Excel Basics

Moving Around	Adjusting Width
Editing Cells	Formatting Cells
Highlighting Cells	Formatting Tables
Writing Formulas	Graphs and Charts

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Moving around a Spreadsheet

There are three ways to move from cell to cell in Excel

• Use the arrow keys on the keyboard
• Move the mouse to a new cell, wait for the mouse pointer to change from an arrow to a large white cross, and left click once
• Type a cell name in the Name Box

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Editing Cells

• Click once on the cell and begin to type
  WARNING: this will erase anything currently in the cell!
• Click once on the cell and hit the F2 key to make the cursor appear
• Double click on the cell to make the cursor appear
• Click in the formula bar and type the corrections

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Highlighting Cells

To Highlight a Range of Cells

1. Place the mouse pointer (which will look like a large white cross) on the cell you wish to highlight.
2. Click the left mouse button and hold it down as you move the mouse across the cells you want highlighted.
3. Let go of the left mouse button when you have selected the appropriate range of cells.
   NOTE: The first cell you highlighted will not appear to be highlighted (white text on a black background), however it will have a thick black border and IT IS selected.

To Highlight an Entire Column or Row

• Click on the number of the row as seen in the gray boxes at the far left
• Click on the letter of the column as seen in the gray boxes at the top of the table.

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Writing Formulas

• Formulas always begin with an "=" sign
• Cell names can be written using upper or lower case letters
• After the formula is inputted hit the ENTER key to get the answer
(The answer is in the cell, while the formula is displayed in the formula bar.)

Function	Formula	Notes
Addition (two cells)	=(A1+B1)
Addition (a range of cells)	=SUM(A1:F1)	The AutoSum button is a good way to add large ranges of numbers
Subtraction	=(B1-C1)
Multiplication	=(A1*B1) or =(A1*3)	The * is used to denote multiplication
Division	=(A1/B1) or =(A1/3)	The / is used in to denote division

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Adjusting the Column Width

Adjusting by hand

1. Put the mouse pointer on the boundary line between the cell markers of the columns you want to change. The mouse pointer will change from a large white cross to a black vertical line with arrows on either side.
2. Hold the left mouse button down and drag until you reach the desired width.

Adjusting automatically

• Double click the boundary line, Excel will automatically fit the column
• ClickonFormat-->Column-->AutoFit, Excel will automatically fit the column.

NOTE: The above rules also apply to rows.

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Formatting Cells

1. Highlight the cells you want to format
2. Click on Format in the menu bar.
3. Click on Cells
4. Choose from the tabs across the top to make changes to the cell’s formatting
   • Change the number format (specify a certain style of marking the date, currency, or percents—to name a few options)
   • Change the alignment and the font of the cells
   • Change the borders and background colors.

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Formatting a Table

Excel has number of designs which you can choose from to automatically format your table

1. Highlight the cells you want to format
2. Click on Format in the menu bar.
3. Click on AutoFormat
4. Choose a style from the menu
5. Click on OK to return to the spreadsheet and apply the formatting

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Creating Graphs and Charts

Excel has a feature called the ChartWizard which will automatically creating a variety of charts with the information given

1. Highlight the cells you wish to graph.
2. Click on the ChartWizard button on the toolbar
3. Follow the steps in the wizard to create the chart.
• Choose the chart style
• Look at the Datasource
• Label the title, legend, and other information.

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