START A NEW SPREADSHEET
When Excel starts up, the program will display a new, blank workbook. This is fine, but you do not always have to build everything up from scratch. Alternatively, you can start a new spreadsheet manually, using various templates.
1. Click on the File tab in the top left corner of the screen.
2. Click on New. You will now choose which template you want to use.
Templates for invoicing budgeting and even
monitoring of blood pressure have already been installed. If you do not think
the preinstalled templates are enough, it is possible to download many more via
the search bar.
Navigating the spreadsheet
You can use both mouse and keyboard to navigate
the worksheet, but I recommend that you practice using the keyboard. It is a
faster and economically better solution.
You'll need to move things around a lot in the
spreadsheet, and if you always use the mouse, you could easily develop a
"mouse-arm."
Using the keyboard to move around has other
advantages which I shall return to later. There is always one, and only one,
active cell in the spreadsheet. It is identified by a thick black border all
around it called the "cell pointer". You can choose a second active
cell using the arrow keys or the mouse. Try pressing lightly on the arrow keys
on the keyboard to move the cursor.
Navigating Large Spreadsheets
When you navigate large spreadsheets, it
becomes difficult to use the mouse. You can move quickly to specific locations
in a spreadsheet using the keyboard. If you press down the CTRL key and press
the HOME key on the keyboard, the cursor moves to cell A1. If you hold down the
CTRL key and use the arrow keys, you can skip to "where something is
happening, for example, be the outer edge of a table. If you have a table with
1000 rows and 50 columns in your spreadsheet, pressing the down arrow while you
press down the CTRL key will take you to the last row of the table. Similarly,
the up arrow will take you to the top. The principle is the same for moving
right and left. This can also be used for selection of cells. If, in addition
to pressing down the CTRL key, press downs the Shift key as well, the cells
will be selected.
Cell Pointer and Auto Fill
If you take a close look at the cell pointer,
you'll notice a small black square in the lower right corner of the cursor.
This is the location of a feature with the
awkward name "Auto Fill". Auto Fill can be used via the mouse if you
need to quickly copy some cells. When you point to the little black square with
the mouse the mouse cursor changes to a small black cross. Keep the left mouse
button down and move the mouse until you have marked some cells, then release
the mouse button again. Several things can happen when you do this. Either a
simple copying of content from the active cell will take place or a "series"
will be introduced.
If, for example, you typed "Monday"
in the active cell and used Auto Fill to copy it, the subsequent cells will
read "Tuesday", "Wednesday", etc. This is one kind of
series. Excel has several predefined ranges for weekdays and months. You can
also create your own series, and we will come back to that later in the book.
Writing in the Cells
Try typing some numbers and text in different
cells. When you finish typing something into a cell, press the ENTER key on the
keyboard. The cell below the cell you just typed in will become the active
cell.
Note also that if you write text in a cell, the
text will be aligned to the left. If you type in numbers, the figure will be
adjusted to the right. If you want to change something in a cell, you can
double-click on it, which enables you to change the content. If it is the
active cell you want to change, you can also press F2 on your keyboard If you
merely wish to add something new you just double-click on the active cell.
Also note the "Formula Bar", as shown
in Figure 11. It is currently showing what you type into the cells and may not
seem especially important right now. But later, when you use formulas in some
of the cells, the Formula Bar will show what kind of formula that is used in
the active cell, while the active cell displays the result.
Adaptation of Cell Size
The cells are the same from the start, but this
can be changed. You can change the cell size by changing the row height and
column width.
Try moving your mouse over the column headers
(A, B, C, etc.). You will notice that the mouse cursor changes when it
approaches a new column. When it does, you can press the left mouse button down
while moving the mouse to adjust column width. The same method can be used to
change the row height. Instead of clicking and dragging with your mouse, you
can double-click it. This will adjust the column width so that it is just wide
enough to show the largest cell in the column. You can experiment with this yourself.
This method can also be used to adjust the row height.
Selecting Cells
To select a single cell, just move the cell pointer to it so that it becomes the active cell. If you want to select multiple cells, there are two ways to do it.
1. Point to a cell with the mouse, press the left mouse button down and drag the mouse, by which an area will be selected. Release the left mouse button when you have selected the area you wanted. The cell you clicked on first will be the active cell.
2. Move the cursor to the corner of the area you want to select. Hold down the Shift key on your keyboard and press the arrow keys. If you hold down the Shift the selection will be adjusted. Release the Shift key when you are done selecting.
Compound Selection
You can also select multiple independent fields
at once. Here you will have to use both mouse and keyboard simultaneously. You
must hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard, and then select the desired
fields with the mouse. Experiment a little with it yourself.
Navigating Inside a Selection
If you have selected an area and then press one
of the arrow keys on the keyboard, the selection will disappear. That is not
always what we want, so instead, use the TAB key and ENTER key on your keyboard
to move to the right and downward respectively. You can use the same keys to
move left and upwards by pressing down the SHIFT key simultaneously.
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