Excel 2007

Editor's Notes

• #4: Legend:X = Already familiar with the topicI = Important to youL = Less important to youN/A = Not applicable
• #10: If you have used Excel before, you will notice quite a change from previous versions. The menus and toolbars have been replaced by a new ribbon interface. Each tab contains many buttons for applying Excel’s features. To display a different set of commands, click the tab name. Buttons are organized into groups according to their function. To access a feature, click the desired button. When you hover over a button on the tab, a Screen Tip provides information about the button. In addition to the tabs, there are two other elements of the new Excel interface: the Office button and the Quick Access toolbar. The Office button, in the top left corner of your screen, gives you access to the file management commands. If you have used previous versions of Excel, you can think of the Office Button as your File menu. The Quick Access toolbar is a customizable toolbar for easy access to the commands you use the most.
• #11: A check mark indicates the item is already displayed on the toolbar. To add items not on the list, select More Commands from the menu.
• #12: Worksheets are simply collections of cells. You enter text, data, and calculations into these cells. Excel worksheets contain many millions of cells for you to use – there are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows, for a total of over 17 billion cells in each worksheet. A cell is the intersection of a row and a column. Columns are labeled with letters and rows are labeled with numbers. Each cell has a cell address, a combination of the column letter and the row number. You can see the cell address of the active cell in the name box. Only one cell can be active at a time, and that cell is called the active cell. In the example below, the cell with the thick border is the active cell, and its address is A1. You can move around a worksheet using your mouse or your keyboard. To move the active cell with your mouse, just click the desired cell. If you can’t see the cell you want to select, use the scroll bar to bring it into view. There are different ways to use your keyboard to move around. You can move the active cell one cell at a time using your arrow keys, or use one of many keyboard shortcuts. Commonly used shortcuts include the PgUp and PgDn keys, which move the active cell one screen up or down at a time, and the Ctrl + Home combination, which always returns you to cell A1.
• #13: A workbook is a collection of worksheets. When you save an Excel file, you are actually saving a workbook. By default, a workbook has three worksheets in it, as you can see below. You can add as many worksheets as you need, limited only by your computer’s memory. It’s easy to add more worksheets – just click the Insert Worksheet button. You can choose which worksheet to view by clicking the tab for that sheet.To give your worksheets more meaning, it is helpful to name each sheet. You can right-click the sheet tab to access the shortcut menu, and choose Rename. Type the name you want, and then press Enter to complete the entry.
• #14: To close Excel, click the Office button, and choose Exit Excel.
• #18: When you type data into a cell, all of it is contained in that cell. However, it doesn’t always appear that way. For example, “Household Budget” is typed in cell A1 shown here, but it appears to be in cell B1 as well. That is not the case: all the data is in cell A1. You can tell what is in a cell by clicking the cell and looking in the Formula Bar. If you were to type something into cell B1, next to “Household Budget,” it would appear that you had lost part of your entry in cell A1. The solution is to increase the width of the column. To do this, position your cursor to the right of the column label (in this case A), and when your cursor becomes a two-headed arrow as shown below, you can click and drag to the desired width. If you have typed numbers into a cell, and instead you see a series of ##### symbols, that indicates that your column is not wide enough to display all of the numbers in the cell. Again, the solution is to change the column width.
• #19: Sometimes the label you want for a column is too wide for it, and yet you don’t want to expand the size of the column. Many times, your column header is much wider than the data you plan to put under it. In this case, you might choose to wrap the text within the cell. In the example shown here, the “Total – First six months” is wider than we would like. Start by selecting the cell containing the text you want to wrap.On the Home tab, in the Alignment group, click the Wrap Text button. Your text is now wrapped within the cell. The height of the row has been increased to accommodate the wrapped text. If you change the width of the cell, note that the contents will adjust as needed.
• #20: Mistakes happen, and when they do, you can easily edit the contents of cells to make any changes you need. In the example shown here, the Heating budget for March should be 125. To edit a cell, start by selecting it. Then, click in the Formula Bar, and make any necessary edits. To remove characters, click to the right of the unneeded character, and press Backspace on your keyboard. Once you have removed the “7,” you can type a “2,” correcting your error.To delete the contents of a cell, select it, and press the Delete key. If you want to replace the contents of the cell, it isn’t necessary to press Delete first. You can just type, and your new typing will replace the existing contents.
