Department of English

University of Chakwal, Chakwal

Applications of Information and Communication Technologies

Experiment No. 9
Introduction to Microsoft Excel
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Semester:

Submitted To:
Engr. Athar Baig

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 Applications of Information and Communication Technologies | Lab 09

Introduction to Microsoft Excel

Objectives:
 Vocabulary
 Clipboard
 Cells Structure
 Fill Handle
 Building and Equation
Vocabulary
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program. We use it to create reports that need calculations and
charts.
1. An Excel file is called a Workbook.
- Default title is Book1
2. Ribbon broken into Tabs (Home, Insert, Page Layout…)
- Tabs broken into groups (Clipboard, Font, Alignment)
3. Name box (left) and formula bar (right)
- Name box shows address of current cell
- Formula bar shows contents of current cell
4. Columns Headings are Lettered, Rows Headings are Numbered
- Columns of a building, rows of chairs
5. Worksheet navigation buttons, Worksheet tabs
- Sheet1
6. Status bar
- Excel behaves differently depending on the current "mode"

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Status Bar Modes

Ready mode. This means nothing is being entered or edited on the spreadsheet.
Enter mode. This mode is when you are doing data entry, just typing in the contents.
Edit mode. Edit the contents of the current cell. Double‐click on a cell with data in it, or click
inside the formula bar for this mode.
Point mode. Used when linking to cell addresses within a formula or from an Excel dialog
window.

Keyboard Navigation

Key Ready Enter Edit Point

Enter Move Down Accept changes and move down
Shift‐Enter Move Up Accept changes and move up
Tab Move Right Accept changes and move right
Shift‐Tab Move Left Accept changes and move Left
Moves between Points to an address of
Arrow Keys Moves to another cell
characters in cell a cell
Moves to the front of Points to cell in column
Home Moves to first column
the line in the cell A
Moves to the beginning Points to the beginning
Ctrl‐Home
cell of the worksheet (A1) of the worksheet

Ribbon
The images of Excel in this packet were copied from a wide screen monitor. With the wide screen
the ribbon is stretched across the window and I can see all the buttons. If you are working on a
narrower window, Excel will try to clump the groups together and the layout may look a little
different than the ones shown here, but all the buttons will be there.

Here we can see how the font group is now three buttons high, and how some of the buttons like
Cut and Copy have lost their text labels.

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Clipboard
Cut, Copy and Paste are clipboard features built into Windows. The clipboard is a temporary
storage place for pictures and data. The Windows clipboard can only store one item at a time.
Microsoft Office has a Multi‐Clipboard that can store 24 items, but the Paste button and the
shortcuts for the Paste option only correspond to the most recently copied item. The clipboard pane
must be displayed to be able to use this feature.
Cut – Copies selection to the clipboard. If the selection is text or an
image, it will disappear. If it’s a cell, Excel waits until you paste it to
delete the original cell.
Copy – Copies selection to the clipboard.
Paste – Retrieves most recent text/object on the clipboard.

Formatting Cells
The most formatting options are found on the Home Tab. All the options can be found in the
Format Cells window. This contains several tabs to help us format the contents of our spreadsheet.
This window can be opened by using the More Options button at the end of the Format,
Alignment and Number groups. You can also use the Keyboard Shortcut – Ctrl‐1 or choose Format
Cells… from the right‐click shortcut menu.

Font
1. Font – Sets the font of the selected cell(s). Fonts
are different ways to show the same letters.
2. Font Size – Sets the size of the letters (the font).
Larger numbers give larger fonts.
3. Increase Font – Increases the font size
4. Decrease Font – Decreases the font size
5. Bold – Makes the selected cell(s) Bold
6. Italic – Makes the selected cell(s) Italicized
7. Underline – Makes the selected cell(s) Underlined. The drop down has a double underline.
8. Borders – Adds and removes borders for the selected cell(s). The drop down has More
Borders…
9. Fill Color – Changes the background color of the selected cell(s).
10. Font Color – Changes the color of the font of the selected cell(s).

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11. More Options – This button will open the Format Cells dialog window.

