INTRODUCTION TO MS EXCEL

MS EXCEL LAYOUT

A spreadsheet is a “number manipulator.” To make the handling of numbers easier, all

spreadsheets are organized into rows and columns.

The spreadsheet is composed of Rows (Labeled 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) and Columns (Labeled A, B, C, D,

etc.). There are a lot of rows and columns in a spreadsheet. The “intersection” of each row and
column is called a cell. In the image above the cursor is on the “home” cell – A1. Notice Row 1
and Column A are “bold,” and colored “range.” This indicates what is called the “address of the
cell. Notice right above cell A1, that A1 is displayed in a small box called the Name Box.
Whenever you “click” on a cell the address of that cell will be shown in the Name Box.

Office Excel 2007 supports up to 1 million rows and 16 thousand columns per worksheet.
Specifically, the Office Excel 2007 grid is 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns hence column end
at XFD.

SPREADSHEET MANAGEMENT

You can move around the spreadsheet/cells by clicking your mouse on various cells, or by using
the up, down, right and left arrow movement keys on the keyboard. Or, you can move up and
down by using the “elevator” bars on the right and bottom of the spreadsheet. Go ahead and
move around the spreadsheet. Hold down the down
arrow key on the keyboard for a few seconds – then
click-on a cell. Notice how the Name Box always tells
you “where you are.” Now hold down the right arrow
key on the keyboard for a few seconds. Notice how
the alphabet changes from single letters (A, B, C,. …. Z) to several letter combinations (AA, AB,

1
AC). There are hundreds of columns and thousands of rows in a spreadsheet. Anytime you
desire to return to the Home Cell (A1) simply click-in the Name Box and type-in A1. Then tap
the Enter key and you will go to cell A1. You can go to any cell by this method. Simply type-in
a row and column, tap the Enter key, and you’ll go to that cell.

If you want to go to the last column on the right, hold down the Ctrl key
and tap the right arrow key.

If you want to go to the last row at the bottom, hold down the Ctrl key
and tap the down arrow key.

Now that you have the “feel” of how to move around the Excel spreadsheet, go to the cells as
indicated below and type-in the following:

C1 (Your Name)'s Budget. It should look similar to the image below. Do not tap Enter
when you finish

Look at cells C1 and D1. Notice how your entry has spilled over from C1 into D1. Sometimes
this is a problem, and sometimes it is not.

Tap the Enter key and then click-on

cell D1 and type-in the word
BONZO and tap the Enter key.

Notice how BONZO now COVERS the right part of your original entry. Move your cursor over
cell C1 and click-on it. Look at the upper part of the spreadsheet, just above the cells where

2
you typed BONZO. Your name and the word budget are still there! Bonzo only COVERED the
portion in cell D1.

There are several ways to take care of this. For the moment move back to cell D1 and click-on
cell D1. Tap the Delete key Notice that Bonzo disappears and your entire entry reappears. This
is one way to expose the entry. We'll look at some others as we go along.

Now we'll continue entering text and data. We think that creating a simple personal budget
would be a logical way to show you how a spreadsheet “works.” Move to the following cells
and type-in the information indicated. You can click-on each cell and then type-in the entries.
Any time you want to replace something in a cell you can simply retype and the new entry and
it will replace the old one.

Cell Type-in
A3 Income
B4 Parents
B5 Job
B6 Investments
B7 Total
A10 Expenses

B11 Food
B12 Beverages
B13 Parties
B14 Miscellaneous
B15 Total

3
Your spreadsheet should now look similar to the image on
the right.

Now, type the numbers in the cells indicated:

C4 300
C5 50
C6 150

When you type-in the 150, tap Enter.

Your spreadsheet should look like the image on the

right.

Notice, when you enter text that the words line up on

the left side of the cells. When you enter numbers, they line up on the right side. This is
because we are using the United States (English) version of Excel. Other international versions
will line up logically for their text and monetary forms.

4
We would like to place an underline at the bottom of the three figures so that we can indicate a
total below – in cell C7. Point to cell C7 (with the mouse). That's where we want the line --
always move the cursor to the place where you want to insert a line. With the Arrow on cell C7
tap the RIGHT mouse button.
A sub-menu with a caption Format Cells
appears.

The RIGHT click will “always bring up” a

menu that is “tailored” to the “place” where
you click. This will work in any Microsoft
Windows product. You can always tell
“where” you click the right mouse button for
the cursor arrow will always be in a corner
of the menu that appears – exactly where
you clicked the right mouse button..

