are therefore in the range B3:D6.

Similarly, the 2004 export sales are in the range F3:F6, and all the sales data
for 2004 are in the range E3:G6.

3 ENTERING AND EDITING DATA

The cells of a spreadsheet can contain either numbers, as in cell B3, or characters (letters and other symbols), as
in cell A1. To enter data into the spreadsheet, click on the appropriate cell and type in the required contents and
then press Enter. Immediately above the column headings of the spreadsheet, there is a Formula bar that shows
the active cell address, and the contents of that cell. In Figure 1, the cursor is initially positioned on cell A1, and
this cell address appears on the left of the formula bar. As you type an entry into any cell, the contents will
appear after the symbol fx on the formula bar. In Figure 1, cell A1 is initially empty, so no contents are shown
on the formula bar.

Try entering some data by setting up the spreadsheet exactly as shown in Figure 2. As you enter data, you will
see that when you press the Enter key the cursor automatically moves down to the cell below. You can
change this automatic transition so that the cursor moves up, down, left or right (or not at all) after each data
entry. To do this, click on the Tools menu, select Options and then click the Edit tab where you will see a
setting Move selection after Enter. You can alter the direction of movement by changing Direction.
Unchecking the box causes the cursor to remain in the current cell after entry.

It is easy to change (edit) the contents of any cell. Click on the cell to be edited and then either:

• delete the entire contents of a cell by pressing the Delete key

• type a new cell entry (there is no need to first delete the old entry as this will happen automatically)

• modify the existing contents by positioning the cursor in the formula bar. Highlight the section to be
changed, or click at the point where an insertion is to be made, and type in the new characters/data.

Practice these various editing operations by amending some of the cells in your spreadsheet. For example,

1. click on cell A7 and enter the word “Tootal” (notice the cursor moves to cell A8 when you press Enter).

2. click on A7 again, highlight one of the o’s in the formula bar and delete it (then press Enter).

To enter the same data repeatedly into a number of cells, we can use the copy and paste facility as follows.

• Enter the data into the first cell(s)

• Highlight these cells and press the copy button

• Highlight the cells where the contents are to be copied, and press the paste button

Practice this by first deleting the contents of cells E2 to G2 (E2:G2), and then copy into these cells the
contents of cells B2 to D2 (B2:D2).

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4 ENTERING FORMULAE

If a spreadsheet were only able to hold input data, as on a sheet of paper, it would not be very useful. The power
of a spreadsheet comes from the ability to enter formulae into the cells of the spreadsheet so that results can be
calculated automatically. This allows the contents of any cell that contains a formula to be determined
automatically from the contents of other cells. Furthermore, the calculation is dynamic in the sense that the
result of the formula changes automatically whenever the values that the formula uses are changed.

For example, if the spreadsheet in Figure 2 has appropriate formulae in the cells of columns D and G, the
totals can be determined automatically from the sales data in cells B3:C6 and E3:F6. In particular, the total
sales in the spring of 1998 is simply the sum of cells B3 and C3, so rather than enter the actual total (39) in cell
D3, we can enter the formula

= B3 + C3

The = sign is necessary at the start of any formula so that Excel can distinguish a formula from a general text
entry. After all, we might have wanted to put the characters “B3 + C3” into cell D3 as data.

All the other cells in column D contain similar formulae to that in cell D3, for example

(D4) = B4 + C4
When entering these formulae, the cell reference in brackets on the left
(D5) = B5 + C5 is not required, as the cursor will be positioned on the cell concerned.

(D6) = B6 + C6

Input these formulae into the appropriate cells. Notice that the formula appears on the formula bar as you type
it in. Notice also that you do not see the formula in the cell itself, only the result of the formula. The
spreadsheet therefore appears no different from how it did before, but the contents of column D are now
dynamically linked to those of columns B and C.

It can be time consuming to type in every formula individually, but the process can be made much simpler.
When essentially the same formula is being put in each cell, it can be copied from one cell to another using copy
and paste, just as data can be copied. The formula that we have just entered into column D is simply the sum of
the two cells immediately to the left. If the formula in cell D3 were therefore copied and pasted to cell D4, the
original reference to cells B3 and C3 will be automatically updated to refer to cells B4 and C4. Copying a
formula across or down the spreadsheet will automatically update the row and column references within the
formula. So, for example, if the formula in cell D3 is copied to cell G3, the formula will become

= E3 + F3

Likewise, if copied to cell G7, it will become

= E7 + F7

As the formulae that we require in column G are essentially the same as in column D (i.e. the sum of the two
cells immediately to the left), any one of the formulae in column D can be copied and pasted to cells G3:G6 in
one operation.

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 Try this for yourself.

Click on (say) cell D3 and press the Copy button

Highlight cells G3:G6 and press the Paste button

Finally, decide what formula is required to give a column total in cell B7 and enter this formula into cell B7.
As essentially the same formula will be used in each of cells B7:H7, the formula in B7 can copied and pasted
to cells C7:G7.

