Table of Contents

• Introduction to Excel
• Area of Usage:
• Launching Excel
• Entering Data in Cell: –
• Types of Data you can Enter in Excel
  • Navigation with your Keyboard
  • Navigation with your Mouse: –
  • Name Box on the formula bar & Go To the Dialog box
• Format Data using Font, Alignment & Number Group
• Editing Data (Cut, Copy & Paste): –
• Working with Worksheet
• Best fit or Autofit
• Simple Mathematical Calculation
  • Working with Formulas and Functions
• Saving a Workbook
• To Save an Existing Workbook.

Introduction to Excel

Excel is nothing but a spreadsheet program that has powerful tools and features, with the help of tools and features it analyzes the data and helps us to maintain and share, it with the least effort. 

The large sheet containing information that is arranged in the form of a matrix of rows and columns is called Spreadsheet.

With the help of the Spreadsheet, you can enter the data which you want to calculate, analyze and manipulate.   

When you added a formula in the spreadsheet and if you change any data then it automatically recalculates and gives us the new answer 

Like Excel, there are many other spreadsheets such as Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro Pro, etc. are available but Excel is very easy as compared to the above spreadsheet and it is very useful and world standard.

Area of Usage:

We get a complete listing of applications under one roof in Excel, it includes budgeting displays, enrollment records, inventories, coded surveys, field, checkbook registers, laboratory research data, and financial and accounting applications. Excel also includes automatic recalculation, graphs, and functions.

• Suppose the zonal manager of sales wishes to track down the sales of the South Delhi region for the month of June 2007 of each particular area graphically- by a bar graph. He also wishes to mark the areas recording the highest and lowest sales. How can he do it with significant ease?
• The Director of an organization wishes to make a table of comparative profits after tax of the company for the last five years so that he can identify the trend of the company’s performance. Can you help him?
• As a financial advisor, how would Sachin choose from a variety of mutual funds, and insurance policies and suggest the best ones giving maximum returns for his client, so that Mr. Vishal is fully satisfied?

The answer to all the above is only one – MS – Excel. There are so many examples are there where excel is used as the most powerful to solve day-to-day problems.

Launching Excel

1) Click Start Menu ->All Programs -> Microsoft Office -> Microsoft Office Excel 2007,2010, 2013

OR

2) You can also type “EXCEL” under the open text box in the Run dialog box (Start Button -> Run) to launch the program.

When you open Microsoft Office Excel, the first thing you will notice is the new interface. Now that we’ve opened Excel, let’s take a look at what’s on our screen.

A brief explanation of the different components of Excel’s opening Screen:

• Office Menu: – This menu contains most items that used to be on the file menu in the previous Excel. These include some most relevant commands related to an excel file. Apart from this, it holds a list of recently used documents.

• Quick Access Tool Bar: – Some command icons are there in this toolbar. By default, this toolbar holds Save (Ctrl + S), Undo (Ctrl + Z), and Redo (Ctrl+ Y) buttons. Although Quick Access Toolbar can be customized to include your favorite command that you frequently.

• Different Tab Ribbons: – It contains Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data Review, and View Tab. Each Tab holds a group of commands with that tab.

• Title Bar: – It displays the name of the active document/sheet.

• Ribbon: – All commands of Excel are available in a single area so that we can work decisively with the program. The commands available in the Ribbon vary, depending upon which tab is selected. The Home tab is active by default. Other tabs can be activated by clicking one of the other tabs, such as Insert, which displays that tab’s buttons. The Ribbon is also arranged into groups of related commands. Here’s a quick overview of Excel’s tabs. Click on different tabs to get the respective ribbons.

• Home: – You’ll probably spend most of your time on the Home Tab Selected. This tab contains the basic clipboard commands formatting commands, and style commands so that we can insert rows & columns and delete rows and columns, you can also do an assortment of the worksheet by editing commands.

• Insert: – Insert tab when you need to insert something in a worksheet like images, a table, a diagram, a chart, a symbol, and so on.

• Page Layout: – This tab contains commands that affect the overall appearance & performance of your worksheet, including settings that deal with printing.

• Formulas: – Formula is a very tab from this tab you can insert a formula, name a range, access the formula auditing tools, or control how Excel performs calculations.

• Data: – All data-related commands are on this tab.

• Review: – Checking to spell, translating words, adding commands, or protect sheets for all this, this tab is used.

