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What You Can Do in Excel

Lay Out a WorksheetWhen you sit down to develop a worksheet witha pencil and ledger paper, you do not alwayshave all the information to complete the designand layout of the worksheet. Ideas may occur toyou after you sketch the layout of yourworksheet. After you are finished jotting downthe column headings and the row headings, youmight think of another column or row that youdid not include. If you are working with penciland paper, restructuring the layout of aworksheet can be tedious and time-consuming.With Excel, you can easily insert columns androws and move information from one location toanother.

Calculate NumbersThink about the tasks involved in managing yourcheckbook register. You subtract the amount ofeach check written and add the deposits to therunning balance. You then use your bankstatement to balance your checkbook, and it isnot at all uncommon to find math errors in yourcheckbook. So, you must then recalculate thenumbers in your checkbook register and jotdown the new answers. If you set up an Excelworkbook for the same tasks, you can useformulas that subtract checks and add deposits.You enter the formulas only once and simplysupply the amounts of your checks and deposits,much as you record them in your checkbookregister. When you change the numbers in the

workbook, Excel uses the formulas to recalculatethe information in your workbook and instantlygives you the new answers — in most caseswithout the associated math errors.

Organize, Sort, and Filter ListsYou can create tables to organize your data inlists. For example, you can create inventory lists,employee lists, customer lists, student grade lists,and sales records. In Excel, you can add, delete,sort, search, and display records in the list asoften as required to maintain the list. You cansort data on the worksheet alphabetically andnumerically in ascending or descending order.For example, you can sort sales records inchronological order by dates. You can also usethe AutoFilter feature to quickly find informationthat meets a specific criterion or to find the topor bottom ten values in the list without sorting.

M icrosoft Excel is one of the world’s mostpopular spreadsheet programs. You couldcreate worksheets on ledger paper and use

a calculator, or draw charts on graph paper, but Excelmakes these tasks and others related to managing

numeric information easier. You can use the programto create worksheets, databases, and charts. Without adoubt, you could perform the following functionsmanually, but you can use Excel to make them easier.

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View DataWhen working with a large worksheet onledger paper, such as a financial statement, youmight have to use a ruler to compare figures ona far portion of the worksheet. You might evenfind yourself folding the ledger paper to bringthe columns you want to compare closetogether. In Excel, you can split the worksheetinto two or four panes to view distant figuresside by side. That way, you can easily see theeffects of asking “what happens when I changethis value?” to project changes. You can alsotemporarily hide intermediary columns so thatdistant figures appear right next to each otheras you work.

Make Editing ChangesTo correct a mistake on ledger paper, you haveto use an eraser, or you have to reconstruct theentire worksheet. With Excel, you can overwritedata in any cell in your worksheet. You can alsodelete data quickly, in one cell or a group ofcells. And, when you accidentally makemistakes that overwrite original data whileusing Excel, you do not have to retype orreconstruct information. Instead, you can justrestore the data using the Undo button.

Check SpellingNo more manually proofreading your work.When you use Excel’s AutoCorrect feature,Excel corrects commonly made mistakes as youtype — and you can add your own personal setof “common typos” to the list. In addition,before you print, you can run a spell check tosearch for misspellings. If you are a poor typist,this feature enables you to concentrate oncalculating your numbers while Excel catchesspelling errors.

Make Formatting ChangesExcel easily enables you to align data in cells;center column headings across columns; adjustcolumn width; and display numbers with dollar

signs, commas, and decimal points. You canexperiment with the settings until theworksheet appears the way that you want it;then you can print it. You can boldface,italicize, and underline data, and change fontsand font sizes. Excel also lets you shade cells,add borders, and apply styles to improve theappearance of a worksheet.

Preview Before PrintingYou can preview your worksheet to see how itwill look when you print it. You also can addheaders and footers and adjust page breaksbefore you print.

Chart Numeric DataNumbers form the foundation of charts.Manually creating charts is time-consuming andtakes some artistic skill. In Excel, creating chartsis quick and easy. You can track the sales trendsof several products with a chart. You also canmake as many “what if?” projections as youwant in the worksheet by increasing anddecreasing the numbers used in the chart; asyou change the numbers in the worksheet,Excel instantly updates the chart. Excel’s chartslet you simultaneously view the sales trends in apicture representation on-screen and thenumbers in the worksheet, making your salesforecasting more efficient.

