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Easy to understand, Great Exercises, Value for money

www.knowwareglobal.com

Get going with

Excel 2000

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KnowWare

Palle Gronbek and KnowWareGlobal.com - 02-11-30

2

Get going with Excel 2000

Palle Gronbek, [email protected]

Translation: Linda L. Gaus

Copyright 2000 Author and KnowWare

Acrobat Reader: How to ...

F6 opens/closes bookmarks/thumbnails: Click a bookmark to jump to it.

In menu VIEW you can set, how the file is displayed

CTRL+0 = Fit in Window, CTRL+1 = Actual size, CTRL+2 = Fit width

You can set SINGLE PAGE, CONTINUOUS VIEW or CONTINUOUS FACING

.. try them out and you will see the differences.

Navigation

ARROW LEFT/RIGHT: forward/backwards one page

ALT+ARROW LEFT/RIGHT: same as in a browser: forward/back

Zoom

CTRL++ zooms in AND CTRL +- zooms out

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Table of contents


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Is This Booklet for You? .................... 5

Technical Language Only forNerds?.......................................... 5

The structure................................... 5

Excel the first impression ............... 7

General concepts................................ 7

What is a spreadsheet? ..................... 7

Inserting text and numbers ............... 7

Data types ...................................... 8

Creating formulas............................... 9

Menus and How You Use Them........ 11

Editing............................................ 12

Changing the contents of a cell ........ 12

Deleting the contents of a cell .......... 12

Undo ............................................ 12

Column width ................................ 13

Data Entry in Columns ...................... 15

Simple number formatting................. 15

Selecting cells................................ 16

Copying cells ................................... 18

Summing data................................. 19

Saving a file .................................... 21

Help................................................. 22

Household budget ........................... 24

Permanent preferences ................... 24

The Household budget ...................... 26

Insert rows.................................... 26

Inserting and deleting columns......... 27

Font and font size........................... 27

Fill (series)...................................... 29

Creating your own lists.................... 30

Numbers and formulas in ourbudget............................................. 31

Selecting formulas.......................... 32

Saving the budget.......................... 33

Absolute cell references..................... 33

Annual total................................... 34

Checking your formulas................... 34

Navigation....................................... 37

Formatting ...................................... 38

Excel and Windows.......................... 40

Toggling formats ............................ 40

Viewing the spreadsheet................. 42

Zoom............................................ 42

Freeze panes ................................. 42

The Last Formulas.......................... 42

Saving .......................................... 43Summary......................................... 44

Save As ........................................ 45

Formatting the household budget ... 46

AutoFormat ..................................... 46

Manual formatting ............................ 47

Moving data using the mouse........... 47

Moving data using the keyboard ....... 48

Updating Formulas ......................... 48

Borders........................................... 48

Changing a border.......................... 49

Removing a border ......................... 49

Removing gridlines ......................... 49

Shading and color............................. 49

Copying formats............................. 50

Printing the budget........................... 51

Data layout ..................................... 52

Centering headings......................... 52

Vertical layout................................ 52

Naming cells.................................... 53

Other advantages of using names....... 53

Entering formulas........................... 54

Jumping to named cells................... 54

Names in the Household budget........ 54

Printing ........................................... 56

Margins......................................... 56

Headers and footers........................ 56

Scaling the printout ........................ 58

Manual page breaks........................ 58

Repeating headings ........................ 58

Print area ...................................... 59

Fixed print area.............................. 60

Printing named areas...................... 60

Toolbars .......................................... 61

Customizing toolbars ...................... 61

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Table of contents


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Charts.............................................. 63

The Chart Wizard ............................. 63

Updating a chart ............................ 64

Adjusting the format in a chart......... 65

3-D perspective ............................. 66

A chart on this sheet....................... 67Printing charts ................................. 68

Household Budget .......................... 68

Working with worksheet tabs.......... 69

Naming tabs.................................. 69

Deleting a sheet............................. 69

Inserting a sheet............................ 69

Copying sheets .............................. 69

Functions......................................... 71

Average........................................ 71

Calculating loan payments................. 71

Naming cells in functions................. 73

Links................................................ 75

Sorting & filtering data.................... 76

Sorting ........................................... 76

Filtering .......................................... 76

User defined filters ......................... 77

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Introduction


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Is This Booklet for You?

This booklet is for Excel beginners. Basictopics will be discussed thoroughly witha focus on fundamental concepts ofspreadsheets in general and Excel inparticular.

If you can relate to one of the followingstatements, you can benefit from read-ing this booklet:

! You have no idea what a spreadsheetis, and what it is used for.

! You have heard of spreadsheets, butnever had the chance to work withone.

! You have worked with other spread-sheet programs, but need to learnabout the differences in Excel.

! Arithmetic and calculation have neverbeen your strong points.

! Maybe you are fascinated by numbersand mathematics.

My goal is that this booklet will help youunderstand the program in such a waythat you will continue to learn after youhave completed the exercises. At thesame time, you will have drawn up ahousehold budget, something that mostof us will find useful in our daily life.

No matter what you come to use Excelfor, you will find that the program iseasy to come to grips with, yet ad-vanced enough to be able to solve mostproblems involving numbers.

If you feel that Excel is a little bit toodifficult at first, then remember the wisewords: Every beginning is fun.

Technical Language Only forNerds?

The computer industry uses a lot oftechnical abbreviations and terms, whichare difficult for a beginner:

Pentium 150MHz, 32 Mb RAM, 8 x CD-ROM, 2.1 GB hard disk etc. etc.

Pentium is that part of the keyboard?How does the computer RAM something?

CD-ROM, is that something to do withmusic?

As a new user it is easy to get confusedby all this gobbledegook. To understand

the most basic terms, then I suggestyou read the KnowWare booklet MakeFriends with your PC, while terms thatare Excel specific will be explained thefirst time they appear in the booklet.

For words that are directly relevant forWindows 98/95, see the booklet Getgoing with Windows 98/95.

About the Author

Ive been teaching since 1980. In thecomputer arena Im an autodidact,

something that I regard as an advan-tage. Hopefully my experience can be ofuse to you.

Your background

I do not expect you to have any knowl-edge of spreadsheets. You should have abasic understanding of Windows 98/95and have followed Exercises for Win-dows 98/95.

Your opinion

This booklet is written for you, so I

would really appreciate hearing yourcomments, either by letter to the pub-lisher, or directly to me via e-mail.

The structure

This booklet is designed around a seriesof practical examples. By following itfrom start to finish, you will learn to usethe Excel methodology and increaseyour knowledge in a natural way.

Throughout the booklet some typo-graphical conventions have been used.These make it easier to read and allowyou to practice the most importantpoints quickly and effectively.

Symbols

If you see CTRL+C, you should hold theCTRL key down while pressing the letterC.

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Introduction


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You may also have to hold down twokeys while pressing a third:CTRL+SHIFT+%.

Function keys are indicated in squarebrackets, for example, [F4]. Menu com-mands will appear with vertical lines in

between them, for exampleFORMAT|LINE|HEIGHT.

In some places we have used the fol-lowing symbols in the left margin tohighlight a particular section:

This symbol indicates an important anduseful tip. It will often be especiallyuseful if you follow the exercises a sec-ond time.

Text marked this way is important forusing the program in order to use itaccording to the programmers inten-tions and to avoid mistakes and imprac-tical detours.

Enjoy yourself, both with the bookletand with Excel itself!

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Excel the first impression


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If you have some experience with theprogram, you can skip this section, orjust browse through it to pick up anyuseful tips you may not already know.

Throughout the booklet I will describethe parts of the screen as we meetthem, so they are introduced to youwhen they become relevant. I will useMicrosofts own names and terminologyso you can search for more help in theExcels Online Help.

General concepts

The first time you run Excel, an intro-duction program shows you the most

important functions and principles in theprogram on your screen. Exit from thiswindow; you can always return to itlater.

Before we begin on a household budgetwe will first try a little sample budget forredecorating my living room. I suggestthat you follow it on your own computer.

What is a spreadsheet?

In principle, a spreadsheet is nothingmore than a large sheet of paper withlots of little squares on it. So that an in-dividual square can be used in a calcu-lation together with other squares, eachhas to have a way of differentiating it, aunique address.

For the program to be able to manageindividual squares in large spread-sheets, it works in three dimensions,with each individual spreadsheet built upas a table in two dimensions. These twodimensions are called respectively rows(horizontal) and columns (vertical). Col-umns are always given a letter as aname, and rows are always given anumber. An individual sheet can also becalled a worksheet.

