A First Lesson in Excel

Microsoft Excel is an electronic spreadsheet program used primarily for managing, manipulating
and analyzing quantitative data.

Excel also includes charting and database management capabilities.

In business, Excel is commonly used in statistical analysis, budgets, forecasting and

finance.

The real power of the spreadsheet, however, lies in its ability to allow the user to
manipulate and change quantitative data in various what if scenarios and see the results of
the changes immediately.

Column Bar

Row Bar

Formula Bar

Standard Toolbar

Formatting Toolbar

Status Bar

Exercise 1: Exploring the Structure of Excel

1. Start Excel. Read the following:
2. When Excel starts it opens up a book containing three identical pages.
3. The book (or spreadsheet file) is called a workbook, named Book1 by default.
4. Each page is called a worksheet, named Sheet1, Sheet2 and Sheet3 by default.

5. You can rename, add, remove or copy a worksheet.

6. Each sheet is really a very large electronic table comprising columns (A, B, C, etc.) and
rows (1, 2, 3 etc.). There are actually 256 columns and 65,536 rows!
7. Each box on the sheet is called a cell. A cell address is written in Column-Row order, for
example B6, not 6B.
8. A cell can contain numbers, labels (non-numeric or text information), formulas, and
dates and times. You can also add graphics to a sheet.
9. Each cell is actually a calculator!
10. Your active cell is now A1. On your keyboard press and release the End key, then the right
directional arrow key (). This will take you to the very last column IV, which is the 256th
column on the worksheet. Notice that you are on cell IV1.
Active Cell A1

11. Press Ctrl + Home to go back to the home cell A1. Press the End key, then the down
directional arrow on your keyboard (). This takes to the very last row, 65,536. Notice that
you are now on cell A65536.
12. Press Ctrl + Home to return to cell A1.
13. Lets go to the cell Z500. If you try to scroll your way there it is going to take too much time.
Press the F5 key on your keyboard. Type Z500. Press Enter. You are there. How do you
know? Look at the name box and you will see the cell address indicator.

Name
box

14. Press Ctrl + Home to return to cell A1.

Exercise 2: Add New Worksheet, Reposition Worksheet

1. Click once on the worksheet tab name Sheet2. The sheet looks identical to Sheet1. Click
on Sheet3. Looks the same also. The three worksheets are identical in structure. Click once
on Sheet1 to return there.
2. To add a new worksheet, click InsertWorksheet from the menu. Excel inserts a new sheet
named Sheet4 before the Sheet1.

3. Another way. Right-click the name Sheet4. Click Insert....

4. You will see the Worksheet icon selected in the General section on the Insert dialog box
that appears on screen. Click OK. A new worksheet, Sheet5, is inserted before Sheet4.
5. You are currently on Sheet5. Click once on the worksheet name Sheet4 and drag it to the
end after Sheet3. Click and drag Sheet5 after Sheet4.

Exercise 3: Rename Worksheet

1. Double-click the name Sheet1 so that it becomes highlighted.
2. Type Jan. Press Enter. You have just renamed Sheet1 to Jan.
3. Here is the menu way of doing it. Click once on the name Sheet2. From the menu click
FormatSheetRename. Sheet2 becomes highlighted. Type Feb. Press Enter.

4. For Sheet3 try another method. Right-click the name Sheet3. Click Rename. Type Mar.
Press Enter.

5. Rename the other two worksheets Apr and May, respectively, using whichever method you
prefer.

Exercise 4: Removing Worksheets

1. Right-click the sheet name May. Click Delete. Click OK. You have just removed the May
worksheet.

2. How about removing more than one worksheet? Lets delete the Jan and Mar worksheets.
Click once on Jan. Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard and click on Mar. Release the
Ctrl key and mouse. Both sheet names now appear lighter in color because they are now
selected.

3. From the menu, click EditDelete Sheet.

4. Click OK.

5. Click the Save

button. Type Navigating Excel Lesson. Notice that Excel files are
saved with an .xls extension. Click the Save button. You have just changed the workbook
name from Book1 to Navigating Excel Lesson.
6. Click FileExit to close Excel.

Exercise 5: Arithmetic Operations

Excel uses the following codes to perform basic mathematical operations:
Operation
Exponentiation
Multiplication
Division
Addition
Subtraction

Code
^
*
/
+
-

Type This
=5^3
=8*7
=63/9
=12+38
=100-71

To Get This
75
56
7
50
29

1. Lets see how they work. Start Excel.

2. Open the file Navigating Excel Lesson. You should be on the Feb worksheet on cell A1.
3. Click once on the letter A on the column bar to highlight the entire column.
4. From the menu, select FormatColumnWidth.

