Better Technology, Onsite and Personal

Connecting NIOGA’s Communities

www.btopexpress.org www.nioga.org
[Type

Excel Basic: Create Formulas

Overview: Let Excel do your math for you! After an introduction to some basic functions, you’ll use a
spreadsheet format to create a very simple budget.

Student Skill Level: Basic

Requirements: Good mouse skills (ability to move the mouse on the computer screen and click or
double click as required with minimal assistance).

Length: 3 hours (with a 10 minute break)

Objectives
 The student will be able to understand the basics of using Microsoft Excel:
o Understand the function of the File Tab
o Use Ribbon, Tabs, and Groups to select commands
o Select single cells and groups of cells in order to format them properly
o Change Column Width
 The student will use these skills to set up a mock budget:
o Decide how the spreadsheet will appear
o Enter information using:
 The keyboard
 AutoFill
o Create and edit formulas using the formula bar

This is the Example Budget

we will create in this class.
 2
Open Excel

There are two ways to open Excel:

Double click on the icon on the desktop

OR

Click once on the icon and then press the enter key on the keyboard
The icon will turn blue and then a small hourglass will appear as the program opens.

The File Tab on the Ribbon

Pictured here is part of the File Tab in Excel 2010. Clicking on this tab
gives you access to some of the most powerful commands in Excel.

Save and Save As – to keep a copy of the workbook in the location of

your choosing (hard drive, flash drive, etc)

Open – to find and re-open a previously saved workbook for editing

Close – shut down the current workbook

Info – information regarding the workbook including any possible

compatibility issues (older to newer versions)

Recent – quickly re-open workbooks you have viewed or edited lately

New – create a brand-new workbook (allows you to choose a

template if you want)

Print – get your workbook off the computer screen and on to paper!

The Ribbon, Tabs, and Groups

Tabs

Ribbon

Groups
The area above the blank page is called the Ribbon.
To use commands and options available to you in Excel, simply click the button on the correct Tab:
Home, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings, Review, View, or Format.
Buttons are arranged in Groups. In general, the most used commands are in the Home Tab. For
example, it contains the Clipboard and Basic Text Groups.
Cut, Copy, Paste, Bold, Italicize, Underline, Center, Font Type: They’re all included in these two groups.
 3
Special Note on the Ribbon: The Formulas Tab
Many people ask, “How do I find out what formulas to use in Excel?” There are really three ways to do
this: use the Formulas Tab, the Help menu, or Google. A word on each:

Here’s part of the

Formulas Tab. Click
the Insert Function
button

This is one way to find

the name of a formula in
Excel. All math functions
are done by name.

The Help menu may also be used to search for formula names. Type
your question in and, hopefully, it will display an answer.

Last, but not least, you may type your Excel question into the Google search engine. Be sure to be very
specific with your question and Excel version, because Google will search the entire Web to find any
answer pertaining to almost anything in your question. This can mean a lot of irrelevant answers!

The cursor, cells, and the formula bar

Cells are boxes in which the rows and the columns intersect. It (a cell) is bound on four sides like any
other block. All types of information are kept in a cell – including numbers and text.
Cells are delineated by a letter (across top of worksheet) and a number (down the side). For example,
cell G3 is selected on this sheet:

Cursor “marks the position where text or data can be entered, modified, or deleted” (HP). In Excel, the
cursor is in both the cell and the formula bar. What is shown in the cell is not always what is in the
formula bar – as we will see as we practice.
 4
Formula bar is the place where formulas are entered; formulas are “use[d] to add, subtract, multiply or
divide the values in a spreadsheet” (Author Unknown). It’s located directly below the Ribbon with an
“fx” at the start:

This is important because the formula bar is where you will make corrections to virtually anything in the
cells.