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Start and Close Excel

Start and Close ExcelY ou can start the Excel program using the

Windows Start menu. When you open theStart menu, a search field appears at the

bottom and the All Programs choice appearsimmediately above the search field. Once you selectAll Programs, Windows displays folders that containthe programs installed on your computer. The shortcutto start Excel appears in the Microsoft Office folder.After you select Excel from the Microsoft Office folderseveral times, it will appear on the Start menu in thelist of recently opened files. You can select Microsoft

Office Excel 2007 from that list to open the program.If you use Excel regularly, you may want to pin Excelto the Start menu or create a desktop shortcut for it sothat you can open it more quickly.

You can close Excel using a command on the Officemenu, or you can use the Close button in the upper-right corner of the Excel window. Excel behavesdifferently, depending on the method you choose toclose the program, the number of workbooks youhave open, and whether you have made changes toany of the open workbooks.

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Start Excel

1 Click Start.

The Start menu appears.

2 Click All Programs.

• All Programs changes to Back.

3 Click Microsoft Office.

• The list of installed Microsoft Officeprograms appears.

4 Click Microsoft Office Excel 2007.

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Does Excel prompt me tosave before closing theprogram?

If you have not made anychanges to the workbook,Excel closes withoutprompting you to takeany further action.However, if you havemade changes to an openworkbook, Excel promptsyou to save the workbook.After you respond to theprompt, Excel closes,regardless of whether yousave the workbook.

Can I click the X in theupper-right corner to closeExcel?

Yes, but, if you have morethan one workbook open,Excel closes only the activeworkbook, instead of theprogram. You must clickthe X in the upper-rightcorner of each openworkbook. When you clickthe X while viewing thelast open workbook, boththe workbook and theprogram close. BeforeExcel closes any workbookyou have changed, Excelprompts you to save theworkbook.

What happens if I pinExcel to the Start menu?

Excel always appears onthe left side of the Startmenu, above the list ofrecently opened files.Right-click the Excel iconand click Pin to StartMenu.

How do I create a desktopshortcut.

To create a desktopshortcut for Excel, right-click the Excel icon, clickSend To, and then clickDesktop (Create Shortcut).

The main window for Excel appears.

The cell pointer ( ) appears as youmove the mouse over cells in theworksheet. You use the cell pointer toselect cells.

Note: See Chapter 4 for details on selecting cells.

Close Excel

1 Click the Microsoft Office button ( ).

2 Click Exit Excel.

Excel closes all open workbooks.

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Understanding the Excel ScreenE ach time you open Excel, you see a new

workbook named Book1 that contains threeworksheets.

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A Title BarDisplays the name ofthe workbook and thename of the program.

B Office ButtonOpens a menucontaining commandsrelated to fileoperations such as Saveand Print.

C Quick Access ToolbarBy default, contains buttonsthat enable you to save, undoyour last action, and redo yourlast action. You can also addbuttons to this toolbar; seeChapter 30 for details.

D RibbonContains most Excelcommands, organizedon tabs. See thesection,“Understanding theRibbon,” for details.

E Formula BarMade up of threeparts, the Formula Barcontains the Namebox, buttons thatpertain to enteringdata, and the contentsof the currentlyselected cell.

F Worksheet AreaThe place where youenter information intoExcel, divided into rowsand columns.

G Worksheet TabsTabs that identify theworksheet on which youare currently working. Youcan switch worksheets byclicking a worksheet tab.

H Status BarDisplays Excel’s current mode, such as Readyor Edit, and identifies any special keys youpress, such as CAPS LOCK. The Status Bar alsocontains View buttons that you can use toswitch views, and a Zoom control to help youzoom in or zoom out. See Chapter 8 for moreinformation on views and zooming.

I Scroll BarsEnable you to view morerows and columns of theworksheet.

