Setting Up an Excel Workbook

...Working With Files...

 Bijou Computer Applications Class
Contents
 

Students

Please Note:

In these lessons, you will
SAVE 
everything you produce that
the teacher later will  grade
to the DESKTOP,
and especially to your "U" drive folder.

After you have saved your final copy to your "U" drive folder, please delete the copy on your desktop (so as not to reduce the already limited storage capacity of your computer) before logging off.

READ THIS:

Throughout these tutorials you will see links that will take you to specific tutorials on a subject. Click on them to get more information.

Also, you will occasionally be given small tasks to do that will help you to learn the subject you are investigating. Some of these tasks will turn into actual assignments, others are for your benefit but are not required. Note that the more you do on your own with purpose, the more quickly you will finish this course.

 

Starting Excel at Bijou
  • After logging on, double-click the Excel icon, which should be located on the desktop.
  • Ignore any warning messages that appear.  Just click the OK button that may appear.

Starting Excel on a stand-alone system (like at home)

  1. Click the Start button in the lower-left corner 
  2. Position the mouse pointer on Programs.
  3. Click Microsoft Excel.

For a refresher on starting programs, see Starting Word.

What these tutorials will ask you to do...

In these tutorials, you will be given directions for performing some tasks in the context of creating and sometimes saving files
(Workbooks, in Excel).  You don't have to save all these files if you don't want to.
 

If, however, you don't want to have to recreate a lot of files and just want to work through the tutorials from beginning to end, and learn how to do some basic Excel tasks along the way, you would be better off saving the files as you go along.

 

The Excel Window  
When you start working in Excel, you begin using a workbook that contains screens called worksheets. They are identified as Sheet1, Sheet2, and so on.

 (Screens may vary slightly in appearance, depending on the MS Office package you have.)

As you become more familiar with the options available in Excel, you can customize the menus and add buttons to the toolbars.

Here is the initial screen you see when you open Excel.  

NOTE the 3 major components of a worksheet:

  1. Cells
  2. Columns
  3. Rows

And the other important components of this screen:

 

 
Moving Between Worksheets in a Workbook

In the screenshot above, you can see the three worksheets, Sheet1, Sheet2, and Sheet 3.

  • You can move from one worksheet to another simply by clicking on the tab with that name.

Three (3) is the default number of worksheets, though you can change this number:

  1. Click on the Tools menu, then on Options...
  2. Click on the General tab, and about halfway down you can set any number from 1 on up to more than you'll ever want!

If there are more worksheets than you can see at once, you can move to those you can't see:

  • Click on the Tab Scrolling buttons, choosing the obvious one for the direction you want to go.
    • The middle two scroll you one tab (sheet) at a time.
    • The outer two, with the little arrow pointing to a line, take your view to the end one in that direction.
  • You still have to click on the Sheet tab to open (see) it.

 
Insert, Delete and Copy Worksheets
  1. Right-click on one of the Sheet tabs.
  2. Choose from the options there à

 

 Move Worksheets
  1. Click and Drag the Sheet tab right or left.
Change the Zoom Setting
  • The easiest way is to click on the little Zoom box arrow on the Standard Toolbar and choose from the options there,
    • OR enter a number from 10 to 400, after you've first clicked IN the window.
  • You can also click the View menu, then click Zoom... and choose from among those options.

 
Scroll and zoom on an Excel sheet by using a Scroll Mouse.
To Do this
Scroll up or down a few rows at a time Rotate the wheel forward or back.
Pan through a worksheet Hold down the wheel button, and drag the pointer away from the origin mark    in the direction you want to scroll. To speed up scrolling, drag away from the origin mark;  to slow down scrolling, drag toward the origin mark.
Pan through a worksheet automatically Click the wheel button, and then move the mouse in the direction you want to scroll. To speed up scrolling, drag away from the origin mark; to slow down scrolling, drag toward the origin mark. To stop automatic scrolling, click any mouse button.
Zoom in or out Hold down CTRL, and then rotate the IntelliMouse wheel forward or back.
Show detail in outlines Point to a cell that summarizes data in the outline, hold down SHIFT, and then roll the wheel forward.
Hide detail in outlines Point to any cell that contains detail data, hold down SHIFT, and then roll the wheel back.

