Excel Spreadsheets

The Basics

ICS100 – Spring 2007

D. Pai

What to Know

What is Excel What is a Spreadsheet The Excel Window Toolbars (Shortcut Bars) The “HELP” Functions Basic Operations in Excel

What is Excel?

Excel is the spreadsheet program with the Microsoft Office Applications Suite

Excel also has charting/graphing capabilities to visualize the data

Excel also performs some database functions such as sorting a list of data

What is a Spreadsheet? In the realm of accounting jargon a "spread sheet" or

spreadsheet was and is a large sheet of paper with columns and rows that lays everything out about transactions for a business person to examine. It spreads or shows all of the costs, income, taxes, etc. on a single sheet of paper for a manager to look at when making a decision.

An electronic spreadsheet organizes information into software defined columns and rows. The data can then be "added up" by a formula to give a total or sum. The spreadsheet program summarizes information from many paper sources in one place and presents the information in a format to help a decision maker see the financial "big picture" for the company.

(Power, D.J., 2000,www.dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html)

The Excel Window

Active Cell

Rows (Numbers)

Columns (Letters)

Title Bar

Menu Bar

Active Sheet Selector

Status Bar

Excel Window (Cont.)

StandardToolbarFormula Bar

Cell Reference

DrawingToolbar

FormattingToolbar

Fill Handle is the black square in the lower right hand corner of the active region

What are Toolbars (Shortcut Bars)?

Select “View Toolbars”Toolbars provide common functionsused in Excel for single-click access(Shortcuts to things you can do)

Help

HELP!!!!

Two Additional forms of HELP with the Microsoft Office Suite Office Assistant – a visible icon that

provides tips and allows for you to type questions in a semi-conversational manner to get answers

The Help Menu – Provides Table of Contents, Answer Wizard and Index forms of accessing help

Office Asst is the Paper Clip

Office Assistant Allows you to Ask for Help in the Form of a Question

Help Menu has 3 Ways to Access Help

Basic Concepts in Excel

Entering Text in a Cell Copying Text from One Cell to Another Creating a Numerical Series Entering a Formula in a Cell Inserting a Row or Column into a

Worksheet

Entering Text in a Cell

To Enter Text (or numbers) in a Cell, Just Click the Mouse in the Cell Where you would Like the Text and Start Typing

Copying Text from One Cell to Another

To Copy Text, Just Like in Word, Select the Cell (or Cells), then use: Edit Copy Select new Location Edit Paste

Click and Drag to Select Many Adjacent Cells (Range of Cells)

Ctrl-Click to Select Multiple Non-Adjacent Cells or Ranges

Creating a Numerical Series

To Create an Arithmetic Series… 1,2,3… or 1,3,5… or 1,4,7,…

Enter First 2 Numbers in Your Series in Adjacent Cells

Click on Fill Handle and Drag to Desired Length

NOTE: This works with Dates and Anything that Ends with a Number

Numerical Series Example

Using the Technique Previously Defined… Create the following series

Odd numbers from 1-11 Dates from 3/14/07-3/19/07 Listing from PO1001 – PO1006

Try to create Listing from 1001a – 1001f What did you get for this last one?

Entering a Formula in a Cell

To Enter a Formula in a Cell… Must Start with… THE = SIGN Math Symbols include

+ Addition - Subtraction * Multiplication / Division ^ Exponent (to the Power of)

Use Parentheses to Make Sure the Order of your Processing is Correct

Formatting the Worksheet

What is Formatting?

Changing how things are displayed in Excel for emphasis or aesthetic reasons

Can format cells, columns, rows, sheet Can also use pre-existing formats

provided by Excel using Autoformat Can also define the contents of a cell to

be of a certain type

Format Cells for Numbers

Options available are provided through the “Format Cells” selection on the menu bar

Some common shortcuts are available on the formatting toolbar $ - Displays contents of cell as currency and

includes a $ in the cell % - Displays contents of cell as a percentage , - Displays commas in cell numbers .0 – Increases # of digits after decimal by one .0 – Decreases # of digits after decimal by one

Aligning Data

Once range of cells is selected (could be columns or rows also), select “Format Cells” from Menu Bar

