007 5.16 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
The following exercises will help solidify the topics taught in this lesson. Save your work on the student diskette. Explore and have fun making changes. Exercise A Save Templates In this exercise you will explore Excel templates and learn how to save the templates that are used in class into the correct location on your computer at home. 1 Use the Office Button, Open menu selection sequence to bring up the Open dialog box. 2 Navigate through the folders offered in the Look in: to find the Excel 2 2007 Files folder. Look for the file called CD Switch Analysis.xltx. For the rest of this exercise we will concentrate on three dialogs in this box, Look/Save in:, File name:, and Files of type: Figure 5.25 The icon of the CD Switch Analysis template If you look closely at the icon for CD Switch Analysis you can see that it is different than the icon for a workbook. It also has a different file extension than a regular workbook. It is.xltx instead of.xlsx. 3 Open CD Switch Analysis. Contrary to the earlier explanation of template behavior, CD Switch Analysis may open under its own name instead of CD Switch Analysis1. This is because you opened it from a location other than the usual one expected by Excel for templates. It is not your fault, you did nothing wrong. Market interest rates change. Sometimes the direction of change can make a Certificate of Deposit less attractive as an investment than when it was originally purchased. CD Switch Analysis helps you evaluate whether or not it is a good idea to cash in a CD early, paying some penalty for doing so, and replace it with another at a different interest rate. 4 Enter 10,000 (without the comma), 2.5, and 12 in C6, C7, and C8. $253 should appear in C15. 5 Select cell C15. Cell C15 contains a formula that is well beyond the scope of this course. It is a nested conditional statement which is read as, If there is zero, or nothing, entered in C7 then leave C15 blank. Otherwise, if there is zero, or nothing, entered in C8 then leave C15 blank. Otherwise, divide C7 by 12 and add 1 to that quotient, then raise the result of that addition by the power of C8, then multiply that result by C6, then subtract C6 from that result. Whew! Excel II 2007 5.17 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
This highlights one of the dangers of using templates. Their strength is they use formulas beyond your own level of skill to assemble. Their weakness is they use formulas beyond your level of understanding. This happens more than a little when you first learn about any new subject, workbooks or otherwise. How should you personally evaluate the advice given to you by a professional like a lawyer or a broker? It boils down to reputation and trust. The same is true of templates. The Microsoft web site referred to in the lesson explanation can be trusted, but the same cannot be said about all the sites where templates are available. Be prudent! If a template generates a result that has no intuitive appeal then question it and seek a second opinion. 6 Delete your entries in C6, C7, and C8. Excel II 2007 5.18 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
7 Select Save as under the Office Button. Figure 5.26 The Save As... dialog box 8 Using the Save as type: drop down menu, select Other Formats Figure 5.27 The File Type drop down menu with Template selected 9 Using the Save as type: drop down menu, select Excel Template (*.xltx) Excel II 2007 5.19 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Figure 5.28 The Save As dialog box after Template is re-selected. Note the Save in: dialog now shows a folder named Templates. The large window in the dialog may be empty, it depends on whether or not any Office templates had been previously saved in the folder Templates. 10 Click on the Cancel button to prevent the template from being saved on the lab computer. 11 Close the template without saving changes. Remember, you access templates by selecting New under the Office Button in Excel. Congratulations! You have successfully completed Exercise A Excel II 2007 5.20 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
Exercise B Edit a Chart In this exercise you will create and edit charts based on information already in a workbook. The workbook can be found on the hard drive as 2.5crimes.xlsx. Make changes to the workbook and save it as 2.5crimes_rev.xlsx. 1 Open 2.5crimes in the Excel 2 2007 Files folder 2 Save the workbook as 2.5crimes_rev in the same folder Recall from Lesson 4 that there are many ways to edit a chart. This exercise concentrates on what might be the easiest editing directly on the chart. 2.5crimes contains data on the rate of crimes against property (robbery, burglary, vandalism, etc.). It was collected by sociologists who felt that perhaps environmental influences affect this crime rate. All the columns to the right of State and to the left of Crimes contain information about those influences. Your job is to create some charts that might, or might not, support the ideas of the sociologists. Create a scattergram of KidsAid and Crimes These two columns are not next to each other. This is awkward when creating a chart containing data from two series. The first step is to copy these two columns to a new location where they will be next to each other. 3 Copy the KidsAid data, including the column title, to Col A on Sheet2 beginning in cell A1. 4 Copy the Crimes data, including the column title, to Col B on Sheet2 beginning in cell B1. 5 Select the range A1:B51 6 Click Scatter on the Insert tab of the Ribbon, and select the top left chart in the drop down dialog. 7 Right click on the Y Axis and select Format Axis from the menu. 8 Select the Number category and decrease the number of decimal places to zero 9 Select the Axis Options category Select the Fixed option for Minimum, Maximum, and Minor unit. This will allow you to enter values manually into the boxes on the right. In the Minimum box enter 2000 Excel II 2007 5.21 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
In the Maximum box enter 8000 In the Minor unit box enter 500 and then click on OK 10 Click on the Chart Title 11 In the Formula Bar, type Property Crimes then press Enter 12 Select the Layout Tab on the Ribbon under Chart Tools 13 In the Labels group, select Axis Titles, Primary Horizontal Axis Title, and click Title Below Axis. 14 In the Formula Bar, type Aid to Families in Dollars, and press Enter. 15 In the Labels group, select Legend, and click None 16 Your completed chart should look like Figure 5.31 Figure 5.31 A scattergram of Crime Rate vs Aid to Families with Kids This kind of chart is used to determine if there is a pattern or a relationship between the kinds of data it contains. Looking at this example, there is no pattern the data points are scattered all over the chart. Evidently providing monetary aid to families with children has no influence on property crime rates. Let s try another chart 17 Using the same method, create and edit a scattergram of Percentage of Urban Population and Crime 18 Your completed chart should look like Figure 5.32 Excel II 2007 5.22 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center
8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 Property Crimes 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Percentage of Urban Population Figure 5.32 A scattergram of Crime Rate vs Percentage of Urban Residents This example does appear to show a pattern the higher the percentage of urban residents the higher the crime rate. States that don t have many people living in big cities, like Wyoming, have a lower property crime rate than states that do. Maybe we should all move to Wyoming. Congratulations! You have successfully completed Exercise B Summary Now you can... Customize the Quick Access Toolbar to suit your needs. Use keyboard shortcut keys for frequently used commands. Use and save ready-made templates. Create and edit a special kind of chart, the scattergram. In this lesson you have explored how to customize Microsoft Excel. You learned what templates are and how to save them on your hard drive at home. You also learned how to edit a chart by directly selecting elements of the chart. NOTES Excel II 2007 5.23 1998-2011 Peoples Resource Center