Alignment
1. Top Align – Vertically aligns to the top of
the cell.
2. Middle Align – Vertically aligns to middle
of the cell
3. Bottom Align – Vertically aligns to the
bottom of the cell.
4. Orientation – Rotates the contents of the
cell to the currently displayed option.
5. Wrap Text – Displays contents on multiple
lines within the cell's column width.
6. Align Text Left – Horizontally aligns the contents to the left side of the column.
7. Center – Horizontally aligns the contents to the center of the cell.
8. Align Text Right – Horizontally aligns the contents to the right side of the cell.
9. Decrease Indent – Decreases the space between the text and the cell border
10. Increase Indent – Increases the space between the text and the cell border
11. Merge and Center – Joins selected (adjacent) cells into one cell and centers the result. If
there is data in more than one cell, Excel will only keep the information from the upper left
cell.
12. More Options – This button will open the Format Cells dialog window to the Alignment
Tab.

Number
1. Number Format – Allows you to change the way numeric
values are displayed on the spreadsheet. The drop down arrow
gives you a list of the most common formats, including a
More Number Formats option.
2. Currency Style – Sets the selected cell(s) to the Currency
Style, this style keeps the dollar signs on the left side of the
cell, and the number on the right side. The drop down arrow
gives you a list of other currency formats, such as the Euro (€).
3. Percent Style – Sets the selected cell(s) to the Percent Style, this style has zero decimal
places. Keyboard shortcut ‐ Ctrl‐Shift‐%. This button can be reset through Cell Styles on
the Home Tab.
4. Comma Style – Sets the selected cell(s) to the Comma Style, this style has a comma for
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every thousand and two decimal places. This button can be reset through
5. Increase Decimal – Increases the number of decimal places showing to the right of the
decimal.
6. Decrease Decimal – Decreases the number of decimal places showing to the right of the
decimal.
7. More Options – This button will open the Format Cells dialog window to the Number Tab.
Cells Structure
There are a set number of cells within a Microsoft Excel worksheet. In the Ribbon versions (2007
and later) there are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows. As you insert and delete structures, you
are not reducing the number of cells, merely shifting where your data lies on the defined worksheet.
Think about moving a painting around on a wall. You're not changing the wall, just the position of
the painting.

Inserting
We use Insert to make new cells, columns, and rows.
Excel determines what you are trying to insert based on your selection. If a full column is selected,
Excel will assume you mean a full column and it will skip the Insert window.
Excel determines what you are trying to insert based on your selection. If a full column is selected,
Excel will assume you mean a full column and it will skip the Insert window.
You can insert a cell, row, or column by doing one of the following:
 Press Shift ‐ Ctrl ‐ = on the keyboard (ctrl plus)
 or from the Home tab, in the Cells group, choose
Insert
 or open the Right‐click menu and choose insert.

- To insert multiple at once, select the number of

cells/rows/columns you would like to insert and
follow the steps above.
- The size and format of the new space is determined
by the previous row or column.

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- This will push the existing cells, columns, or rows to

the right or down to make room for the new cells.

Deleting
We use Delete to remove cells, columns, and rows. Excel
determines what you are trying to delete based on your
selection. You can delete a cell, row, or column by doing one
of the following:
 Press Shift ‐ Ctrl ‐ ‐ on the keyboard (Ctrl Minus)
 or from the Home tab, in the Cells group, choose
Delete
 or open the Right‐click menu and choose insert.
- To delete multiple at once, select the number of
cells/rows/columns you would like to delete and follow the
steps above.
- This will completely remove the structure, formatting and all,
and the rows/columns/cells will shift into this place. If you only
intended to delete the contents not the cells, undo and use the
Clear Contents option instead.

Cell Size (Row Height/Column Width)

You cannot resize one cell; the structure is dependent on the entire row
and column where it resides. The Row Height and Column Width
settings can be found under the Format menu in the Cells group of the
Home tab.

Adjusting with the Mouse

When we resize we are growing away from the left.
To resize the column, place your mouse cursor between the lines of the
column headings. The current column heading is in a box; all you need
to do is resize the box to make it wider. Put your mouse along the right side of the heading box
until you see the resizing arrow pointing in two
directions. Click and drag away from the column
letter. When you let go of the mouse, the column will
resize.

