BASICS OF

MS-EXCEL
MS-Excel is a Windows based application package. It is
quite useful in entering, editing, analysis and storing of
data. Arithmetic operations with numerical data such as
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division can also
be done with Excel. You can sort the numbers/characters
according to some given criteria (like ascending,
descending etc.)and solve simple financial, mathematical
and statistical formulas.
OBJECTIVES:
After going through this lesson you would be able to:
▪explain the basic features of MS Excel
▪set pages and their printing
▪modify a worksheet
▪enter and edit data in a worksheet
▪work on keyboard shortcuts
EXCEL FEATURES
There are a number of features that are available in Excel to make your
task easier. Some of the main features are:
AutoFormat - lets you to choose many preset table formatting options.
1. AutoSum - helps you to add the contents of a cluster of adjacent cells.
2. List AutoFill - automatically extends cell formatting when a new item is
added to the end of a list.
3. AutoFill - feature allows you to quickly fill cells with repetitive or
sequential data such as chronological dates or numbers, and repeated
text. AutoFill can also be used to copy functions. You can also alter text
and numbers with this feature.
4. Auto Shapes toolbar - will allow you to draw a number
of geometrical shapes, arrows, flowchart elements, stars
and more. With these shapes you can draw your own
graphs.
5. Wizard - guides you to work effectively while you work
by displaying various helpful tips and techniques based on
what you are doing.
Drag and Drop - feature will help you to reposition the
data and text by simply dragging the data with the help of
mouse.
6. Charts - features will help you in presenting a graphical
representation of your data in the form of Pie, Bar, Line
charts and more.
7. PivotTable - flips and sums data in seconds and allows
you to perform data analysis and generating reports like
periodic financial statements, statistical reports, etc. You
can also analyze complex data relationships graphically.
8. Shortcut Menus - commands that are appropriate to the
task that you are doing appear by clicking the right mouse
button.
STARTING EXCEL
1. Click on (with the help of mouse) the Start button on the
Windows Taskbar at the bottom of the Screen
2. Highlight the Programs item. The program menu will open.
3. Select Microsoft Excel from the list of programs.
4. Click on Microsoft Excel
Symbolically these actions are shown below.
Select Start→Programs→Microsoft Excel commands from your
menu bar.
Microsoft Excel

MSOB
EXCEL WORKSHEET
Excel allows you to create worksheets much like paper
ledgers that can perform automatic calculations. Each Excel
file is a workbook that can hold many worksheets. The
worksheet is a grid of columns (designated by letters) and
rows (designated by numbers). The letters and numbers of
the columns and rows (called labels) are displayed in gray
buttons across the top and left side of the worksheet. The
intersection of a column and a row is called a cell. Each cell
on the spreadsheet has a cell address that is the column
letter and the row number. Cells can contain either text,
numbers, or mathematical formulas.
 Cell Number Box Standard Tool Bar Formula
Formatting Bar
Active Cell Menu Bar Tool Bar Column Headings