Click once in the proper cell then click once in the formula bar. You will see the cursor in the bar, and
then you are ready to make corrections (with the Backspace or Delete keys)

Select Cells

Before performing any task in Excel, you must select the cells
you want to work with. Selected cells appear highlighted on
your screen.
To select one cell:
Click the cell you want to select
The cell becomes the active cell and displays a thick border
Use Scroll Bars to move up and down or across the
worksheet
TAB brings you across rows to the right
Enter moves you down the column
Shift/TAB brings you across columns to the left
Arrow keys bring you up, down, left, or right across cells
Page Down brings you to the next page of worksheet
Page Up brings you to previous page of worksheet
CTRL/Home brings you to cell A1 at the beginning of
worksheet
Selecting a Group of Cells:
Position the mouse over the first cell you want to select
Click and hold the mouse button and drag the mouse to
highlight all the cells you want to select (a thick black line will
surround the selected cells with the first cell in white, the rest
blue)

AutoFill

AutoFill is used on patterns of numbers or text in cells.

Enter the start of a sequence (January)

Position the mouse cursor over the bottom right corner of
the cell (mouse turns into a plus sign (+))
Click and hold the mouse button and drag the mouse
cursor (+) over the cells you want to receive your data
The cells will be outlined in gray and the results appear in
small type
Let the mouse button up and the cells will automatically fill
with your data
 5

Note: AutoFill will also fill in a number or text sequence

you create, or known sequences (for example, days of
the week or months of the year)

………Practice……..

Click cell A2. Type Job 1

Now use the Enter key to continue typing the income

labels

Please type in four types of expenses (we’re only

using four different expenses in this class)

Click cell B1. Type “January.” Use AutoFill to

complete the sequence of months in Row 1, if you
haven’t already.

Change Column Width

Total Expenses now hangs over our January column. Correct
this by changing the column width (first, make sure you’re in an
empty cell):
Position the mouse indicator over the right edge of the column
heading. (The column heading is between the letters at the
top of the column.) You will know you’re in the right place when
the cursor appears as such:

Click and hold the mouse button, dragging the column edge
until the dotted line displays the column width you want.
OR
Position the mouse indicator over the right edge of the column
heading and double click.

Format Cells (for numeric values)

REMEMBER to select the cells you wish to

format FIRST. Since we’re entering data into
cells B2 to D14, we will use the mouse. Your
spreadsheet should look like this:
 6

Once you have selected the proper cells, go to

the Home Tab, find the Cells Group, and click
Format.

Click Format Cells at the

bottom

In the Format Cells Dialog box, select:

Number – click on the word (under Category)
Use 1,000 Separator – click checkbox
Red (negative numbers) – click on the red
colored number

Click OK
 7
Enter Numeric Values (Expenses Only)
As we look at our example budget, we may quickly note that some expenses are in a monthly format,
while others are generally weekly. Rent, Telephone, and Electric bills are usually due once a month,
while Groceries may be a weekly or biweekly expense.

To account for this, we may enter the numeric

values for Rent, Telephone, and Electric.

Use the Tab and Enter keys to move from one

cell to the next.

Note the formula bar – it displays one number for

each cell (B7 is 900 and nothing more). Please
enter values now. Leave Groceries blank.

Formulas
There are many different kinds of formulas. ALL formulas in Excel begin with an equal sign (=).
We will enter formulas manually (meaning we won’t use the Formula Wizard).
We will create several simple formulas. These formulas are the building blocks of every other one you
may use in Excel, including:

Adding numbers (starting with our Groceries expense and moving to Job 1 and Job 2) (Cells B10,
B2, B3)
Using the SUM formula with cells (not numbers!) (Cells B5 and B12)
Using a subtraction formula (with cells) (Cell B14)

Formulas with Numeric Values – January only

Remember to type the equal sign (“=”) in front of all formulas!

We’ll practice with January together; you may move on to the other months on your own in class.

