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MS EXCELMS Excel is a powerful calculator, spreadsheet and graphing tool.

This unit covers basic operations in MS Excel such as navigating, entering and editing values and formulas, etc.

Document Windows:

When you open a new Excel file (called a workbook), you will see a worksheet in the document window. Each workbook, by default, has 3 worksheets. Note the tabs at the bottom of the active window. The number of worksheets in a workbook can be customized as follows: click Tools, Options, General tab, and select the desired number of Sheets in New Workbook or choose Insert, Worksheet or choose Edit, Delete Worksheet

Each worksheet is composed of a rectangular grid of 65,536 horizontal rows (labeled 1, 2, 3, …) and 256 vertical columns (labeled A, B, C, … IV).

Each rectangular box on a worksheet is called a cell. Cells are referenced by cell addresses composed of a column letter and row number, e.g., A1, C4, etc. Each worksheet contains over 16 million cells. The Name box (on the left side of the Edit line) displays the cell address of the currently selected (active) cell. In the graphic, 350 is the entry in cell E3. Cell E3 is the active cell and this cell address is listed in the name box. The value of the active cell is shown in the Formula bar.

Information is entered into cells usually from the keyboard after cells have been selected, usually with the mouse pointer. Information can also be entered into selected cells by typing in the Formula bar. When you begin typing an entry, the data is displayed in both the active cell and the Formula bar. In addition, the Enter () and Cancel () buttons appear on the Edit line.

Customizing Worksheets:

As with MS Word, toolbars can be customized as follows: View, Toolbars, Customize, Commands or Tools, Customize, Commands or Right click on a toolbar and click Customize

CH503/MS INTRO to MS Excel Worksheets

Figure 1 An Excel Worksheet

Edit line

Name box active sheet

Cancel button

Enter button

active cell

Formula bar

Right click on a tool bar and choose Customize. On the Options tab, unselect both ‘Standard and Formatting toolbars share one row.” and “Menus show recently used commands first”. Select “Show Screen Tips on toolbars”. Choose a Menu animation and finally Close.

Worksheet names (Sheet1, Sheet2, etc.) can be made more descriptive by double clicking on the sheet tab and typing a new name. Click outside the sheet tab to exit the edit mode.

The order of worksheet tabs can be rearranged. Just click and drag the sheet tab. The mouse pointer becomes an icon showing a sheet at the end of the arrow pointer. An arrow above the sheet tab indicates where the copy will be inserted.

To copy a worksheet, hold down the Control key while dragging the sheet tab. A small + sign appears. You can also choose Move or Copy Sheet from the Edit menu.

Exercise: Insert a 4th worksheet to an Excel workbook, rename it ‘New’, move it and finally delete it.

Navigating Around the Worksheet:

You can move around a worksheet with the mouse or via keystrokes. The active cell is always highlighted. A single click of the mouse on the arrows in the horizontal or vertical scroll bars moves the worksheet one row or column.

Some keystroke commands are listed. Arrow keys move left, right, up, down one cell Enter moves down one cell Tab moves right one cell Shift + Tab moves left one cell Home move to the beginning of a row End moves to the end of row Page Up moves to the top of a window Page Down moves to the bottom of a window Ctrl + arrow key moves, in the direction of the arrow, to the end of a block of cells (a range of

cells containing values and bounded by empty cells). Ctrl + Home moves to cell A1 F5 E2 Enter moves to cell E2 Tools, Options, General tab, Settings, choose ‘Zoom on Roll with Intellimouse’ to quickly zoom

Selecting a Range of Cells on a Worksheet:

Select a range of cells in one of four ways:

1. Click one of the corner cells of the range, hold down the mouse button and drag to the cell in the opposite corner. The range of selected cells will be highlighted. The size of the selection will be displayed in the Name box, e.g., 3R5C, i.e., 3 Rows by 5 Columns.

2. Select a cell in one corner of the range, then hold down the Shift key and select the cell in the opposite corner of the range.

