COMSC-101 OFFICE SOFTWARE LAB

Excel Lesson 1:
Basic Cell Editing and Formatting
The learning objectives for Excel Lesson 1 are to learn about and practice using:

I. Cell addresses and address ranges e. percent

II.Insert cell values VI. Copying, cutting, and pasting values
Insert and delete cells
III. a. pasting values
IV.Wrap text, merge and align cell b. pasting format
values VII. Style fonts (cells)
V. Changing value (number) format a. Name
a. text b. Size
b. number c. Bold and italic
c. currency d. Font and highlight color
d. date e. Borders

_____________________________________________________________________

As you did in the Word and PowerPoint lessons, you should complete all tasks in Excel
Online using your school-provided Office 365 account. So let’s get started!

STEP 1. DO THIS:
 Open the Chrome browser.
 Go to office.com
 Login to your school Office 365 account.

 Navigate to your office365 folder.

 Locate (do not open) the Excel workbook you created in the Common Features of
Office 365 Apps lesson called Last_First_common_features.xlsx.

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 Copy the excel file you created in the Common Features lesson to your excel
folder on OneDrive.
 After copying the file, navigate to your excel folder, right-click on the file name
and rename the file Last_First_excel_lesson_1.
 Then click on the renamed file to open it in Excel Online.

Cell addresses and address ranges

You were first introduced to Excel cell addresses and ranges in the Common Features of
Office 365 apps lesson with this explanation:

In Excel, you are entering your text in “cells”. The location of the cell is given by its
column letter (A, B, C, etc.) and its row number (1,2,3, etc.).

The colon character is used in Excel to describe a range of cell locations. A range of
columns would have two letters separated by a colon. (A:C, for example, includes all
rows in column A, column B, and column C.)

A range of rows would have two numbers separated by a colon. (3:5, for example,
includes all columns of row 3, row 4, and row 5.)

A two- dimensional range would have the upper left cell letter and number before the
colon and the lower right cell letter and number after the colon. (A1:C3, for example,
includes rows 1 through 3 in column A, rows 1 through 3 in column B, and rows 1 through
3 in column C.)

The example of the completed

workbook from the Common Features
lesson looked like this:

Your workbook would have different

content in cells B3:D11, but all the
column and row labels and your
content should still occupy the same
range of cells, A1:D11.

Insert Cell Values

You inserted text in specified cells as part of the Common Features exercise. In this
lesson, you will insert numbers of different kinds as well as text.

STEP 2. DO THIS:
 In cell A13, type: Number of students.
 Auto-Fit Column A Width using the Format button in the Cells group on the Home
tab.
 In cell B13, type the number of students whose names you entered in the earlier
exercise. It must be a number from 0 (if you entered none) to 9 (if all cells were
full).

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When you enter a number in a cell, Excel automatically assumes it is to be treated as a

number, not as text. Note the difference in alignment between the text you typed in A13
and the number you typed in B13: the text is left-aligned in the cell and the number is
right-aligned in the cell. These are the default alignments for text and numbers in Excel.

Of course, not all numbers are just numbers. A number is not just a number is not just a
number ….

STEP 3. DO THIS:
 In cell B14, type the number ½.

What happened? Excel automatically converts that number to a date, and reformats
the displayed value in a date-month format as 2-Jan. This will happen automatically if
and only if the “fraction” typed in can be a date. For example, if the first number is in the
range 1 to 12 and the second number is in the range 1 to d, where d is the maximum
number of days in a particular month, then Excel will interpret the entry as a date, not a
fraction. But that is not the only time Excel will interpret the “fraction” as a date.
Entering dates.
What happens if you enter a “fraction” like 12/39?

 Try it in cell B14. Type 12/39.

Excel still tries to make it a date, and since the second number is greater than 12, Excel
translates the entry as a month-year format and turns it into 12/1/1939 (formatted as 1-
Dec)!

 Select cell B14

Notice the difference between the formatted value displayed in cell B14,

and an underlying value displayed in the formula bar.

The displayed value is what you see displayed in the cell. The underlying value is the
value or formula or function actually stored by Excel in the memory address of that
particular cell. We will get to formulas and functions in the next lesson. For now, let’s
concentrate on values.