The fact that there can be more thanone spreadsheet in a file gives Excel the

third dimension, as entries on onespreadsheet can link to entries in an-other spreadsheet.

There can be up to 256 spreadsheets in

a file, which in Excel is called a work-book . At the bottom of each workbookyou will find a sheet tab for everyspreadsheet, or page, in the workbook.Each time you open a new workbookSheet1 will be selected.

You can move to another worksheet byclicking on its sheet tab. Try clicking ondifferent tabs, then return to Sheet1

before continuing.

Cells are the individual squares in aworksheet.

A cell is where a column and a rowcross. The name of a cell comes fromthe name of the column (letter) togetherwith the name of a row (number). So,the cell where column C and row 5 crosseach other has the address C5.

Inserting text and numbersWhen a new worksheet is selected, thecursor will always be in cell A1 (it is se-lected).

1. Type Material: and press Enter. CellA2 will automatically be selected.

2. Type Brush and press Enter. Cell A3will automatically be selected.

3. Type Primer and press Enter.

4. In A4 type Paint and press Enter.

If the cursor jumps automatically tothe next cell as soon as you pressenter, you should use the commandTOOLS|OPTIONS and have a look at the

Edit tab. Heres where you can de-activate Move selection after En-ter.

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If you mistype anything you can correctit immediately by using the Backspace or

Delete keys. You must do this before youpress Enter, and you cannot use the ar-row keys. If you notice a mistake afterpressing Enter, simply retype the correcttext over the incorrect text. The con-

tents of the cell are overwritten whenyou press Enter. Editing the contents of acell will be discussed in more detail lateron in this booklet; for now, let's take acloser look at the data we've just en-tered. Select cell A4 by pressing the Uparrow key:

Notice that the word Paint is visibleboth in the cell and on the formula bar(just under the toolbars). This fieldshows what you typed, and the cellshows the result of your typing.

1. Use the arrow keys, or click with themouse to select cell B1.

2. Type Net price: and press Enter.

3. In B2 type 5 and press Enter.



It is important to understand how differ-ent entries are interpreted by Excel.

Data types

Excel differentiates between two datatypes; text and formulas. Numbers areregarded as formulas. When you havetyped data into a cell you can immedi-ately see in the cell itself how your data

has been classified:If data is aligned to the left, then it istext (text being written from left toright).

If the cell data is right-aligned, then Ex-cel has interpreted your data as a num-ber or a formula (numbers are usuallywritten right-aligned, so that decimalpoints line up vertically under eachother). This may sound banal, but itsvery important to understand that youre

having a kind of dialogue with the pro-gram whenever you enter data.

If you think you have typed a number,but Excel has displayed it left-aligned,then you have probably made a mistake.Maybe you have typed a comma insteadof a period when you typed the decimal.

Do not delete the data you have justtyped in Sheet1 we will come back toit later.

Click on Sheet2 to start with a cleanworksheet. We can test the principles forinserting data in Excel mentioned above.

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to see the background in the formulaline.

Of course if you type in text or a num-ber, there is no difference between whatyou type and the result there is only adifference with data that is calculated

(formulas).Select A2 and check the formula on theformula bar. Press the Down arrow andcheck the formulas in A3 and A4.

All changes to the contents of a cellhappen in the background layer asshown in the formula line.

You probably noticed that while youwere typing data in the cell, two smallbuttons appeared on the formula line:

Let us look at these buttons a little moreclosely:

1. Try typing your name in cell A5.

Now the formula has apparentlydis-appeared, but only apparently.

2. Now try pressing Esc and you will seethat your name disappears immedia-tely (just as if youd clicked on the red

cross).3. Type your name again and press Enter

(the same as clicking on the greencheckmark). The formula is replacedby your name.

The buttons show that you are editingthe cell. So far so good. But I wouldnever click on them; instead, I stronglyadvise that you use the Esc and Enterkeys.

A word processor inserts text and num-bers while you are typing them. In Excelthey are not inserted until you activelychoose to insert them.

Now click on Sheet1 and well continueour work on our example.

We have been able to buy everythingthat is necessary from a wholesaler. Sothere is no sales tax included in theprice. We must work out both this andthe total price for ourselves.

To do this, we must alter the heading incolumn B.

1. Select cell B1, type in Net price andpress the right arrow key. The text isinserted and the cursor moves in thedirection of the arrow to cell C1.

2. Type in Sales tax and press Enter.

3. and in D1, type Price and press

Enter.

We now need to enter the formula forcalculating the sales tax on brushes. Wecould just type in =5*15%, which wouldcalculate the sales tax on the net price.Quite honestly, if we did that, we couldjust as easily forget about the computerand take out our pocket calculator!

It is in exactly this kind of situation thatExcel shows its strengthwhen you typein a new net price, the new sales taxand total price should be calculatedautomatically.

It is totally wrong to insert variables in aformula on a spreadsheet. If the valuechanges at a later time (for example, anexchange rate), you would have tochange every cell manually. Instead, it isbetter to point out the cell containing theappropriate value. This way, all youhave to do is edit that cell every time

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the value changes, and formulas will beupdated automatically.

Heres how its done:

1. Select C2 and type the following for-

mula: =b2*15%Press Enterand the Up arrow to seeboth the result and the formula.

I was quite clear about what I wasdoing above when I typed a small bin reference to cell B2. I want tostart a dialogue with Excel. Whenyou pressed Enter, the b waschanged to a large B, which is theprograms way of saying cell ad-dress understood. If I discover later

that there is a mistake in the for-mula, I know for certain that it hasnothing to do with the reference tocell address B2.

2. After typing a formula it should be te-sted. Type a new net price in cell B2and check that the sales tax in C2changes. Now type the original netprice again.

3. For the sake of the exercise youshould type the formula for the sales

tax for two more materials in the sa-me way. Type the formula =b3*15%in cell C3 and =b4*15% in C4.

By default, only as many decimal placesas necessary are shown in each cell. So,even if you type in 24.00, only 24 isshown. Later we will format numbers totwo decimal places.

Now we will calculate the total price. Inother words, what we want to calculate

is:

=Net price + Sales tax

1. In D2, type the formula = B2 + C2.

2. Continue by yourself with the formulafor calculating the price of the nexttwo materials.

Your spreadsheet should now look likethis:

It is only for the sake of the exercisethat we have typed all the formulas heremanually. Normally all you need to do istype a formula once, check that it works(here youd type in a new net price), andthen copy it to all the other cells!

When you have checked that the firstformula works as it should, why run the

risk of typing an error in the followingformulas?

Menus and How You Use Them

Whenever you open a menu, Excel onlyshows you a few of its commands. Theones that youve used the most are theones that are visible which can lead toa situation where some of the menu op-tions change themselves around. Thepoint of this is to avoid confusion caused

by the presence of too many possibili-ties.

1. If you click on the EDIT menu, youll

see adouble arrow at the bottom.

2. Click the double arrow or wait a mo-ment until all the commands on thismenu appear. The additional possibi-lities appear below.

3. Close the menu by pressing ESC.

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Editing

Changing the contents of a cell

You have already tried changing thecontents of a cell. However, there aremany ways of doing it:

! Type new data over the old and pressEnter. If you mistakenly start typingdata in the wrong cell, you can undoyour mistake by pressing Esc.

! Click directly on the formula bar

! or press the F2 key (edit).

If a long piece of text or formula needsediting I prefer F2. If it is a short pieceof text or formula, I prefer overwriting

the cell.Try both methods now:

1. Change cell A3 to Primer Color byusing F2 and the Backspace key. Thecell is too small for the text but wellfix that later.

2. Change the net price for Primer to 35by selecting B4, typing the numberin,and pressing Enter.

Deleting the contents of a cellYou have deleted the contents of a cellseveral times by using Delete. This issimple if you only know how. I haveseen students try to use the Backspacekey many times, and even seen themtry to use the spacebar.

Try pressing the spacebar and then

ENTER. Apparently the cell is empty

but look at the error messages in cellsC2 and D2:

The formulas in C2 and D2 are trying tocalculate the sum of the net price and a

space! There is no way we can expect ananswer.

If a cell should be emptied, use Delete!

Undo

The formula in cell C2 should berewritten. If you have just deletedit, then click on the Undo button,or choose Edit|Undo. You can also use the

Ctrl+Z keys, which function the same wayas in most other Windows programs.