5. Type 15. Click OK.

6. You have just widened column A to 15.

7. Click once in cell A1 to make it the active cell. Type Exponent. Press the Tab key once to
move over to cell B1.
8. Type the expression =5^3. Press Enter. The number 125 shows up in cell B1. The equal
sign (=) tells Excel to calculate the expression after it.

9. Go to cell A2. Type Multiply, then press the Tab key. Type =8*7. Press Enter to get the
result of 56.
10. Repeat the procedure for the other calculations as shown below.

There are a few things you should notice at this point:

Numeric values automatically align themselves on the right of a cell.

Text aligns on the left of the cell.

The default font used in Excel is Arial 10 pt because numbers are clearer and easier to
read in an Arial font than in Times New Roman.

11. Click once on cell B1 and look in the Formula Bar.

12. The cell B1 displays the result of the formula (125) but the cell actually contains the formula
=5^3, as shown in the formula bar. Click once on cell B2. The formula bar again shows the
content of the cell, =8*7. Therefore, always remember to glimpse in the formula bar to see
what a cell actually contains when you click on it.
13. Click the Save button and close the Excel program.

Excel Lab G
Exercise 1: Enter Data
Simple Formula

Widen Columns

Write a

1. Start Excel. Click FileSave. Type Basic Functions in the File name: box to name this
workbook. Click the Save button.
2. Double-click the worksheet name Sheet1. Type J&L then press Enter to change the
worksheet name.
3. Your cell position should be on A1. Type J&L ELECTRONICS WORLD completely, then
press Enter to register the entry and move to A2.
4. Type Department Sales for 2000. Press Enter three times to move to cell A5.
5. Type DEPARTMENT then press the Tab key to move to cell B5. Notice the word
DEPARTMENT overlaps into cell B5 because column A is too narrow.

6. Click once on the letter A on the column bar to highlight the entire column. From the menu,
click FormatColumnWidth.

7. The default column width of 8.43 shows up. Type 20 and click OK. You have changed the
width of column A to 20. (It is always a good idea to widen the descriptive column a little
more than the longest entry).

8. Columns B, C and D will all contain values and must have the same width. Click on the
column letter B and drag right to highlight columns C and D. Release the mouse.

9. From the menu, click FormatColumnWidth. Type 14 then press Enter.

10. Click in cell B6 and type JANUARY. Press the Tab key to move to cell C5.
11. Type FEBRUARY then press the Tab key to move to cell D5.
12. Type CHANGE then press Enter.
13. Now that you have set up the column headings across the sheet, we will fill out the data for
each column downwards. Click once in cell A6. Type Audio, then press Enter. Type
Computers, then press Enter again.
14. Continue typing all the data as shown below then click the Save button.

15. Notice that text (words) automatically align to the left in a cell while values align on the
right.
16. Click on cell D6 to begin our first formula.
17. To calculate the change in sales from January to February, we must subtract the January
value from the February value. The February value is in cell C6 and the January value is in
cell B6. To tell the computer to take the C6 value and minus the B6 value, type the formula

=C6-B6
18. Notice as you type this formula in the cell D6, a copy of what you are typing also shows in
the Formula Bar. It does not matter whether you type in uppercase or lowercase, or even
mixed case. Just dont type any spaces in the formula. Press Enter.

Formula
Bar

19. The result of the formulas calculation, 6054.54, now appears in cell D6. Look in the
Formula Bar again. You see its empty because cell D7 contains nothing. Click once again on
cell D6. The formula =C6-B6 reappears in the Formula Bar.
20. To explain this again: The Formula Bar shows the actual content of a cell. The cell
displays the result of a formula or entry.
21. Click the Save button to save the entire workbook and keep it open for the next exercise.

Exercise 7: Copy a Formula

1. Now that we have the change value for audio, lets find the value for the other departments.
Position your cursor on D6. Look at the bottom right corner of the cell. There is a small solid
square, called the Fill handle.

Fill Handle

2. Point to it. It changes to a black cross. Click and drag the Fill handle downwards to D11 and
release the mouse. The values for the other departments will appear as shown.