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chapter 1Learn Excel Terminology

WorkbookA workbook is a file in which you store yourdata. Think of a workbook as a three-ringbinder. Each workbook contains at least oneworksheet, and a new workbook contains threeworksheets, named Sheet1, Sheet2, andSheet3. People use worksheets to organize,manage, and consolidate data. You can have asmany worksheets in a workbook as the memoryon your computer permits.

WorksheetA worksheet is a grid of columns and rows. EachExcel workbook contains 1,048,576 rows and16,384 columns. Each column is labeled using aletter of the alphabet; the column followingcolumn Z is column AA, followed by AB, and soon. The last column in any worksheet is columnXFD. Each row is labeled using a number, startingwith row 1 and ending with row 1,048,576.

CellA cell is the intersection of a row and a column.Each cell in a worksheet has a unique namecalled a cell address. A cell address is thedesignation formed by combining the columnand row names in column/row order. Forexample, the cell at the intersection of columnA and row 8 is called cell A8, and A8 is its celladdress.

Cell PointerThe cell pointer appears as you move the

mouse over cells in the worksheet. You use thecell pointer to select cells in the worksheet.

Currently Selected CellYou click a cell to select it. Excel identifies thecurrently selected cell, also called the active cell,by surrounding it with a bold, black boxcontaining a small, black square in the

lower-right corner. That small, black square iscalled the Fill handle; you can read more aboutthe Fill handle in Chapter 10.

RangeThe term range refers to a group of cells. Arange can be any rectangular set of cells. Toidentify a range, you use a combination of twocell addresses: the address of the cell in theupper-left corner of the range, and the addressof the cell in the lower-right corner of therange. A colon (:) separates the two celladdresses. For example, the range A2:C4includes the cells A2, A3, A4, B2, B3, B4, C2,C3, and C4.

Formula BarThe Formula Bar is made up of three parts. At theleft edge of the Formula Bar, the Name boxdisplays the location of the currently selected cell.

The Cell Contents area appears on the rightside of the Formula Bar and displays theinformation stored in the currently selected cell.If a cell contains a formula, the formula appearsin the Cell Contents area, while the formula’sresult appears in the active cell. If the active cellcontains a very long entry, you can use at theright edge of the Cell Contents area to expandthe size of the Cell Contents area vertically.

Between the Name box and the Cell Contentsarea, buttons appear that help you enterinformation. Before you start typing in a cell,only the Function Wizard button ( ) appears,as described in Part III; you can use this buttonto help you enter Excel functions. Once youstart typing, two more buttons appear; click to accept the entry as it appears in the CellContents area, or click to reject any typingand return the cell’s contents to the way theyappeared before you began typing.

W hen you learn anything new, you need to learn itsterminology. Presented below are a series of termsyou need to know as you work with Excel.

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Understanding the Ribbon

Tabs on the RibbonTab Purpose

Home This tab helps you format and edit a worksheet.

Insert This tab helps you add elements such as tables, charts, PivotTables, hyperlinks, headers, and footers.

Page Layout This tab helps you set up a worksheet for printing, by setting elements such as margins, page size andorientation, and page breaks.

Formulas This tab helps you add formulas and functions to a worksheet.

Data This tab helps you import and query data, outline a worksheet, sort and filter information, validate andconsolidate data, and perform What-If analysis.

Review This tab helps you proof a worksheet for spelling errors, and also contains other proofing tools. From thistab, you can add comments to a worksheet, protect and share a workbook, and track changes that othersmake to the workbook.

View This tab helps you view your worksheet in a variety of ways. You can show or hide worksheet elementssuch as gridlines, column letters, and row numbers. You can also zoom in or out.

T o accomplish tasks in Excel, you usecommands that appear on the Ribbon. Newto Excel 2007, the Ribbon fundamentally

changes the way you work in Excel compared to earlierversions of Excel. You no longer open menus to findcommands; buttons for commands appear on theRibbon. By default, the Ribbon contains the commandsmost commonly used to complete an Excel task. Donot worry if you do not find a particular command onthe Ribbon; it is still available and, if you use it often,you can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar, which

appears at the top of the Ribbon. See Chapter 30 fordetails on customizing the Quick Access Toolbar.

