Unit Two: Create spreadsheet

This unit to provide you the necessary information regarding the following content coverage
and topics:

 Introduction to spreadsheet
 Use a worksheet
 Formula and Basic Functions
 Access help function on spreadsheet
This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcomes stated in the cover page.
Specifically, upon completion of this learning guide, you will be able to:

 know spreadsheet concept

 Know Basic format
 Identify basic formula and function
 Access help function on spreadsheet

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2.1. Introduction to spreadsheet

What is a spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet is a computer program that is used in business to calculate profit
and loss (as well as many other things) using columns and rows. It allows easy
entry and manipulation of text and figures, and can be applied to simple
budgeting, or complex accounting and financial planning.
Spreadsheet software
What are some spreadsheet programs? Microsoft Excel is the software most
widely used in business and education, but there are a number of other
spreadsheet programs, including Lotus, Microsoft Works and Corel.
Terminology
Spreadsheet is a word used to describe the program, but is also used to describe
a sheet with columns and rows. Excel uses the word worksheet to describe a
single sheet and the word workbook to describe collection on one or more
individual worksheets which form a ‘book’. You can add hundreds of
worksheets to a single workbook but Excel opens with only three. A workbook
is saved as one file.
Cell is the word used to describe the intersection between a column and a row.
They are referenced by the column heading and the row number eg the cell
reference for Column A and Row 1 would be A1.

Column

Row
Cell

Relative cell reference: a cell reference in formulas that change when excel
copies them to another location
Active cells: the cell in which you are currently working
Active sheet: a sheet that is selected
Function: a built-in or pre-recorded formula that provides a shortcut for complex
calculations.
Range of cell: one or more cells that form a rectangular group
The new interface
The Ribbon and Quick Access Toolbar are where you will find the commands to
perform common tasks in Excel. The Backstage view gives you various options for
saving, opening a file, printing, and sharing your document.

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The Ribbon

Excel 2016 uses a tabbed Ribbon system instead of traditional menus. The
Ribbon contains multiple tabs, each with several groups of commands. You will use
these tabs to perform the most common tasks in Excel.

 Each tab will have one or more groups.

 Some groups will have an arrow you can click for more options.

 Click a tab to see more commands.

 You can adjust how the Ribbon is displayed with the Ribbon Display
Options.

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Certain programs, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, may install additional tabs to the
Ribbon. These tabs are called add-ins.

Ribbon Display Options:

The Ribbon is designed to respond to your current task, but you can choose
to minimize it if you find that it takes up too much screen space. Click the Ribbon
Display Options arrow in the upper-right corner of the Ribbon to display the drop-down
menu.

There are three modes in the Ribbon Display Options menu:

 Auto-hide Ribbon: Auto-hide displays your workbook in full-screen

mode and completely hides the Ribbon. To show the Ribbon, click
the Expand Ribbon command at the top of screen.

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  Show Tabs: This option hides all command groups when they're not in
use, but tabs will remain visible. To show the Ribbon, simply click a
tab.

 Show Tabs and Commands: This option maximizes the Ribbon. All of
the tabs and commands will be visible. This option is selected by default
when you open Excel for the first time.

The Quick Access Toolbar

Located just above the Ribbon, the Quick Access Toolbar lets you access common
commands no matter which tab is selected. By default, it includes the Save, Undo,
and Repeat commands. You can add other commands depending on your preference.

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Tell me:
The Tell me box works like a search bar to help you quickly find tools or commands
you want to use.

Worksheet views

Excel 2016 has a variety of viewing options that change how your workbook is
displayed. These views can be useful for various tasks, especially if you're planning
to print the spreadsheet. To change worksheet views, locate the commands in the
bottom-right corner of the Excel window and select Normal view, Page Layout view,
or Page Break view.

 Normal view is the default view for all worksheets in Excel.

 Page Layout view displays how your worksheets will appear when
printed. You can also add headers and footers in this view.
 Page Break view allows you to change the location of page breaks,
which is especially helpful when printing a lot of data from Excel.

Backstage view
Backstage view gives you various options for saving, opening a file, printing, and
sharing your workbooks.to access backstage view click on filebackstage view will
appear.

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 2.1.1 Navigating around a spreadsheet
You can see the navigating bars to the right of the screen and at the bottom of
the screen. When there is data in the sheet, you can move the sheet to show data
which is out of sight. Here are some basic methods for navigating around a
worksheet.

Keyboard Mouse

A column at a  or or Tab key Move mouse and click

time

A row at a time  or or Enter key Move mouse and click

Cell A1 Ctrl Home Point and drag vertical scroll box

up

Bottom right Ctrl End Point and drag vertical scroll box
corner cell of down
data

Practice to selecting cell

When a cell is selected the name of the cell (also known as cell reference) appears at the
extreme left of the Formula Bar. Can you see it? Notice that there is a black border
around the cell you have selected.