• View: – The View tab contains commands, it controls various aspects of how a sheet is viewed, presented, etc. We can see in the status bar, some of the commands are available.

• Control Bar: – At the right end of the title bar are the three familiar buttons that have the same functions in all windows. You can hide the word window temporarily by clicking Minimize button, you can also adjust the size of the window by clicking on the Restore down / Maximize Button, and closing the active document or quit Excel with the close button.

• Name Box: – Address bar shows the address of the active cell. In the above figure active cell is A1 which is why we are getting A1 in the name box.

• Formula Bar: – The formula bar is located beneath the toolbar and at the top of the Excel worksheet. The formula bar is used to enter and edit worksheet data. The contents of the active cell will always appear in the formula bar.

Rows, Columns & Cells: – Every worksheet consists of rows (numbered 1 through 1,048,576) and columns (labeled as A through XFD). After column Z comes column AA, which is followed by AB, AC, and so on.

After column AZ comes to BA, BB, and so on. After column ZZ is AAA, BBB, and so on. Each worksheet has 16,384 columns and 10, 48,576 rows. So, each worksheet contains 16384 X 1048576 numbers of cells. A cell is the intersection of a row and a column. For example, the first cell is referred to as A1 (column A, row 1). Data and formulas are entered into cells.

• Sheet Tabs: – Sheet tabs hold a list of worksheets by default it provides three Worksheets named Sheet 1, Sheet 2, and Sheet 3 respectively.
• Horizontal and Vertical Scroll Bar: – The Scroll Bar is used to roll up/down/right and left and see the column/row number change until you release the mouse button.
• Zoom Slider: – A slider that magnifies or reduces the content in the worksheet area.
• Groups: – On each tab, buttons have been organized into groups. Depending on the size of the program window, in some groups the button which you are likely to use most often it is bigger than the rest.
• Dialog box launcher: – Related but less common commands are not represented as a button in the group. Instead, they are available in a dialog box, which you can display by clicking the Dialog Box Launcher at the right end of the group’s title bar.

Entering Data in Cell: –

Whenever you enter in excel you are given a blank file (Workbook) containing three worksheets. Out of this sheet, 1 is activated by default. In each worksheet in the combination of multiple cells (in each worksheet there are multiple rows and columns, interacting areas of rows and columns create rectangular zones, and each rectangular zone is called a cell) we will enter data under different cells.

Types of Data you can Enter in Excel

An Excel workbook can hold any number of worksheets, and each worksheet is made up of more than 17 billion cells. A cell can hold any of three basic types of data:

• Numerical values
• Text
• Date & Time
• Formulas

The Text is any combination of letters, numbers, and spaces. By default, the text is automatically left aligned in a cell. However, the numbers and dates are right aligned.

A worksheet can also hold charts, diagrams, pictures, buttons, and other objects. These objects aren’t contained in cells. Rather, they reside on the worksheet’s draw layer, which is an invisible layer on top of each worksheet.

Moving Around a Worksheet

At the opening interface, Excel provides you with a default workbook name book 1 containing 3 worksheets. When you want to place your cursor or activate or cell in order to insert, edit or format the cells, there are ways to help you.

You can use: –

• Mouse
• Keyboard
• Name box on the formula bar & Go To Dialog Box

Press Ctrl while you use the mouse wheel to Zoom the worksheet without pressing Ctrl, choose Office Button -> Excel Option and select the Advanced Section. Place a checkmark next to the Zoom on Roll with the Intellimouse check box.

Using the scrollbars or scrolling with your mouse doesn’t change the active cell. It simply scrolls the worksheet. To change the active cell, you must click a new cell after scrolling.

Tip: If your mouse has a wheel on it, you can use the mouse wheel to scroll vertically. Also if you click the wheel and move the mouse in any direction the worksheet scrolls automatically in that direction. The more you move the mouse the faster the scrolling.

Name Box on the formula bar & Go To the Dialog box

Format Data using Font, Alignment & Number Group

Excel mainly supports two types of data: Text & Numbers. You can format them using font, alignment & number group. The command of font group is the same as MS Word & also their usage. The Alignment & Number group provides some special buttons as shown in the figure

1. Wrap Text -> Make all content visible within a cell by displaying it on multiple lines.

2. Merge & Center -> A single cell created by combining two or more selected cells. The contents of the single cell appear in the center of the merged cell.