Worksheet Sheet Tab Status Bar

Row Headings Tab Scroll Horizontal Vertical
Buttons Scroll Bar Scroll Bar
Selecting, Adding and Renaming Worksheets
The worksheets in a workbook are accessible by clicking
the worksheet tabs just above the status bar. By default,
three worksheets are included in each workbook.
To add a sheet, select Insert→Worksheet from the menu
bar.
To rename the worksheet tab, move the cursor to sheet
tab, right-click on the tab with the mouse and select
Rename from the shortcut menu.
Type the new name and press the ENTER key.
Standard Toolbar
This toolbar is located just below the menu bar at the top of the screen
and allows you to quickly access basic Excel commands.
1. New - Select File→New from the menu bar, or press CTRL+N, or click the
New button to create a new workbook.
2. Open - Click File→Open from the menu bar, or press CTRL+O, or click
the Open folder button to open an existing workbook.
3. Save - The first time you save a workbook, select File→Save As and
name the file. After the file is named click File→Save, or CTRL+S, or the Save
button on the standard toolbar.
4. Print - Click the Print button to print the worksheet.
5. Print Preview - This feature will allow you to preview the
worksheet before it prints.
6. Spell Check - Use the spell checker to correct spelling errors on
the worksheet.
7. Cut, Copy, Paste, and Format Painter - These actions will be
explained to you later in this lesson.
8. Undo and Redo - Click the backward Undo arrow to cancel the
last action you performed like entering data into a cell, formatting a cell,
entering a function, etc. Click the forward Redo arrow to cancel the
undo action.
9. Insert Hyperlink - To insert a hyperlink to a web
site on the Internet, type the text into a cell you want to
be the link that can be clicked with the mouse. Then,
click the Insert Hyperlink button and enter the web
address you want the text to link to and click OK.
10. AutoSum, Function Wizard, and Sorting
11. Chart and Drawing
12. Zoom - To change the size that the worksheet
appears on the screen, choose a different percentage
from the Zoom menu.
SELECTING CELLS AND RANGES
To enter data into your worksheet you must first have a cell or range
selected. When you open an Excel worksheet, cell A1 is already
active. An active cell will appear to have a darker border around it
than other cells on the worksheet. The simplest way to select a cell
is with your mouse pointer. Move your mouse to the desired cell
and click on it with right button. Whatever you type goes into the
cell. To select a range of cells, click on one cell, hold down the left
mouse button and drag the mouse pointer to the last cell of the
range you want to select. You can also use keyboard shortcuts given
at the end of this lesson for selecting cells.
NAVIGATING THE WORKSHEET
You can advance through your worksheet by rows with the vertical
scrollbar or by columns with the horizontal scrollbar.
When you click and drag the thumb tab on the scrollbar, a Screen Tip
will appear alongside the bar identifying the row or column to which
your view is advancing.
DATA ENTRY
You can enter various kinds of data in a cell.
1. Numbers: Your numbers can be from the entire range of numeric
values: whole numbers (example, 25), decimals
(example, 25.67) and scientific notation (example, 0.2567E+2). Excel
displays scientific notation automatically if you enter a number that is too
long to be viewed in its entirety in a cell. You may also see number signs
(# # # # # #) when a cell entry is too long. Widening the column that
contains the cell with the above signs will allow you to read the number.
2. Text: First select the cell in which data has to be entered and type
the text. Press ENTER key to finish your text entry.
The text will be displayed in the active cell as well as in the Formula bar.
If you have numbers to be treated as text use an apostrophe (‘) as the
first character. You cannot do calculations with these kind of data entry.
3. Date and Time: When you enter dates and times, Excel converts
these entries into serial numbers and kept as background information.
However, the dates and times will be displayed to you on the worksheet
in a format opted by you.
4. Data in Series: You can fill a range of cells either with the same
value or with a series of values with the help of AutoFill.
EDITING DATA
Editing your Excel worksheet data is very easy. You can edit your data by any
of the following ways:
1. Select the cell containing data to be edited. Press F2. Use Backspace
key and erase the wrong entry. Retype the correct entry.
2. Select the cell and simply retype the correct entry.
3. If you want only to clear the contents of the cell, select the cell and
press Delete key.
4. To bring back the previous entry, either click on Undo button on
standard Toolbar or select Edit→Undo command or use keyboard shortcuts
CTRL+Z.
CELL REFERENCES
Each worksheet contains a number of columns
and rows. Each cell of the worksheet has a
unique reference. For example, D5, refers to the
cell containing column number D and row
number 5.
FIND AND REPLACE DATA IN A WORKSHEET

You may want to locate a number or text that is

already typed in the worksheet. This is done
through Edit→Find. You can also locate your data
and replace with new data with Edit→Find→Replace.
MODIFYING A WORKSHEET
Adding Worksheets, Rows, and Columns
Worksheets - Add a worksheet to a workbook by selecting
1.

Insert→Worksheet from the menu bar.

Row - To add a row to a worksheet, select Insert→Rows from
2.

the menu bar, or highlight the row by clicking on the row label,
right-click with the mouse, and choose Insert.
Column - Add a column by selecting Insert→Columns from the
3.

menu bar, or highlight the column by click on the column label,

right-click with the mouse, and choose Insert.
Resizing Rows and Columns
There are two ways to resize rows and columns.
1. Resize a row by dragging the line below the label of the row you
would like to resize. Resize a column in a similar manner by
dragging the line to the right of the label corresponding to the
column you want to resize.
2. Click the row or column label and select Format→Row→Height
or Format→Column→Width from the menu bar to enter a
numerical value for the height of the row or width of the column.
Selecting Cells
Before a cell can be modified or formatted, it must first be selected
(highlighted). Refer to the table below for selecting groups of cells.

Cells to select Mouse action:

One cell click once in the cell
Entire row click the row label
Entire column click the column label
Entire worksheet click the whole sheet button (at the
intersection of rows and columns)
Cluster of cells drag mouse over the cells or hold down
the SHIFT key while using the arrow keys
Moving and Copying Cells
1. Moving Cells
To cut cell contents that will be moved to another cell select
Edit→Cut from the menu bar or click the Cut button on the
standard toolbar.
2. Copying Cells
To copy the cell contents, select Edit→Copy from the menu bar
or click the Copy button on the standard toolbar.
3. Pasting Cut and Copied Cells
Highlight the cell you want to paste the cut or copied content
into and select Edit→Paste from the menu bar or click the
Paste button on the standard toolbar.
Drag and Drop
If you are moving the cell contents only a short distance, the
drag-and-drop method may be easier. Simply drag the
highlighted border of the selected cell to the destination cell
with the mouse.