I would strongly suggest that you useCtrl+Z.

You can undo the last 16 actions. So ifyou have deleted a cell, then formatted

another cell in bold type, then you mustpress Ctrl+Z twice to undo your deletion.

But even when you have carried out alot of actions, they are easy to undo.

1. Click the small Undo arrow onthe toolbar.

2. Drag the mouse down the drop-downlist until you have selected all theactions you want to undo. Notice thatyou cannot undo individual actionsalone, you must select a whole list.

3. You can redo actions that youhave undone by using the Re-do button. This drop-down list onlycontains the actions you have undo-ne. Try undoing and redoing someactions so you are confident aboutusing this function. You can also pressCtrl+Y to redo actions one at a time.

When you type in new values to checkformulas, you can use Ctrl+Z to return to

the original number. It often happensthat the display updates so fast that it ishard to check whether the values arechanged in all the relevant formulas. Thesolution is as follows:

1. Select cell B2.

2. Type a new price, and keep an eye onthe sales tax and the Price (C2 andD2) when you press Enter.

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3. If these values changed as theyshould, restore the original price bypressing Ctrl+Z.

4. The formulas were calculated so fastthat it can be difficult to check themboth simultaneously. Click Ctrl+Y(undoing your undo, if you under-stand what I mean). Keep switchingusing Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y as often as youwant until you are certain that all cellswith formulas dependent on cell B2have been changed correctly.

Column width

Lets have a look at A3 again. Here, wetyped Primer Color, which didnt fit intothe cell, so it was shortened by the pro-gram. If you want to ensure that thecomplete text appears in a cell, selectthat cell and have a look at the cellscontents in the formula bar. And howcan we make space for a word thatdoesnt fit into a cell?

Try this:

1. Leave A3 in peace, move to A5, typeSpatula Size and press Enter.

2. IfB3 is empty, Excel will simply allowthe text to flow over the border intothe next cell.

3. Now type 15 in B5 and press Enter.

Only part of the text can be seen.

When you change the width of this cell,it will apply to the entire column luck-ily! Can you imagine how confusing itwould be to work with a spreadsheetwhere cell A5 was double the width ofall the other cells? Cell B5 would be un-der column C, cell C1 under Dchaos!

How to change the column width

Place the mouse pointer on the line be-tween columns A and B. The mousepointer will change into a split arrow.Now, you can drag the column divider inthe direction you want by holding downthe left mouse button.

If you adjust the column width, the field

now shows the column width measure-ment before you release the mousebutton. The width is shown as the typicalnumber of characters and pixels that willfit in the column, and is notan absolutevalue. The width of a character dependson the font, its size, and which characteryou type (an i fills much less than anm, for instance).

This makes it difficult to calculate theprecise column width that will accommo-

date all text.If, for example, 100 cells in a columncontain text, theyre not all visible at thesame time, so its very hard to deter-mine the appropriate column width.

Therefore, well try another, much morepractical method of automatically alter-ing the width of a column to accommo-date the widest contents:

Double click when the arrow chan-ges to a split arrow, and the width of the

column on the left automatically changes(AutoFit).

Automatic adjustment can alsobe used on rows in the sameway. In this picture the height ofrow 4 will be adjusted when you doubleclick.

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Basic Principles for Constructing Large

Calculations

You may ask, couldnt I just insert thetext in column A, leave column B blankand then type the numbers in column C?

You could do this, but it would be a big

mistake! Blank columns or rows split upthe data area and make it difficult to addcolors and borders or use the many ad-vanced Excel functions.

It is good practice to enter data in ad-joining cells. Avoid using blank columnsand rows when data belong together.

Uniform Column Width

If youd like several columns to have thesame column width, select them all anduse the mouse to adjust their width tosuit your taste.

Mark a column by clicking its heading.

Try selecting the columns B:D by drag-ging the mouse from the heading B tothe heading D, then changing the widthof one column.

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Data Entry in Columns

For our living room renovation, well stillneed more materials luckily thereforewell have the chance to learn aboutcopying formulas, in this case the onesfor the sales tax and total price.

1. Enter the following data in columns Aand B and make sure that you no-tice what happens when you beginentering data in A6:

Entering Values in Cells Automatically

Whenever you enter data into a column,Excel compares your current entry withthe other cells in the column.

If, for example, youtyped P here, Excelwould promptly offeryou the same text as inA3, since the data inboth cells begins withthe same letter. Thepreliminary entry is selected and marked

as a suggestion, which can be replacedby your actual entry.

If youd like to accept the suggestion,press ENTER. If, on the other hand, the

cell should contain only a P, then pressDELETE.

This principle applies within a continuousarea and it eases the process of en-

tering a word several times in a column.In this way, I created a budget for myfirm, where I arranged the expenses ac-cording to categories such as office sup-plies and transport costs.

This function is extremely practical on

spreadsheets you type a letter and Ex-cel fills in the rest.

If you would like to deactivate this func-tion, choose TOOLS|OPTIONS and click theEdit tab

then remove the checkmark next toEnable AutoComplete for cell values.

Simple number formattingThe numbers need to be formatted sothat they all appear with an equal num-ber of decimal places. In the example,this is two decimals.

1. Select cell B2, and click twiceon the Increase decimal button.Excel starts with the format ofthe selected number and shows onemore decimal each time you click thebutton.

2. Select cell B7 and click once onthe Decrease decimal button.Now the number 5.15 is de-creased to one decimal place. Ofcourse, this does not mean that Excelhas forgotten about the last decimalplace, something you can check bylooking at the formula bar.

3. Click on Decrease decimal again. Nowthe number is shown without any de-cimals. Click twice on Increase decimal,

to make it appear with two decimalsagain.

No matter how you decide to format acell, calculations are performed in thesame way. By default, Excel calculatesto 15 decimal places.

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All the cells in column B should be for-matted to show two decimals. Instead oftrying to format each individual cell, letslearn how to select cells.

Move to Sheet2 before continuing.

Selecting cellsTo format a cell, it has to be selected orhighlighted. By selecting several cellssimultaneously you can format them inthe same way, so that they all have thesame appearance. A selected range ofcells is indicated by the address of thefirst and the last cell, separated by acolon. Selecting B2:D6 will highlight allthe cells in a rectangle with B2 at onecorner and D6 at the opposite corner.

The mouse pointer should be a largecross when you begin highlighting. Thefirst highlighted cell will always be white

as it is the focus. The black frame sur-rounding the selection will clearly showthat it is a part of the highlighted area.

Try selecting the following area usingthe mouse.

1. Select B2:D6 (as shown above) byclicking the left mouse button on cellB2, holding the left mouse buttondown, and dragging to cell D6.

2. Before doing anything else, place themouse pointer over cell H10, hold the

left mouse button down (the first se-lection disappears), drag to cell C2and release the mouse. The areaH10:C2 is now selected.

The first cell selected will always bewhite, no matter which method you use.

It is even easier to select cells usingthe keyboard. Hold Shift down while youexpand the selected area using the ar-row keys. Try this on different parts ofthe spreadsheet.

You can select several cells in different

parts of a spreadsheet by clicking onone of them, then pressing the CTRLkey and selecting the other cells.

Remember, selecting is not an action initself. You typically select cells beforecarrying out an action on them (for ex-ample, displaying two decimal places, orchanging text to bold type).

Click on Sheet1 again. We will now for-mat all numbers in column B to display

two decimal places.1. Select cells B2 to B15.

2. The cell with the focus (white), in thiscase B2, will determine how manydecimal places appear in each cell.Click Increase decimals and Decrease deci-mals until all cells show two decimals.

3. Repeat the same process with cellsC2:D4.

Your model should now look like this:

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Formatting a cell means that all futureentries in the cell will be shown withtwo decimal places, no matter whatnumbers you enter. The format is onlychanged by choosing another formatfor the cell.

If you are still unsure about how youselect cells, format decimals or entersimple formula then you should practicea little more now. Use another sheet andthen delete any extra data you type forpractice before moving to the next sec-tion.

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Copying cells


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Copying cells

When youve entered a formula andchecked that it works, you should thencopy it to the other relevant cells.

Relative references

The formula we typed into C2 can beunderstood as: Take the value in thecell to the left and multiply it by 15%. Acell reference is relative when it refers toa cell that has a distinct position in rela-tion to the first cell, as here.

When you copy data, it is the back-ground you copy (the formula), not the

result. When you copy a formula one celldown, the relative cell references in theformula will also follow.