To resize the row, place your mouse cursor between the lines of the row headings. The current row
heading is in a box; all you need to do is resize the box to make it wider. Put your mouse along the

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bottom side of the heading box until you see the resizing arrow pointing in two directions. Click
and drag away from the row number. When you let go of the mouse, the row will resize.

Auto‐fitting
You can use the option found on the Format menu, or place your mouse cursor between the
headings, with the two‐way arrow to help resize, and double‐click. The row or column should
AutoFit to the largest data length within its structure.
- To resize multiple at once, select the cells you would like to fit and follow the steps above.
If you are using double‐click to auto‐fit, the entire column/row structures must be selected.
Fill Handle
The Fill Handle is in the bottom right corner of the selected cell. When you place your mouse over
this handle, it changes from a thick white cross, to a thin black cross. Once you see the thin cross
(no arrows) you can click and drag the cell to fill its contents in a
single direction (up, down, left or right). If you want to go in two
directions, you must first complete one way, let go of the mouse and
then drag the handle in the second direction.

When you use the Fill Handle to pull down a single number or plain text, it will copy the data.
When you use the Fill Handle to pull down a text with numbers, a date, a month or a weekday it
will fill in a series.

When you select two or more numbers (including dates) and then use the Fill Handle, Excel will
fill in the series, following the original pattern of the selected cells. It can only follow simple
addition and subtraction patterns.

Building an Equation
You can directly type in values, but that data stays constant. If you want to have the answers to
your equations update as you change your data, you should use the cell addresses. You will see
the cell addresses change colors so you can tell which ones are used in your equation.

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Type in the exact cell address

Cells are labeled by their row and column headings. Rows are numbered and go horizontally across
(rows of chairs) and columns are lettered and go vertically top to bottom (columns of a building).
When we refer to the address of a cell, we use the column letter then the row number such as A1.
- Click in the cell where the answer will appear
- Press the Equal sign (=)
A B C
- Type in the cell address you want to use
in your equation 1 1 2 =a1+b1
2
- Accept the answer or press the next math
operator (+, ‐, *, /, ^)

Use the mouse to point to the cell address

The mouse and arrow keys are both "pointers". If you press the equal sign and then use the mouse
to click on another cell, Excel will put you into a "POINT" mode, and place the address of the cell
you clicked on in your equation.
- Click in the cell where the answer will appear
- Press the Equal sign (=)
- Use the mouse to click on the cell you A B C
want to use in your equation 1 1 2 =A1
- Accept the answer or press the next 2
math operator (+, ‐, *, /, ^)

Mathematical Operations
To let Excel know you expect it to "do math" you need start your cell with an equal sign (=).

‐ Addition, plus sign (+) = 5+2 result 7

‐ Subtraction, hyphen (‐) = 5‐2 result 3
(also used for negative) = ‐5 result ‐5
‐ Multiplication, asterisk (*) = 5*2 result 10
‐ Division, slash (/) = 5/2 result 2.5
‐ Exponent/Power, caret (^) = 5^2 result 25

AutoSum
We can build equations to do math on a large number of cells, but there are functions built into
Excel that can help us automate the most common ones: Sum, Average, Count, Maximum,
Minimum. On the far right of the Home tab you'll find the sigma ( ∑ ).

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When you click on the word AutoSum, you'll get a sum

function. There is a dropdown list at the end of the button
that will show more function options.

The AutoSum button looks for numbers above or to the

left of the cell to choose the range (the set) of numbers.

Make sure to press enter or click the check to accept as

soon as the function shows up. If you click outside the cell while you see the function, you may
break the equation.
Lab Task:
a. Create a MS EXCEL spreadsheet of
marks of your whole group.
b. This is to be four test scores of your
whole group.
c. Use the FUNCTION that will total the
scores for each student.
d. Use the FUNCTION that will create an average of the test scores (by row).
e. Use the FUNCTION that will total all the tests scores for the individual test.
f. Use the FUNCTION that will create an average of those test scores (by column).
g. Use the FUNCTION to produce the MEDIAN of Individual Test Averages.

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