Excel Tutorial PDF
Excel Tutorial PDF
Excel Tutorial PDF
To make the most of this tutorial I suggest you follow through it while sitting in front
of a computer with Microsoft Excel running. This will allow you to try things out as
you follow along. This tutorial requires that you already have a basic working
knowledge for using the computer. I wrote this tutorial with reference to the 2002
version of Microsoft Excel, however, most of what is covered here will work pretty
much the same in all versions back to Excel 97. Additionally, while I am using
Windows XP, you should find that most Excel commands are essentially the same
on a Mac operating system.
I use the following conventions when referring to commands Edit > Find means
select Find from the Edit menu. Ctrl-C means depress the control and c key at the
same time. Similarly, Alt-Ctrl-C means press all three keys at once. Remember that
there are usually several ways to accomplish any one command, personally I use
the right click on my mouse and speed keys for most tasks. However, for this tutorial
I will make extensive use of the menus as most beginners seem to prefer this
method.
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Title
Menu
Formatting
Standard
Formula
Cell (A1)
Tab
(active sheet)
Status
Usage
Title Bar
Menu Bar
Formatting Toolbar
Standard Toolbar
Formula Bar
Two important fields, the left field shows the cell address
of the cell your cursor is currently located in.
The right field displays the 'actual' contents of the cell, this
field is especially important when you are entering
formulas.
Tab Bar
Status Bar
unique cell in the spread sheet, the contents of the cell can then be used elsewhere
in the program simply by referencing the cell address.
Entering data or labels into cells is simple, just move the cursor to the cell you wish
to enter your datum, click to select the cell, enter your datum, and press enter. It's
important to note that you must press 'enter'; otherwise the spread sheet does not
recognize that you have entered data. If you wish to enter a series of numbers you
can speed up the process by using the auto fill capability.
To use auto fill, enter the first two numbers in the series in adjoining cells. Now
select both cells, grab the common handle (the little black box in the bottom right
hand corner of the selected cells) and drag down as far as needed. You should now
have a series of numbers, following the pattern of the first two you entered. This
trick will work for letters and formulas as well as numbers, and works for columns as
well as rows.
Handle
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Entering formulas
There are two ways to enter formulas in Excel, either use one of the functions
already programmed in Excel, or enter your own from scratch.
Entering your own formula
To enter your own formula start by typing an equal sign (this tells Excel you are
entering a formula) and then entering the formula using operands and operators.
Standard arithmetic operators are listed in Table 1, but many others are available.
Operands can either be numbers you enter, or can be cell references. To enter a
cell reference into a formula either type it, or click the cell.
Table 2. Arithmetic operators.
Arithmetic operator
Meaning (example)
+ (plus sign)
Addition (3+3)
- (minus sign)
Subtraction (3-1)
*(asterisk)
Multiplication (3*3)
/ (forward slash)
Division (3/3)
% (percent sign)
Percent (20%)
^ (caret)
Exponentiation (3^2)
When using operators in your formulas, keep in mind that Excel follows an order of
operation as summarized in Table 3. If a formula contains operators with the same
precedence Excel evaluates the operators from left to right. To override operator
precedence, use parenthesis. For more information on entering your own formulas
check in; Excel Help>Contents> creating and correcting formulas.
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Operator
Description
: (colon)
(single space)
, (comma)
Reference operators
Negation (as in 1)
Percent
Exponentiation
* and /
+ and
&
Comparison
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In this second example, we will calculate the standard deviation for the same
numbers used in the sum example.
Step 1. Place your cursor in cell A8.
From the function pop up menu
choose more functions.
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Occasionally you will need to make an absolute reference to a cell. To do this, add
dollar signs to the cell reference. In my example I need to correct the mean weight
of all the samples by multiplying it by the Z factor of 1.0035, which is entered in cell
1I. To do this, I enter a formula, as shown in the formula bar of Figure 9, using $I$1
to reference the Z factor. Now, when I auto fill, all mean values are multiplied by the
value 1.0035. Give it a try, and see what happens when you don't use the absolute
reference.
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Graphing
Excel has the capability of making many different styles of graphs. The following
example will show you how to make a scatter plot, add a linear regression trend line,
and how to fine tune the graphs appearance.
Making a scatter plot.
Graph
Wizard
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This button appears in many Excel source data windows, clicking it will always take
you back to the spread sheet, allowing you to select cells for input.
Clicking this button will take you back to source data window you started from.
Step 3. When you are satisfied
with the data being used, click
next. This takes you to the Chart
Options window. Notice the
multiple tabs for formatting your
graph.
Step4. Choose where to place your chart in the work book. It's usually best to use the
default, object in sheet, as the graph appears next to your data.
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250
200
150
100
50
0
0
10
15
20
[protein] mg/ml
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