2015 Bow Valley College 1 Microsoft Excel Vocabulary Getting Started with Microsoft Excel 2013 Column: A grouping of information or data organized from top to bottom. In Excel columns are named with letters A-Z. Row: A grouping of information or data organized from left to right. In Excel rows are named with numbers starting with 1. Cell: A cell is the location where a column and row meet. In Excel these are named with the column letter and the row number. For example, where column A meets row 3 the cell will be named A3. Range: When rows and columns have information organized and displayed this is called a range of data or information. Creating a Range or Simple Table of Data: 1) Click on the cell that you want to enter the information. 2) Type the information in the cell. 3) Press ENTER on the keyboard. 4) Repeat steps 1-3 until all the information both numbers and headings is in the range. 1) Click in the cell. 2) Type the information. 3) Press Enter on the keyboard.
2015 Bow Valley College 2 Fixing a Range of Data Now that a range has been entered into Excel it will look similar to the picture below. (Statistics in the chart below are not real). Information will look similar to this. There are a few steps that can be taken to make the range look more presentable: *NOTE: Instructions for how to perform the following steps are outlined on pages 3-8. 1) Cells can be merged (make many cells into one cell). 2) Rows can be resized (made bigger or smaller). 3) Text can be wrapped (take up two or more lines instead of one). 4) Columns can be resized (made bigger or smaller). 5) Text can be centered in the cell. 6) Borders can be added to cells. 7) Colour can be added to cells. The end result can look like this:
2015 Bow Valley College 3 1) Merging Cells 1) Select the cells that you want to merge- the cells MUST be next to each other in the same row or column. 2) Click the Merge & Center button (see the picture below). 1) Select the cells you want to merge. For example cells A1, B1 and C1. 2) Click the Merge button. After pressing merge the cells will look like this: 2) Resizing Rows 1) Place the mouse pointer on the line under the NAME of the row you want to resize. For example: to make row 1 larger click on the line below the 1 on the far left-hand side of the screen. 2) Click and hold the mouse and drag the line down to the size you want. 1) Place the mouse pointer here to resize row 1. 2) Click and hold the mouse and drag the line down.
2015 Bow Valley College 4 3) Wrapping Text After resizing the row to make it big enough for two or three lines of text you can wrap the text in the cell so it can all be read. 1) Click in the cell you want to wrap (change so it uses more than one line). 2) Click on the Wrap Text button found in the Home Tab. Click the Wrap Text button. 3) After pressing Wrap Text the cell may look like this: Wrapped text. 4) Resizing Columns 1) Place the mouse pointer on the line to the right of the NAME of the column you want to resize. For example: to make Column C larger click on the line to the right of C at the top of the sheet. 2) Click and hold the mouse and drag the line to the right until it is the size you want. 1) Place the mouse pointer here to resize column C. 2) Click and hold the mouse and drag the line to the right.
2015 Bow Valley College 5 5) Centre Text in the Cell Text in cells can be centred instead of left or right aligned. This is usually done with titles of columns for a cleaner look. 1) Click in the cell you want to centre, this will select that cell. 2) Click the Centre button in the Home Tab to centre the text. 3) Repeat with all cells you want to be centred. 1) Click the cell you want to centre. 2) Click the Centre button. The end result will look similar to this: Centred text.
2015 Bow Valley College 6 6) Add Borders to Cells Borders can be added to cells in a range. 1) Select the cells to add the borders to them. Click and hold on the first cell in the range and move the mouse until the entire range is selected. A selected range looks like this: 2) Click the arrow next to the Border Button on the Home Tab to open the menu options. Click here. 3) Click on the All Borders option. This will add borders to every cell selected in the range. Click on the All Borders option
2015 Bow Valley College 7 4) The end result will look similar to this: Borders on the cells in the range are black. 7) Add Colour to Cells 1) Select the cells to add the colour to by clicking and holding the mouse and moving over the range to colour. 2) Click on the arrow next to the Fill Colour Button on the Home Tab to open the colour options menu. Click here to open the colour options menu. 3) Choose a colour and click on that colour. Click on your colour choice.
2015 Bow Valley College 8 4) The result will look similar to this: Cells with colour added. Sum, Average, Max and Min You can quickly find the sum, average, maximum or minimum of a range of information using the autosum feature in Excel 2013. Autosum button Find the Sum 1) Click on the cell below or beside the range you want to add together (sum). Click below if you want to add up the column and beside if you want to add up the row. 2) Click the Autosum button (pictured above). 3) Press Enter on the keyboard. Find the Average, Maximum or Minimum 1) Click on the cell below or beside the range you want to average, find the maximum or find the minimum of. Click below the range if you want to average, maximum or minimum of a column of numbers and beside the range if you want to average, maximum or minimum of a row of numbers. 2) Click the down arrow directly beside the Autosum button (pictured above). 3) Click average, maximum or minimum. 4) Press enter on the keyboard.