On the Ribbon, in addition to the Office Button ( )and the Quick Access Toolbar, you find tabs, whichtake the place of menus in Excel 2007. Each tabcontains a collection of buttons that you use toperform a particular action. On each tab, commandsare grouped together. For example, on the Home tab,you find seven groups: Clipboard, Font, Alignment,Number, Styles, Cells, and Editing. In the lower-leftcorner of some groups, you see a dialog box launchericon ( ) that you can click to see additional optionsthat you can set for the group.

By default, the Ribbon contains seven tabs, asdescribed in the following table.

In addition to these seven tabs, Excel displayscontextual tabs, which are tabs that appear becauseyou are performing a particular task. For example,when you select a chart in a workbook, Excel addsthe Chart Tools tab behind the View tab. The ChartTools tab contains three tabs of its own: Design,Layout, and Format. As soon as you selectsomething other than the chart in the workbook,the Chart Tools tab and its three sub-tabs disappear.

To use the commands on the Ribbon, you simplyclick a button. If you prefer to use a keyboard,you can press the Alt key; Excel displays keyboardcharacters that you can press to select , toolson the Quick Access Toolbar, and tabs on theRibbon. If you press a key to display a tab on theRibbon, Excel then displays all the keyboardcharacters you can press to select a particularcommand on the Ribbon.

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Work with the Mini Toolbar and Context Menu

Work with the Mini Toolbarand Context MenuY ou can use the Mini Toolbar and the

Context menu to help you quickly formattext without switching to the Home tab. The

Mini Toolbar and the Context menu contain acombination of the most commonly used commandsavailable in the Clipboard, Font, Alignment, andNumber groups on the Home tab.

The Mini Toolbar and the Context menu alwaysappear together when you work with shapes, textboxes, WordArt, or cells containing text or numbers.

The Mini Toolbar does not appear when you workwith pictures, charts, Clip Art, or SmartArt.

The buttons that appear on the Mini Toolbar do notchange; you always see the same set of buttons.However, the commands that appear on the Contextmenu, also called a shortcut menu, changedepending on the cells or object with which you areworking. That is, Excel displays only thosecommands on the Context menu that are relevant tothe cells or object you select; this is how the Contextmenu got its name.

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1 Select a cell or range of cells.

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2 Right-click the selection.

• The Mini Toolbar appears above theContext menu.

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Enter Information

Enter InformationY ou can quickly and easily type text and

numbers into your worksheet. Most peopleuse Excel primarily to accomplish math-

related tasks, and supplying text labels for thenumbers you enter provides meaning to those tasks.Although you can type information into a worksheetin any order, some people find it easier to type labelsfirst, because it helps them identify the correct placefor corresponding numbers.

You enter text using your keyboard, and you can enternumbers using either the number keys above theletters on your keyboard or the number pad to the

right of the letters on your keyboard. To use thenumbers on the number pad, you can press the NumLock key.

By default, when you enter text into a cell, Excel left-aligns it in the cell and assigns it a General format.When you enter a number into a cell, Excel right-alignsit in the cell and assigns it a General format. Excel alsorecognizes some dates that you type; as a result, itright-aligns them in cells and formats them as dates.Information in a selected cell appears both in the celland in the Formula Bar. For more information onformats, see Chapter 3.

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Enter Text

1 Click a cell to select it.

Note: See Chapter 4 for details on selecting cells.

2 Type text.

• As you type, the information appears bothin the cell and in the Formula Bar.

3 Click .

• The cell pointer remains in the cell youselected in Step 1, and the text you typedappears left aligned.

4 Repeat Steps 1 to 3 to enter other text labels.

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Can I edit or delete the information thatI type in a cell?

Yes. You can edit the information either asyou type it or after you type it by pressingthe F2 key on your keyboard to switch toEdit mode. To edit as you type, just pressF2. To edit after you type, click the cell toselect it and then press F2. To change anentry completely, enter new information asdescribed in this section. To delete all ofthe information in a cell, select the cell andpress Delete. To delete both informationand cell formatting, see Chapter 3.

Why does my label in cell A1 appeartruncated while my label in cell B1 seemsto occupy both cells B1 and C1?

