WHAT IS A SPREADSHEET?

A spreadsheet is a tool for managing numbers and calculations. It is made up of

columns and rows in which you record data or write formulas to perform
calculations on it.

Excel enables you to perform a wide variety of functions including sorting and
selecting from lists. Excel includes a feature that will produce charts from
numeric data.

Starting Excel

To start Excel:
 Click on the Start button to open its pop-up menu
 Point to Programs. Click on Microsoft Excel

Excel will open, and display a screen similar to that shown below.

Standard toolbar
Formatting toolbar Column header Column buttons
Menu bar
Formula bar Top 3 for Excel

Lower 3 for worksheet

Active cell

Row number Worksheet number

Scroll bars
Load Excel. A blank spreadsheet will be displayed on your screen.

1. Inserting Numbers and Text

Task
Create a table showing the sales figures for two companies over a three-year
period

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Basic steps
Start by entering the years in the first column
 Move the highlight to the required cell by moving the pointer to the cell using
the mouse and then clicking on the left mouse button or by using the arrow
keys on the keyboard to move up, down, left or right in the spreadsheet.
 Move the highlight to cell A1
 Type Year. Text will appear near the top of your screen as well as in the cell
A1.
 Press <Enter>: The text will be place in cell A1 and the highlight moves down
the next cell.
 Move the highlight to cell A3. Type 1994
 Press <Enter>
 Move to cell A4 and type 1995 and press <Enter>. Similarly, in cell A5 type
1996 and press <Enter>
 Now enter the company sales figures. Move the highlight to cell C1. Type
Company X and press <Enter>. Move to cell C3. Type 540 and press
<Enter>
 Continue to insert the Company X and Company Y figures.

Notes:
If you make a mistake while typing, use the, <Backspace> key to delete
characters you have already typed in. Alternatively, if you have already entered
the data into a cell it can be overwritten with anything. Move the highlight to the
cell you wish to change and type in the correct data. When you press <Enter>
the previous contents of the cell will be overwritten.

2. Using formulae
You can insert formulae into any cell in order to add, subtract, multiply and divide
the contents of other cells in the spreadsheet. For example, to add the contents
of cells A1 and A2 you would enter the formula =A1+A2. In excel you must start
any formula with an arithmetic symbol (for example =).

Task
Insert formulae into the spreadsheet to calculate the total sales figures over the
three-year period for Company X and Company Y.

Basic steps
Move the highlight to cell C7. You want to add up the sales figures for Company
X. These are contained in cells C3, C4, and C5.
Type =C3+C4+C5 and press <Enter>. The total figure of 1870 is now displayed
in cell C7
Move the highlight to E7
Type =E3+E4+E5 and press <Enter>. The total figure of 1790 is now displayed
in cell E7
Insert an appropriate label for these totals. Move the highlight to A7.
Type Total Sales and press <Enter>.

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The resulting spreadsheet will appear as shown below:

Notes:
Throughout the following examples you will use formulae for various calculations.
The symbols used for the four arithmetic operations are:
Add +
Subtract -
Multiply *
Divide /

3. Saving Spreadsheets

Task
Save the spreadsheet created in the first two examples.

Basic steps
The spreadsheet created in the previous examples is displayed on your screen.
The menu displayed near the top of the screen shows a range of options, as
shown below:

 Select the File option by either using the mouse or the keyboard.

Using the mouse:

Move the pointer to the File option and click on the Left Mouse button

Using the keyboard

Press the <Alt> key to activate the menu. The highlight should be on the File
option. Now press <Enter>
 Select the Save option
 The Save As window is displayed on your screen
 Type in an appropriate name for this spreadsheet as follows: Type SALES
and press <Enter>.

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 The spreadsheet has now been saved on the Default Directory and is called
SALES.XLS. This filename will be displayed at the top of the spreadsheet.
All spreadsheets saved using Excel will have .XLS inserted automatically by
the computer after the filename you type in.

Notes:
You can use any combination of letters and numbers for a filename. A, 2A1,
TEST300 are all valid filenames. Do not use spaces in filenames, for example
SALES 1 or TEXT 300 are not valid filenames.

4. Closing a spreadsheet

Task
Remove the current spreadsheet from your screen

Basic steps
 Select File
 Select Close from the menu displayed
 A blank screen is displayed

Notes:
At this stage if you need to create a new spreadsheet, select File and New to
display a blank table, and enter data as required.

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5. Retrieving a spreadsheet

Task
Retrieve a spreadsheet already saved on disk.

Basic steps
 Excel should still be loaded. Select File and choose Open
 The Open window is now displayed in this screen.
 To retrieve the SALES spreadsheet, click on the file SALES or click on

Notes:
You may need to use the arrow keys or the scroll bar to move through the list of
files in order to display the file you need to work on.

6. Editing a spreadsheet
Task
Insert extra data into your table, giving the sales figures for Company Z over a
three-year period and change the sales figures for Company Y.

Company Z has the following sales figures:

1994 490
1995 510
1996 480

The sales figures for Company Y will be changed to:

1995 650
1996 750
Basic steps
The sales spreadsheet is displayed ion your screen. First enter the new details
for Company Z using the following method:
 Move the highlight to cell G1
 Type Company Z and press <Enter>
 Move the highlight to cell G3.
 Type 490 and press <Enter>. Using the same method, enter the other
sales figures for Company Z in cells G4 and G5.
 Move to G7 to enter a formula for the total sales for Company Z.
 Type =G3+G4+G5 and press <Enter>
 Your spreadsheet will now look like the one shown below:

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  Now edit the Company Y figures given at the beginning of this example
(i) Move the highlight to cell E4
(ii) Type 650 and press <Enter>.
(iii) In cell E5 type 750
When you change the data the formula will be re-calculated and
new values are re-calculated
 Your spreadsheet will now look like the one shown below:

 To re-save the spreadsheet using the same filename:

Select File from the menu
Choose Save
The edited spreadsheet will be re-saved as SALES.XLS.

Using the icons

Task
Use the icons to perform the functions introduced in this lesson.

Using the icons displayed at the top of your screen will enable you to perform a
variety of procedures more quickly than the standard menu approach.

Basic steps
Some of the icons available in Excel are displayed at the top of your screen.
 To perform the action simply click on the left mouse button while pointing at
the relevant icon.

Try to save and retrieve the SALES file using these icons.

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Exiting Excel

Task
Exit from Excel

Basic steps
 Select File from the menu
 Select Exit

Notes:
If you have amended a spreadsheet since the last time you saved your work you
will now be asked to confirm whether you want to exit Excel without saving. In
this case, select Yes to exit, or No to return to the spreadsheet. You have now
exited from Excel and the Desktop window is displayed on your screen.