• #21: It’s easy to add rows and columns to your worksheet. New columns are inserted to the left of your currently selected column, and new rows are inserted above your currently selected row. For example, to add a row for your Power bill between Heat and Phone, start by clicking in the row containing Phone. Then, on the Home tab, in the Cells group, click the Insert button. Click Insert Sheet Rows, and a row will appear. It’s just as easy to remove rows or columns. When you delete a row or column, all of the data from that row or column is deleted as well. Click in the row or column you want to remove, and then click the Delete button, which is located in the same group on the tab as the Insert button.
• #22: In the Spelling dialog, you can choose to replace a misspelled word, or ignore it.
• #24: Older versions of Excel may not be able to open the new file format, although Microsoft has published a service pack that can be installed in an older version of Excel in order for the new files to be read. This is something you should keep in mind if you are distributing files to users running previous versions of Excel.
• #25: To save a file, start by clicking the Office button, and then click Save As. Click the desired file format:To save in the Excel 2007 format, choose Excel Workbook.If you need to be certain that users of previous versions can open the saved file, choose Excel 97-2003 Workbook. (Note that if you click the Office button and choose Save, it automatically saves the file in the default Excel Workbook format.)
• #26: In the Save dialog, type a name for the file. Then navigate to the desired location and click Save.
• #27: PDF stands for Portable Document Format. Almost all computers have software to read a PDF file, making it an extremely portable file format. All that is required is a PDF reader, such as Acrobat Reader, which can be downloaded for free. It doesn’t matter if the computer is running Windows or Linux or is a Mac – all systems can read PDF files. Just remember, a PDF file can only be viewed, not edited. In order to save a file to PDF, you may need to download the PDF add-in from the Microsoft Web site.
• #29: If you have finished working on a workbook, but are continuing to work in Excel, you should close the file to conserve your system resources.
• #30: To open an Excel file, click the Office button. If you have recently viewed the file, it may be on your Recent Documents list. If so, click the file name.
• #31: If it is not on the Recent Documents list, click Open. Then, you will see the Open dialog. Here, navigate to the desired folder, and click the file name. Click Open to view the file.
• #36: When you choose Page Layout, for example, it is clear that your worksheet is currently spanning two pages.
• #37: Zoom controls how much of your worksheet appears on screen. Zooming in can be helpful if you are having trouble reading the data on your screen, but you don’t want to change the size of your type. Zooming out can be helpful to get an overview of the layout of your worksheet, or just to increase the amount of the worksheet shown on screen. The default zoom level is usually 100%.
• #40: Themes: Themes are collections of formatting options that you can apply to your workbook. Themes are covered in Module Eleven. Page Setup: You use these buttons to determine the appearance of each page in the worksheet. You will learn more about these options in this module.Scale to Fit: Scaling allows you to choose how on many pages your worksheet will print. Sheet Options: You can choose which options to view or print on your page.Arrange: Use these buttons to arrange graphics on the page.
• #41: To set the margins for your page, for example, click the Margins button, and then choose the margin setup you want. Or, to change the orientation of the page to Landscape, click the Orientation button, and choose Landscape.
• #42: Page breaks can be inserted to the left of a selected cell and above a selected cell. To insert a page break, click the Breaks button, and choose Insert Page Break. To remove a page break, follow the same procedure, but choose Remove Page Breaks.
• #43: Before you print, it is good practice to preview your file. To preview a file, click the Office button, and then click Print – Print Preview. (Note that to see a submenu in the Office menu, click the arrow beside a command, not the command itself.)
• #44: Your worksheet appears in the Print Preview window. There is only one tab, but you can use the buttons on it to zoom in and out, move from one page to the next (if there is more than one page), and hide or display the margins. When you have finished previewing your document, click the Close Print Preview button.
• #45: You can print a worksheet, an entire workbook, or just any part of worksheet.To print the currently active worksheet to your default printer, click the Office button, and then click Print – Quick Print. If you want to change any of the settings, click the Office button – Print to open the Print dialog. (If you only want to print part of a worksheet, make the selection before opening the Print dialog.)
• #46: Choose the printer from the Name list. If necessary, select the page range you want to print in the “Print range” area. You can also choose what to print in the “Print what area” by selecting the desired button. Finally, you can set the number of copies you would like to print. When you have finished making changes, click OK to send the file to your printer.
• #47: We will explore functions in the next module.
• #48: When you write formulas in Excel, it is helpful to remember some basic math skills. In Excel, the proper mathematical order of operations (PEDMAS) is followed when calculating the answer. For example, the formula:2 + 2 * 2results in the answer six. This is because multiplication and division are performed before addition and subtraction. If you wanted to produce the answer eight, you would have to rewrite the formula as follows:(2+ 2) * 2This distinction is important in a number of formulas: for example, when calculating a percentage increase, or calculating tax on a series of purchases.
