The following is a brief tutorial designed to introduce many of Excel's basic spreadsheet utilities. Please use this page as a guide when working on the worksheet exercises contained within this lab. Herein you will learn the basic concepts and skills necessary to begin using the worksheet capabilities of Excel. Topics included are how to create a basic worksheet, navigate in an existing worksheet,use built-in functions, and format the worksheet.

Reminder: This tutorial will assume a general familiarity with Microsoft Windows. If you are still in need of help with Windows, please refer back to the general Windows page. No knowledge of Excel is assumed.

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What is MS Excel?



Welcome to Microsoft Excel, a spreadsheet program designed to help you organize and manipulate data with ease. Excel can help you create any number and type of numerical report, a research database, a chart of your expenses, etc. A spreadsheet is a table composed of many cells, in which you are free to input your data a cell at a time. A cell is simply a box that holds some type of data for you; this may include either strings of characters or numbers. Excel has many functions that allow you to perform calculations, and aids in analysis of your data by allowing you to chart your finished spreadsheet values.

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Getting Started in Excel



To start an Excel application, find the Excel icon in the Programs toolbar. (This should appear when you move your mouse cursor to the side of the screen.) If another toolbar is present, use the right mouse button to change to Programs. If this fails, use the Find option under the Start icon near the bottom left of your screen; type 'excel' into the form box and locate the MS Excel application from the files shown. Double-click on it to start the application. (You may want to first drag it onto the desktop to create a shortcut for next time.) Excel will then put you into a new document window with the Toolbar, Ribbon and Ruler displayed beneath all of the menus.

If the Toolbar buttons or the ruler are not at the top of your Excel window, you can display them by pulling down the View menu and choosing the Toolbar,Ribbon, or Ruler options.

You are now ready to create a new worksheet!

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Creating a New Worksheet



To create a new worksheet, click on the File menu with the mouse and choose New. This will create a new worksheet for you to work on in the main Excel window. Alternatively, you may also hit [Ctrl+N] to open your worksheet document.

If you desire to open an existing worksheet, click on the File menu and choose the Open option. Select the drive and directory that the worksheet is located in by double clicking on the appropriate items in the pop-up window that appears. Make sure to double click on the desired worksheet file. [Ctrl+O] is the alternative key sequence.

Below is a diagram of a simple worksheet, which is a table composed of cells. Each cell is designated with a letter and a number. The letters indicate which column the cell is in, and the numbers indicate which row. Notice the cell names shown below:

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Saving a Worksheet



To save your new worksheet, click on the File menu and choose Save with your mouse. A pop-up window will then appear. Select the drive and directory that you want to save to and type in a name for your worksheet. Click OK or hit Enter. If you want, you can use [Ctrl+S] instead of using the File menu.

To save your worksheet under a different name and/or directory, click on the File menu and choose the Save As option. Enter the desired directory and/or name for the worksheet. Click on OK.

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Printing a Worksheet



To print out your current worksheet, click on the File menu and choose option Print. The printing menu will then be displayed.
To print out only certain pages, click on

and type in the page number of the first page that you want printed. Move the mouse cursor to the To box and type in the last page number that you want printed. Then click the OK button. You can move to the other parameters using the Tab key.

If you want to print you worksheet lengthwise (e.g., if your worksheet has a lot of columns), click on the File menu, go to Page Setup, and select the Landscape option. The printer will rotate the paper 90 degrees before printing the document. The Page Setup option will also allow you to eliminate gridlines, center data on the page, and change default header/footer settings.

If you want to look at the whole document before printing, click on the File menu and choose the Print Preview option.

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Quitting Excel



To quit an Excel application, do the following:

If you didn't save all your files before quitting, Excel will ask you if you want to save those files before closing the application.

To close a worksheet file without saving it, click on the File menu and choose Close. Excel will ask you to save your file with the options "Yes, No, or Cancel". Click on No.

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Asking Excel for Help



There are 3 simple ways you can ask Excel for help should you become stuck on something:
  1. Click on the Help menu located on the top menu bar. This will provide assistance on any kind of general Excel question.
  2. Move and pause the mouse cursor on top of a Toolbar button, menu, or command button. A short description of the selected button will appear in a small yellow "balloon".
  3. Click on the Help icon on the Toolbar to get help on any of the Toolbar buttons. It should look like this:

    You can then click on any of the Toolbar buttons to call up the Excel help section on that particular subject.

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