Note   Changing the magnification does not affect printing. Sheets are printed at 100 percent unless you change the scaling on the Page tab of the Page Setup dialog box (File menu).

Basic Excel Toolbar Buttons

Of course, at the top is the ever-present Menu Bar.

But then you have the toolbars, which are somewhat different than in Word, though not greatly so...
Following are the three most important toolbars, plus one that is highly useful.
I won't number them, I'll let you think about it after you take a look:

  • Some of the buttons have a little downward-pointing arrow, a triangle, really:   Clicking on this arrow will open up a little menu or Palette of choices appropriate to that particular button.

The Standard Toolbar

New Create a new workbook Many terms are self explanatory, one would hope!
Open Open an existing workbook Insert Hyperlink (!)
Save uh, save? AutoSum Automatically sums the contents of an adjacent group of cells.
Print Ummm, print?!  
Print Preview ! Paste Function Opens the function wizard and allows you to see all the functions available in Excel
SpellCheck Check spelling  
Cut Just like in Word Sort (!)
Copy Just like in Word Chart Wizard Create a chart from your data
Paste Just like in Word Drawing Toolbar Open the drawing toolbar

Format Painter Just like in Word, only you work by cells in Excel to copy the format of the cell, NOT the contents.

  
Undo Just like in Word Zoom Change the size the worksheet appears on your screen
Redo Just like in Word Help (!)

The Formatting Toolbar

Font Quickly choose a different font type. Merge & Center Centers text (generally) across several cells that you have selected
Bold, Italics, Underline Change styles Currency, Percent, Comma Style your data to display appropriate number of decimals, Dollar signs, commas in numbers.
Align Left, Center, Right Position text or data within the cell Increase/Decrease Decimal Change the number of decimal places.  Especially useful for several selected cells at once.

The Formula Toolbar is explained on another screen: CLICK HERE.

The Drawing Toolbar

The Drawing toolbar is included here with the basic toolbars because it is so very useful, though its attributes are icing rather than cake. Remember, though, sometimes a cake is no good without the icing!

  • You will find the Drawing button, which toggles the Drawing toolbar on and off, on the Standard toolbar above.

Moving around within a Worksheet

 

DO THIS TO DO THIS
Click a Cell To select any cell
Press Tab To move one cell to the right
Press Shift+Tab To move one cell to the left
Use the arrow keys To move one cell down, right, up, or left
Press Home To move to the first column of the worksheet
Press Ctrl+Home To move to Cell A1 form anywhere in the worksheet
Press Ctrl+Down Arrow To move to the last row of the worksheet
Press Page Down To move one window down,
Press Page Up To move one window up
Click Edit, Go To... or Ctrl+G;
then enter the Cell Reference (e.g. D13)		 To move to any cell

Use Find and Replace

  1. If you want to search only a specific range of cells, select the range of cells you want to search.
    If you want to search the entire worksheet, click any cell.
  2. On the Edit menu, click Find... or click Replace....
    - or -
    Press Ctrl+F (Find) or Ctrl+H (Replace)

    NOTE: If you opened the Find dialog box but want Replace you can click the Replace... button on the lower right.

  1. Type the word or phrase you're searching for in the Find what box.
  2. If you want to replace that with something else, type or paste it into the Replace with box (Replace... dialog box only).
  3. In the Look in box, choose the type of information you are looking for (Find... dialog box only).
  4. In the Search box choose By Rows or By Columns.
  5. Choose Match case or Find entire cells only if appropriate to your search.
  6. Click Find Next to begin your search, or click Replace or Replace All if you're replacing something.
  7. Click Close to close either dialog box.

Create an Excel Workbook

Students can use Excel for scientific data, weather journals, financial reports, nutritional diaries, and legislative voting records.
Teachers can use worksheets to collect and analyze information, including student records, lesson notes, school activity budgets, professional organization information, and data. 
Each worksheet can be easily customized and enhanced with graphics and artistic additions.

