SPREADSHEET

Introduction
Spreadsheet is any work space organized in grid pattern of rows and columns
where statements and figures can be entered systematically and analyzed more
easily.

Types of spreadsheet
They are basically two types of spreadsheet namely;
 Manual spreadsheet
 Electronic spreadsheet

1. Manual spreadsheet .They are manually designed on a paper and data is

entered through writing using a pen and calculation done using simple device
such as calculator.
2. Electronic spreadsheet. They are computer based spreadsheet s applications
that are designed in a self contained environment with all developing tools.e.g.
Formulae, formatting and editing tools.

Examples of spreadsheet
 Lotus 1,2,3
 Quattropro
 Supercale
 Chart master
 QuickBooks
 Sage
 Pastel
 Ms excel

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Getting started to ms excel
Procedures
 Click start menu
 All programs
 Microsoft office
 Click on ms excel

Parts of ms excel application window

1) The menu bar. It contains the sub menus e.g. home, edit, page layout etc.

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2) The standard tool bar. It contains icons that are shortcuts for the commonly
used commands.
3) Formatting tool bar. It contains the tool to enhance the appearance of the
document.
4) Name box. It contains the address of the active cell.
5) Formulae bar .it is used to edit any data in the selected cells. It also displays
the contents of the active cells.
6) Window control buttons; they are used to minimize, maximize, restore and
close the window.
7) The title bar. It contains the programs title i.e. ms excel.
8) Columns label/headers. Used to uniquely identify each of the 256 columns of
the worksheet i.e. A-Z.
9) Row header. They uniquely identify the 65536 rows.
10) Worksheet. It is a work space that is available in grid pattern of rows and
columns where worksheet data is entered and analyzed more easily.
11) Cell. It is a basic unit of data entry which is fund in the intersection between
the columns and rows.
12) Cell pointer. It is a thick border that identifies the active cell.
13) Worksheet navigation buttons. They are used for moving through the
worksheet.
14) Split buttons. They are used to split your worksheet into various parts.
N/B
Excel workbook
A workbook is a collection of worksheets stored in the same file on disk.
Range of cells
A range is a group or block of cells in a worksheet that have been selected or
highlighted.

Advantages of electronic spreadsheet

 Data entry is faster
 They produce accurate reports
 They produce high quality work
 Possess formulae and other developing tools.

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Disadvantages of Electronic Spreadsheets
 They are expensive to buy and maintain
 They are electronic, thus cannot be used without electricity
 They require computer skills and continuous training
 There is data loss due to virus attacks and system failure
 There are privacy problems like unauthorized access over networks
 Health related hazards as they are associated with use of computers
Functions of spreadsheet
Electronic spreadsheets posses inbuilt mathematical features that provide
formulas used in different areas of data manipulation e.g. statistics and
financial fields.
1) Formulae recalculating ability [FRA]
Ability to update formulae automatically whenever there is a change of data
referred by the formulae.
2) Data presentation and analysis feature.
Allows data to be presented graphically to allow easier interpretation of the
same e.g. pie chart and graphs.
3) Storage and security of information
Worksheets can be protected using passwords. This can also apply to
workbooks.

Applications of spreadsheets

 Financial analysis, used to prepare financial statements e.g. bal sheet.

 Inventory keeping; used to keep a simple database of inventories that can
be easily updated to provide accurate reports.
 Statistical purposes; a wide variety of statistical tool are available in ms
excel to analyze data statistically.
 Budget preparation and forecasting; using tools to generate projection for
next year’s budget.
 Payroll management; they are used to prepare payrolls.
 They are used to keep students records.

Features of ms excel
 Find; allows the user to locate all the occurrences of a particular character,
word phase.

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 Replace feature; allows the user to substitute existing characters, words or
phrases with a new word.
 Go to features; it allows you to go to a specific place just by tying an
address.
 Sorting; arranging data alphabetically or numerically in ascending or
descending order.
 Filtering; allows you to extract data from bulk document and display only
those rows that satisfy certain criteria.
 Data validation; is the process of ensuring the accuracy, correctness and
integrity of data entered.
 Restriction; enables you to restrict data values to be entered into cells
within the specified units or is the process of limiting data entry.
 N/B this allows numbers within limits.
 Spell checker; is an application or function of a program which determines
the correctness of the spelling of a given word or is a software program
that correct spelling errors in excel.
 Auto fill; is a feature that allows you to create entire columns or rows of
data which are based on the values from other cells.
 Autocorrect; is a software feature that corrects misspellings as you type.
 Formulae; it is an equation that performs operations on worksheet data.
They can perform mathematical operation.
 Function; it is a predefined formulae that performs calculation using
specific values called arguments.

Data entry in ms excel

There are three main types of data that can be entered in ms excel namely;
 Text; these are labels which can be a combination of numbers, spaces and
non-numeric characters.
 Numeric data .in ms excel a number can only contain the following
characters 1 and 9.
 Formulae. It is an equation that performs operations on worksheet data.

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Entering data in a cell
Activate the cell where data will be entered by clicking on it, type the data and
terminate the entry by pressing enter key or tab key or the arrow keys on the
keyboard.

Formatting a worksheet
This is done to enhance the appearance of your entire worksheet.

Editing a worksheet
To copy a worksheet; select cells then right click on the selection and choose
copy. Select the destination and then right click and select paste.

To transfer worksheet data. Use cut command on edit menu .you can also
right click, click cut.

To insert a new worksheet.

Right click on the sheet tabs and choose insert the worksheet and then click
ok.

To rename a worksheet
Right click sheet tab and rename select rename .Type anew name and press
enter.