The information in both cells exceeds theircolumn widths. When an empty cell suchas C1 appears beside a cell containing anover-large entry such as B1, informationseems to occupy both cells. However, Excelactually stores all of the information in cellB1; look at the Formula Bar as you selectcell B1 and then cell C1. The informationin B1 is also hiding part of the over-largeentry in A1. To view all of an over-largeentry on the worksheet, widen the column.See Chapter 6 for details.

Enter Numbers

1 Select a cell and type a number.

2 Press Enter.

• The number you typed appearsright aligned in the cell youselected in Step 1.

• The cell pointer moves down onerow.

3 Repeat Steps 1 and 2 to enter othernumbers.

Enter Dates

1 Select a cell.

2 Type a date in mm-dd-yy format,separating the parts of the date witheither dashes (-) or slashes (/).

3 Press Enter.

• The date you typed appears rightaligned in the cell you selected inStep 1.

• The cell pointer moves down onerow.

4 Repeat Steps 1 to 3 to enter othernumbers.

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Undo and Redo

Undo and RedoY ou can use the Undo feature in Excel to

recover from editing mistakes that mightotherwise force you to re-enter data. The

Undo feature in Excel is cumulative, meaning thatExcel keeps track of all of the actions you take untilyou close the program. When you use the Undofeature, Excel begins by reversing the effects of the lastaction you took. If you undo four times, Excel reversesthe effects of the last four actions you took in theorder you took them. For example, suppose that you

edit a text label and remove some characters. If youundo the action, Excel reinserts those characters.

The Redo feature works like the Undo feature, but inreverse. After you undo an action, you can redo it. Ifyou undo several actions in a row, you can redo all ofthem, in the order you undid them. For example, ifyou undo typing and then the effects of resizing acolumn, when you use the Redo feature, Excel firstrestores the effects of resizing the column. If you thenimmediately use the Redo feature again, Excel restoresthe typing.

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1 Perform an action.

In this example, text is typed.

2 Perform another action.

In this example, italics are added.

Note: See Chapter 3 for details on adding italics.

3 Click the Undo button ( ).

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Can I undo more than oneaction at a time?

Yes. Click beside todisplay the list of actionsyou can undo. Click theoldest action you want toundo, and Excel undoesall of the actions from theoldest one you select tothe latest, showing youthe worksheet at the pointin time before you tookany of those actions.

Can I redo more than oneaction at a time.

Yes. The Redo featureworks the same way as theUndo feature. To be ableto redo more than oneaction at a time, you mustundo multiple actionsbefore you redo. Then,click beside todisplay a list of actions youcan redo. Click the oldestaction, and Excel redoesall of the actions from theoldest to the latest.

Why is the Redo buttonunavailable when theUndo button is available?

Excel keeps track of allactions you take in allopen workbooks andmakes those actionsavailable to undo until youclose Excel. The buttonwill not be available unlessthere are actions to redo,and actions to redo donot become available untilyou undo an action. If youthen click to redo theaction you undid, then becomes unavailablebecause there are no moreactions to redo.

• Excel reverses the last action.

In this example, Excel removes italics.

If you click Undo again in thisexample, Excel removes the text.

4 Click the Redo button ( ).

• Excel reverses the effect of undoingby adding back your last action. Inthis example, Excel reapplies italics.

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Move Around in a Worksheet

Move Around in a WorksheetY ou can use arrow keys to move around a

worksheet, moving the cell pointer up, down,left, or right one cell at a time. If you hold

down an arrow key, Excel moves the cell pointerrepeatedly in the direction designated by the arrowkey. You can also move one screen at a time using thePage Up and Page Down keys.

To quickly move to the first or last cell in a range, youcan take advantage of the End key. You use the End

key in combination with the arrow keys to move thecell pointer to the top or bottom cell in a column, orthe left or right cell in a row. When you use the Endkey, Excel displays “End Mode” on the Status Bar toalert you that the cell pointer will move to the first orlast cell in the direction of the arrow key you use.

When you know the address of the cell in which youwant to work, you can move directly to that cell usingthe Go To dialog box.

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1 Click a cell.

• Excel displays the cell pointer in that cell.

