Understanding Excel

Lesson 1

Excel 2013• Microsoft Office Excel 2013 provides powerful tools that enable users to organize, analyze, manage, and share information easily.

SOFTWARE ORIENTATION• primary user interface (UI)

TOOLS

•The Excel 2013 window has many onscreen tools to help create and edit documents quickly and efficiently.

•Tools in Excel help users to organize, analyze, manage, and share information easily.

•A command is an instruction based on the action that you give to Excel by clicking a button or entering information into a command box.

The Ribbon• contains multiple commands separated by tabs

• each tab contains several groups, or collections of related Excel commands (i.e. Home)

Tabs

•Allows access to groups of commands on ribbons

•Examples: Home, Insert, Page Layout

• dialog box launcher —a small arrow in the lower-right corner of the group—that you click to launch a dialog box that displays additional options or information

• Let’s look at the Ribbon dialog box in the home tab.

• Also, the drop down arrows on some of them.

Format Cells Dialog Box

Home TAB; Font dialog box launcher, brings up Format Cells

Open Excel 2013• Excel 2013 by double-clicking the Excel program icon on your desktop or by choosing Microsoft Excel 2013 from the Start menu.

PIN IT

Blank New Worksheet

Title Bar• Displays the file name of the document

• What is the file name of the document below?

Workbook vs Worksheet

Grid: rows, columns, & cellsHow identifiedActive cell-rectangle outline in bold

Parts• Number of worksheets in a new workbook-1

• Sheet tabs are at the bottom of the worksheet

• It is identified by “Sheet 1”

• Rename by right clicking, select rename and type in the new name.

• Add additional worksheet by clicking the +

• Active Cell

Quick Access Toolbar

• Above the Ribbon and provides access to commonly used tasks like saving a document

• Includes Save, Undo, Redo Commands

• Customize- by clicking the drop-down arrow on the right side of the toolbar and choosing options from the menu that appears

Quick Access Toolbar Terms• Save – Use when saving a document for the first time or saving changes to an existing document

• Save As – used to save the file with a different name or different format

•Undo – used to undo the changes you made to your document

• Redo – used to repeat the changes you made after pressing the Undo command

ScreenTips

•ScreenTips, which are small, onscreen rectangles that display descriptive text when you rest the pointer on a command or control.

KEY TIPS

• Appear after pressing the Alt key

• Allow user to choose commands using the keyboard

• Badges: Labels that display the letter of the KeyTip

File Tab• Gives the user access to Excel Options and allows you to create new documents, save and print

• When selecting the File Tab, it will take you to the Backstage View

Backstage view

This shows you behind-the-scenes options to manage files such as opening, saving,printing, and documenting files. Lesson 3 goes more in depth.Info tab: Information about the current workbook.

Page Layout View

Shows rulers, headers, footers and/or page breaks.

Splitting the Window• When there is a lot of data and you can see only a small portion of the worksheet use the split command.

• The Split command enables you to overcome this limitation by viewing the worksheet in two panes or four quadrants.

• Use the scroll bars on the right and at the bottom of the window to display different sections

Split Window

Open a New Window

• Can view two sections of a worksheet by using the New Window command.

• Use the New Window command on the VIEW tab to open a new window

View Buttons• Appear on the lower right side of the window

• Allow the user to determine the way that the document is viewed

Open an Existing Workbook

•Use commands on the FILE tab to find and open an existing workbook.

Navigating a Worksheet• An Excel worksheet can contain more than one million rows and more than sixteen thousand columns. There are several ways to move through worksheets that contain numerous rows and columns.

• You can use the arrow keys, the scroll bars, or the mouse to navigate through a worksheet.

• A worksheet can be very large or quite small depending on your needs. Available columns go from A through XFD, and available rows can go from 1 through 1,048,567.

Navigating Data with to Go To Command

•The Name Box indicates the current cell you are in as well as gives you the opportunity to name the cell or a range. The Go To command can take you to particular points in a worksheet, including cells and cell ranges that you name yourself.

Help• Finding the right information in Excel’s Help system is easy: You can pick a topic from popular searches, see what’s new, get training, or perform keyword searches by entering terms that best describe the task you want to complete.