3. Currency -> Select various currencies formats for the selected cells.

If you want to change the currency symbol, then go to Start menu -> Settings Control Panel -> Clock, Language & Region -> Regional & Language Options. Change the default currency symbol to your desired one (e.g. Rs).

4. % -> Percentage button allows a percentage sign as suffix with the numeric data and multiply the number by 100 (hundred).

5. Decimal -> These commands are used to increase or decrease number of decimal places. Normally, it is used to round off the figures.

6. Intent -> These indent buttons are used to change indentation within cell(s).

Editing Data (Cut, Copy & Paste): –

Edit data: You can change data in a cell directly by overwriting the same or pressing the F2 function key/double-click on the cell for editing.

Copy & Paste Data:- You can copy an entry into surrounding cells by dragging the AutoFill handle of the cell contents which you want to copy, which will appear at the right-bottom of the corner of the cell. Drag the fill handle in any direction to copy the data to adjacent cells. A small box or bubbles appears to let you know exactly what data is being copied.

This feature of Excel is called AutoFill. Using this dragging method of Fill handle you may copy data as well as formulae. This can also be performed by using Home Tab -> Clipboard Group -> Copy & Paste command sequentially. Instead of Ribbon you can use shortcuts also; Ctrl + C keys together for copy option & Ctrl + V keys together for Paste option.

Moving Data: To move data from one location to another, you can use Ribbon, i.e. Go to Home Tab -> Clipboard Group -> Click Cut command on clipboard group or press Ctrl + X keys together. Keep your cursor on the target cell and click Paste command on clipboard group or press Ctrl + V. Otherwise drag the border of the selection to the required area.

 

Delete data: To delete the contents of a cell completely, place the cell pointer on the cell & press Delete or Del key from the keyboard, otherwise select Home Tab -> Editing Group -> Clear -> Clear All.

Working with Worksheet

Best fit or Autofit

If the cell width is not adequate for the contents of a column, you can change it to its exact required size using either the Best fit or Auto fit option. The best fit is used not only to change the cell width as well as to change the row height also.

Place the mouse pointer on the separator of the column letters or row numbers, then double-click on it, immediately the column width or row height will be changed to display the widest entry within that particular column or row. Always you have to consider the separator between the current column or row and the next column or row. This is known as the Best fit feature.

To make Auto Fit, select the particular columns and then go to Home Tab-> Cell Group-> Click Format-> AutoFit Column Width. The columns are automatically adjusted so that each column is wide enough to show the widest content in that particular column. Similarly, to adjust the height of the row automatically, first select all the rows to be adjusted. Go to Home Tab-> Cell Group-> Click Format-> AutoFit Row Height. The rows are automatically adjusted so that each row’s height is enough to display the entry of such height in that row. AutoFit option can change the width or height of multiple columns or rows at a time, but Best Fit works only for a single column or row.

Simple Mathematical Calculation

Mathematical operators, such as + (for addition), – (for subtraction), * (for multiplication) and / (for division) make a spreadsheet program so useful.

Working with Formulas and Functions

After you enter a formula, the cell displays the calculated result of the formula. The formula itself appears in the Formula bar when you select the cell, however.

Following are a few examples of formulas:

 

=A1+A2+A3+A4	Adds the values in cells A1, A2, A3 & A4.
=B1-B2	Subtract the values in cells B1 & B2
=C1*C2	Multiples C1 & C2
=D1/D2	Divide the value of cell D1 with cell D2

To apply Auto Sum, just keep your cursor on the target cell and click AutoSum command under Home tab -> Editing group.

Saving a Workbook

Whatever, you type in a workbook is stored only in your computer’s temporary memory. If you exit Excel, that data will get lost. Therefore, the important matter has to be saved within permanent memory using the save command;

To save a New Workbook:

1. Click Office Button -> Save as -> Click Excel Workbook. This will launch the save as dialog
2. Type a new file name and click the Save button.

To Save an Existing Workbook.

1) Select Office Button -> Click Save.

Note: By default, Excel saves a copy of your work automatically every ten minutes. To adjust this setting (or turn it off), use the save tab of the Excel Options dialog box. To display this dialog box, choose Office Button -> Excel Options. However, you should never rely on Excecl’s Auto Recover feature. Saving your work frequently is a good idea.