Resize columns and rows

When you do further work with spreadsheets you will sometimes need to resize the
columns and rows of your worksheet to fit the data.

Toolbars and tool buttons

The conventional way of selecting an action (for example, to open an existing
file) is to use the menu bar at the top of the screen (in this case, to click
File/Open).

Helpful Hints
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 Using the tool buttons is faster. These are the little buttons with symbols on them
that are lined up on a toolbar. They may look confusing at first, but are great
once you learnwhat they do. Some programs can have as many as 20 toolbars
that display a variety of tools. Usually the default toolbars are the Standard and
Formatting toolbars. These have the tools you’ll use most at first.
• To display another toolbar, go to View/Toolbars. This will display a list
of the toolbars available in the program. The toolbars already displayed
will have a tick against them.
• To display another toolbar, just click on it in that list (ie ‘select’ it).
• To make a toolbar invisible again, click on it again in the list.
Toolbars can usually be placed anywhere on the screen (‘floating’ toolbars) or
‘docked’ at the top, bottom or side of the screen. The program will ‘remember’
which toolbars you had displayed and where they were next time you start it.
Note: Don’t have too many toolbars displayed at any one time. It can be very
confusing and will reduce the size of your on-screen workspace.This will allow
you to create a new toolbar and put your most-used tools on it.
Right-click on any visible toolbar to see the list of available toolbars. This
allows you to bypass the menus.
Keyboard shortcuts
We saw in the previous section that some actions can be carried out using
shortcut keys. These are a combination of two or more key strokes that perform
an action. Over the years, software developers have assigned the same shortcut
keys to most programs, so that if you know what Ctrl+A does in one program,
you can use it to perform the same action in many others.
Listed below are some keyboard shortcuts for some of the more frequently used
spreadsheet program commands.
To use one of these combinations, hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter
key shown.
Those actions marked ‘toggle’ will switch that formatting either on or off,
depending on its current state.
Shortcut Action
Ctrl+A Selects all data on the active worksheet.
Ctrl+B Toggle. Formats selected data in bold.
Ctrl+C Copies the selection to the clipboard.
Ctrl+F Allows you to find specified data (numbers or text) in the
activedocument.
Ctrl+I Toggle. Formats selected data in italics.
Ctrl+N Opens a new workbook.

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 Ctrl+O Allows you to open a previously saved workbook.
Ctrl+P Prints the active worksheet.
Ctrl+S Saves the active workbook.
Ctrl+U Toggle. Formats selected data as underlined.
Ctrl+V Pastes the contents of the clipboard into the active cell.
Ctrl+W Closes the active window, but does not exit the program.
Ctrl+X Cuts the selected data and places it on the clipboard.
Ctrl+Y Redoes the previous action.
Ctrl+Z Undoes the last action.
Alt+F4 Closes the program.

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2.2. Using a worksheet

Data entry into a worksheet

Each cell of the spreadsheet can hold figures, text and formulas. The data in
each cell is held in that cell alone. Always put the data only in the cell that has
to hold it.
To enter data, put your cursor into the selected cell and click. Type the data and
press Enter. This moves you to another cell.
NOTE: You can also use the Tab key and your arrows keys to move around the
sheet.
The data appears in the cell as well as in the formula bar.
Saving a workbook
After keying in your data, it is a good idea to save your file on your computer,
before you continue to format it. You must do two things when saving a file for
future use – you must tell your computer where you want to save your file and
what you want to name it. Much the same as you would file a phone bill in a
folder called Accounts in the drawer labelled Household in your filing cabinet,
you must enter which drive and/or folder you want your file to be saved in and
enter in a filename for your spreadsheet.