1. You have just copied the formula =C6-B6 to the other cells. When you copy a formula to
adjacent cells, Excel automatically changes the cell references in the formula to adjust.
Therefore, when we copied the formula =C6-B6 downwards, Excel changed it as follows
Cell
D6
D7
D8
D9
D10
D11

Formula
=C6-B6
=C7-B7
-C8-B8
=C9-B9
=C10-B10
=C11-B11

2. To prove this click once on cell D7 and look at the Formula Bar. It indicates the formula
=C7-B7. Click on D8 to see the next formula =C8-B8, etc.
3. Save your work and keep the file open for the next exercise.

Exercise 8: Use Basic Functions in Formulas

Excel has many built-in formulas called functions that make calculations easier. Here are
examples of the basic ones:
EXAMPLE
=SUM(B6:B11)
=AVERAGE(B6:B11)
=MAX(B6:B11)

MEANING
Calculate the total of all the values in cells B6 through B11.
Calculate the average of all the values in cells B6 through B11.
Calculate the highest value in cells B6 through B11.

=MIN(B6:B11)
=COUNT(B6:B11)

Calculate the lowest value in cells B6 through B11.

Calculate the number of cells from B6 through B11 that contain a
value.

A group of adjacent cells is called a range. The expression B6:B11 is a range, meaning all
the cells from B6 through B11.
1. Click on cell B13 to make it the active cell. To calculate the total sales in January, type the
formula =SUM(B6:B11) and press Enter.

2. In cell B14, type the formula =AVERAGE(B6:B11) and press Enter to calculate average
sales for January.
3. Type =MAX(B6:B11) in cell B15 and press enter to calculate the highest department sales
for January.
4. Type =MIN(B6:B11) in cell B16 and press enter to calculate the lowest department sales for
January.
5. Click the Save button.

6. We need to perform the same operations for the next two columns. There is no need to write
similar formulas all over again. Just use the Fill handle to copy the formulas across. Click
once on B13, release the mouse, then click and drag the Fill handle across to D13. Release
the mouse.

7. We can do the same operation for the average, highest and lowest formulas one by one. But
here is a much faster method. Click the Undo button
to remove the values from C13
and D13. Point to the middle of the cell B13, click and drag down to highlight the range
B13:B16 (Be careful not to drag the Fill handle when doing this).
8. Click the Fill handle on cell B16 and drag across to D16. All the formulas will be copied in
one step. Click away on a blank cell. The results are shown below. Save your work.

9. Click the Print button

to obtain a copy of this spreadsheet. Notice that after you print a
vertical dotted line appears on the worksheet. This dotted line marks the right edge of the
printed page. Any data on the right of this line will print on another page.
10. On your printout, write the formulas you used in cells D6, A13, A14, A16 and A16.
11. Label this printout VERSION 1: COMPLETING DATA AND FORMULAS.
12. Close Excel.

Exercise 9: Format Values

A spreadsheet should always look professional. Start with the appearance of the values. Here are
some basic value formats
1234.56
1,234.56
$1,234.56
13%

General format
Comma format with 2 decimals
Currency format with 2 decimals
Percent format with no decimals

1. Start Excel and open the Basic Functions.xls workbook.

2. Highlight the range B6:D16. Click the Comma Style button
on the Formatting toolbar.
Click away on a blank cell to view the change. Notice that all your values now have two
decimals and a comma.

All the values on this spreadsheet represent currency, but there is no need to apply the currency
symbol ($) to every value. Apply it only to the most important values such as totals and
subtotals. In this case, we will apply it to all the calculated values at the bottom.
3. Highlight the range B6:D16. Click the Currency Style button
cell to see the result.

. Click away on a blank

4. Highlight the range A13:D16. Click the Bold button

, then click away.

5. Oops! We should not have applied currency to all the numbers; only those at the bottom. To
remove the $ from the numbers, highlight the range B6:D11 only and click the Comma
Style button.
6. Save your work. Click the Print button. Label this printout VERSION 2: VALUES
FORMATTED.

Exercise 10: Format Title and Headings

1. Highlight the column headings in range A5:D5. Click the Bold button
to see the result.

then click away

2. When you have values in a column, that column heading should be aligned to the right just
like the values. Highlight range B5:D5. Click the Align Right button

then click away.

3. Highlight the range A5:D5 once again. Click the Borders button
arrow. Click the
Bottom Border button. Click away to see the border under your column headings.

4. Click on cell A1. Change the font to Arial, 12 pt, bold.

5. Click on cell A2. Change the font to Arial 12 pt, bold. Save your work.
6. In spreadsheets, it is acceptable to leave the spreadsheet title aligned left as in A1 and A2.
You can also center it across the data. Heres how.
Highlight the range A1:D2. Why stop at column D? Because it is the last column of data on
the sheet.