There are many ways to copy data.Which method is best to use depends onwhat you want to do with the copy. HereI will concentrate on the two methods Ifind most useful: using the keyboardand using the mouse.

Copying using the keyboard

To the right of the Copy and Paste com-mands on the Edit menu you can seethat the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V keys can alsobe used. I recommend this method whenyou want to paste the copied data intocells that are not directly adjacent to thecells you copied from.

The principle is that the selected area iscopied to the Windows Clipboard, fromwhere it can be pasted to a new cell orarea in the spreadsheet (or in any other

Windows program, for that matter).The function is carried out by:

a) selecting the cell with the formulathat should be copied.

b) choosing Copy

c) selecting the area that should inheritthe formula

d) and choosing Paste.

Try the following example:

1. Use the arrow keys to select C4.

2. Press Ctrl+C to copy the data. Thedotted frame around the selected cellvibrates to indicate that the copy

function has been initiated.Notice the message on the status line

3. Select cells C5:C15 using Shift+Downarrow, and press Enter. Copying is nowcomplete.

If you want to copy the formula to sev-eral areas, then paste it by using Ctrl+V,which keeps the copy function active.This means that you can continuepasting it by using Ctrl+V. The copyingis terminated by pressing Esc.

Press Down arrow to check the sales taxformulas. I have cheated a little in thenext picture and shown all formulas di-rectly in the cells for you to comparewith your own formulas:

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Copying with the mouse

Now you are going to copy the formulafor the total price by using the mouse. Iusually recommend using the keyboardas much as possible, but I have to admitthat for this operation the mouse isreally good a stroke of genius!

Click in cell D4 this is the formula that

you want to copy.

1. Point the mouse to the small blacksquare at the bottom right hand cor-ner of the cell (the pointer changes toa little black cross) and then drag themouse down to cell D15 while holdingdown the left mouse button.

2. The instant you release the mousebutton, the copying is carried out au-tomatically! Voila!

Notice the difference between selectingand copying. When you select, all thecells are black (except the first). Whenyou copy, all the cells are white.

Microsoft calls the little black square aFill handle because it copies or fills the

area up with data depending on the kindof data the cell contains.

I will return to the Fill handle function.There are buttons for both Copy andPaste on the toolbar, but force yourself touse the methods above; it will pay offlater.

Summing data

It is now time to work out what ourdecorating project will cost in total. Wecould, of course, add the individual cellstogether, but there is a faster and moreflexible method. Excel has many built infunctions, including one for summationof data. All functions are built up in thefollowing way:

=NAME(arguments)

NAME is the function name (what youwant Excel to do for you). Argumentscan be cells or other calculations. In ourexample the function is called SUM, andthe arguments are the cells that shouldbe added together, as follows:

=SUM(B2:B15)

You can type the formula manually, butthere is no need. Microsoft has assumedthat you will need to sum data in themajority of spreadsheets and has devel-oped the following extremely effectiveand easy to use function:

1. In A16 type Total: and press Enter.2. Cell B16 must contain the sumof all the net prices. Click onthe AutoSum button on thetoolbar and wait a second. It is notenough that the formula has beenwritten out for you; Excel has alsounderstood which cells you want toadd together (not so bad!).

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The dotted frame surrounding yourdata shows which cells the programsuggests because it is only a sugge-stion. In the formula the cells areblack, meaning that all you need todo is overwrite the references if theyare incorrect.

3. Press Enterto accept the formula.

4. Copy the sum formula for the salestax and the total price from cell B17to cells C17 and D17, with the follo-wing results:

Instead of clicking on the AutoSumbutton, use theAlt+= keys (you areactually pressing Alt+Shift+0).

AutoSum calculates both horizontallyand vertically on the same principle. Letus prove this by changing the formula

for calculating the total price:

1. Select D2:D15 and press Delete. Thecells are empty and the sum formulain D16 displays 0.

2. Select cell D2 and click on AutoSum.

3. Press Enterand click on AutoSumfrom cell D3.

4. Press Enterand repeat the click onAutoSum in cell D4; but be careful,this time the suggestion is incorrect!

If there are numbers in both the cellsabove and to the left of the selectedcell, Excel will suggest summing thenumbers above. Vertical summationtakes priority over horizontal summa-tion.

Even though AutoSum is smart andeasy to use, you should still rememberthe principle of a spreadsheet: when aformula is inserted once, it should becopied to the other relevant cells!

Undo the last formula (Esc or Delete) andinstead copy the formula like this:

1. With D3 selected, drag the Fill handledown to D15. If you drag it too far by

accident, you can drag the Fill handleback into the selected area. As longas the cells are selected, you can ex-pand or reduce the copying.

2. Use an arrow key or click with themouse in any other cell to cancel theselection.

If you need to see the sum of the num-bers without having the result dis-played in a cell, then just select thecells and read the result on the status

line:

Right-click the field in the status lineand choose, if need be, another calcu-lation of the selected numbers.

Our model is now ready. Try changingsome of the net prices and see how thecalculations reflect the changed num-bers. You can also smarten the model upa bit by adding a little color and format-ting, but I will tell you how to do thislater. Just now it is more important torepeat and emphasize the basic princi-ples

Your spreadsheet should be saved soyou do not lose it when you shut down

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your computer. After all, you must beable to retrieve it again the next timeyou decorate your house.

Saving a file

The first time you save a work-

book you will be asked to specify aname. Using the File menu, choosethe Save or Save As command. You canalso just click the Save button on thetoolbar.

In the Save As dialog box, you canchoose an existing folder(directory), or create a new onefor the examples in this booklet. I wouldsuggest the latter. If you feel unsurewhen working with folders and files, you

can follow the example here:

1. In the Save in field, choose C: (thecomputers hard disk).

2. Click the Create New Folder buttonand call it Get going with Excel.Press Enter, which creates the folderand displays it in the large white field.

3. Double click your newly created folderto open it. The folder name should bein the Save in field:

4. Click on the File name field, and type

DECORATING. Press Enter(or click OK).

Your spreadsheet is now saved, andthe dialog box disappears from thescreen.

5. Notice that the file name now appearson the title bar (all Excel spreadsheetfiles have an XLS extension).

For more detailed information aboutmanaging folders and files, I suggestthat you read the Get going with Win-dows98/95 booklet from this publisher,or study Excels own Help function,which lets you search for assistance in

more ways than the Windows Help pro-gram. Lets take a closer look at it.

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Help


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Help

Without any doubt, the programs of thefuture will contain larger and better Helpprograms and come with thinner printedmanuals.You have already seen how theHelp function works in Excel. The small

yellow tips that appear next to thebuttons on the toolbar and the longerdescription on the status line are bothpart of the complete Help program.

The real Help fuction in Excel is a kindof shortened user manual that can beread on screen while you are working. Ifyou have a standard installation of Ex-cel, the Help function will be available. Ifit is not, you can run the installationprogram again and choose to add it. To

start the Help program, chooseHelp|Microsoft Excel Help, or press F1.

You can also click the Office assistant but-ton on the toolbar. A help screen ap-pears as an Office Assistant, whichgives you tips and lets you search forhelp for a particular subject. If youright-click on the assistant and chooseANIMATION, this little guy will show you

what he can do.You can choose your own particularassistant out of the selection of ani-mated characters available (all of whomare rather fun!). I have chosen thisrather competent looking guy to helpme:

Now, type your question into the yellowspeech balloon.

1. type Help and press ENTER

2. youll see several keywords. Chooseone of them or try reformulating yourquestion. The cursor will change intoa little hand and the blue bullet nextto a keyword will light up when youpoint to it with the hand. In our ex-

ample, we chose How do I get helpwhile Im working?

3. Almost immediately, youll see a largedialog box appear on the screen. Ifyou click the printer button in the up-

per right-hand corner, you can printout relevant topics.

4. The window with the help text willremain on your screen while youreworking. If you need help on anothertopic, just click on one of the under-lined hypertext topics.

5. If you click on the Help button, youllsee a broad help window appear onyour screen. This window has threetabs:

Contents tab is a list of topics, where you can double-click on a topic you want to learn moreabout. It should remind you of the Win-dows Explorer.

Answer Wizard tab

is just that a kind of wizard, or assis-tant. Type in your own words whatyoud like to do and press ENTERtosearch for relevant topics. Then justclick the topic youre interested in and

read the help text.Index tab

is very useful. The program watcheswhat you type in Type keywords: field,and moves to the subjects you can findinformation about. But it does mean thatyou need to know the name of the func-tion you need help for.

