Introduction

Microsoft Excel is a tool used for storing, organizing, and analyzing information. The basic building blocks of this tool are the rows, columns, and cells that make up a spreadsheet.

Row:

Column:

Cells are the intersection of rows and columns; each cell represents one data point. In the image below, the cell that is highlighted is at the intersection of Column B and Row 2.

Cell:

Cells can be used for entering both data and labels for rows and columns.

With Excel, you can:

1) Perform statistical analyses using the function wizard and

2) Present graphical information using the chart wizard

As a spreadsheet program, Excel is composed of workbooks and worksheets. A workbook is like a document; it contains all of the information in a given file. The workbook is made up of worksheets, which are like the individual pages of the document. Individual worksheets are represented by tabs at the bottom of the screen in Excel, which can be used to switch from one worksheet to another.

The active worksheet is the highlighted tab (here, Worksheet 1).

Well, in order to use Excel, you probably want to work with some data. The following steps will teach you how to work with data in Excel.

Working with Data

There are two places to enter data in Excel:

1) Enter data in a cell by clicking on a cell, typing in the data (numbers or words), and pressing Enter.
	2) Enter data in a formula bar--click on a cell, type in the data in the formula bar, and press Enter. The formula bar appears above the data, after the = sign.

You may also want to edit data that you have entered. You may do this by clicking on a cell to "select" the cell. Any data already present in the cell will be deleted when you type.

To go back and edit the original data, double click on the cell. A cursor will appear, and then you can edit the cell.

Selecting a group of cells:

To select a group of cells, click on the topmost or leftmost cell that you want to select and drag over the other cells that you want to include.

To select a row or column, click on the label of either the top of the column or the left of the row.

Sorting selected cells:

Once you have selected a group of cells you can sort those cells by clicking on the toolbar button that has the label to to sort numbers in the order 1»9 (or the label to sort numbers in the order 9»1).

Example:

The cells that are highlighted in Column B will be sorted when the button is pressed.

To the right are the sorted data.

Basic Formatting:

The toolbar can be used to change the look of the data in a cell:

Click on the cell, and then you can use all the commands you are familiar with from Word (i.e., Bold, Underline)

You can also change the size of rows and columns:

1) Click on the right border of the Column label or the bottom border of the Row label and drag to resize

2) Double click on the border of the row or column that you want to resize (the right border of a column or the bottom border of a row) to have Excel automatically size the row or column to the width/height of the data

Formatting Numbers:

By using buttons on the toolbar, you can change the format of numbers.

For example, to change your numbers to currency:

1) Select cells		2) Push the dollar sign button on the toolbar
3) $ represents currency, comma represents numbers and % represents percents The data in column A are represented as currency in the image to the right.

 

Identifying Cells :

Remember that each cell is an intersection of a row and a column. Thus, each cell has a unique label that is the combination of the row and column names in that order .

The top left cell in column A and Row 1 is called A1.

These labels can be used in formulas (which you will learn about later) to access the data in that cell.

Copying Data into Multiple Cells:

To take data from one cell and copy into the other cells, 1) select the cell, 2) click on the little square in the bottom right corner of the cell, 3) Drag over the cells that you want to have the data copied into.

Summary Statistics:

Excel will calculate means, medians, modes, standard deviations, variances, and correlation coefficients for you.

You may directly write the formulas for these statistics into the formula bar, or you may use the formula wizard (fx in the toolbar) to calculate these statistics.

Now that you know how to work with the basic functions of Excel, you can begin to use this program for storing your data. Once you become familiar with other features of Excel, you can calculate statistics and produce graphs using the program.

Working with Formulas

Beginning

Formulas in Excel all begin with an equal sign (=) and can be entered in either of two places:

1. The formula can be entered in the cell it will correspond to

OR 2. A formula can be entered in the formula bar           Note: Figures taken from Microsoft Excel 2000

 

 

Formulas can use mathematical operators such as +, -, * , / (÷), or ^ to perform various calculations.

Pressing return/enter after typing the formula will display the result.

Similar to entering data, if you single click the formula cell, any formula will be deleted when you begin typing. Double clicking on the cell will allow you to edit the formula.

 

References with Formulas

Remember that each cell is an intersection of a row and a column. Thus, each cell has a unique label that is the combination of the row and the column names in that order.

The top left cell in column A and Row 1 is called A1. The cell underneath A1 is called A2 (column A and row 2). The cell next to A1 is called B1 (column B and Row 1).

 

These cell labels can be used in formulas to access the datum in that cell.

You can refer to multiple cells by specifying the first and last cells of the group with a colon in between the cell labels (e.g =sum (A1:A5) See example below)

Notice that the selected cells are A2 through A8 and they are being summed in cell A10

 

Using Labels

A short cut to get to a cell's label (name):

• While typing a formula, click on the cell that you want to refer to and the label will appear in the formula.
• You can also refer to multiple cells in this way by clicking on the first cell of the group and dragging to the last cell of the group.

• If, while entering the formula, you want to move to another cell rather than reference that cell, you must either hit "enter" to finish the formula or "escape" to cancel.

1. Function Name (beginning cell label:end cell label)
• Example: =Sum (A1:A10) -this will add (sum) all of the data between cells A1 and A10
2. Function Name (first cell label, second cell label, third cell label, etc...)
   • Example: =SUM (A1, A3,A5,A7,A9)- this will add (sum) all of the identified cells (A1,A3,A5,A7,A9).

Clicking on on the Excel toolbar will show you a list of all of the functions available (and give you more information about how to use them).

 

 

Copying Data into Multiple Cells

To take information from one cell and copy it into other cells:

Select the cell and then,   Click on the little square in the bottom-right corner of the cell.
	Drag over the cells that you want to have the datum copied into.
When you let go of the mouse, the information will be automatically copied!

 

Copying Formulas into Other Cells

Similar to copying data into other cells, formulas can also be copied from one cell into other cells.

Conveniently, this is done in the same manner.

(Insert picture here with two frames (possibly a flash movie) and the following text)

	If one of your cells was calulated by a formula, simply select that cell, then click on the little square in the bottom-right corner of the cell
Drag over the cells that you want to have the formula copied into.
	If the formula contains a label, then either the row or column part of the label will be incremented automatically for each new formula (column if you move right or left, row if you move up or down)

 

 

Results from formulas

Once you have caluculated a formula and have a result in one or more cells be aware that if you change your data then the calculated result will also be changed.

For example,

if my data looked like this:
	And I found the average of all the data from B2 to B9 (written in cell B11)

 

 

Watch what happens if the score in cell B7 is changed from 32 to 95:

 

The average automatically changes!