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2.3. Formulas and Functions

Entering simple formula

Formulas involve making calculations similar to any business document, but
using cell references instead of the actual amounts. Look at the spreadsheet on
your screen. It is clear that you must multiply the Quantity with the Price in
order to produce the Cost. Normally we would write such a calculation as 36 x
25.99.
In Excel you must use the = sign, the multiplication sign *, and cell references to
calculate this formula in your spreadsheet. All formulas must begin with the =
sign.
AutoSum key
You can achieve the same result as above by using the shortcutAutoSumbutton
on the Home tab Ribbon.
Percentages
Using percentages is one of the most important calculations in Excel.
Averages
Normally, to create an average, you add up the amounts that you want to
calculate the average of and divide them by the number of entries you have, eg
2+4+6+3+5=20. There are five entries so the average is 20 divided by 5 = 4
Excel makes it very easy – it gives us a FUNCTION =AVERAGE.
Auto Fill
Up till now you have been typing formulas in each cell, and this has been good
practice.
As you noticed in the previous Activity, it was necessary for you to enter in
formulas for all of the Totals and Averages. This is really good practice,
however the more times you have to enter data, the more likely you are to make
a mistake. To overcome this there is a function called Fill Handle that removes
the need for repetitive work.
The fill handle is used to copy down the contents from one cell to other cells,
whether they are formulas or other data.
The fill handle is the small black square in the bottom right hand corner of a
selected cell.
When you put your cursor on this small black square, the
pointer changes to a black cross. To copy contents to cells
below the cell or to fill in a series, such as dates, drag the fill
handle while it is in the shape of the cross.
To display a shortcut menu that contains fill options, hold down the right mouse

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 button as you drag the fill handle.
Be careful not to confuse the fill handle with the white selection cross or
with the moving cross. The white selection cross appears when you rest your
mouse on a cell without clicking. This is used to select a cell or a
number of cells.
The moving cross appears when you move to the edge of a cell
and four arrows appear. This arrowed cross is used to move the contents of a
cell to another cell.
To get the black cross, you must click on a cell border and then rest your
mouse pointer on the small black square in the bottom right hand corner of
the cell.
The fill handle is not only used to copy formulas, but also to copy a series across
cells, such as numbers that go up by increments, days of the week, months and
so on.
Auto Fill Options
When you are filling, a small options button will
appear called Auto Fill Options, click on the down
arrow on this button if you want to use any of the
options.
Cell Addresses / Referencing
A cell address or reference identifies a cell or a range of cells in a worksheet.
These include the following:
Types of cell addresses
 Relative cell referencing
The structure of the formula remains the same when it is copied to other cells but
the cells change relative to the position of the formula.
E.g. Consider the formula =A1+B1 entered in C1. What happens when it is copied
into B2 through B10?

 Absolute cell referencing

When a formula is copied to other cells, the cell references remain unchanged. A
dollar sign is placed before the column and the row
e.g. $B$20
 Mixed cell referencing
Either the column or the row is absolutely referenced but not both
e.g. $B20, B$20

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Summary of Formulas and Functions
Simple Formulas
Add two cells =A2+B2 Adds cell A2 and B2
Multiply two cells =A2*C2 Multiplies cell A2 by cell C2
Divide one cell by =A2/D2 Divides cell A2 by cell D2
another
Subtract one cell =A2 – A3 Subtracts cell A3 from cell A2
from another
Functions
Adding more than two =SUM(B5:B10) Adds all cells between B5 and
cells B10
Finding the average of =AVERAGE(B5:B10) Finds the average of Cells B5 to
a groups of cells B10
Maximum =MAX(B5:B10) Finds the largest amount
between cells B5:B10
Minimum =MIN(B5:B10) Finds the smallest amount
between cells B5:B10
Percentage =15%*A4 OR Finds what is 15% of the
=A4*0.15 contents of cell A4
=115%*A4 OR Produces an amount with an
=A4+(15%*A4) increase of 15% of the original
amount.

=85%*A4 OR Produces an amount with a

=A4 -(15%*A4) decrease of 15% of the original
amount.
Count =COUNT(B5:B10) Finds out how many Numbers
there are between cells B5 and
B10
Today =TODAY() Shows today’s date
Now =NOW() Shows today’s date and time

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2.4. Accessing Help in spreadsheet
 Just type your query in the Tell me what you want to do box. From the search results, you
can quickly get to features you want to use or actions you want to perform. For help
content on your search phrase, click the option Get Help on "search phrase".

 You can also access Help from the File menu. In any Office app, Click File and in the
top right corner, click the familiar? Button.

 Or use the F1function key anytime to open the Help Viewer window for the Office app
you are working on.
By default Excel Help loads in a browse format which gives you a range of topics you
can choose from by the click of a button.
The first two buttons across the top of the help screen allow you to move back and
forward through your result pages.

The next two are there to help when you are working on-line.
The Home button will take you back to the beginning screen you see when you load
Help.
 The next group of buttons, across the top of the help screen, allow you to print, change
your font size, show the table of contents and keep the Help screen on top. It is
interesting to note that you can work in Excel with the help screen open which is helpful
for following the instructions in Help.
To search for a specific topic, click in the search box.

At the bottom right hand corner of the Help screen you will be notified if you are
working Off-Line or On-Line. If you are working off-line you have access to the built in
help topics. If you are working on-line then you will have access to the full help of
Microsoft Office.

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