NOTE: There is a difference between a workbook and a worksheet. A workbook can contain many worksheets. Each worksheet can contain up to 256 columns across and 65,536 rows down.

Creating an Excel workbook

  1. On the File menu, click New.
  2. On the General tab, double-click Workbook to open a new one. (Unless Excel just opens right up to a new workbook. If so, then go on to number 3)
  3. Click cell A1, and type My First Workbook.
  4. On the File menu, click Save, type WorkBook in the File name window, and click OK, saving as you did in the Word lessons.

Using a Template

Excel includes templates that automate the common tasks of filling in invoices, expense statements, and purchase orders.

  1. On the File menu, click New.   (The correct dialog box does NOT come up with the New button on the standard toolbar.)
  2. Click each tab to view the available templates.
  3. Click the Spreadsheet Solutions tab, and then click Balance Sheet to see the spreadsheet style in the Preview window.
  4. Click OK, or double-click Balance Sheet to open the template.
  5. Click in the appropriate areas of the spreadsheet to enter your information.
  6. Save the balance sheet with the default name (Balance Sheet 1, for example).
  7. On the File menu, click Close to close the workbook.

Opening an existing Excel Workbook

Using the Start menu

  1. Click the Start button on the desktop, and then move the mouse pointer to Documents.
  2. Click any existing Excel file to open it.
  3. On the File menu, click Close, to close the workbook.

Opening a workbook from inside Excel

While using Excel, you can open another workbook.

  1. On the File menu, click Open.

    2. – or –
    Press Ctrl+O (Letter O, not Zero).

  1. Double-click any file you want to open.

Saving your Work

When you create a workbook you must save your work in a logical place on the computer, OR on the network.
Just like filing a document in a file drawer, storing a computer document requires some attention to how you name the document and where you place it so you can find it easily.

NOTE: Unless you specify otherwise, Excel will save all files to a default sub-directory (folder) on your computer called My Documents.

Saving for the first time

When you save the file for the first time, you should name the file as descriptively but as briefly as possible. Sometimes, you will want to name it as a particular version, or as a type of workbook (e.g., Student_Lists_1-2).

Saving a new workbook

  In your newly opened workbook, click File, then the Save As arrow, and choose the location for your workbook.

  NOTE: As in other MS Office products, the first time you save a workbook Excel takes you to
     the Save As window even if you click Save.

Saving to a different location and changing the file name

NOTE: Unless you specify otherwise, Excel will save all files to a default sub-directory on your computer called My Documents.

Saving to a different name, folder, or drive

Rename a Workbook

  1. Open a new or previous workbook.
  2. On the File menu, click Save As...
  3. In the Name box, type a name for your file.
  4. In the Save In drop-down box, choose a different directory, like your folder, floppy drive A, etc.
  5. Click OK, and click Save.

Saving your workbook as another file type

  1. With the file from the previous lesson open, click Save As on the File menu.
  2. Click Save as type to view other format types.
  3. Click template, and click cancel to return to Excel.

Save as a Web Page

  1. On the Menu bar - Click File, Save As Web Page.
  2. Other steps are similar to any save, except:
  3. Click Change Title... to change the title of the web page.

Saving an existing workbook

Saving an existing file to the same file name, location, and format:

  • On the File menu, click Save, or click the Save button. 

Quitting Excel

There are several ways to quit Excel. Always follow proper procedures, or your work may not be saved. All Office applications prompt you to save changes if you try to quit a program without saving your open workbooks.

Quitting using the Exit command

  1. Click Exit on the File menu.
  2. If asked, click Yes if you want to save your workbook and quit Excel.

    3. – or –
    Click No if you do not want to save the workbook, but you do want to quit Excel.
    – or –
    Click Cancel if you do not want to close this workbook after all.

Quitting Excel using other methods:

  • Click the in the upper-right corner of your window.
  • Double-click the Excel icon in the upper-left corner of your window.
... TAKE THE TEST ...        Next Lesson: Simple Calculations

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UPDATED 11/14/05

This lesson was adapted from the Microsoft website 
"In and Out of the Classroom" 
© 1998 Microsoft Corporation.