Select Format Cells.

When the Format Cells menu screen (below) appears, select the Border Tab.

Look at the Line Style box on the

right side of the menu screen.
There are several types of lines that
you can choose. Point to the thick
single line in the Style Area (see
arrow) and click the left mouse
button. A box will go around the
line. Look at the area which says
Border. Point to the upper part of
the Text box (see arrow) and click
the left mouse button. A thick black
line will appear at the top of the
Text box.

5
If the thick line does not show-up at the top of the Text box, click-again at the “top line area in
the Text box” and the line will “disappear”. Then click-on the thick, single line in the Line Style
box again and repeat the previous instructions. If, somehow, you make a mistake, simply click
“on and off in the Text line boxes.” You will notice that the lines appear and disappear. This is
called a “toggle” in computer “talk.” So, work at this until you get the line on the top of the cell.
We have indicated that we want a single thick underline at the top of the cell C7. Point to OK
and click the left mouse button.
When you return to the spreadsheet, click somewhere
other than cell C7. This is called “clicking away.” You
should now see a line at the top of cell C7.

Now type in the numbers in the cells indicated.

C11 30
C12 50
C13 150
C14 70 (After you type 70, tap the Enter key)

Now, underline the top of cell C15 like you did cell C7.

Your spreadsheet should now look like the image on the right.

WIDENING COLUMNS

You probably noticed, as you typed in the numbers, some of the words were just too wide for
the default cell width (Investments and Miscellaneous). Let's widen column B to take care of
this.

Slowly move the mouse arrow to the right

edge of the B cell (between the B and the

6
C). The cursor will turn into an arrow pointing right and left with a small vertical line in the
middle. Hold down the left mouse button and move (drag) the line to the right.
As soon as you start to move (drag) the mouse, a dotted vertical line will go down the
spreadsheet and it will move as you hold down the left button and drag the mouse to the right.
Keep moving your mouse to the right until you are past the widest word - and a bit more (for
some space). Release the button. The column is widened. Notice, above the two headed
arrow cursor, that as you hold down and drag, it indicates the current
width of the column.

7
 Here is another way to widen a column. Point to the B at the
top of column B (in the Gray area) and click the left mouse
button (The cell should turn dark blue and the column light
blue.).
Now, keeping the cursor somewhere in the “blue” area, click
the RIGHT Mouse Button. Notice that a menu with Column
Width… appears. Click-on Column Width… A new Column
Width menu appears. Type in 15 and click-on OK. This is
another way to widen a column.

INSERTING ROWS & COLUMNS

Click the left mouse button. You will notice that the whole row goes light blue and the 2 turn’s
dark blue. Make sure the cursor arrow is either on the 2 or somewhere in the blue row.

8
Click the RIGHT mouse button. A drop down menu will appear. Point to Insert. Click the left
button on Insert. Notice how one row was inserted and how everything below moved down.
Do this again to insert another row. Excel, and all spreadsheets, will remember where they
moved your work and automatically adjust for these changes. Income should now be in cell A5.
Similarly new column can be added in the same manner.

ALIGNING CELLS

Now we'll type some more text. Go to cell

C3 SEPT (Type-in SEPT and tap the Enter key)

Notice how SEPT is automatically left aligned. Logically, since

you are using Excel, the English version, the text is left aligned
so that all of the text entries will line up nicely in the column
cells. We would like to center SEPT in cell C3. Click on cell C3
to “mark” the cell. One way to center SEPT is to simply click-
on the Center button in the button bar at the top of the
screen. Make sure that you are ON cell C3, then click-on the
center button (see image above right). You’ll notice that SEPT
is now centered in cell C3.

Here is another way to center SEPT. Click RIGHT on cell C3.

Then click on Format Cells.

9
When the Format Cells Menu appears, click-on the – Alignment Tab and then click-on --
Horizontal - Center --Vertical - Center -- then click OK.

SAVING SPREADSHEETS

In the upper left corner of your Excel 2007 screen you will see a button similar to the image.
This is the Microsoft Office Button. Click the Microsoft Office Button.

10
You will now see the Excel 2007 Microsoft Office Button selections.

If you save as Excel Workbook, it will save your spreadsheet in an .xlsx format. There are many
formats available. It’s your choice, so you select the format you desire.

11