• #49: This allows you to change the numbers in the formula, and see the impact of the change in the answer. For example, in the formula shown here, the formula in D4 calculates total value of the inventory. In the formula bar, you can view the formula; the cell displays the results. If you change either the number in stock, or the unit value, the total value will update to reflect the change.
• #52: If you have made an error in a formula, you can easily correct it. If you need to change an operator, you can edit a formula the same way you would a cell containing a value or label. Simply click the formula, and then click the Formula Bar. Delete unnecessary operators and correct your formula.If you need to change a cell reference in the Formula Bar, click and drag over the incorrect reference. Then, in the worksheet, click the correct one.
• #53: In Excel, you often repeat the same formula, changing only the row or column you are referencing. For example, in the worksheet here the formula for the Total Value in D4 is almost the same as the formula in D5. Only the row number is different. In this case, it is much faster to copy the formula than to write it over and over again.
• #54: To copy a formula down through a column, place your mouse over the AutoFill Handle (the square at bottom right corner of the border) in the cell containing the original formula. When your cursor changes to a plus sign, click and drag down to copy the formula. When you reach the last cell to contain the formula, release your mouse. To copy a formula across a row, drag the AutoFill handle to the right of the cell containing the original formula and through the cells.
• #56: Copying formulas works because of relative referencing. This means that a copied formula references cells in the exact same way as the original formula. If the original formula added the two numbers to the left of it, the formula will always add the two numbers to the left of it, no matter where you copy it to. This is not always what you want when you copy a formula.In the example shown here, the tax per unit is calculated by multiplying the tax rate in cell B16 and the Unit Price. However, when you copy the formula down, the answer becomes 0. That’s because each reference is moved down, with the result that the unit price is being multiplied by the contents of B17 – which is empty. In this case, we didn’t want the references to move relatively. We want each formula to refer to B16, regardless of which row we are in. In order to accomplish this, we will use absolute referencing. Absolute referencing forces Excel to reference the same cell no matter where the formula is copied. To create an absolute reference in Excel, put dollar signs around the absolute reference (for example, $B$16).
• #58: The function name gives an indication of the purpose of the function. For example, the SUM function sums up numbers, the AVERAGE function finds the average of a list of numbers, and the PMT function calculates a payment on a loan. The arguments vary depending on the function. For example, in the SUM and AVERAGE functions, the arguments are a list of numbers. In the PMT function, the arguments are the amount of the loan, the interest rate, and the number of payments.
• #59: The Formulas tab is used to help create functions. You can access Excel’s functions in the Function Library group. This saves you the trouble of typing the function name, and provides you with some help entering the arguments.
• #60: The SUM function adds up a series of numbers. Instead of having to repeatedly type + and click cell references, you can use the SUM function.
• #61: Excel enters the function name, the brackets, and guesses at the list of numbers. If Excel has selected the correct numbers, press Enter to finish the function. If Excel has guessed incorrectly, click and drag over the numbers you wish to add up, and then press Enter.
• #62: In our sample worksheet, you can use the SUM function to fill in the totals for each expense, and for each month. Functions can be copied in the same way as formulas.
• #64: You use these functions the same way you use the SUM function: click where you want the answer, and then click on the function name. If Excel does not guess the arguments correctly, click and drag over the correct cells. Press Enter to complete the entry.
• #65: If you don’t want to store a calculation in your worksheet, you can quickly check the sum, average, or other basic functions on a series of numbers with selection statistics. To use the status bar to view selection statistics, start by selecting the numbers on which you wish to perform a function. Note the statistics about your selection in the status bar.
• #66: To change the statistics shown, right-click the statistics area on the status bar. You can show several other functions, or remove the statistics that are currently displayed.
• #67: Now that you can create a basic worksheet and perform calculations, you might be interested in ways to make spreadsheet creation faster.
• #68: So far, you have already used AutoFill to copy a formula. That’s not all AutoFill can do: AutoFill can fill in a list based on a starting cell. For example, you can easily fill in months or days of the week. To create a list of months or days, type the first day or month of your list. You can even use the abbreviation (e.g. Mon instead of Monday).
• #69: To create a list of numbers, type the first number and drag the AutoFill handle to complete the list. When you release your mouse, an icon appears beside the AutoFill handle at the bottom of the list. Click the icon, and choose Fill Series.
• #70: Instead of using the AutoSum button to create a function, you can type it yourself. When you use this method, Excel AutoCompletes the function you choose.
• #71: Double-click the function you want. Excel inserts the left bracket and indicates the required arguments for the function. Click on the cell or cells required to complete the function, and then press Enter.