Shift+F1

It can be annoying trying to search for afunction without knowing what it is

called. So you can find help for thefunction you have on your screen, or themenu item you are using. PressShift+F1and click on a button on the toolbar, or amenu item, and relevant help text isdisplayed immediately.

Tip Wizard

Finally there is the Tip Wizard tool, whichtries to follow your working method. If it

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thinks that you could have performed aprocedure in a better and more effectiveway, it will suggest it. Well, that is thetheoryunfortunately the practice doesnot always live up to expectations!

The Tip Wizard is represented by a little

light bulb in the Office assistant windowthat turns yellow when it has a sugges-tion to make. Click on the button to readthe Wizard tip. If you are not displayingthe Office assistant window, then theOffice assistant button will display thelight bulb instead. No matter what, thelight is switched off when you haveseen the tip, and it is ready to switch onagain as you carry on working. Trykeeping an eye on the bulb and clickingon it the next time it lights up yellow.

Help for dialog boxes

If you want help with a field or button ina dialog box, then all you need to do isright-click it a field.

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Household budget


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Household budget

When I first installed Excel many yearsago, I had only a vague idea what Icould use it for. I had heard so muchabout the program that I was curious totry it for myself. Well, I thought, it might

also help me find out why my budgetnever seemed to balance.

It was when I started working with theprogram that I realised that a spread-sheet did not just function like an addingmachine. It could also show me the con-sequences of my insurance rates in-creasing by 5% while my salary only in-creased 2% and my eldest son begantake driving lessons all I needed to dowas type in a couple of figures and my

increased overdraft was calculated in amoment.

At first I found it frustrating that a taskcould be carried out in so many differentways. Which was the best? Wasnt itenough for example just to be able tocopy in one way?

Why not limit all these methods to onefor the mouse and one for the key-board?But on the other hand, whowould go into a clothes shop that only

stocked black and white sweaters, or arestaurant that only sold meatballs andmushy peas? People are so different thatwe need choice. So my task here is toguide you so that you can choose themethod that is best for you.

I have decided, therefore, to describemost of the options available while youare working with a weighty task. So youwill not find a section that describescopying, for example, by itself. Differenttechniques will be described severaltimes, often in a more and more detailedfashion, but always in situations wherethey are relevant. This will allow you toreview and go deeper into the most im-portant functions. It might make it moredifficult to look up a single function, butif you work through this booklet severaltimes, I am sure that you will get themost out of this method. Before starting

with our exercise there are a couple ofpreferences I want to change.

Permanent preferences

Excel comes with a number of default(standard) preferences. The idea is thatyou can change them as you work tooptimize the program to suit your needs.

Try this on your own machine:

1. Click on the menu Tools|Options.

2. The first tab we want to change opti-ons on is the Edit tab:

I would strongly suggest deactivatingthe following two options:

1. Click Edit directly in cell and Moveselection after Enter with the rightmouse button, so that you can readwhat they mean. Remove the check-mark in both boxes to deselect them(just click on the checkmarks).

2. Press Enteror click OK to close thedialog box.

3. In the DECORATINGfile, select cell D17and press Enter the cursor remainswhere it was, which makes it mucheasier to read and edit formulas whenthey are entered.

4. Double click on the cell. The cellsused in the formula are selected. Thisis smart, especially when a formula

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refers to cells that are not immedia-tely visible.

5. Now, if you press[F2], the cursor willjump to the formula bar. The cellsthat belong to the formula are colo-red. If youre finished editing, press

ESC.

If youre working with a long formula, Ihighly recommend deactivating Edit di-rectly in cell.

If this option is active, the cells to theright of the formula are hidden whileyoure working. If this option is deacti-vated as in the above example, you cansee and select all cells in the calcula-tion. I would suggest that you work fora while with both of these options de-

selected before you decide whether toselect them again.

Lets look at some other things you cando in Tools|Options:

The Edit tab contains a field EnableAutoComplete for Cell Values, whichlets you choose whether or not Excelshould suggest text as you begin typing.

On the View tab you can change the

amount of information displayed on thescreen. Gridlines are the small linessurrounding every cell in the spread-sheet. If you deselect them, they will notbe seen on the screen or on a printout.

Later you will see that it is possible toprint a document without the gridlines,even though they are shown on thescreen.

You should know about two fields on theGeneral tab:

1. In the Sheets in New Workbookfield you can specify how manyspreadsheets new workbooks containby default. Set the number of sheetsto four. You can always add more la-ter.

2. In the Default File Location fieldyou can decide where Excel saves andlooks for its files. Type in C:\Get

Going With Excel. When you are fin-ished working through this booklet,you can change it to another folder.

Incidentally, it is strange that you can-not click your way to the folder. Youhave to enter the exact path to it your-self. Therefore, you should note thepath, perhaps using the Windows Ex-plorer.

Press Enterto accept the changes andclose the dialog box. Close the DECORATING

file. If Excel asks you if you want to savethe file, choose Yes. The program willnever close without giving you the op-portunity to save any changes you may

have made.

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1. Select a cell in Row 1.

2. Press Ctrl+Plus using the plus sign onthe numerical keyboard. If you have alaptop PC without a numerical keybo-ard, you might need to pressCtrl+Shift+Plus. (Note that this optionalso works with some ordinary PCkeyboards, and that the Windows Re-gional settings have an influence onhow your keyboard functions. Tryyours to see if it works).The following dialog box is displayed,allowing you to choose what you wantto insert:

3. Down arrow to Entire row and press

Enter.

There you are! Any problems you hadpositioning the mouse exactly are elimi-nated.

Deleting rows

You can delete rows in the same way byusing either the mouse (choose Delete

on the object menu) or the keyboard bypressing Ctrl+Minus and Down arrow to En-tire row.

Insert/delete several rows

Drag the mouse over the rows you wantto select, oruse the keys like this:

1. First select a cell in every row by hol-ding down Shift while pressing the

Down arrow.

2. Press Ctrl+Plus or CTRL+Minus and Down

arrow to Entire row and press Enter.Excel inserts or deletes just as manyrows as there were selected cells.

3. Delete or insert cells so that yourspreadsheet has two blank rows atthe top (Income should be in cellA3).

Inserting and deleting columns

Lets look at editing columns:

If youre using the mouse, all you needto do is click the column heading to se-lect it. Other than that, everything is thesame as when inserting/deleting rows.

On the keyboard, do the following:

1. Select any cell, for example one incolumn B.

2. Press Ctrl+Plus and Down arrow to Enti-re Column.

3. Press Enterto close the dialog box andinsert a column. The existing columnsmove to the right.

Repeat the exercise with more columnsusing the same method (select several

cells using Shift+Right arrow), and thendelete them again. Keep trying until thisbecomes second nature.

Font and font size

A1 is to contain the heading for the en-tire spreadsheet. Type Householdbudget 1999 here, and press Enter. Thetext should be larger and in a differentfont than the rest of the spreadsheet:

1. Click on the Font field on the toolbar.2. Scdrop-down and choose the Times

New Roman font.

3. Choose 20 in the Font size field. Thesize is given in points, a point beingapproximately 0.35 millimetres. (Youcould try typing in a formula thatcalculates the size of letters in mm).

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If youre looking for a specific appear-ance for your heading and do not knowwhat the font is called, it is better to usethe Font dialog box:

1. With the cursor still in cell A1, openthe object menu using the rightmouse button and choose FormatCells

2. Choose the Font tab and click on aname in the Font field. An exampleshowing what the font looks like isdisplayed at the bottom right of thedialog box.

Use the arrow keys to move around inthe installed fonts. When you find the

one you want, choose its size, style andany other effects, and press Enterto con-firm your choice (remember that Esc willlet you cancel it). Choose a font and sizethat you like for your heading.

A field needs to be selected before youcan use the arrow keys to move aroundin it. Therefore, you need to click onthe Font field before using the arrowkeys to select a font. You can also

press the TAB key until the field hasbeen selected.

Choose a size of 12 points for the wordsIncome and Expenses in cells A3 andA7.

Continue typing under Expenses, in-serting the following text:

The text in A8, A12 and A16 is format-ted to be bold, while the text in B11,B15 and B21 is italic.

Depending on the size of your screen,you might not be able to see the toprows. Use the scroll bar on the far right,or the Ctrl+Home keys. I recommend thelatter, as it selects cell A1 immediately.