For students with some programming knowledge, you may be thinking, “that sounds like
what a variable is …” and you would be right! Every cell in the worksheet is like a

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variable in a program: an address where a value or formula can be stored.

In Excel, you can usually see what the underlying value is because it is displayed in the
“formula bar”, the field to the right of the fx symbol at the bottom of the Excel
navigation ribbon and above the columns and rows of your worksheet.

In the present example, when I typed

12/39 into cell B14, the formula bar shows
that Excel translated that as the date,
12/1/1939. That is the underlying value,
well, sort of. In the case of a value the
program interprets as a date, the “real”
underlying value is actually an integer
number representing the number of days
the entered date is beyond January 1,
1900.

Excel stores dates as sequential serial integers so that they can be used in calculations.
By default, January 1, 1900, is serial number 1, and January 1, 1939, is serial number
14580 because it is 14,580 days after January 1, 1900.

 To see the integer value for the date you typed in cell B14, click on the arrow on
the right of the Clear button in the Editing group on the HOME tab and select
Clear Formats.

To see how storing dates as sequential serial numbers helps with calculations, let’s
calculate the number of days some person (or pet or other living thing) has lived.

 In cell B14, type today’s date using this format: 4/24/2024.

 In cell B15, type the birthdate of some person (or pet or other living thing) using
the same format. For example, my pet, Pumpkin’s, birthdate was 1/12/2014.

 In cell B16, type this formula: =B14-B15, and press enter.

You will see the number of days that person (or pet or other
living thing) has lived displayed in cell B16. (Pumpkin is 3,755
days old today!)

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STEP 4. DO THIS:
Entering fractions.
Returning to the attempt to enter a fraction that started this foray into dates, it is best
to enter a fraction as a decimal number. Instead of ½, type .5.

 Enter .5 in cell B15.

Whoa. What happened? Did you get 1/0/1900? If you did, that is because this cell is
currently formatted to hold a date, and the closest thing to a date Excel could come up
with for that fraction less than 1 was January 0, 1900. Do you understand how that
happened? Content and format information is stored separately for each cell in Excel.
Changing the content value does not necessarily change the format
 Clear the format in cell B15, by clicking on the arrow on the right of the Clear
button in the Editing group on the HOME tab and select Clear Formats
Now cell B15 displays 0.5 as we wanted in the first place.

Entering percentages.
You can enter a value in a cell in a way that Excel will recognize it as a percentage
value. If you want a number to be treated as a percentage, enter the % sign in the cell
after the number just like you would write it on paper.

 Enter 25% in cell B16.

Entering currency.
You can enter a value in a cell in a way that Excel will recognize it as a dollar value. If
you want a number to be treated as currency (in dollars), enter the $ sign in the cell
before the number just like you would write it on paper.

 Enter $100 in cell B17.

Entering numbers as text.

Sometimes you want to enter numbers as text. For instance, say that you wanted to
enter a student id, product code, or a zip code, and you wanted to treat that number
like text (especially when there are leading zeros). Simply precede your code with an
apostrophe character (‘).

 Enter ‘0203, (that’s apostrophe, zero, two, one, six) in cell B18.

The apostrophe does not display in the cell, but you see it in the formula bar, and you
know it worked because your “number” was automatically left-justified like all other
text.

Summary on inserting cell values.

When entering a number as opposed to text, you can tell Excel what kind of number it is
by how you enter the value. Excel stores both a number and how to format that
number. (You can always change the format of a number, but more about that later.)

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Insert and delete columns and cells

Inserting and deleting cells in Excel can mean different things. To insert a single new
column of cells, right-click on the letter at the top of the column to the right of the new
column you want to insert. Columns are re-lettered when you insert a new column.

STEP 5. DO THIS:
 Click on the letter C at the top of column C in your
worksheet to select the column.
 Now right-click on the letter C at the top of column C
in your worksheet.
 From the drop-down menu that appears, click on
Insert Columns.

Using this insertion method, only one new column will be

inserted at a time; the new column becomes column C and
what was previously column C becomes column D.

You can delete the columns in the same way you created
them.

 Select the columns you want to delete, tight-click on

any of the letters at the top of the selected columns and click on Delete
Columns.