3. Select a complete row or column by clicking in the row or column heading. The selected row or column will become highlighted.

4. Select the entire worksheet by clicking empty gray box in the upper left corner of the worksheet, or simply type Ctrl+a.

Selecting Non-Adjacent Ranges:

Select the first range, then hold down the Control key while selecting the second range. Both cell ranges will be highlighted.

Selecting a Block of Cells:


A block of cells is a range of cells containing values and is bounded by empty cells.

1. Select one of the corner cells of the block. Use Ctrl + Shift + (arrow keys) to extend the selection to the end of the block.

2. Select a cell at a boundary of the block (top, bottom or side). Move the mouse pointer over the edge of the selected cell until the cross pointer changes to an arrow pointer. Hold down the Shift key and double-click on the sides of the selected cell.


Entering Data in a Worksheet:

To enter a value in a worksheet cell, select the cell by clicking on it with the large cross. The selected cell is highlighted, indicating that it is the active cell. Type your entry from the keyboard. As you type, the characters appear in both the active cell and in the Formula bar.

Complete your entry by clicking the Enter button () on the Edit line. The cell remains selected.

Alternately, complete your entry by pressing the Enter key (on the keyboard). This moves the selection to the cell below.

To cancel the entry and revert to the original contents of the cell, click the Cancel button () or press the Esc key.

To enter the same value in a range of cells, select the range of cells, type the value, then press Ctrl + Enter.

Exercise:Create two arrays of numbers like those shown in the accompanying example. Use the Ctrl + Enter function to do this without entering values in all cells individually.

Use the techniques listed above and practice selecting ranges, non-adjacent ranges and blocks of cells.

Practice navigating around the work sheet.

Entering Numbers:

Excel recognizes your entry as one of the types shown in the Format Cells Number Category. To view this choose Format, Cells and choose the Number tab. Try it now.

After entering a value, Excel displays it in the proper format in the cell and displays the number equivalent in the Formula bar. For example, if you enter 2e-3, Excel corrects this to 2.00E-03 in the cell and displays 0.002 in the Formula bar.


If you enter a fraction, such as 1/3, it will be interpreted as a date, e.g., 01-Mar. To force recognition as a fraction, enter a zero and a space before the fraction (0 1/3). The zero indicates that the entry is a number, and the value will appear in the formula bar as 0.3333333333333.

Excel can accept numbers in the range from 1E-307 to 9.9999999999E+307 with 15-sig fig accuracy. These are displayed in the formula bar and used in all calculations, no matter what number formatting has been applied. Thus the fraction 1/3 appears as 0.333333333333333, and as 3.14159265358979.

Excel switches between floating-point and scientific notation for best display of values. The formula bar can display numbers up to 21 characters, including the decimal point. Thus 1E-19 entered on the keyboard will appear as 0.0000000000000000001 (21 characters) in the formula bar, while 1E-20 will appear as 1E-20.


Entering Text:

If you enter text characters (any character other than numbers, the decimal point, or the characters +, -, *, /, ^, $, %) in a cell, Excel will recognize the entry as text; for example, 3rd Avenue. A cell can hold up to 255 characters of text. To enter a number as a text value, begin the entry with a single quotation mark.

By default, text entries are left-aligned and numbers are right-aligned. However, you can change the alignment in cells using the justification tools.

Entering Formulas:

Instead of entering a number in a cell, you can enter an equation (called a formula in MS Excel) that will calculate and display a result. Usually formulas refer to the contents of other cells by using cell references, such as A2 (a reference to a cell), or B5:B12 (a reference to a range of cells).

The value displayed in a cell containing a formula will automatically be updated if values in the reference cells are changed.

Formulas can contain values, arithmetic operators, parenthesis, cell references and preprogrammed function commands like SUM, AVERAGE, etc.

Rules for writing formulas (the syntax) are as follows:

a formula must begin with and equal sign (=)

the arithmetic operators are addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/), and exponentiation (^).