Whoops, I forgot a couple of categories,so you will need to insert a couple ofrows:

1. Insert a blank row between Mortgage(B9) and Electricity(B10)and type inHeating (row 10).

2. Between Insurance (B19) and Repairsand Maintenance (B20) there shouldbe a row with the text Gasoline & oil(row 20).

The months should be typed in theempty second row:

1. Type January in C2 and press Rightarrow.

2. In D2, type Febrhang on a mo-ment! Press Esc to cancel your typing

and read this:If you already think Excel is smart, thenjust see what the programmers at Mi-crosoft have come up with here. Thinkhow often you have to type every monthof the year in a new spreadsheet.

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Fill (series)

You have already tried copying a fewtimes using the Fill handle at the bottomright of a cell. While you were draggingthe handle, the status line crypticallyinformed you: Drag outside selection to

extend series or fill, drag inside to clear.Honestly, who understood that !

Once again, Microsoft has introducedanother nerd term to the computer in-dustry: Fill. Even though the messageabove may appear confusing, it is actu-ally telling you about a simply amazingfunction.. Try this example:

1. Select cell C2 and type January

2. Use the mouse to grab onto the Fill

handle and drag it to the right. Whenyou get about halfway through cellD2, a dotted frame appears.

3. While still pressing the mouse button,keep dragging to the right until youreach December (cell N2).

4. If you drag too far (when you hit theedge of the window the screen picturecan roll very fast), then just dragback to N2.

One of the basic principles of Excel isthat all trivial and repetitious insertionsshould be performed by the program.

And before you come to the conclusion

that this is all the function can do, followthis example:

1. Click on the sheet tab for Sheet3. Wecan use this to play with.

2. Type Monday in any cell, press Enterand drag downwards with the Fillhandle

3. In another cell, type Jan, press Enterand drag the Fill handle horizontally

or vertically (but notdiagonally). No-tice that the program continues to usecapital letters.

4. Now try typing a list beginning withJune and then drag the Fill handle.

Excel does not pay any attention tothe month with which you start.

5. Type 1st quarter in yet another celland repeat the procedure. Try drag-ging further than 4th quarter (if youuse the English version of Excel, itstarts again at 1st quarter. If you useit in another language, type it as youusually do, for example 1. quarter).

So how does a function find out when it

should copy and when it should make aseries like the ones we have just seen?

Lets try some numbers. Type 1999 in acell and drag. What do you end up with?

Now type Year 1999 in another cell anddrag.

The function differentiates betweennumbers and text. When you mix textand numbers in a cell, the whole entry istaken to be text and the function allowsthe number part to grow.

On the other hand, a pure number issimply copied, which is wisein a mo-ment we will type the mortgage pay-ments into the budget. The number isthe same every month, so in this caseyou need to copy. It would be a littleembarrassing if the function made yourmortgage increase by a dollar everymonth.

Let us imagine that you want to type aseries of numbers starting with 12 andgrowing by 6 every time (cell). Its donelike this:

1. Type 12 in one cell and 18 in the cellunder it.

2. Select both cells. Now the programknows that it should start the numberseries with 12 and increase it in stepsof 6.

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Numbers and formulas in our budget

Click back to Sheet1, where we will nowtype numbers and formulas. Type thenumbers without thinking about format-ting at the moment.

We will start with income:

1. The husband has a monthly net in-come of$958. Type this amount incell C4.

2. His wife earns net $1025. Type thisamount into C5.

3. Copy both incomes to the othermonths using Ctrl+C, selectingand

Enter.

The formula for Total income should betyped into C6 and copied.

This formula could be given as =C4+C5,but this would not be particularly flexi-ble. If you add further rows with otherincomes at a later time, these will notappear in the summation. Instead, wewill use the function =SUM(C4:C5),which will allow us to insert rows be-

tween rows four and five, and includethem in the formulas. We will demon-strate that later.

You can use the Autosum button, buttry using the following shortcut instead:

1. Select C6.

2. Press Alt+= and the formula is ready:

3. Press Enterand copy the formula tothe other months.

The mortgage for our fictional familysapartment is constant, but the heating

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and electricity costs are shared amongall the different apartments, based ontheir relative sizes. The mortgage is$387.50. per month, which you shouldtype in January and copy.

The heating bill for the entire building

last year was $1,125. per month, andthe familys apartment has floor spacecorresponding to 0.12 of the total. Sothe formula for calculating the total is=1125*0.12.

The final monthly payment for heating isactually not finalized yet, and our familywould like to be able to see the effect ofany changes. And the way the heatingbill is divided could also be changed. Ifwe choose to type 1125 and 0.12 inevery formula, we would have to change

every single one if either of the figureschanges. At the risk of repetition, I willjust repeat a point from earlier in thebooklet:

It is totally wrong to insert variables in aformula. They should be put in separatecells. All formulas that use this variablewill get the value for this cell. If a vari-able is changed, just correct this one celland the entire spreadsheet will be up-

dated!

With this in mind, we will create an areato use for variables:

1. Insert five rows above the spread-sheet so that we can easily see thevariables while we work with the for-mulas.

2. Type Total apartment block: in A1.

3. Continue typing as follows:

The formula for calculating the amountof heating used should appear as in thenext illustration, but wait just a momentbefore typing it.

First I want to show you two easiermethods for entering formulas. One

method uses the mouse and the otheruses the keyboard.

Selecting formulas

The more complex formulas become,and the more of them you enter, thegreater the chance becomes of makingmistakes when you type them yourself.Use this method instead:

1. With C15 selected, type = to anchor

the cursor to the cell.2. Click C3. A dotted frame surrounds

the cell. Notice the text Point ap-pears on the left side of the status li-ne. If you click in the wrong cell, justkeep clicking until you hit the correctone.

3. Press *, and then you are ready toclick on the next cell.

4. Click C2 and press Enter.

You can also select the cells using thearrow keys, a method that is preferablewhen they are close together.

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When you have begun to type a formula,the arrow keys can only be used forpointing out cells. This is the reason thatentering a formula must always be fin-ished by pressing Enter!

Saving the budgetBefore continuing, you should save yourbudget. In contrast to many other pro-grams, Excel does not automaticallysave its spreadsheets at fixed intervals.(In fact this can be set, but to do it is sotroublesome that it appears that theprograms designers did not intend forthis function to be used).

Click on the Save button, or use theCtrl+S keys. Type Household budgetand press Enter(the file will be saved inour default folder). I would suggest thatyou press Ctrl+S regularly to save thedata you enter. (In the industry it wasonce said that: Real men never backuptheir data then later it was said thatReal men cry oftenI know exactlywhat they mean!).

Absolute cell references

The formula for calculating the monthlycost of heating is ready for copyingor is

it?Try and copy the formula from C15 onecell to the right. There is somethingwrong here, the result in D15 is zero!Select D15 and see if you can work outyourself what is wrong with the formulabefore you go on.

The formula you have copied was told touse the content of the cell positioned 12rows above it in the same column, andmultiply it with the cell 13 rows above it.

When you copied the formula to columnD, Excel remembered these relative ref-erences and moved them to column D.The program did not make a mistake, itdid exactly what it was asked to.

So we have to find a way to explain tothe program that the references shouldbe fixed, no matter where we copy theformula to.

This fixing of a reference to a cell iscalled an absolute reference, and is de-fined using a $ (dollar) character in frontof both the column and row reference,like this:

=$C$3*$C$2

Why a $ character?

Well, I cannot really give you a goodreason, but I would guess that it is be-cause it was the Americans who in-vented the spreadsheet. No matter, it isstandard in all spreadsheet programs.

But this does not mean that you shouldtype a $ character in yourself. Use the

F4 key instead:

1. Select C15.

2. Press F2 to edit the cell, and use theLeft arrow until the cursor is placed bythe reference to C3 (it does not mat-ter if the cursor is in front, in themiddle or at the end of the refe-rence).

3. Press F4. The reference is now lockedto cell C3. Try pressing F4 again. Nowonly the row is locked, and pressing

F4 yet again will lock the column only.4. A last press will remove the lock from

everything. Finally, press F4 to lockthe column and row references.

5. Use the Right arrow to move the cursorto the other side of the multiplicationsign. Press F4 again. Now C2 is lok-ked. Now press Enter(the resultshould be 135).

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6. You can now copy the formula to theheating costs cell for all the othermonths (D15:N15).