To insert more than one new column or row at a time, select the number of columns or
rows you want to insert before you click on the Insert command, and Excel will insert
the number of selected rows between the existing columns or rows in your
spreadsheet.

 Select columns C:E, right-click on any letter from the selected columns at the
top of your worksheet and click on Insert Columns on the drop-down menu.

The procedure for inserting and deleting a single row or multiple rows is the same. The
new row or rows will be inserted above the lowest numbered row you selected to begin
the insertion.

Using the Clear button to remove the content and/or format of an individual cell
or range of cells.
When you want to delete the content and/or the format of an individual cell or range
of cells but not a whole column or row, use the Clear button in the Editing group on the
Home tab.

 Use the Clear button now to clear just the format of cells A1:D11 in your
worksheet.
 Now use the Clear button again to clear the content from the same range of
cells.

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Note that both the format and content of cells

A1:D11 are cleared, but the empty rows remain.
You must use a different procedure to delete the
cells.
 With the range A1:D11 selected, right-click
anywhere in the selected area, and click
on Delete to display the Delete options.
You see that you have the options of deleting the
full rows, the full columns, or just deleting the
selected cells so that remaining cells in those
columns or rows are shifted left or up, respectively.

 Select the Delete Cells & Shift Up option.

Now the first row is empty and the text and

data you entered at the beginning of this
lesson occupy the range A2:B7. Your
worksheet should look like this:

This shift will not affect any data that might be entered in
columns to the right of the selected range, but it will shift up all
rows beneath the selected rows in the selected columns.

Wrap text, merge and align cell values

To introduce and practice wrapping text, merging cells, and aligning cell values, enter
the following additional text.

STEP 6. DO THIS:
 In cell A1, type: Record of Courses Taught
 In cell A3, type: Beginning date of term.
 In cell A4, type: Proportion of computer science majors
 In cell A5, type: Percentage of students undecided about a major
 In cell A6, type: Budget for participation prizes
 In cell A7, type: Section number
 In cell B2, replace the current contents with 40
 In cell B3, replace the current contents with the date on which the current term

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began. (For Spring 2024 that was

1/22/2024)
 Adjust the width of column A so that all
the text is showing except in A5. Set the
width so the text in A5 is cut off after the
word ‘about’ Your worksheet should now
look like the one on the right.

If you forgot how to adjust the width of the column A (this was introduced in the Common
Features lesson), position the cursor right on the vertical line separating the column letters
so that you see the cursor change to this shape: and then begin to move
the cursor to the left until the width of column A is where you want it.

STEP 7. DO THIS:
To wrap the text so that it all shows in the cell without changing the column width:

 Select cell A5.

 Click the Wrap Text button in the
Alignment group on the HOME tab.

You were already introduced to the

Merge & Center button in the Common
Features lesson.

 Use the Merge & Center button to

merge and center the text in A1
across A1:B1.

It is common business practice to right-align quantities and currency, so leave cells B2

and B6 as they are. But other types of values are often centered in a column.

 Use the Align Center button in the Alignment group to center the contents of cells
B3:B5.

Note that there are buttons in the

Alignment group to align cell contents
vertically as well as horizontally. The
Center button centers the cell
contents horizontally.

 Select cell B5 and click the

Align Middle button to center
the contents of the cell
vertically as well as horizontally.

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Now your worksheet should look like this:

Changing value (number) format

You learned earlier in this lesson how to enter cell values in ways that tell Excel what
type of number was entered. But you can always change your mind, or simply use the
Number Format button to establish consistent formatting across all your data. To
practice using the Number Format, first clear the formatting in cells B2:B7.

STEP 8. DO THIS:
 Use the Clear Formats option on the Clear Button in the Editing group to clear
all the current formatting in cells B2:B7.

Your worksheet should now look like this:

Both the alignment and the original number

formats are gone. The date is shown in its
underlying integer value explained previously.
The proportion and the percentage values are
both shown as decimal fractions. The currency number is shown as just the integer that
was entered. The Section number did not change because it is not a number; it is text.

 Click on the arrow on the right side of the Number

Format button in the Number group and review the
options on the drop- down list displayed.

The General option has the same effect as clearing all

formatting, so selecting that option would not change any of
our cell values.