2 Press the right-arrow key on the keyboard.

• Excel moves the cell pointer one column tothe right.

You can press any arrow key to move the cellpointer one cell in that direction.

You can press and hold an arrow key torepeatedly move the cell pointer in thatdirection.

3 Press the End key.

• The Status Bar displays “End Mode.”

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What happens if I click theSpecial button in the GoTo dialog box?

Excel displays the Go ToSpecial dialog box, whereyou can set specialconditions for Excel to useto go to a particular cell.For example, if you selectthe Comments option,Excel selects all cells thatcontain comments. If youselect the Formulasoption, Excel selects allcells that containformulas.

Where does Excel placethe cell pointer when Imove a screen at a time?

The cell pointer remains inthe same relative positionon the screen when youpress the Page Up or PageDown keys. For example,if D10 is the active cellwhile viewing rows 1 to27 and you press the PageDown key, then Exceldisplays D37 as the activecell. However, the cellpointer does not move ifyou click in the horizontalscroll bar.

What happens when Ipress the Page Down key?

Excel displays the nextpage of rows. For example,if you are viewing rows 1to 27 on one screen andyou press the Page Downkey, then Excel displaysrows 28 to 54.

Is there an easy way tomove one screen to theright or left?

Yes. You can click a blankarea in the horizontalscroll bar that runs acrossthe bottom of the screen.

4 Press the up-arrow key.

• Excel moves the cell pointer to thefirst cell in the column containinginformation.

You can use the End key with anyarrow key to move to the first or lastcell in the row or column containinginformation.

You can press Ctrl+Home to move tocell A1.

5 Press F5.

The Go To dialog box appears.

6 Type a cell address.

7 Click OK.

Excel moves the cell pointer to theaddress you typed.

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Move Around in a Workbook

Move Around in a WorkbookY ou can move between the worksheets in a

workbook using the tabs and controls at thebottom of the Excel screen. By default, a

workbook contains at least three worksheets and youcan switch between them. If your workbook containsmore than three worksheets, it is possible that the tabsfor all worksheets will not be visible at all times. Youcan use the controls to the left of the worksheet tabsto scroll through hidden worksheets. The first and lastcontrols scroll all of the worksheet tabs to display thefirst and last worksheets, respectively. The middlecontrols scroll to display the next worksheet tab in thedirection of the control’s arrow.

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1 Open a workbook.

• Excel displays the first worksheet in theworkbook or the last sheet you viewedbefore saving the workbook.

2 Click a worksheet tab.

• Excel displays that worksheet.

• To display additional worksheet tabs, youcan click these controls.

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How can I make more worksheet tabsvisible at all times?

Resize the horizontal scroll bar by movingthe mouse pointer over the left edge ofthe horizontal scroll bar. When the resizingmouse pointer ( ) appears, click anddrag to the right. Excel makes more spaceavailable for worksheet tabs and less forthe horizontal scroll bar.

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Manage the Status Bar

Manage the Status BarY ou can add elements to, or remove elements

from, the Status Bar to display manydifferent types of information. When you

open a blank workbook, the Status Bar displays thecell mode, the macro recording state, the Viewshortcuts, the zoom factor, and the zoom slider. TheStatus Bar is actually set to display a wide variety ofinformation, if conditions are right to display theinformation. For example, if you press the Scroll Lockkey on the keyboard, Excel displays the state of theScroll Lock key on the Status Bar.

The cell mode that appears by default in allworkbooks switches between four states. Ready modeis a general state, and the state that appears whenno other state is appropriate. Enter mode appears assoon as you start typing in a cell, and Excel returnsto Ready mode after you press Enter to store theinformation in the cell. When you edit any cell entry,Edit mode appears on the Status Bar. Point modeappears on the Status Bar when you point to cellsthat you want to include while setting up a formula.

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• Excel displays the Customize Status Barmenu. Each item with a check mark ( )beside it will appear on the Status Barunder appropriate conditions.

2 Click an item that does not contain .

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• Excel can now include that item on theStatus Bar.

• If appropriate conditions exist, the itemappears immediately on the Status Bar.

3 Click anywhere on the worksheet to hide theStatus Bar menu.

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