Microsoft Excel

BASICS

Kari J. Keinonen 2009

Excel 2007
KJK

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Copyright Kari J. Keinonen - Ornanet Koulutus, Finland
International marketing: Net Gold, Finland
Translation: Riikka Lappalainen
Design of the cover: Urpo Jalava
ISBN 978-952-5753-38-7

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Kari J. Keinonen

Excel 2007
KJK

Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................... 6
What is Excel? ............................................................................................................. 7
What is a spreadsheet?................................................................................................. 7
The basic idea of spreadsheets..................................................................................................7

Using Excel ................................................................ 9

Opening Excel ............................................................................................................. 9
Closing Excel............................................................................................................... 9

Application window User interface .............................. 10

Main parts and commands of the window ...................................................................... 11
The Ribbon and tabs .............................................................................................................. 12
Dialog boxes ........................................................................................................................ 14
Galleries .............................................................................................................................. 15
Live Preview ......................................................................................................................... 16
Context menus and the Mini Toolbar ........................................................................................ 16

View ........................................................................................................................ 17
Normal view ......................................................................................................................... 17
Page Layout view .................................................................................................................. 18
Page Break Preview ............................................................................................................... 22

Handling a file .......................................................... 23

New workbook........................................................................................................... 23
Opening a file............................................................................................................ 24
Opening an existing workbook as a template............................................................................. 25

Closing a file ............................................................................................................. 25

Printing ................................................................... 26
Defining the print area................................................................................................ 26
Preview .................................................................................................................... 27
Printing .................................................................................................................... 28
Print settings ........................................................................................................................ 28

Saving .................................................................... 30
Changing the file name, destination folder or file format ............................................................. 31

Essential basics ......................................................... 32

Cell.......................................................................................................................... 32
Moving within a worksheet and selecting a cell .......................................................................... 32
Cell address ......................................................................................................................... 33
Entering and changing information in a cell ............................................................................... 34
Replacing and deleting cell contents......................................................................................... 34

Selecting a range....................................................................................................... 35
Entire worksheet ................................................................................................................... 35
Row .................................................................................................................................... 35
Column................................................................................................................................ 36
Selecting separate ranges ...................................................................................................... 37

Kari J. Keinonen

Excel 2007
KJK

Formatting a cell and a range ...................................................................................... 38

Themes ............................................................................................................................... 38
Cell styles ............................................................................................................................ 39
Formatting fonts ................................................................................................................... 40
Changing number formatting .................................................................................................. 41
Formatting a cell and a range ................................................................................................. 42
Fill color and borders of a cell and a range ................................................................................ 44
Adding indents to a cell .......................................................................................................... 45
Copying formatting with the Format Painter .............................................................................. 45
Undoing formatting ............................................................................................................... 45

Undo, redo and repeat ................................................ 46

Undo........................................................................................................................ 46
Redo ........................................................................................................................ 46
Repeat ..................................................................................................................... 46

Copy - Cut - Paste ..................................................... 47

Copy ........................................................................................................................ 48
Producing formulas by copying ................................................................................................ 48

Cut .......................................................................................................................... 49
Paste or place ........................................................................................................... 49
Producing series.................................................................................................................... 50

Find - Replace........................................................... 51
Find ......................................................................................................................... 51
Replace .................................................................................................................... 52
Select ...................................................................................................................... 52

Formulas ................................................................. 53
Writing formulas ........................................................................................................ 53

Functions ................................................................. 55
Using functions.......................................................................................................... 55
The most important functions ...................................................................................... 58
Sum.................................................................................................................................... 58
Count .................................................................................................................................. 59
Minimum and maximum ......................................................................................................... 60
Average ............................................................................................................................... 61
Product................................................................................................................................ 61
Comparison function IF .......................................................................................................... 62

Thoroughness and checking......................................................................................... 63

Keys to success: planning and attention to detail ....................................................................... 63
Remain thorough .................................................................................................................. 63

Kari J. Keinonen

Excel 2007
KJK

Graphic elements ...................................................... 64

Adding an image........................................................................................................ 64
Drawn shapes ........................................................................................................... 65
From numbers into charts ........................................................................................... 66
Creating a column chart ......................................................................................................... 67
Formatting a column chart...................................................................................................... 68
Chart location ....................................................................................................................... 72
Creating a pie chart ............................................................................................................... 73
Formatting a pie chart ........................................................................................................... 73
Creating a line diagram .......................................................................................................... 75
Creating a bar chart .............................................................................................................. 75
Changing the chart type ......................................................................................................... 76
Copying a chart .................................................................................................................... 77
Moving a chart...................................................................................................................... 77
Printing a chart ..................................................................................................................... 77

Table feature, databases ............................................. 78

What are databases needed for? .................................................................................. 78
Excel databases .................................................................................................................... 78

How to create a database? .......................................................................................... 79

Establishing a table ............................................................................................................... 79
Entering data into a table ....................................................................................................... 80
Formatting a table................................................................................................................. 81
Deleting data from a table ...................................................................................................... 81
Filtering a table..................................................................................................................... 82
Sorting a table...................................................................................................................... 82
Printing the title row on every page ......................................................................................... 83

Managing several worksheets ....................................... 84

Worksheet tabs ......................................................................................................... 84
Calculating in several worksheets ............................................................................................ 85
Hiding worksheet tabs ........................................................................................................... 86

Settings .................................................................. 87
Configuring the settings .............................................................................................. 87
Software level settings........................................................................................................... 87
Application default settings ..................................................................................................... 87
File settings.......................................................................................................................... 87

Configuring default settings......................................................................................... 88

Excel settings ....................................................................................................................... 88
Changing the default save format ............................................................................................ 89
Zooming the screen............................................................................................................... 89

Excel Help ................................................................ 90

Index ...................................................................... 91

Kari J. Keinonen

Excel 2007
KJK

Introduction
You are now reading the educational material for Excel. The purpose of this educational material is to save you the effort of taking notes all the time. You can revise the
important issues in Excel later on by reading this e-book while sitting comfortably at
your computer. The e-book is suitable for 24 - 40 hour courses, but it is a useful tool
also in self-study and short courses.
Pay special attention to text tagged with a red checkmark (on the left), which alerts
you to highly important information.
Familiarize yourself with the basics of Windows before moving onto Excel.
Write down the most important parts of the text while learning more about Excel. It
is important for your learning to write down your own observations and insights. This
e-book is made for reading.
Set a goal for your learning. Get a clear overview of the application by learning the
basics of Excel first (please see page 8). Do not concentrate on the advanced features,
unless you are fully familiar with the basics. Otherwise you will not have a solid foundation on which to build in the future. Familiarize yourself also with other distributed
material and web pages on the topic.
2

The real work will start only after the Excel training. Note that your improvement
depends as much on Yourself as the training. Get to know the features of Excel by
working with it. That way, you will learn new things every day. The course has given
you a head start on Excel, and with the help of this educational material, you will find
new working methods and little by little find those methods that suit you best.
As Excel is full of opportunities, you will surely spend many enjoyable hours with it.
Pleasant and enjoyable studying!
Kari J. Keinonen

Kari J. Keinonen