 Apply the Number format to the cell value in B2.

What happens? The preset number format in Excel shows

numbers to two decimal places. That doesn’t seem right
when counting people.

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 Find the Decrease Decimal button under the Number

Format button and click it two times so the number of
students is shown as a whole number.
 Apply the Short Date format to the Beginning
date of term.
 Notice there is a Fraction format on the list, so use
it to show the proportion of computer science
majors as the fraction, ½.
 Use the Percentage format for the Percentage of
undecided students and use the Decrease
Decimal button again to remove the decimal
places.
 Apply the Currency format to the Budget for
participation prizes. Leave it in the default two
decimal format.
 Re-apply the center alignment on cells B3:B5.
Remember to also apply Middle Align to B5.

Now your worksheet should look like this:

Copying, cutting, and pasting values

Since each cell has both content and a format,
copying, cutting, and pasting values in Excel is
not as straightforward as it is in some other kinds
of programs.

In Excel Online, you have button controls for copying, cutting, and pasting, on the
Clipboard group on the HOME tab. But many people prefer using the keyboard
shortcuts for these functions: Ctrl + C for copy, Ctrl + X for cut, and Ctrl + V for paste.
(Substitute command for Ctrl on a Mac.)

This poses no problem for copy and cut. (For those uncertain about the difference,
copy leaves the source content and format intact and places a copy of both on the
Clipboard. Cut removes the source content and format from its current cell locations
and places a copy of both in the Clipboard.

Paste is a different matter. Paste copies either or both the content and the formatting to
a new location. In Excel Online, if you use the keyboard shortcut to paste, both the
content and the format will be placed in the new location. Clicking on the arrow at the
bottom of the Paste button allows you to choose whether you want to paste just the
value or the format or both. We will discuss the Formulas option in a later lesson.

STEP 9. DO THIS:
 Select the cell range B2:B7 in your workbook.
 Use the Ctrl-C keyboard shortcut to place a copy of both the content and

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the format on the Clipboard.

Note that the source location range of the copied cells are enclosed in an animated
dotted line border.
 Click on the cell C2 to make it the active cell.
 Click on arrow at the bottom of the Paste
button to select and click on the Paste
Formatting only option. No values were
copied to the cell range C2:C7, but the
formatting of each cell was.

Now you can enter numbers in the C column, and

they will have the same formatting as the
corresponding cells in the B column.
 Press the Esc key to remove the animated
dotted line border around B2:B7
 In cell C2, type: 40
 In cell C3, type: 8/26/2024
 In cell C4, type: 1/3
 In cell C5, type: 50
 In cell C6, type: 75
 In cell C7, type: 0203

Oops. What happened in cell C7? Excel won’t

copy text formatting of a number unless it was
explicitly set with the number formatting tool. If
you see only 203 in your cell C7, and it is right
justified like a number, this just happened to you!

This can be a big problem when entering

numbers with leading zeroes as text, because Excel will throw away the leading zeroes if
the entry is read by the computer as a number. Just applying the text format to the
number after it is entered does not fix the problem. In this case, we wanted 0201 to be
read as a four-digit text code The leading zero character is part of the code.

Lesson learned: when entering numbers as text, especially when you have leading
zeroes, be certain the computer reads the data correctly by using the apostrophe
before the number!

 If you have 203 in cell C7, retype: ‘0203

Now your worksheet should look like this:

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Style fonts (cells)

Excel Online has some of the same basic font
styling features found in Word Online and
PowerPoint Online. These include Font Face,
Font Size, Bold, Italic, Underline, Font Color, Fill
Color, and Borders.

STEP 10. DO THIS:

 Re-center the heading in A1 by selecting cells A1:C1 and clicking the Merge &
Center button twice.

 Apply Bold and Italic to the text in cell A1:C1 using the B and I buttons in the
Font group.
 Select the cell range A1:C7 and apply the Comic Sans MS font and change the
Font Size to 10 pt.

Excel Online includes a Borders formatting

option as part of the Font Group.

 Select the cell range A1:C7.

 Click on the arrow on the right of the
Borders button
 Click on the All Borders option. You are
done.

Your final worksheet should look like this:

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