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Introduction To Excel: Entering Data

Excel is a spreadsheet program where data can be entered into cells organized into rows and columns, and formulas can then be used to calculate and manipulate the data; data is entered into cells by clicking on a cell and typing or using keyboard arrows, and formulas always begin with an equals sign and can reference multiple cells to perform calculations on the data entered. Help is available within Excel to search for functions and formulas.

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64 views3 pages

Introduction To Excel: Entering Data

Excel is a spreadsheet program where data can be entered into cells organized into rows and columns, and formulas can then be used to calculate and manipulate the data; data is entered into cells by clicking on a cell and typing or using keyboard arrows, and formulas always begin with an equals sign and can reference multiple cells to perform calculations on the data entered. Help is available within Excel to search for functions and formulas.

Uploaded by

brad
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INTRODUCTION TO EXCEL

EXCEL is a Microsoft product and such has many features that are similar to those you will have used
and seen in Microsoft WORD. This compatibility should help you to learn EXCEL - to navigate through
the many tools and options that are fundamental for this course, as well as business in general.

EXCEL can be opened by selecting it from the START menu.

CLICK
HERE

Once you have opened EXCEL you will be presented with a sheet that consists of many rows and
columns, thus forming cells. The idea is that you can input data into the cells so that the data can be
efficiently manipulated using formulas, charts etc.

CELL A1

The cells are organised in columns (labelled A, B, …) and rows (labelled 1, 2, …) so that each cell can
be referenced by the corresponding column and row, for example cell A1 as shown in the above
figure.

Entering Data
There are many ways to enter data into the sheet.

 You can click on a cell with the mouse and then start typing. When you have finished, either
press enter or click in another cell.
 You can also navigate around the sheet using the arrow keys on the keyboard. When you are
in the correct cell, simply type and then arrow (or mouse click, or press enter) to another cell.
NB: You can enter various things into a cell, for example numbers, currency, text, dates, etc.
Formulas involving cells can also be used. We will discuss formulas below.

Modifying Data
Cells can be modified.

 If the cell is to be changed completely: click or arrow to the cell and press delete to clear the
cell.
 Otherwise, you can use the formula bar to make only the necessary changes. For example, if
you had typed in 123456 but you really wanted 122456, then rather than having to retype the
whole number click or arrow (within the formula bar) to the 3, press delete/backspace
(depending on which side of 3 you are at) and then type the new number 2.

Formula bar (edited by clicking inside and then typing new text, etc)

Entering Formulas
One of the great features of a spreadsheet program is the ability to perform calculations on data
from various cells using a formula. For example (as below), we could input 5 numbers into cells A1 to
A5 and then in A6 we could input a formula to calculate the mean (average) of the five numbers in
A1 to A5. Not only is EXCEL performing the calculation for you but also, because the formula uses
whatever numbers are in A1 to A5, if we need to change them - then EXCEL will automatically
update the mean displayed in A6. This is a powerful feature of any spreadsheet program.

 In A6 we input a formula
 Formulas always start
with =
 Here we use the
AVERAGE formula
 EXCEL has many
Cells A1 to A5 formulas
have the data

The formula (as can be seen in the edit bar) is: =AVERAGE(A1:A5)

All formulas begin with = and the A1:A5 component is specifying that we want the average of what is
in cells A1 to A5.
Help
The help facility in EXCEL is a valuable resource. For example, if you want to calculate a variance for
some data but you cannot remember the formula or syntax then simply do a search in help. The help
will not only tell you what formula to use but give a description, the syntax (i.e. how to input the
formula), as well as a specific example.

1. Select Microsoft Excel Help OR press F1

2. Enter your search term

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