Excel basics
- 2. I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. Objectives: Learners should feel comfortable creating a basic spreadsheet in Excel with data and simple formatting. Learners should be able to start practicing some helpful keyboard and mouse shortcuts. Learners should receive additional tips for advanced learning.
- 3. Topics for becoming Excel-a-holics Agenda: Home Tab Wrap Text & Merge Center Styles & Design Format Cells Sort & Filter Insert Tab Tips & Tricks
- 4. There’s no place like Home. The Home tab in Excel has almost everything you need to do basic spreadsheet tasks. You’ll find similar options to Word & Power Point such as the Clipboard, Font and Alignment sections. You’ll also find some other useful sections specific to Excel.
- 5. Wrap Text & Merge Center The Wrap Text button on the toolbar allows you to fit the text you type in a cell within the defined width. The Merge & Center button allows you to merge text in one cell to multiple cells and unmerge it. E.g., If you have many columns of text but want to enter a title or subtitle that spans the width of all the columns.
- 6. Styles and Design To do add a style, highlight the cells you would like to add the style to and then, click Format as Table and choose a style. Follow the instructions on the pop-up windows to apply the style. To add a style to only specific cells within a spreadsheet that already have an applied style, click the Cell Styles button and choose a style to apply.
- 7. Format Cells Use the Insert and Delete buttons to add or remove cells, rows, columns and sheets. For more formatting options, click Format and choose an option. A neat feature under the Format dropdown menu is the AutoFit. You can highlight a group of cells or the whole spreadsheet and choose AutoFit Row Height and/or AutoFit Column Width to automatically shrink or expand the height/width of your cells to fit the text within them.
- 8. Sort & Filter To sort an entire spreadsheet, highlight the spreadsheet and click on Sort & Filter. To sort just a group of cells or rows. Highlight them and click on Sort & Filter. Choose if you want to sort A-Z, Z-A or custom. A custom sort allows you to conduct multiple sorts at once (e.g., sorting first by Department then by Last Name). To add the filter option, highlight the header row, click Sort & Filter and choose Filter. You should see dropdowns for each header.
- 9. Data not enough? Insert some stuff! The Insert tab in Excel is another great place to look if you want to do more things. Insert pictures, shapes, screenshots, hyperlinks, wordart, equations, symbols and much more! Use the Charts section to convert your data into charts and graphs. Highlight the data you want to incorporate. Then, choose one of the chart/graph options.
- 10. A tip, a trick and some ways to make you quick. Keyboard shortcuts that work across all Microsoft Programs and more (e.g. internet browsers): Ctrl+C = Copy Ctrl+V = Paste Ctrl+Z = Undo Ctrl+O = Open a new document Ctrl+P = Print Alt+Enter = allows you to enter a new line of text within a cell Alt+Tab = to toggle between windows Alt+= allows you to automatically sum the numbers you have in a column Use Format Painter (Home tab) to copy formatting from one cell to others. Start by highlighting the cell with the formatting you want to copy. Then do one of the following: Click the Format Painter button once to copy it and click the cell you want to format. Double-click the Format Painter button to keep the formatting on and click on multiple cells to duplicate the formatting onto several cells.
- 11. A tip, a trick and some ways to make you quick. Quickly copy data or formulas to multiple cells. Select the cell you want to copy. Hover your mouse over the bottom right corner of the cell (there is a very small square) until you see a plus sign. Hold and drag your mouse to the cells you want to copy to. Let go. It should have copied. Held and dragged down