• #72: Sorting data allows you to choose the order that you view it. Data sorting works best when your columns have a label (e.g. Record, Part No., # In Stock, etc.). When you sort, Excel keeps your rows together. If you want to be able to return your data to the order in which you first entered it, make sure you have a column numbering the records. You can then use this column to sort on when needed. To sort your data, click in the column on which you wish to search. On the Home tab, in the Edit group, click the Sort & Filter button, and then choose Sort Smallest to Largest or Sort Largest to Smallest. For example, to sort the Inventory from highest value to lowest value, click anywhere in the Total Value column, and then click Sort Largest to Smallest.
• #73: Filtering allows you to choose criteria and view only the records that match those criteria. Start by clicking anywhere in the data. To enable filtering, click the Sort & Filter button again and choose Filter. Filter arrows appear beside the first row of the data.
• #74: To filter your data, click the arrow for the desired column. Clear the checkmarks for data you don’t want to view, or leave them for data you do want to see. For example, to view all stock that needs to be reordered, you can filter the “# left to reorder” column for all values of null. Depending on the type of data in the column, you can also use Number filters or Text filters to apply criteria that are more complex.
• #75: If a filter is applied to a column, the arrow button changes to a Filter button. To clear a filter, click the Filter button, and then click Clear Filter from [column name].
• #77: There are a number of things you can do to enhance the appearance of your text. You can change the font, the size, and the color, and you can add bold, italic, or underline effects. The quickest way to do this is to use the Home tab.
• #78: To change the appearance of your text, select the cell or cells containing the text you want to change. Then, in the Font group on the Home tab, select the appropriate button.
• #79: To change the color of the text in a cell, select the cell(s) to change. To apply the current color, indicated by the color on the button, click the Color button. To choose a color, click the arrow to the right of the color button, and click the desired color. Notice that in Excel 2007, the colors are organized by theme. We’ll take a closer look at themes in the next module.
• #80: There is a whole set of formatting specifically for numbers. You can choose a symbol to go with your numbers, such as % or $. You can choose how many decimal places to show and you can format dates and times. On the Home tab, you can either apply one of the three commonly used number formats, or choose from a list of all available formats. The three commonly used formats are:Accounting: Places a left aligned dollar symbol in front of the number and displays two decimal places. Negative numbers are shown in brackets.Comma: Places a comma to show thousands and displays two decimal places.Percent: Places a percent symbol after the number and does not display any decimal places.
• #81: To format numbers, select the cell(s) to format. In the Number group of the Home tab, select the desired format.
• #82: Alignment refers to the position of the contents within the cell.
• #83: To change the alignment, select the cell(s) to change. In the Alignment group of the Home tab, select the desired alignment.
• #84: Merge allows you to combine two or more cells into a single cell. This is useful for centering text across several columns. If you have text or numbers in your selection, the contents of the top left cell become the contents of the new merged cell. Because of this, you generally should merge one row at a time.
• #85: Formatting is not removed when you delete the contents of a cell. To see this, select a cell with formatting, and press Delete on your keyboard. Re-type the contents, and you’ll see that the new contents are formatted.
• #87: By default, there are no borders around any of the cells. You can add borders using the Border button.To add borders, begin by selecting the cells you wish to border. Each different type of border requires a separate selection. For example, if you want a double-underline under some cells, and a thick outline around others, you need to make separate selections for each border type. Click the arrow next to the border button, and then choose the border type. Repeat for each type of border you want to apply. Note that if you want to reapply the same border type twice or more in a row, you can simply click the Border button itself, not the arrow next to it.
• #88: To add more interest or focus to your worksheet, you can shade cells with any color you choose. To add fill color, select the desired cell(s). Like the font color and border buttons, you can click the Fill button to apply the current color, or you can click the arrow beside the button to access the Fill palette and choose any color. Select the cells containing the titles, and use the palette to apply shading. As you hover over a color, notice that Excel previews the color in your selected cell(s).
• #89: You can quickly format cells with a combination of fill color and font color using cell styles. To apply a cell style, select the desired cells, and then click Cell Styles. Choose the desired style.
• #90: Conditional formatting changes the appearance of a cell based on the criteria you choose. For example, if your actual income is $2500/month, you can use conditional formatting to highlight any month that is over that. To apply conditional formatting, select the desired cell(s).Click the Conditional Formatting button on the Home tab, and then choose the type of formatting you would like to apply.
• #92: Themes are consistent across the Office suite, so you can be assured that your documents have a cohesive look, no matter which application you use to produce them.
• #93: To apply a theme to a worksheet, click the Page Layout tab. Click the Theme button, and choose the desired theme. Excel previews each theme as your mouse hovers over it.