5 ABSOLUTE CELL REFERENCES

When copying a formula, we usually want the cell references within the formula to be automatically updated for
different rows and/or columns. However, there are occasions when we do not want this to happen. For
example, we might want a reference to cell D7 to remain as that no matter where the formula occurs. We can
prevent cell references from being updated by inserting a $ symbol before either a row number or a column
letter within a cell reference. For example, if a cell is referred to as $D7, then copying a formula containing this
cell reference will fix the column at D, which will not be changed when the formula is copied to different
columns. The row reference, however, will be updated as the formula is copied to different rows. Similarly,
referring to a cell as D$7 will fix the row reference (i.e. it will always be copied as row 7), but allow the column
to be updated. Fixing both row and column references, e.g. $D$7, causes the formula to refer to cell D7, no
matter where it is copied.

A quick way of fixing a row or a column or both is to type in the required cell reference (without the dollar
signs) and use the F4 key repeatedly to “toggle” through the different $ combinations. For example, having
typed D7, pressing the F4 key once changes this to $D$7; successive presses of the F4 key produce D$7, $D7,
D7 etc.

To see an example of this, suppose we wish to work out what percentage of each year’s sales were home and
export; for example the Home percentage in 2003 would be 92×100/149 = 61.7%. Suppose we wish to calculate
these percentages in row 8. To avoid having to type the same formula repeatedly, we can enter it once in cell
B8 and then copy to cells C8:D8. The formula we use in cell B8 would be:

= B7*100/$D7 [= B7*100/$D$7 would produce the same effect]

Can we copy this same formula into cells E8:G8 to give the 2004 percentages? If not, what formula do we
need in cell E8, which can then be copied to cells F8:G8?

Enter the correct formulae into cells B8 and E8, then copy and paste to complete row 8 in Figure 3.

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 A B C D E F G
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . .

7 Total 92 57 149 101 64 165

Figure 3 Calculation of Percent Row

6 INSERTING ROWS AND COLUMNS & FORMATTING CELLS

As a final exercise, suppose we wish to calculate the quarterly percentage breakdown in total annual sales for
each year. We could perform these calculations to the right of the data, in columns H and I. However, it would
be better to put the 2003 percentages beside the 2003 data (i.e. between columns D and E) and the 2004
percentages after column G. We need, therefore, to insert a new blank column after column D. To do this first
position the cursor in the column immediately to the right of where the new column will be, and then click on
Insert on the top menu bar, and choose Columns. A blank column will appear to the left of the cursor, and the
columns to the right will be re-labelled. Rows can be inserted by a similar procedure.

Insert the blank column, which will now be column E, and calculate the percentage quarterly breakdown by
entering and copying the appropriate formula. Notice that the formulae in both columns are essentially the
same so if the correct formula is entered in cell E3, it can be copied to E4:E7 and I3:I7. Finally, type in the
heading “Percent” in cell A8, and copy it to cells E2 and I2.

You will see that the percentage figures that you have calculated are given (by default) to 5 decimal places.
In reality, this is unnecessary accuracy, and probably 1 decimal place is more than adequate. The contents of
any cell can be displayed in a wide variety of ways to suit the purpose of the spreadsheet. The format of cells is
adjusted by selecting Format from the top menu bar, and choosing Cells. This allows you to change features
such as alignment (left, right or centred), font and decimal places.

More directly, you can set the alignment within any cell using the usual alignment buttons and

increase/decrease the number of decimal places by clicking on the following buttons.

If you centre all the cells (apart from column A), and reduce the percentage figures to 1 decimal place, your
spreadsheet should now look like that in Figure 4.

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 Figure 4 Final Spreadsheet

7 STANDARD FUNCTIONS

Suppose we need to enter a formula that calculates the total of 10 values entered in cells A1:A10. It would be
very tedious to have to type in the following formula:

= A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5 + A6 + A7 + A8 + A9 + A10

Fortunately, there is a shortcut. We can use a standard function for the sum of a range of cells. In the above
case we could abbreviate the formula to

= SUM(A1:A10)

The cells we wish to sum do not have to be in a single row or column; they could cover a number of adjacent
rows and columns. For example, the total 2003 sales in cell D7 of Figure 2 could be written as

= SUM(B3:C6)

Similarly, a number of distinct ranges could be included within the SUM function. For example, a formula for
the overall sales for the two years could be written as

= SUM(B3:C6, E3:F6)

SUM is just one of over two hundred standard functions, the majority of which you will probably have no
need to use. The more commonly used functions are:
SUM Sum of a range of cells
MAX Maximum of a range of cells
MIN Minimum of a range of cells
SQRT Square root of a cell or value
AVERAGE Average (arithmetic mean) of a range of cells
STDEV Standard deviation of a range of cells
MEDIAN Median of a range of cells
Other, more specialised, functions will be introduced as they are required in relevant chapters of the book.

All functions that you will use require 1 or more arguments in brackets following the function name. These
arguments almost always specify the cell or range of cells to which the calculation applies. If you know what

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