Formulas in spreadsheet (ms-excel)

In a formula, you need to tell ms- excel which items to use and which
operations to perform on them.
Operators
Ms –excel uses arithmetic operators, logical operators, reference operators
and one text operator.
Arithmetic
Operator Explanation
+ Addition
- subtraction
* Multiplication

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/ Division
% Percentage
^ exponentiation

Logical operator
Operator Explanation
= Equal to
<> Not equal to
> Greater than
< Less than
>= Greater than or equal to
<= Less than or equal to

Reference operators
Operator Explanation
: Range of continuous cells e.g., B5:D10
, The range of non-continuous cells e.g.
A1,B4,E5

Common spreadsheet functions

All functions and formulas must begin with an equal sign (=).The most
common functions include=sum( ),=average( ),=product( ),=max( ),=if(
),=mode( ),=median( ),=count( ),=rank( ) etc.
Using various functions
SUM
This function is used to add a list of numbers in a specified range of cells.
= sum (range) e.g.
=sum (A1:A4).

AVERAGE
This function calculates the mean value of a list of numbers in a specified
range of cells.
=Average (range) e.g.
=Average (A2:A3).
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PRODUCT
This function is used to calculate the product value in a list of numbers.
=product (range) e.g.
=product (C1:C6)

MAX
This function finds the largest value in a list of numbers.
=max (range) e.g.
=max (A3:A6)

MIN
This function is used to finds the smallest value in a list of numbers.
=min (range) e.g.
=min (B1:B8).

IF FUNCTION
This function is used to make decisions based on whether a test condition is
true or false. E.g. =IF (A2>9,”x”,”y”).

Data reference
This enables ms excel program to identify a cell or arrange of cells on a
worksheet.
There are basically three types of formula reference in spreadsheet (MS-excel)
 Relative reference
 Absolute reference
 Mixed reference (3-d reference)

Relative reference
This is a reference that changes when you copy a formula. For instance,
formula=A2+B3 typed in cell C2 will change when copied to cell C3 to be
=A3+B3 and so on.

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=SUM (B5:B8), as shown below, changes to = SUM (C5:C8) when copied across
to the next cell.

Absolute reference
An absolute reference does not change when you copy a formula. To make a
cell reference absolute, type a dollar sign ($) before both column letter and
row number e.g. $A$7.The absolute reference is useful in cells that contain
constant values or values to be reused in calculation.
Example
In the example below, when calculating commissions for sales staff, you would
not want cell B10 to change when copying the formula down. You want both
the column and the row to remain the same to refer to that exact cell. By using
$B$10 in the formula, neither changes when copied.

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Mixed reference
A cell is mixed reference if a column does not change while the row does
change or the column does change while the row does not change when you
copy the formula.

Errors in formulas
In spreadsheet an error message appears, especially in ms-excel, when excel
cannot properly calculate the formula. Errors in formulas are often the result
of typing mistakes. You can correct an error by editing the cell containing the
error.
Some of the errors you may encounter are as follows:
a) Hash symbols (#######)
When the column is too narrow to display the result of the calculation, this
type of error occurs. You can correct this type of error by widening your
column.
Example

The cell A5 contains the

formula=A1*A2*A3.The result has
many digits than the column width
can contain. It is also possible that
the result can be expressed in
standard form.

b) Divided by zero (Div/0!)

This error occurs when the formula attempts to divide a number by zero (0).
Any number divided by zero (0) is mathematically impossible. Excel considers a
blank cell to contain a value of zero.
Example
The cell A5 contains the
formula=A1/A2.But A2 does not have
any number, which the program treats
it as having a zero value. The error

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message #DIV/0! means that it’s impossible to divide a number by zero.

c) Reference error (#ref!)

This error occurs when the formula refers to a cell that is not valid.
Example
The # REF! Error results after a row or
a column that has a value referenced
by a formula is deleted. For instance,
this case had the formula=A1+A2+A3
typed in cell A4. However, row 3 was
highlighted and deleted which made
the error # REF! to shift to cell A4.

d) Name error (#name?)

This error occurs when the formula contains the function or cell reference
Excel does not recognize.
Example

Cell A5 contains the formula=SUMM

(A1:C3).the name of the function was
misspelled which resulted to #Name?
error message. You have to correct the
spelling mistakes to avoid this error.

e) Value error (#value!)

This error occurs when the formula refers to a cell that excel cannot use in
calculation. You can solve this problem by correcting the argument or
change the formula.
Example
Cell A5 contains the formula
=A1+A2+A3. However, cell A3 has
a text value January which cannot
be used in calculations.

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f) Number error (#NUM!)
This means that the number specified is not valid for the function or
formula. For example, using a power function that can generate a number
larger than excel can handle.
Example
Cell A5 contains the formula
=A1^456. The number and the
exponent are too big that when
computed result into a very
large number that the Ms-Excel
program cannot handle.

g) #Null! Error
This error occurs when the specified two ranges have no intersection.
Example

Cell A7 contains the function

=SUM (A1:B5 C1:D5). This
two ranges do not intersect yet
the way the function was typed
by having a space between the
ranges was to tell the excel
program that they do intersect.

h) Circular reference
A warning message appears when a formula refers to the cell containing
the formula. This is referred to as circular reference.
Example
Note that in cell A7 is the
formula=
A1+A2+A3+A4+A5+A6+A7
. But this formula adds up
to cell A7 where the
formula is supposed to be
typed causing the error of
circular reference.

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i) Not applicable (#N/A)
This error occurs when there is no valid number available to compute the
formula. You enter a valid number if necessary to correct this type of error.
Example
Cell A4 contains the
formula=MODE (A1:E2).However,
there is no mode value, which
resulted to an error of #N/A. You
can correct some numbers if
necessary to get a mode value.

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