Select the “Alignment” tab You can align Horizontally, Vertically,

Rotate You can also wrap the text in a box,

shrink text to fit the box and merge cells

Changing Fonts

Same as aligning data except use the Font tab in the Format Cells dialog box

Can change: Font Font style Size Color Underline Effects

Changing Cell Borders

In Format Cells dialog box select Border tab

Option Available include: Presets Manual Selection of borders Line styles Color

Also some limited shortcuts in the formatting toolbar

Changing Cell Colors

In Format Cells dialog box select Patterns

Can change the background color of the selected cells as well as the pattern

Can Also change using the “Fill Color” icon in the formatting toolbar

Inserting a Row or Column into a Worksheet

To Insert a Row or Column… First Select the Row below where you

want your new row or the Column to the right of where you want your new column

Then select “Insert Row or Column” from the Menu Bar

Changing the Column Width Basic Methods

Dragging the border of a column by selecting the edge in the column header area (where the letters are)

Select the column and then select “Format Column” from the menu bar

Double-click on the bar between 2 column letters (or row numbers) to autofit the width of the column (or row) to its contents

NOTE: IF A CELL IS FILLED WITH “####” IT MEANS THAT THE NUMBER IS TOO BIG TO FIT IN THE CELL – INCREASE THE COLUMN WIDTH TO VIEW THE NUMBER

Hide a Column

Removes the column from view, Does not change contents of the cells nor any calculation performed using these cells

Once column that you want to hide has been selected, choose “Format Column Hide” from the menu bar

To UNHIDE – Select columns on both sides of hidden column and choose “Format Column Unhide” from the menu bar

Changing Row Height and Hiding Rows

Same as for columns except select the row options

AutoFormat

Simple to use Large selection of formats already

prepared Select range of cells to be formatted Select “Format AutoFormat” from

the menu bar Select desired preset format

Some Practice

Starting with a Blank Worksheet In Column A, Starting at the First Row enter

the following data:

Brand Price, 6-pack Calories Price/Bottle($) Calories in 6-packBrooklynBrand $6.24 159Leinenkugel'sRed $4.79 160SamuelAdamsBoston $5.96 160GeorgeKillian'sIrishRed $4.70 162RedWolf $4.11 157HenryWeinhard'sPrivateRes. $3.85 151

Now….

Calculate the price per bottle of beer for Brooklyn Brand Beer

Calculate the total calories in a 6-pack of Brooklyn Brand Beer

Using the fill handle, copy these 2 formulas down for all other brands of beer

And Now…

Insert a column to the left of Column A In new cell A1, enter the title of “Item

No.” In the column, add row numbers using

the fill handle to generate only odd row numbers for each brand of beer (ie. 1, 3, 5,…)

Your final spreadsheet should look like thisItem No. Brand Price, 6-pack Calories Price/Bottle($) Calories in 6-pack

1 BrooklynBrand $6.24 159 $1.04 9543 Leinenkugel'sRed $4.79 160 $0.80 9605 SamuelAdamsBoston $5.96 160 $0.99 9607 GeorgeKillian'sIrishRed $4.70 162 $0.78 9729 RedWolf $4.11 157 $0.69 942

11 HenryWeinhard'sPrivateRes. $3.85 151 $0.64 906

Item No. Brand Price, 6-pack Calories Price/Bottle($) Calories in 6-pack1 BrooklynBrand 6.24 159 =C2/6 =D2*63 Leinenkugel'sRed 4.79 160 =C3/6 =D3*65 SamuelAdamsBoston 5.96 160 =C4/6 =D4*67 GeorgeKillian'sIrishRed 4.7 162 =C5/6 =D5*69 RedWolf 4.11 157 =C6/6 =D6*611 HenryWeinhard'sPrivateRes. 3.85 151 =C7/6 =D7*6

Hit the “Ctrl” key and then the “`” key to display formulas in cells rather than the result of the calculation:

Now Add Some Extras

Format the Fonts, Cell Colors, Borders and Other Items to Brighten Up the Spreadsheet!

Assignment 12 Create a Spreadsheet and determine the monthly payment for a car loan given the

following parameters: Amount of Loan: $29,000 Annual Interest Rate (APR): 5.4% Term of Loan: 5 years Payments made monthly

The formula to calculate a loan payment is:

Where P = payment amount per period (ie. Monthly payment) A = Original amount of the loan (amount borrowed) i = interest rate per payment period (ie. if the annual interest rate is 12% and payments are made

monthly, i = 12%/12 or 1%) N = Total number of payments

All calculations must be performed in Excel and your cells should have formulas in them…not just the answer

Answer should be in currency format (dollars and cents) Your spreadsheet should appear appeasing to the eye – use colors, borders, etc…to

highlight key items and, in particular, the answer to the problem.

To turn in your assignment, email your excel file as an attachment to: paid@hawaii.edu with the subject line “ICS100, Assignment 12 – your name”