Parenthesis are used in used in the usual algebraic fashion to prevent errors caused by the hierarchy of arithmetic operations (exponentiation, multiplication and division, addition and subtraction). Formulas that return the wrong result because of errors in the hierarchy of calculation are common. When in doubt, use parenthesis.

Exercise:

Enter a value of 5 in cell A1.

In cell B1 enter the formula =A1+10

In cell C1 enter the formula =B1^2

In cell D1 enter the formula =SUM(B1+C1)

Note the Formula bar and Name box entries for each of these 4 cells.

Change cell A1’s value to 6 and note the effect.

Adding Text Boxes:

In addition to typing text into cells, you can add visible comments or other information to a worksheet by typing in text boxes. To create a text box, click the Text Box tool on the Drawing toolbar. The mouse


pointer will change to a crosshair. Click and drag the pointer to create the text box and release the mouse when you obtain the approximate size you want. Holding the Shift key down while dragging creates a square text box. Holding the Control key down while dragging cause the text box to grow in all directions while dragging.

The fill color of a text box can be set to invisible, i.e., click the Fill Color tool and from the pop-up-menu choose ‘No Fill’.

The text boundary can be set to invisible, i.e., click the Line Color tool and from the pop-up-menu choose ‘No Line’.

Exercise:Draw text boxes on an Excel Worksheet. Type something in the text box, e.g., ‘conc. (mg/L)’ Set the fill color to No Fill and the Line color to No Line. Finally, delete the text box.

Entering a Cell Comment:

You can attach a pop-up comment box to a cell. A small red triangle in the upper right corner of the cell indicates that the cell contains a comment. When the mouse pointer is moved over a cell that contains a comment, the cell comment box appears.

To add a comment to a cell, select the cell, then choose Insert, Comment. Enter the text of the comment in the box then click outside the box to complete it.

To edit a comment, select the cell and click Insert, Edit Comment.

To delete a comment, select the cell and click Edit, Clear, Comments.

Exercise:Create a cell comment that includes your name. Then edit the comment to replace your name with the course number (CH503). Choose Tools, Options, View, Comment Indicator Only. Finally delete the cell comment.

Editing Cell Entries:

You can edit a cell entry in the formula bar. After selecting a cell, click in the formula bar.

Alternately, double-click on the cell and edit the text in the cell.

Exercise:Enter the text ‘% Yield’ in a cell. Then edit the text to ‘Yield (%)’.

Saving Workbooks:

When you save a workbook, all its worksheets are saved with it. The workbook name can be up to 218 characters in length (including its complete path and file extension). File names can include spaces but not any of the following characters: slash (/), backslash (\), greater than (>), less than (<), asterisk (*), question mark (?), quotation mark (“), pipe symbol (|), colon (:) or semicolon (;).

Printing Documents:

Before printing use Page Setup and Print Preview.

Click File, Page Setup. The Page Setup dialog box contains four tabs: Page, Margins, Header/Footer, and Sheet.


Use the Page tab to choose Portrait or Landscape orientation.

Use the Margins tab to change margin thickness. The default margins are 0.75 inches left and right and 1 inch top and bottom. If you set the margins to zero, the header and footer information will be printed on top of data in your worksheet, so if you need to maximize space, delete the header and/or footer information by choosing ‘none’ from the list box.

Use the Header/Footer tab to create custom headers and/or footers after clicking the ‘Custom Header’ or ‘Custom Footer’ button.

Use the Sheet tab to uncheck ‘Gridlines’ if you don’t want them to print. Click ‘Row and Column Headings’ if you want these to print. You must also select how much of the spreadsheet is to be printed. Click the ‘collapse’ button (the Go to Worksheet button) opposite ‘Print Area’, then drag your mouse across the cells to be printed and press Enter. The address of the array to be printed will appear in the Print Area box. This setting can also be made directly by clicking File, Print Area, Set Print Area and dragging over the print area with your mouse.

