Overview
Did you know that Microsoft's Excel is one of the most popular computer programs in use today? If you are getting ready to enter or reenter the workforce, the ability to create and use spreadsheets can be an asset. Businesses use Excel to track inventory and shipping, compute salaries, and create financial reports, among other tasks. Home users can balance a checkbook and create a budget with Excel. But Excel is not only for numbers and computation. Many people use Excel for other real-world tasks. For example, you can use Excel to
· keep contact information for business associates, friends, and family
· maintain an inventory
· catalog a music CD collection
· monitor a physical exercise program
After completing this course, you will be competent in the use of Excel to manage and compute real-world data.
Although this course is designed for users with varying degrees of visual impairment, it does not provide specific instructions for using access technology. Go to the manual for your screen reader or screen magnification program for such information.
The goal of this course is to enable you to use the basic features of Excel to manage and compute real-world data. The course begins with an orientation. It includes a quick reference list of common Windows and Excel keystrokes and commands, and it instructs you in setting up a course folder for storing files. The course is divided into five lessons. Lesson 1 describes Excel and introduces some essential commands for navigation, selection, and input. Lesson 2 guides you through entering and editing information, and it shows you a quick method for entering the current date and time. Lesson 3 explains how to use formulas and functions, which are Excel's greatest strength and advantage. Lesson 4 gives you practice cutting, copying, and pasting data; inserting and deleting rows and columns; and formatting cells. Lesson 5 discusses creating and managing databases. The appendix explains how to print worksheets.
Each lesson has example situations that lead you through new tasks in Excel. As you work through the steps in these examples, remember that you can always ask your instructor to clarify concepts or discuss your answers.
To complete the course, you are required to submit five assignments, one at the end of each lesson. Four of the assignments have two parts. These assignments enable your instructor to assess your mastery of the material in the lessons. Create and send the assignment files as instructed in the Welcome Letter and the assignment pages.
Your instructor will send you files for you to use in some lessons and assignments. The following is a list of what you should receive as you begin a lesson:
Lesson 2: "My Budget.xls"
Lesson 3: "Handyman.xls"
Lesson 4: "Remodel.xls"
Lesson 5: "Music.xls", "Restaurants.xls," and "Bowling.xls"
Lesson 1: Getting Started
Many Windows programs use the same commands and keystrokes. Since you already know how to use a word processor, you'll find it easy to begin using Excel. This lesson describes Excel and discusses various uses for a spreadsheet program. It then introduces some essential commands for navigation, selection, and input. Considering Excel's advantages and potential uses as well as practicing some basic tasks are your first steps toward becoming a competent user of Excel.
Objectives
After completing this lesson, you will be able to
a. describe Excel
b. begin using an Excel worksheet
Key Terms
The following terms appear in this lesson. Familiarize yourself with their meanings so you can use them as you work with Excel.
cell: the basic unit of a spreadsheet in which data is stored
default: a selection made automatically when the user has not made a specific decision
range: a group of cells that are in contact with one another
spreadsheet: a grid of columns and rows designed for entering, calculating, and maintaining information
workbook: an Excel file that contains one or more worksheets
worksheet: a single Excel spreadsheet
What Is Excel?
How does the Excel program appear, and why is it useful? This section defines a spreadsheet and discusses its advantages. It then lists some ways to use the program.
What Are Electronic Spreadsheets?
A spreadsheet is a grid of columns and rows designed for entering, calculating, and maintaining information. An electronic spreadsheet, or spreadsheet application, is a program that enables the user to do spreadsheet tasks on a computer.
You may wonder why an electronic spreadsheet like Excel is better than one on paper. When you want to make a change in a paper spreadsheet, you have to redo all the calculations and reenter each result. Excel does all the calculations automatically and makes the changes instantaneously. For that reason, Excel and other electronic spreadsheet programs are very popular in business environments.
For example, you may be interested in finding out how much it would cost to take out a loan. You would enter the amount of the loan, the amount of interest, and the number of payments. You would then use a calculator to find out how much the monthly payments would be. You might then change the amount of the loan or the number of payments. To find out how the change affects your monthly payments, you would have to use the calculator again. In Excel, you simply enter a different number, and the program does all the calculations immediately.
Uses for Electronic Spreadsheets
No doubt you have some idea of what you want to do with Excel. Perhaps, however, you haven't yet considered some very useful tasks in both corporate and personal environments. This short section lists some ideas for using Excel.
Excel is very popular in the corporate and small business world. Consider the following tasks:
· payroll calculations
· comparing costs, profits, and prices on products
· calculating prices and discounts
· predicting expenses
· calculating salespersons' commissions
· keeping inventory
Many uses for Excel exist in personal environments, as well. Consider the following:
· budgeting expenses
· averaging grades
· cataloging audio CDs
· comparing costs for a wedding or other family event
· monitoring a physical exercise program
As you progress in the course, you will create spreadsheets that do some of these tasks. Having defined a spreadsheet and considered some uses for Excel, maybe you can think of other ways to use the program in your work and personal life.
Using Excel
This section describes the Excel window and explains how to navigate a worksheet, select cells, and begin inputting.
The Excel Worksheet
Begin using Excel now by activating the Start menu and selecting Program or All Programs. Navigate to Microsoft Excel and press [enter] or click on the program name. Or use this easy way to start the program: Activate the Start menu and select Run. In the Open textbox, type the word excel. Then press [enter]. Or use any other method you know to start the program.
