How to use a spreadsheet

BRENDA. D.
MARAK
MBA 0710
1st Semester

How to use
spreadsheet
Using the keyboard
command and
mouse syntax of
Excel by Microsoft
for this example. In
what follows, what
you enter on the
keyboard will be in
bold.
Special keys, like
the key labeled
“Enter” will be
written as:
<Enter>, and
menu options will
be bold-italic.
Let’s suppose you have a number
of data points such as data on a
series of cylinders. You want to
perform some statistical analysis,
perhaps to find the sum, mean and
standard deviation of the various
data sets. The first step is to set up
the organization of the rows and/or
columns. Perhaps you decide to
list the rows as the separate
measurements, and the columns
as your measurements on each as
follows:

Row 1 contains the titles of the columns as
text. Each box in which you enter
something is called a “cell”. Excel
recognizes the data in a cell as you type it
in as either text or a number by the first
character. So we begin by moving the
cursor (either with the mouse or the
keyboard arrow keys) to the cell A1
(column A row 1). When the cursor is in a
cell, that cell appears to have a dark
border. Typing the first “C” of “Cylinder”
alerts Excel that the cell will contain text,
and not a number. Excel is quite good at
figuring out your input. It can recognize
numbers, text, even a variety of date
formats. For now we type Cylinder in cell
A1. Notice as you type, the input is shown
at the top, in the “formula bar”, as well as
in the cell itself. You can backspace;
delete, etc. in order to get your input
correct. When it’s OK hit the <Return> or
<Enter> key to place the word in the cell. If
it’s incorrect after you have hit <Enter>,
you can still correct it by simply typing it
again in any highlighted cell. If the entry is
a long one, you can highlight the cell,
move the mouse pointer to the incorrect
spot in the formula bar, and correct it
there, and <Enter> it again.

The preceding syntax means to choose the menu
items at the top of the spreadsheet in sequence.
Click the left mouse button first on the word File
at the top left, then choose the Column option,
and finally choose AutoFit Selection.
Now move the highlight to cell A3. Type the
numbers 1-9 for the cylinders you measure down
the column A to complete the organization. If you
make any mistakes, simply type the new data
over the old. Next enter the data so that the
spreadsheet looks like this:

Move the highlight to B14 and type: =average(B3:B11) to get the mean. Do this
in lower case. Watch the entry in the formula bar at the top of the spreadsheet.
When you hit the <Enter> key, the formula in the bar at the top changes
“average” to upper case. This means that Excel recognized your entry as an
Excel function. It left “Cylinder” as it was entered before, since that isn’t a
function. This is a nice feature, and I always enter my functions in lower case,
letting Excel tell me if I entered them correctly when it changes to upper case.
Let’s do a standard deviation too, but in a different manner. Type only: =stdevp(
in cell B15 for the standard deviation, but do not yet hit <Enter>. Now move the
mouse cursor to cell B3, hold down the left button, and “drag” the highlight to cell
B11. Note that it now says “=stdevp(B3:B11” in the bar at the top. Just move the
cursor to the upper function bar and add the right parenthesis and hit <Enter>.
Excel will then create the standard deviation for the column of data in cell B11.
In order to know what your values are, you should type: Sum in cell A13, Mean
in A14, and S. Dev. in A15. The sheet will now look like:

Click it with the mouse, or hit Alt-F. The
underlined F in Format is the key that, if hit while
working in the menu area, will execute the
selection. The <Alt> key gets you into the menus
via the keyboard.
Next select Cells. Once again, you can click on
it or choose “e” on the keyboard (e because C is
for Column...note that the e is underlined) You
don’t need to press Alt this time, since you are
already in menus when you hit Alt the first time.
Excel brings up a new menu with a number of
formatting choices. Choose Number for the
formatting options that pertain to numbers. You
can either select from the offerings, or type in
your own. We’ll do the latter. Move the cursor
down to where it says “General” (the default
choice) by using the mouse or Tab key and type:
0.0. Excel interprets this as any number with a
single decimal. It also adds this to the list for
future selection. Hit <Enter> or click “OK” and
everything will be formatted to one decimal
place. Shortcut: use the “.00 →.0” icon in the
menu bar to reduce the number of decimal
places in a highlighted cell by one.

Switch on your computer and wait until a whole
lot of picture symbols appear with a Start button
on the bottom left of the screen. Use the left
button on the mouse to click on the Start button.
Then click on programmes and then double-click
on the MSWORD programme. Some computers
have a MSWORD symbol that will come up when
your computer is on and you do not have to go to
start – simply double click the left button of the
mouse on the symbol.
The Microsoft word programme will appear on the
screen.
There will be a blank screen called Document 1.
Every thing you type is called a document. Above
the blank screen there are various terms and
signs you should know about.

1
• The first line has a list of titles called commands -
File, Edit, View, etc
2
• The second and third lines are called the toolbar
and have different blocks that you can use to
give quicker commands to the computer.
3
• The fourth line [if there is one] shows your page
margins – it is called the ruler.

Click on this and a box with different sections will appear. This is
your file organiser and you use the first section:
To start a new document (click on new) You can
use the block with a folder on it on the toolbar to do
this more quickly. Use your mouse to click on it.)
To open an old document (click on open) and then
click on the name of the document you want to
open
To close a document. The computer will ask you if
you want to save it before you close it and then you
click on Yes or No.

The next section is to do with saving documents.
If you press save, the document will be saved under its heading in the
general folder called My Documents. You can do this with the block on
the toolbar showing stiffy disk. Click on it with your mouse.
Save As allows you to save a document under a new name in the folder
of your choice. When you click on Save as, a new box will open on
screen. First go to the Save In square. It should say My Documents. In
the block below yellow folders will appear if you have made them. (See
Step 2 in Using MSWORD as an Office) Click on the folder you want to
save the document in. Click on Open. Then check that you like the
name of the document. If you like it press save. If you don’t like it delete
the file name and type a new name. Then click save.
If your document is an update of an old document but you want to save
it as a new version click on Version in the Save box under file. Type in
your comments and click Save. (I don’t use this much as I just give the
document a new date and use Save As to save it under a new name.)
The next section is to do with how the document looks (Page Set Up)
and Print Preview and to print documents.

How to use a spreadsheet

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