Before printing, click File, Print Preview to see what will actually be printed. Page breaks appear as dashed lines, to assist you in adjusting column widths, for example, before printing.

To insert a horizontal page break, select an entire row as if you were going to insert a row. Then click Insert, Page Break. The page break will be inserted immediately above the selected row. In similar fashion you can insert a forced vertical page break immediately to the left of a selected column. To insert both a vertical and horizontal page break, select only a single cell and choose Insert Page Break. The page break will be immediately above and to the left of the selected cell. Page breaks can be previewed and adjusted. Click View, Page Break Preview. You can click and drag the page break dashed lines to adjust their position. Choose View, Normal if you wish to return to the Normal View.

If you want the selected area to print on one page but it is too large, choose File, Page Setup, Page tab. Adjust the Scaling to a value less than 100% normal size. Sheets printed with values less than about 60% are difficult to read. To obtain the appropriate reduction value automatically, after you’ve selected the print area, choose ‘Fit to 1 Pages Wide By 1 Tall’ button.

Exercise:

Explore the Page Setup options, i.e., change margins, create a header or footer, show gridlines, add page breaks and adjust its Fit. After making changes, view it in Print Preview but do not print the page.


Editing a Worksheet:

The arrangement of values in a worksheet can be modified using the Edit menu.

Inserting or Deleting Rows or Columns:

Choose Insert, Rows to add a new row above the active cell. Choose Insert, Columns to add a new column to the left of the active cell. F4 repeats the previous command so it can be used to add additional rows or columns.

An extra cell or cells can be inserted by choosing Insert, Cells… . In the Insert dialog box choose which way the existing cells will be moved.


Cut, Copy and Paste:

Select a cell or range of cells and choose Edit, Copy (or right click and choose Copy, or simply type Ctrl+c). The selection is copied to the clipboard and a marquee appears around the selected cells.

Values can be cut (and copied to the clipboard) after selecting by clicking Edit, Cut (or right clicking and choosing cut, or simply typing Ctrl+x).

To paste the cell values, select the cell that will be in the upper left corner of the pasted array and click Edit, Paste (or right click and choose Paste, or simply type Ctrl+v).

The Edit, Paste Special button allows options during the paste. See the diagram. The Transpose function converts column-formatted data into row-formatted data. Choose Transpose and Values.

Use the Esc key to cancel a Copy or Cut operation.

Drag and Drop Moving and Copying:

1. Select the cells to be moved or copied.

2. Position the mouse pointer over a border of the selection (top, bottom or side). The mouse pointer will change to an arrow.

3. Drag the selection toward the desired position. The border of the selection will be indicated as you drag it.


4. Position the selection as desired and release the mouse button.

To Copy rather than move a selection, hold down the Control key while dragging.

To Insert the selection between other cells, hold down the Shift key while dragging.

Note: The drag and drop must be turned on. Choose Tools, Option, Edit tab. Under Editing Options check the ‘Drag-and-drop text editing’ box.

Deleting Values:

A cell entry can be changed by selecting the cell and entering a new entry, i.e., type in the formula bar or double click the cell and type in the cell.

Delete cell values by selecting and clicking Edit, Clear. You can choose to delete All or just Formats, etc.

An easy way to delete values is to use the Eraser tool. If this is not on your toolbar, customize your toolbar now and add it. You will find it under Tools, Customize, Commands tab, Edit Category. To use the eraser tool, select the cell(s) to be cleared and click the Eraser tool on the toolbar.

Exercise: Practice Inserting rows and columns. Practice the Cut, Copy, Paste and Clear functions.


Duplicating Values or Formulas in a Range of Cells:

To duplicate a value or formula in one cell into a range of cells, highlight the cell whose value you want to duplicate, plus cells below or to the right (where you want the values duplicated). Then choose Edit, Fill, Up or Down or Right or Left. Formulas are copied.