Once the program is open, an empty worksheet appears. Make sure the window is maximized by pressing [alt+space bar] and then [x]. Mouse users maximize the window by clicking on the button to the left of the close button. At the top of the Excel window, you notice the title bar, which identifies the program and the name of the file. The default filename is "Book1." Once you name a file and save it, the saved name appears in the title bar. Next is the menu bar, which includes File, Edit, View, Insert, Format, Tools, Data, Window, and Help. After the menu bar comes one or more toolbars, a set of buttons that mouse users can click on to execute various commands. Under the toolbars are the name box, the edit line, and the formula bar. The name box identifies where you are in the spreadsheet. The edit line displays data that you enter, and the formula bar provides a place to edit procedures for calculations.
As already described, a spreadsheet is made up of columns and rows. Columns are labeled with letters: A, B, C, and so on. The number of columns is not limited by the number of letters in the alphabet, however. After column Z come columns AA, AB, AC, and so on. An Excel spreadsheet has 256 columns, so the last column is labeled IV. Rows are labeled with numbers. Excel allows for 65,536 rows. Of course, you usually only see a small portion of the worksheet at one time.
Cells are identified by their coordinates, or the intersection point of the column and the row. For example, cell A1 is the cell that is in the top left of the spreadsheet, column A, row 1. Use the coordinates of a cell as its reference, or address. The coordinates are always a combination of letter or letters followed by a number with no space between them. The following are some examples of cell references: B28, S40, F18, AG230. It is common to use capital letters, but not necessary.
A cell can hold any number of characters. For the visual user, it is about eight characters wide by default, and it is adjustable. You'll change the visible width of cells in Lesson 4.
An active cell contains the insertion point, which is the point where the next character typed from the keyboard will appear. When you begin the program, the active cell is A1. If you are using a screen reader, it will say the cell reference of the active cell at the start of the program and, depending on your settings, every time the active cell changes. Find your screen reader’s command to announce the active cell now. If you are accessing Excel visually, the active cell has a border around it. In addition, the cell reference appears in the name box.
Navigating the Excel Worksheet
Now that you have a basic description of an Excel worksheet, begin to explore it by following Steps 1 through 8. Make sure the active cell is A1 to begin.
If you use a screen reader, find out now how to set the row and column titles to announce when the cursor is relocated to another cell.
1. Press [right arrow] three times. What is the cell reference of the active cell? D1.
2. Press [down arrow] four times. What is the cell reference of the active cell? D5.
3. Press [ctrl+home]. What is the cell reference of the active cell? The keystrokes [ctrl+home] make A1 the active cell.
4. Press [ctrl+g]. This command opens the Go To dialog box. In the Reference textbox, type gh27 (you can use upper- or lowercase letters), and press [enter] or click on OK. Is the active cell GH27?
5. Press [home]. What is the cell reference of the active cell? You’ve changed the active cell to the one at the beginning of the row, A27.
6. Use the Go To command, [ctrl+g], to go to cell E32. Press [tab]. What is the cell reference of the active cell? F32. Depressing the [tab] moves the active cell to the next cell on the right.
7. Press [tab] three more times. The active cell is now I32.
8. Finish by going back to A1. To do so, press [ctrl+home].
As you did Steps 1 through 8, you experienced the following:
• Arrow keys move the active cell one cell up, down, right, or left.
• The keystrokes [ctrl+home] make A1 the active cell.
• The keystrokes [ctrl+g] open the Go To dialog box, which provides a way to make any cell active from anywhere in the worksheet.
• Pressing [home] makes the active cell the one in the same row, column A.
• Pressing [tab] makes the active cell the next one to the right.
Selecting Data
You may remember from using your word processor that to make changes to text, you have to select it first. The same is true of spreadsheet cells.
In Excel, you select a single cell simply by making it active. You can also select a range of cells, which are cells in contact with one another. In fact, you can select a set of noncontiguous cells, which are cells that are not in contact with one another. You'll select single cells and ranges in this course. Advanced users can learn how to select noncontiguous cells by reading their manuals or asking experienced users. Practice selecting by doing Steps 9 through 15:
9. Go to A1. Hold down the Shift key while you press [right arrow] four times. Release. Mouse users can left click on cell A1 and drag (hold down the button while you move the mouse) to E1. Note that cell A1 is part of the selected range. A common error by beginning Excel users is to assume that the selection begins next to the active cell. Remember that a selection always includes the active cell. You have selected the range of cells A1 through E1. To verify that those cells are selected, find the screen reader command that announces selected cells. Visual users will notice that selected cells are surrounded by a heavier border and appear shaded.
10. Go to C23. What happens? The active cell is C23, and all other cells are unselected. Using the Go To command is only one way to unselect cells. Simply moving the insertion point unselects the previously active cells and makes another cell active.
11. Hold down [shift] while pressing [down arrow] four times and [right arrow] three times. Release. Mouse users can drag diagonally from C23 to F27. What cells are selected? Cells C23, C24, C25, C26, C27, D23, D24, D25, D26, D27, E23, E24, E25, E26, E27, F23, F24, F25, F26, and F27. A shorter way to describe this range of cells is "C23 through F27."
12. Press [left arrow]. Notice that pressing an arrow key is another way to unselect cells because it moves the insertion point.
13. Press [ctrl+space bar]. You've selected all the cells in column B.
14. Go to F30. The cells in column B are unselected.
15. Press [shift+space bar]. You've selected all the cells in row 30.