5. Freeze Panes
If you have a large worksheet with column and row headings,
those headings will disappear as the worksheet is scrolled. By
using the Freeze Panes feature, the headings can be visible at all
times.
1. Click the label of the row below the row that should remain frozen
at the top of the worksheet.
2. Select Window→Freeze Panes from the menu bar.
3. To remove the frozen panes, select Window→Unfreeze Panes.
PAGE BREAKS
To set page breaks within the worksheet, select
the row you want to appear just below the page
break by clicking the row’s label. Then choose
Insert→Page Break from the menu bar. You may
need to click the double down arrow at the
bottom of the menu list to view this option.
PAGE SETUP
Select File→Page Setup from the menu bar to format the page, set margins,
and add headers and footers.
1. Page: The page option allows you to set the paper size, orientation of
the data, scaling of the area, print quality, etc. Select the Orientation under
the Page tab in the Page Setup window to make the page Landscape or
Portrait. The size of the worksheet on the page can also be formatted using
Scaling. To force a worksheet to print only one page wide so that all the
columns appear on the same page, select Fit to 1 page(s) wide.
2. Margins Change the top, bottom, left, and right margins under
the Margins tab. Enter values in the header and footer fields to
indicate how far from the edge of the page this text should appear.
Check the boxes for centering horizontally or vertically on the page.
3. Header/Footer tab gives you the option to set the Header (which
will be displayed on the top of every page) and the Footer (which will be
displayed on the bottom of every page). Add preset headers and footers
to the page by clicking the drop-down menus under the Header/Footer
tab.
To modify a preset header or footer, or to make your own, click the
Custom Header and Custom Footer buttons. A new window will open
allowing you to enter text in the left, center, or right on the page.
Format Text - Click this button after highlighting the text to change the
font, size, and style.
Page Number - Insert the page number of each page.
Total Number of Pages - Use this feature along with the page number to
create strings such as “page 5 of 10”.
Date - Add the current date.
Time - Add the current time.
File Name - Add the name of the workbook file.
Tab Name - Add the name of the worksheet’s tab.
Sheet tab has the option to select the area to be printed (that is, range
of cells). Check Gridlines if you want the gridlines dividing the cells to
be printed on the page. If the worksheet is several pages long and only
the first page includes titles for the columns, select Rows to repeat at
top to choose a title row that will be printed at the top of each page.
PRINT PREVIEW
Select File→Print Preview from the menu bar to view how
the worksheet will print. Click the Next and Previous
buttons at the top of the window to display the pages and
click the Zoom button to view the pages closer. Make
page layout modifications needed by clicking the Page
Setup button. Click Close to return to the worksheet or
Print to continue printing.
PRINT
To print the worksheet, select File→Print from the menu bar.
1. Print Range - Select either all pages or a range of pages to print.
2. Print What - Select selection of cells highlighted on the worksheet,
the active worksheet, or all the worksheets in the entire workbook.
3. Copies - Choose the number of copies that should be printed.
Check the Collate box if the pages should remain in order.
4. Click OK to print.
FILE CLOSE AND EXIT EXCEL
When your work is finished and it has been saved
properly:
1.Select File→Close command and then click mouse
to close your file
2.Select File→Exit command and then click mouse to
close your file
WORKBOOK PROTECTION
You can restrict access to your workbook in three ways.
1. Protect Sheet: Select Tools→Protect Sheet commands
and click. This feature prevents changes to cells on worksheets,
items in a chart, graphic objects on a worksheet or chart sheet.
When the active document is protected, the command name
changes to Unprotect Sheet. If you want to unprotect a sheet
that has been already protected. Select Tools→Unprotect
Sheet commands and click.
2. Protect Workbook: Select Tools→Protect Workbook
commands and click. This feature protects a workbook’s
structure and windows. You can prevent changes to the
structure of a workbook so that sheets can’t be deleted,
moved, hidden, unhidden, or renamed, and new sheets can’t
be inserted. You can also protect windows from being moved
or resized. When the active document is protected, the
command name changes to Unprotect Workbook. If you want
to unprotect a workbook that has been already protected.
Select Tools→Unprotect Workbook commands and click.
3. Protect for Sharing: Select Tools→Protect and Share Workbook
commands and click. This feature protects the sharing and change
history tracking in a shared workbook so the features can’t be turned
off. If you select this check box and click OK when the workbook isn’t a
shared workbook, you are asked if you want to save it as a shared
workbook. In a workbook that is already shared, you can turn on
protection for sharing and the change history, but you can’t assign a
password for this protection. To assign a password, you must first
remove the workbook from shared use. When the active shared
workbook is protected, the command name changes to Unprotect for
Sharing. If you want to unprotect a share workbook that has been
already protected. Select Tools→Unprotect Workbook commands and
click.