When formulas are copied Excel uses relative referencing when formulas are copied. For example; if cell B1 contains the formula =A1+7 and Fill Down is used, then the formula in cell B2 will be adjusted to read = A2+7. We will discuss relative referencing next.

Absolute, Relative and Mixed References:

Relative Referencing : A relative reference in a formula, such as A1, becomes A2, A3, A4 etc. as you fill down a formula into cells in column A and becomes B1, C1, D1, etc. as you fill right into cells in row 1.

Absolute Referencing : To prevent relative referencing, precede both the letter (A) and number (1) part of the cell address with a dollar sign ($, called a ‘string’), e.g., $A$1. Thus when $A$1 is filled down, it does not change, but is copied as $A$1. These copied formulas will always use the value in cell A1 for their calculations.

Mixed Referencing : Occasionally it is useful to use a mixed reference. For example, a formula containing $A1, when copied elsewhere keeps the column reference ($A) but the row reference may change. Similarly, a formula containing A$1, when copied elsewhere, keeps the row reference ($1) but the column reference may change.

Relative References when using Copy and Cut:

If you Copy and Paste a formula, its references will be transferred using relative referencing. If, however, you want to copy a formula without its reference changing, select and copy the formula from the Formula bar. Press Enter to complete the operation. Then Paste it. The pasted formula is unchanged.

If you Cut a formula and paste it elsewhere, it will be unchanged, i.e., still referring to the same cell.

Exercise:In cell A1 enter a value of 5. In cell B1 enter the formula =A1^2. Copy and paste this formula by both methods stated above and note the difference in the pasted formula and the result.

In cell C1 enter the formula =$A$1^2. Copy and paste this formula to another cell and note the pasted formula and the result. Explain the difference between relative and absolute referencing to your neighbor.

Using Autofill to Fill Down or Fill Right:

You can Fill Down or Fill Right simply with the mouse. To use Autofill, select a cell. You will see a small black square in the lower right corner of the selected cell. Position the mouse pointer exactly over the small black square (fill handle or Autofill handle). The mouse pointer becomes a small black cross. Click and drag to select a range of cells. If the cell contained a formula, it will be duplicated to the rest of the range just as if you had used the Fill Down or Fill Right commands. If the cell contained text or a number, the value will be duplicated unchanged to the rest of the range. You can Autofill up or left as well.

To Fill Down a value or formula to the same row as an adjacent column of values, select the source cell and double-click on the fill handle.

Exercise: Use Autofill on the formulas and numbers in the previous examples.


Using Autofill to Create a Series:

Excel will automatically create series such as 1, 2, 3, …. There are 3 ways to do this, for example in Column A:

1. Enter the value 1 in cell A1. Enter the

formula = A1+1 in cell A2 and then use the mouse to Fill Down to create the series. Do this now to create the series 1 through 12. Select a cell (other than the first) and note in the formula listed in the Formula bar. You can convert these formulas to numbers by copying the values, then choose Edit, Paste Special, Paste Values. Do this now and check the formula bar when various cells are selected.

2. Enter the value 1 in cell D1. Select the cell and choose Edit, Fill, Series. In the Series dialog box you can choose to fill across a column or down a row. Choose column. You will need to enter a stop value since you did not select a range of cells. Enter a stop value of 21. Enter a step value of 2, then press OK. A series is created from 1 to 21 in steps of 2. If you had first selected a group of cells, you would not have to enter a stop value. The series would continue until all selected cells are filled.

3. Type 29-Oct in cell F1. Select this cell and use Autofill by dragging with the mouse to create a series of dates. Alternately select a range of cells including F1 as the first cell and choose Edit, Fill, Series. Dates and times are recognized by Excel and are automatically converted to a series. Do this now.

Note: To prevent Autofill from creating a series, hold down the Control key while dragging the fill handle. The same value is copied.