When you edit a formula using F2, youcan use the arrow keys to move back-wards and forwards on the formula

line.

Now try changing the result of themonthly heating bill by changing theoverall use of the building in cell C3 to1600. The moment you press Enter, youhave the new figures for each month. Goback to the original figure by pressingundo (Ctrl+Z). Try using other figures forthe apartments share to see what hap-pens to the total.

The formula for Electricity should betyped in and made absolute. This time,we will do it all at one time:

1. Select C16, type = and click C4.

2. Press F4 and type *.

3. Click C2 and press F4.

4. Press Enter the result should be 144.

We will now copy the formula using thekeyboard:

1. Select C16 and press Ctrl+C.Notice the text in the status line.

2. Use Shift+Right arrow to select the cellsD16:N16 and press Enter.

Calculate the Total house expenses inC17 by using the sum formula. Remem-ber the Alt+= keys.

For January, the formula looks like this:

=SUM(C14:C16)

and the result should be: 666.50.

Copy the formula to the other monthsusing the keyboard.

Annual total

We still have to add all the monthly fig-ures to get a total for the year.

In O7, type the text Total:, and in O9use the Alt+= keys to sum the formula.The result for the annual total house ex-penses should be 7,998.

All the rows containing data should besummed. Of course you could just copy

the sum formula all the way from O9 toO17, but that would also insert the for-mula in cells O12 and O13. Instead, usethe keys for copying:

1. Select O9 and press Ctrl+C.

2. Select the area O10:O11 and pressCtrl+V. You should not press Enter, asthat would finish the copying. Whenusing Ctrl+V to paste, the copy functi-on is still active. (check the status li-ne).

3. Move the cursor to O14 and selectthe area O14:O17 by using Shift+Downarrow. Since we are not going to con-tinue copying after this range, youcan press Enter. (If you want to stopcopying without inserting data, pressEsc).

Checking your formulas

Type another apartment share in C2.Now all the formulas react to thechanged number.

Use undo (Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y) to swap be-tween the two last entries while youcheck to see that all the formulas forheating, electricity and Total houseexpenses have changed.

Continue typing the following data.When you copy the data, try using thekeyboard; it will pay off in the long run.

Insurance:

Home:

January....................... ............................ 125July .................................................. ....... 125

Accident:December ............................................... 975

Transport:

Car loan:Each month ............................................ 125

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Parking:March......................................................199

Insurance (car):January ...................................................362April.........................................................362July .........................................................362October ...................................................362

Petrol and oil:Every month............................................125

Repairs & maintenance:January ...................................................600July .........................................................600

Now you have a number of cells thatcontain data, and some that do not.There is no problem with that, but theempty cells make it difficult for Excel towork out which cells should be summedwhen you enter formulas for Total in-

surance, Total transport and a yeartotal.

Select C28, Total transport and pressAlt+= or click on the AutoSum icon. Nowthe cells C25:C27 are selected theempty cell C24 stopped the selection, sothat Car loan and Parking were not in-cluded.

Change the formula using this method:

1. You have to select the correct cellsyourself. Select cells C23:C27 andpress Enter(Remember that the Au-tosum only suggests cells. As long asthey are highlighted in black you canchange the selection).Copy the formula to the remainingmonths.

2. Type the formula for Total insurance(C21) and copy it to the remainingmonths.

The formula for the calculation of theyears total in column O has the same

problem there are a number of emptycells each month.

An empty cell splits up the spreadsheet,so cells that are part of an area shouldnot be empty. Instead, they shouldcontain a value of 0 (zero), as an ac-countant would expect them to.

1. Insert a 0 (zero) in every empty cellin the area C19:N20.

2. Insert a 0 (zero) in every empty cell

in the area C24:N27.3. Type a sum formula in O19 and copy

it to O20:O21 and O23:O28. Re-member to copy using Ctrl+C and

Ctrl+V.

Your spreadsheet should now look likethe next illustration.

To understand what I mean it is neces-sary to illustrate the entire spreadsheet I hope you can read it!

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Navigation


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Navigation

When you want to move around in alarge spreadsheet (Microsoft calls itnavigating), it is not so easy to use themouse and the scroll bars. Think aboutit. You type data using the keyboard and

have to break off, move your hand tothe mouse, move the mouse pointer,click and then go back to the keyboard.It is much easier to keep your hands onthe keyboard for the entire operation.

If you use the mouse constantly, sooneror later it will result in problems withyour wrist and shoulder, so stick withthe keyboard.

Try the following keys until you feel re-laxed using them. Write them out on a

piece of paper and put it next to yourkeyboard in the beginning.

Home

Selects the first cell in the row.

Ctrl+Home

Selects cell A1.

Ctrl+End

Selects the last cell on the spreadsheetthat contains data or formatting.

Ctrl+Arrow

Selects the last cell containing data inthe direction of the arrow. When thecells are empty, the cursor will move tothe last row or column in the direction ofthe arrow.

Try pressing Ctrl+Right arrow the cursoris now in column IV. Press Ctrl+Down ar-

row the cursor is now in the last cell inthe spreadsheet (IV16384 = 4.194.304cells !!!).

F5

Opens a Go to dialog box. Type the ad-dress of the cell you want to move to inthe Reference field (for example CD1250)and press Enter. Press F5 again, typeD48 and press Enter. Press F5 again. Allthe cells you have jumped to are dis-played in the Go to area. Try to doubleclick on one of them. These referencesdisappear when you exit the workbook.

When you keep pressing the F5 key, theprogram will keep suggesting that youjump back to where you have justjumped from.

Smart detail!

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Formatting


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Formatting

Now it is time to do something about theappearance of our spreadsheet.

The heading in row 7 should be cen-tered and formatted in bold type:

1. Click on the row number to select theentire row and choose bold by usingCtrl+B

2. With the row still selected,center all text by using theCenter button (there is no keyfor centering data!).

All numbers should be displayed withtwo decimal places. You can choosebetween several methods when youhave to select a lot of data, as here. Youcan select entire rows, or entire col-umns, or even the entire spreadsheet(click on the small grey field at the in-tersection of the row numbers and col-umn letters). There is just one problemwith formatting the entire sheet.

It can lead to printing problems, and willmost definitely slow down the ma-chinejust think how many cells have tobe worked through for no reason at all.So we will format only the cells contain-ing data using the following method:

1. Select the area C9:O28 (Shift+Arrowkeys).

2. Click the Increase decimal buttonuntil all numbers display two deci-mals.This will help a little, but it would be

even easier if the thousands were alsoselected by commas: 1,000.00 (Note:Many countries use a point for thou-sands, and a comma for decimals.The way your spreadsheet displayswill depend on the Regional settingsyouve selected in the Windows con-trol panel).

1. Now click on the Comma style (youreally need to have tried this button

to understand what it does.).Now, all numbers have thousand sepa-rators and are displayed to two decimalplaces. When you type in or format anumber, Excel will automatically adjustthe column width to suit it. But this onlyapplies to cells containing numbers.

If you alter a column width manually sothat it is too narrow, then hatch(number) characters will be displayed(######) as soon as the cell cannotdisplay the number in full.

We have seen earlier that if there is notenough space in a cell to display all thetext, it is simply cut short. Luckily, Mi-crosoft has chosen a different procedurewith numbersif not, can you imaginethe chaos: You type 17,000 but thereis not enough space in the cell, so Exceljust removes the last three zeros!

A double click adjusts every selectedcolumn to their individually requiredwidth. If you want all columns to have

the same width, then drag the rightborder of one of the selected columns.When you release the mouse, all theother columns in the selection will begiven the same width as the column youadjusted.

Let us just test this out:

1. Select column C:O. If cells C9:O28are still selected, then it is easiest tosimply press Ctrl+Space. If not, thendrag the mouse over the top of the

columns.2. Now drag in the column you want to

use to define the width for the othercolumns. Release the mouse, and allcolumn widths are the same.

Notice the extra space to the right of thecell containing numbers. The Commastyle format is a bit special. The ap-pearance it gives depends on how you

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have Windows configured. Let us seehow your machine is set up.

1. Select the cells C9:O28.

2. Click on the Currency stylebutton.

Now all you numbers have a $ in frontof them if you have a standard Win-dows98/95 US configuration.

Remember that a cell has two layers. Wehave just formatted the foregroundlayer, while the background layer, theformula, remains unaffected. You can

check this by changing a number in oneof the formatted cells. Try typing 12000in cell C9. As soon as you press Enter,the number will be displayed in the for-mat you have chosen for the cell. Returnto the original number by using Ctrl+Z.