We can use Excel to account for weekly

expenses, even in the monthly format of our
budget, by using an addition formula with
numbers.
For each grocery expense, we see a string of
numbers added together in the formula bar, NOT
a single number.
So in our first Grocery cell, B10, we see:
=80+56+102.34+42.35
 8
Remember, you may simply take your weekly shopping receipts and add them together by:

Clicking once on the cell

Clicking once in the formula bar
Typing in a plus sign and the amount spent on groceries that week

Perhaps we had a New Year’s party and needed to account for an extra grocery trip. We would click
on cell B10 and add the new expense. Our formula would add it together:
=80+56+102.34+42.35+92.75 (displaying 373.44 in cell B10)

No need to wait until the end of the month! Excel will add, subtract, multiply, or divide any numbers and
display the result in the cell you choose.

SKIP UP TO JANUARY JOBS (Income) (we’ll cover Totals later)

Our jobs (income) may be tallied in the same

manner. Most people are paid weekly or biweekly.
To achieve a “monthly” format, we may simply
create a simple addition formula in cell B2:
=250.23+250.10+213.62+200.01

Again, the results will display as a single number in cell B2. You will see the formula in the formula
bar. Please create another formula for Job 2 in January only (you may practice the rest later)

Formulas with Cell Values – January only

Creating formulas with numbers works well, as long as there’s a small amount (as in our example)
and only one cell to deal with. Some formulas work better based on cells rather than individual
numeric values. Using cell references instead of “hard” or unchanging numerical values allows us to
correct mistakes, add numbers, add cells containing other formulas, or even add rows or columns and
Excel will automatically correct any formula containing those specific cell references. This is the fun
of using the spreadsheet!
In our example budget, the totals and differences are easily calculated using built-in Excel formulas.
Remember, there are no spaces in any formula and capitalization does not matter.
Excel uses the following:
= – remember all formulas start with the equal sign
FORMULA NAME – we will use the SUM formula with cell references to get our answer (totals)
( – open parentheses tells Excel that a cell reference follows – “B3” as an example
: or , – “through” colons tell Excel to see the reference as a group, commas or math symbols indicate
non-continuous cell references **You may also use math symbols (+ - * /) for non-continuous cell references. We’ll
see this in the difference formula**
) – closed parentheses tells Excel that the cell reference has ended

EXAMPLE FORMULA: =sum(b2:b3) is read in “English” as follows: “Equal sign, sum, open
parenthesis, b2 through b3, close parenthesis”
 9
Look at the following examples for January:
For Total Expenses, our formula in cell B12 will be
as follows:

=sum(b7:b10) Note the equal sign, name of formula,

and continuous cell reference – with the parentheses
and colon. We also see a blue square around the
cells being added. This is a nice visual reference we
can use to be sure we’re adding the right numbers.

Once we press the Enter key, we see the formula in

the formula bar and the answer displayed in the cell
itself.

January’s total income is in cell B5:

=sum(b2:b3)

Formulas – Mixed (Cell References and Math Symbols)

The difference formula is a

combination of cell references and math
signs:
=(b5-b12)
This takes into account non-continuous
cells and allows Excel to correct the
answers if needed.

Once the difference formula is in place, change any number (including any number we entered in
the Grocery formula) in the January column – if you’ve entered the formula correctly, your answer,
in cell B14, will change!

…….Practice…….

Please use the remaining class time to practice

creating formulas for February and March.
Remember to change your cell references as you
create the totals and differences!
 10
Resources
**These items are available in the NIOGA Library System!**
**Contact your local library for assistance!**

Call Number Author Title Date

005.54 HARV Harvey, G Excel 2010 for Dummies 2010

005.369 MCFE McFedries, P Teach Yourself Visually: Excel 2010 2010

005.446 RATH Rathbone, A Windows 7 & Office 2010 for Dummies 2011

005.369 SHOU Shoup, K Office 2010 Simplified 2010

005.54 SYRS Syrstad, T Using Microsoft Excel 2010 2011

005.369 WEVE Weverka, P Office 2010 All-in-one for Dummies 2010

Edited 4/23/14

Funding for computer training is provided by the Nioga Library System