Formatting Worksheets:

Column Width and Row Height:

By default all rows are the same height and all columns are the same width. To change a column’s width, click to place the active cell in the column to be adjusted. Click Format, Column, Width and in the Column Width dialog box replace the current width with a new value; and click OK. All cells in the column will be adjusted to the same width. The width of multiple adjacent columns can be adjusted


simultaneously by first selecting several cells in adjacent rows. The same sequence can be applied to adjust a row height.

To change the column width with the mouse, place the cursor on the separator bar between column headings, on the right of the column to be adjusted. The cursor changes to a double-headed arrow. Click and drag the mouse to the left or right. The width is displayed in a pop-up information box. The same method applies to row heights.

You can also get a ‘best fit’ by double-clicking on a row or column separator.

Exercise: Adjust multiple column and row heights in an Excel worksheet.

Alignment:

To align text in various directions, choose the cell containing the text and choose Format, Cells, Alignment tab.

Choose Wrap text to break up a phrase so it will appear on different lines.

After selecting several cells, choose Merge cells to combine cells, for example, when one title applies to several columns.

Drag the Text Orientation marker to a desired angle, e.g., 90°.

Choose Horizontal Centered (or Centered across selection if cells are merged) and Vertical Centered if desired.


Exercise:

See the attached example and create the same orientation of text in your worksheet.

Special Characters in Excel: (not easy!!)

Alt + 0223 ß Alt + 0247 ÷Alt + 248 ° Alt + 0181 µAlt + 0177 ± Alt + 0197 Å

You must enter all numbers on the numeric keypad. For you must type an upper case D, then select it and choose Format, Cells, Font tab, Font, Symbol, OK. For , type l and change it to Symbol font also.

Formatting Font:

Font can be formatted after selecting it by clicking

Format, Cells. In the Format cells dialog box, you may choose to subscript, superscript, style, size, etc., etc.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to create Macros or Shortcut keys to expedite formatting operations like subscripting or superscripting. After typing the characters, they must be individually selected and formatted in the Format dialog box. It is a tedious process.

Exercise:


Type (Mg+2)3(PO4-3)2 and reformat it to (Mg+2)3(PO4-3)2.


Borders and Shading:

As with tables in MS Word, likewise, you can apply

borders and shading to cells in MS Excel. Select the cells and choose Format, Cells. In the Format Cells dialog box choose the Borders tab to apply borders and choose the Patterns tab to apply shading to cells.

Gridlines:

Recall that you can choose whether or not to print and/or display gridlines.

To display gridlines around cells choose Tools, Options. On the Options dialog box choose the View tab and check Gridlines (under Window Options).

To print gridlines choose File, Page Setup. On

the Page Setup dialog box, choose the Sheet tab and check the Gridlines option under the Print section. Use the File, Print Preview command to see what your printed document will look like when printed.


Format Painter:

The format painter tool copies and pastes formats from one cell or range to another cell or range.

Select the cells with the format to be copied.

Click the Format Painter tool button (a paint brush picture). If it is not on your toolbar add it using the Tools, Customize, Commands tab, Format Category sequence.

Click on the cell to be formatted or drag across the range of cells to be formatted to paste the format.

To format-paint non-adjacent ranges, double-click the Format Painter button. It remains selected allowing you to click on several ranges. When you are done, click once on the button to turn it off.

Exercise:

Turn the gridlines off and on and note the display. Use the Borders and Patterns options so that cells D2:F2 are shaded and underlined. Select this range and merge these into one cell by choosing Format, Cells, Alignment tab, and under Text Control, choose Merge cells. In this large cell type ‘Long Title’. Select this cell and choose bold and italic. Also choose Format, Cells, Alignment tab, Horizontal, Center Across Selection. Type ‘New Title’ in another cell and copy the format from ‘Long Title’ onto it.


