Data and Computing Skills

Week 2.2.
Fundamentals of Excel Worksheets,
Formulas and Functions
Learning the Fundamentals of Excel Worksheets
In Excel, each file is called a workbook, and each workbook can contain one or more worksheets.
You may find it helpful to think of an Excel workbook as a binder and worksheets as pages in the
binder. As with a binder, you can view a particular sheet, add new sheets, remove sheets,
rearrange sheets, and copy sheets.

A workbook can hold any number of sheets, and these sheets can be either worksheets (sheets
consisting of rows and columns) or chart sheets (sheets that hold a single chart). A worksheet is
what people usually think of when they think of a spreadsheet.

Activating a worksheet
At any given time, one workbook is the active workbook and one sheet is the active sheet in the
active workbook. To activate a different sheet, just click its sheet tab, which is located at the
bottom of the workbook window. You also can use the following shortcut keys to activate a
different sheet:

Ctrl+PgUp activates the previous sheet if one exists.

Ctrl+PgDn activates the next sheet if one exists.

If your workbook has many sheets, all its tabs may not be visible. Use the sheet tab controls (see
Figure 1) to scroll the sheet tabs. Clicking the sheet tab controls scrolls one tab at a time, and
Ctrl+clicking scrolls to the first or last sheet. The sheet tabs share space with the worksheet’s
horizontal scrollbar. You also can drag the tab split control (to the left of the horizontal scrollbar)
to display more or fewer tabs. Dragging the tab split control simultaneously changes the number
of visible tabs and the size of the horizontal scrollbar.

FIGURE 1. Use the sheet tab controls to activate a different worksheet or to see additional
worksheet tabs.

Sheet tab controls

Adding a new worksheet

The following are several ways to add a new worksheet to a workbook:

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• To quickly insert a new worksheet at the end of the existing worksheets, click the Insert
Worksheet tab at the bottom of the screen:

• To insert a new worksheet before an existing worksheet, select that worksheet, and
then on the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Insert, and then click Insert Sheet:

• Press Shift+F11 or Alt+Shift+F1.

• Right-click a sheet tab, choose the Insert... command from the shortcut menu,
select Worksheet from the Insert dialog box, and then click OK.

When you add a new worksheet to the workbook, Excel inserts the new worksheet before the
active worksheet, and the new worksheet becomes the active worksheet.

Rename a Worksheet
To give a worksheet a more specific name, execute the following steps.
1. Right-click on the sheet tab of Sheet1.
2. Choose Rename.

3. For example, type Sales 2016.

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Move a Worksheet
To move a worksheet, click on the sheet tab of the worksheet you want to move and drag it into the new
position.

1. For example, click on the sheet tab of Sheet2 and drag it before Sales 2016.

Result:

Delete a Worksheet
To delete a worksheet, right-click on a sheet tab and choose Delete.

1. For example, delete Sheet2.

Result:

Copy a Worksheet
Imagine, you have got the sales for 2016 ready and want to create the exact same sheet for 2017, but with
different data. You can recreate the worksheet, but this is time-consuming. It's a lot easier to copy the entire
worksheet and only change the numbers.

1. Right-click on the sheet tab of Sales 2016.

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2. Choose Move or Copy.

The 'Move or Copy' dialog box appears.

3. Select (move to end) and check Create a copy.

4. Click OK.
Result:

Note: you can even copy a worksheet to another Excel workbook by selecting the specific workbook from the
drop-down list (see the dialog box shown earlier).

SHEETS function
To count the total number of worksheets in a workbook, use the SHEETS function in Excel (without any
argument).
1. For example, select cell A1.
2. Type =SHEETS() and press Enter.

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Formula Bar
The formula bar in Excel displays the value or formula of the active cell. You can use the
formula bar to enter or edit formulas.

Where is the Formula Bar?

The formula bar is located below the ribbon and above the worksheet area. To enter a formula,
execute the following steps.
1. Select a cell.
2. To let Excel know that you want to enter a formula, type an equal sign (=).
3. For example, type the formula A1*A2 and press Enter.
Excel displays the result (50) in the cell and the formula in the formula bar.

Edit a Formula
You can use the formula bar to quickly edit a formula in a cell (or to change the value in a cell).

1. Select a cell containing a formula.

2. Click in the formula bar and change the formula.

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3. Press Enter.

Show Formula Bar

Show the formula bar so you can see formulas in cells. If your formula bar is missing, execute the following
steps.
1. On the View tab, in the Show group, check the Formula Bar box.

Note: to hide the formula bar, uncheck the Formula Bar box. Sometimes this can be useful if you want to view
more of your worksheet area.

Expand Formula Bar

When you have a very long formula (for example, a nested IF formula), you can always expand the formula
bar.
1. Hover over the bottom of the formula bar. A two-headed arrow appears.

2. Click and hold the left mouse button.

3. Drag the bar down.

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Note: instead of executing steps 1-3, simply use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + U to
expand the formula bar.

Insert Function
If you're new to functions in Excel, you can use the Insert Function button on the formula bar to
search for a function.
1. First, select cell A3 and press Delete (on your keyboard) to delete the formula in cell A3.
2. Click the Insert Function button.

Excel opens the Insert Function dialog box.

3. You can search for a function or browse functions by category.
4. Select a function and click OK.

Excel opens the Functions Arguments dialog box.

5. Excel automatically adds the range A1:A2 (the arguments or input passed to the function).
6. Click OK.

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Result.

Note: the formula =(A1+A2)/2 gives the exact same result. Functions are predefined formulas
and are already available in Excel.

Function
A function is a predefined formula that performs calculations using specific values in a
particular order. All spreadsheet programs include common functions that can be used for
quickly finding the sum, average, count, maximum value, and minimum value for a range of
cells. In order to use functions correctly, you'll need to understand the different parts of a
function and how to create arguments to calculate values and cell references.

The parts of a function

In order to work correctly, a function must be written a specific way, which is called the syntax.
The basic syntax for a function is an equals sign (=), the function name (SUM, for example),
and one or more arguments. Arguments contain the information you want to calculate. The
function in the example below would add the values of the cell range A1:A20.

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Working with arguments

Arguments can refer to both individual cells and cell ranges and must be enclosed
within parentheses. You can include one argument or multiple arguments, depending on the
syntax required for the function.

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