Notice that the zeroes in the emptycells are shown as dashes. (This is ap-plied by both currency style and commastyle).

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Excel and Windows


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Excel and Windows

This booklet is not about Windowsbutall programs using Windows are depend-ant on its configuration, as discussedabove when formatting cells using thecurrency style.

Without closing or minimising Excel,click the Start button and choose Set-tings, Control panel. Double-click theRegional Settings icon.

Im assuming that the value in the Re-gional Settings tab is English (US), butit could be any one of a number of lan-

guages. This sets a standard for num-bers, currency symbols, time and date.The Number tab shows the decimal andthousands separator (English speakingcountries standard: 1,250.00). If youwork on a machine that shows the deci-mal as a comma, then it is probably setup to reflect continental European stan-dards (French, German, etc. etc.).

The Currency tab shows the currencysymbol used by Excel (and other pro-grams). If you are on the default English(US) setting, then the $ sign will bethere. Maybe you are sitting in anAmerican company in Japan, workingwith Japanese accounts, and have de-fined as your currency symbol.

You can set all the individual values inRegional settings to suit your ownneeds.

Check that the currency is what it shouldbe, and at the same time specify that itshould be placed in front of both nega-

tive and positive amounts:

Click Apply and OK to close the Re-gional settings program and the Con-trol panel window. Return to thehousehold budget. All the cells formattedwith currency style have been adjusted

to your new settings.

Your numbers might take up a littlemore space, so you might see somehatches (######) in some places.Adjust the column widths.

You can also get around the problem bychoosing another format, as here:

Toggling formats

Select the area C9:O28, as follows:

1. Select cell C9.

2. Hold Shift down while you pressCtrl+Down arrow. Excel selects to thenext blank cell. Keep holding down

Shift and continue to press the Down ar-row until the selection has reached thelast row of data..

3. Continue holding Shift down and pressCtrl+Right arrow.

Even though selecting using the key-board demands quite a few strokes, it is

by far the most precise method.Now shift between the Comma formatand Currency format, which simulta-neously adjusts the columns width.

Notice that the numbers do not actuallychange place. The only difference is thedisplay of your currency unit.

You remove a format by choosing an-other.

You can choose to delete only some of

a cells many properties. Choose Clearon the Edit menu. If you choose toclear only the Formats, the data in thecell remains untouched.

There are a multitude of formats tochoose from. With the cells C9:O28 stillselected, press Ctrl+1 or open the object

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menu (right mouse button) and chooseFormat Cells. Click the Number tab.(Ctrl+E is used in some language versionsof the program).

On the Number tab, try clicking thedifferent options in the Category field

and keep watching the Example field.

Later on, you will define your our ownformats.

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Viewing the spreadsheet


42


Our model has now become so large thatit is difficult to keep track of the individ-ual data. Using the arrow keys, move toO28 Total transport (press F5, typeO28 and press Enter). Depending on the

size of your screen and its resolution,you probably cannot see any of theheadings. It would be an advantage tokeep the text in columns A and B andalso the months in row 7 fixed on thescreen as you scroll through the data.There are several different ways to doprecisely that:

Zoom

We will start by testing the entire budgeton your screen.

1. Press Ctrl+Home to select A1.

2. Click on the Zoom button on thetoolbar. Try choosing 50%. Now youcan probably see the entire spread-sheet, but can you read it? Now try75%, Im sure that is better.

3. Notice that you can click on the Zoomfield, type a number (you do not needto type %) and press Enter. Try thiswith different values until all the datais visible on screen. Can you read it?

Lets just try a smart detail: Select somecells, try with A6:E18. Now choose Se-

lection on the Zoom drop down box.This lets you quickly zoom in and out ondifferent areas of the spreadsheet. Thisdoes not, of course, ensure that someareas are always visible, which is thefunction we need to look at now. Returnto 100% zoom before continuing.

Freeze panes

Freeze panes gives you the option tohave certain columns and rows alwaysappear on the screen. Select the first

free cell. When you choose to Freezepanes, all the columns to the left androws above will be frozen. We want tofreeze row 7 and columns A and B. Withthis in mind, select C8 and choose Win-dow|Freeze panes. A vertical and horizon-tal line show where the freezing hastaken effect. Try using the arrow keys tomove around in the spreadsheet.Ctrl+Home usually selects A1, but nowthe cursor stops at the first free cell.You can still move into the locked area

using either the arrow keys or themouse.

Switch the function off again using Win-dow| Unfreeze panes.

We do not need to see the total houseexpenses while we work with thebudget, but we do want as much spaceas possible for displaying data. Followthe example here:

1. Without freezing the panes, scdrop-down the spreadsheet until row 7 is

the first visible row.2. Select C8 and freeze the panes. Now

only row 7 is visibly locked:

The following data should be enteredwhile the panes are frozen.

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The Last Formulas

for calculating total expenses and themonthly profit/loss should still be en-tered, as follows:

1. In A29, type Total expenses. ForJanuary, the formula in C29 should

look like this: =C17+C21+C28. Theresult should be {INSERT RESULT!!}

2. Copy the contents of this cell into thecells for the other months and thenpress HOME and DOWN ARROW this will

select C30.

3. Here you should enter the formula forIncome - Expenses; type in =C11-C35 and copy it into the cells for theother months. InC30, the resultshould be {INSERT RESULT!}

4. Now you need to create the summati-on formula in cells O29:O30. Theannual total should be {INSERTRESULT!}.

As you can see, this isnt so bad afterallin any case you should add othernormal household costs such as food,clothing, travel, etc. If youd like, youcan add these categories to your veryown budget.

Saving

If you have not already done so, save allthe changes you have made to ourbudget by clicking the Save button orpressing Ctrl+S.

Youll see that only when you save thefile for the firsttime are you asked toenter a filename. Youll only need to usethe menu option FILE|SAVE as if you wantto save changes to the file under a newname.

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Summary


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Summary

You have now tried just about all thefunctions necessary for building up alarge spreadsheet. Maybe it is a goodidea to stop a moment and review someof the most important functions (and if

you dont agree, then just go straight onto page 46.

I want to focus on the principles of ab-solute references. Leave the householdbudget on the screen, and openDECORATING.XLS using Ctrl+O.

On the Window menu, you can see thatboth files are open. Click on the file youwant to work with, or use Ctrl+Tab, toavoid using the menu and mouse.

The supplier we are buying from is amail order company. Apparently theywant to deliver the goods directly fromtheir warehouse in Canada. What wethought were American Dollars haveturned out to be Canadian Dollars, whichare cheaper, as the Canadian Dollar isworth less than the American Dollar (atthis time).

First, calculate the net price of the or-dered goods in American Dollars, thenthe sales tax and finally calculate the

total price. We will be paying Americansales tax, but it would be interesting tosee what the result would be with an-other sales taxafter all, one neverknows...

The exchange rate for the CanadianDollar and the American sales tax rateshould be placed in their own cells sothat they can be changed quickly if nec-essary. Try it now:

1. Insert a new row 2 (Ctrl+Plus and Down

arrow to Entire Row).2. Insert a new column C (Ctrl+Plus and

Down arrow to Entire Column).

3. Change the text in B1 to Net priceCAN$: and in C1 to Net price US$:

4. Adjust the column width.

5. Insert the exchange rate 0.66 in C2and the sales tax rate to 15% in D2.

6. Format rows 1 and 2 with bold, andcenter C2 and D2.

You are now ready to build a formulathat will calculate the net price in Ameri-can Dollars:

The formula in C3 should multiply theCanadian net price in B3 by the ex-change rate in C2. In C4, the net pricein B4 should be multiplied by the ex-change rate in C2, etc. The reference to

C2 should be absolute.

When the same cell is to be used in sev-eral formulas, the reference to it shouldbe absolute.

Have a go at inserting and copying theformula yourself first. Use the arrowkeys to select the different cells and forcopying.

How did it go? This is how I would have

done it:

1. Select C3 and type =.

2. Press Left arrow to select B3.

3. Type * and press Up arrow to selectC2.

4. Press F4 to lock the reference (makeit absolute). The formula should nowread =B3*$C$2.

5. Press Enterand select down to C17using Shift+Down arrow.

6. Press Ctrl+D to copy the formula.

7. Type a new exchange rate in C2 andcheck using Ctrl+Z, that all the netprices change.

The formula for calculating the sales taxs

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