Number Formatting:

In Microsoft Excel, you can use number formats to change the appearance of numbers, including dates and times, without changing the value of number. The number format you apply does not affect the actual cell value — displayed in the formula bar — that Excel uses to perform calculations.The General number format

The General format is the default number format. For the most part, what you enter in a cell that is formatted with the General format is what is displayed. However, if the cell is not wide enough to show the entire number, the General format rounds numbers with decimals and uses scientific notation for large numbers. You can reset a number to the General Number format.

Built-in number formatsExcel contains many built in number formats that you can choose from. To see

a complete list of these formats, click Cells on the Format menu, and then click the Number tab. The formats appear in categories on the left, including accounting, date, time, fraction, scientific, and text. The Special category includes formats for postal codes and phone numbers. Options for each category appear to the right of the Category list.


For example, the Category called ‘Number’ shows a default of 2 decimal places, however, you can adjust this in the ‘Decimal places’ boxes. You can also adjust the number of decimal places displayed using the ‘increase decimal’ or ‘decrease decimal’ tools on the toolbar.

Percentage When you choose Percentage, numbers are displayed as a percentage of 100 and include the percent sign (%). For example, a number such as .08 appears as 8%; 2.8 appears as 280%.

Fraction: The fraction format displays numbers like 2.5 as 2 ½ and 3.25 as 3 ¼ etc.

Scientific notation: To display numbers in scientific format, use "E-," "E+," "e-," or "e+" exponent codes in a section. If a format contains a 0 (zero) or # (number sign) to the right of an exponent code, Excel displays the number in scientific format and inserts an "E" or "e". The number of 0's or #'s to the right of a code determines the number of digits in the exponent. E- or e- places a minus sign by negative exponents. E+ or e+ places a minus sign by negative exponents and a plus sign by positive exponents.

Exponential notation: There is no tool to format numbers in exponential notation, e.g., 10-3. You may type this as 10^-3 but Excel will not recognize it as a number. To do so, use Scientific notation; i.e., 1E-03.


Custom number formats If a built-in number format doesn't display data the way you want, you can use the Custom category on the Number tab (Format menu, Cells command to create a Custom number format.. Custom number formats use format codes that describe how you want to display a number, date, time, or text.

Use number format codes to create a custom number format.

Decimal points and significant digits To format fractions or numbers with decimal points, include the following digit placeholders in a section. If a number has more digits to the right of the decimal point than there are placeholders in the format, the number rounds to as many decimal places as there are placeholders. If there are more digits to the left of the decimal point than there are placeholders, the extra digits are displayed. If the format contains only number signs (#) to the left of the decimal point, numbers less than 1 begin with a decimal point.

# displays only significant digits and does not display insignificant zeros.

0 (zero) displays insignificant zeros if a number has fewer digits than there are zeros in the format.

? adds spaces for insignificant zeros on either side of the decimal point so that decimal points align when formatted with a fixed-width font, such as Courier New. You can also use ? for

fractions that have varying numbers of digits.

To display Use this code

1234.59 as 1234.6 ####.#

8.9 as 8.900 #.000

.631 as 0.6 0.#

12 as 12.0 and 1234.568 as 1234.57 #.0#

44.398, 102.65, and 2.8 with aligned decimals ???.???

5.25 as 5 1/4 and 5.3 as 5 3/10, with aligned division symbols# ???/???

Thousands separator To display a comma as a thousands separator or to scale a number by a multiple of one thousand, include a comma in the number format.

To display Use this code

12000 as 12,000 #,###

12000 as 12 #,

12200000 as 12.2 0.0,,

Exercise: Apply various number formats to cells and type in the cells to see the effects. Note the Special number format options. More options are available. See the Help menu under ‘Number formats’.

Displaying Several Worksheets at the Same Time:

If you have more than one Excel file open at the same time, click the Window menu. A list of all open files is shown. Click on the file you wish to switch to.


Ways to display several worksheets (of the same or different workbooks) at the same time.

To display two copies of the same worksheet simultaneously, first

make a copy of the active worksheet by choosing Window, New Window. A second copy of the worksheet is created. Although you only see one, note the title has changed, for example from Book 1 to Book 1:2. Also note that a second Excel icon appears on the taskbar. To view both simultaneously, choose Window, Arrange. In the Arrange Windows dialog box you can choose to arrange the windows Horizontally (one over the other) or Vertically (beside each other). The two images are arranged equally on the screen. This facilitates cutting and pasting data from one part of a large worksheet to another.

To simultaneously display two different worksheets from the same workbook, proceed as above to display two copies of the same worksheet and arrange them vertically. On one of the worksheets use the mouse to select another worksheet using the sheet tabs at the bottom of the worksheet.

To simultaneously display two different workbooks (files), open both Excel files. Do not choose New Window; rather just choose Arrange, Vertical, OK.

Split Screens and Freeze Panes:

A single window can be Split into two portions, each with separate scroll bars. A vertical split is achieved by selecting an entire row and choosing Window, Split Screen. To remove the split, choose Window, Remove Split. A Horizontal split is achieved by selecting an entire column and choosing Window, Split Screen. It is removed in the same way as removing the vertical split. To split a window both horizontally and vertically, select a single cell and choose Window, Split Screen.

Either portion of the Split screen may be Frozen so it cannot move. Select a cell in the portion to be frozen and choose Window, Freeze Pane. To undo this choose Window, Unfreeze Panes.

Copying and Pasting into MS Word Documents:


If you copy a portion of a spreadsheet and paste

it into MS Word (using the Copy and Paste commands), the copied data will appear in Word as a table. Dotted lines will indicate the table cells on the screen, but these lines will not print. If you want the cell borders to print, select the cells in Word and choose Format, Borders and Shading. On the Borders tab choose the Grid Setting, OK. The data in a table pasted from Excel can be edited just as if it were created in MS Word.

If you paste a spreadsheet portion using the Edit, Paste Special command, you can choose to link the data (‘Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object’) to the Excel worksheet. A linked object will be automatically updated in MS Word if you make changes to the Excel worksheet – provided the two files are stored on the same drive and not moved.

Exercise: Display multiple worksheets, split screens and frozen panes. Paste some cells into MS Word.

Disabling the Automatic Toolbar and Menu Adjustments:

Office 2000 programs automatically adjust your

toolbars and menus. The toolbar icons and menu commands are continually rearranged so that your least often used functions are not shown. You can still find the missing icons and commands by holding the mouse over or clicking the mouse on arrows located at the end of toolbars or bottom of menus, e.g., or ».


Hidden or moving icons can slow you down. To disable these automatic rearrangements choose Tools, Customize. On the Customize dialog box choose the Options tab and uncheck both ‘Standard and Formatting toolbars share one row’ and the ‘Menus show recently used commands first’ boxes; then Close.

Using the Help Files:

To get help:

On the menu bar, click ‘Help’, Microsoft Excel Help (F1 is the shortcut key for these mouse clicks). If the Office assistant (mascot) is turned on, it appears along with a callout box and a place to type in a question or just some keywords. Click Search to find topics related to your question.

Alternately, you can click Help, Show the Office Assistant and proceed as above. You can also click the Help icon on the toolbar.


Note: On the Gallery tab, you may

change the Office Assistant icon to other cartoon characters

Turning off the Office Assistant:

Turn off the Office Assistant as follows. In the Office Assistant callout box, click Options. In the Office Assistant dialog box, uncheck the ‘Use the Office Assistant’ box.


When the Office Assistant is turned off,

typing F1 or clicking Help, Microsoft Excel Help brings up a different dialog box containing a table of Contents, an Index and a Help Wizard. In the help Index either type a keyword or scroll through a list of keywords and click Search.

Choose one of the suitable hyperlinks to get details.

To turn the Office Assistant on, click Help, Show the Office Assistant.

Exercise:

View the gallery of Office Assistant characters available.

Turn off the Office Assistant and use the Contents to search for help on Troubleshooting borders. Use the help Index to search for information on using the clipboard.

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