7. From the menu, click FormatCells. Click the Alignment tab. In the Horizontal box,
select Center Across Selection. Click OK.

8. Click away to see the result. Save again and print. Label this printout VERSION 3:
FORMATTING TITLES. Write the steps you performed to center the spreadsheet title on
the printout as a review.

Exercise 11: Center the Spreadsheet

1. Notice that your spreadsheet data is not centered on the page. Click the Print Preview
button
(or click FilePrint Preview from the menu). Click the Setup button. This is
the Page Setup menu which you will use regularly, so know it well.

2. Click the Margins tab. In the Center on page area, select Horizontally. Click OK.
3. Click the Print button in the Print Preview toolbar, then click OK in the Print dialog box.
4. You are now back on the worksheet. Save your work.
5. Label your printout VERSION 4: SPREADSHEET CENTERED HORIZONTALLY ON
PAGE.
6. Write the steps on how you accomplished this.

Exercise 12: Scaling

Printing in Landscape

Version 4 is acceptable as your final product. However, there are a few more options in the
Print PreviewPage Setup menu you might want to use optionally.
1. Click the Print Preview button. Click Setup. Click the Page tab. In the Orientation
area, select Landscape. Click OK. Landscape (sideways) is a good option when you have
many columns of data.

Landscape

2. Click the Setup button again. Click the Page tab. In the Scaling area, increase the Adjust
to: size to 110%. Click OK. Because Excels default font size is 10 pt, the data might
appear too small on the printout. Increasing the scaling makes it easier to read.

Scaling

3. From the Print Preview menu, click the Print button then click OK. Save your work.
4. Label your printout VERSION 5 (OPTIONAL): LANDSCAPE AND 110% SCALING.
Write notes on how you did it. Compare VERSION 5 with VERSION 4. Both are equally
good.

Exercise 13: Insert Page Headers and Footers

1. Click the Print Preview button again. Click Setup. Click the Header/Footer tab. Headers
are notes that repeat at the top of each printed page. Footers repeat at the bottom of each
printed page.

2. Click the Custom Header button. In the Left section: box, type ACCOUNTING DEPT.
3. Click in the Right section: box. Click the Date button, press spacebar twice then click
the Time button.
4. Click OK on the right (not the OK at the bottom).

5. Click the selector arrow in the Footer: box. Select Page 1 of ?. Click OK. Look at your
page preview to see the Header and Footer you have just inserted.
6. Click the page Setup button again. Click the Header/Footer tab. Click the Custom
Footer button. In the Left section: box type your full name.
7. Click once in the Right section: box. Click the File Name button once, press spacebar
twice on your keyboard then click the Sheet Name button once.

8. Click OK on the right. Click OK again.

9. Your page preview should look like the one below.

10. Click the Print button. Click OK. Save your work.
11. Label this printout VERSION 6 (OPTIONAL): HEADERS AND FOOTERS and dont
forget to write your review notes on the printout.

The Header and Footer Buttons

Button

Code

What It Does
Displays the Font dialog box so you can adjust the
font, size, and style of the text for each of the three
sections of the header or footer

&[Page]

Inserts the page number

&[Pages]

Inserts the total number of pages

&[Date]

Inserts the date

&[Time]

Inserts the time

&[File]

Inserts the filename of the workbook

&[Tab]

Inserts the name of the current worksheet

Exercise 14: Gridlines

Row and Column Headings

1. Click Print Preview. Click Setup. Click the Sheet tab.

2. In the Print section, turn on Gridlines and Row and column headings. Click OK.
3. Click Print. Click OK. Save again.
4. Label the printout VERSION 7 (OPTIONAL): GRIDLINES AND ROW AND COLUMN
HEADINGS TURNED ON. Write your review notes.
5. Close the workbook and exit Excel.

 Gridlines are useful for reading long lists of items.

Row and column headings are useful for indicating the position of cells on a sheet.

Checklist To Create
A Professional-Looking Spreadsheet
Now that you have seen all the stages in preparing a nice-looking, professional spreadsheet, here
is a checklist to follow for every Excel assignment you do. Please check all the items until you
know them well.

1. Is your data (especially your numbers) accurate?

2. Are your formulas correct?
3. Are the columns widened appropriately?
4. Did you format your values appropriately? Decimals, comma,
currency where necessary?
5. Did you align the column headings to the right with the numbers
where necessary?
6. Is the spreadsheet title larger and bolder?
7. Would you like to center the spreadsheet title? It is optional.
8. Is the entire spreadsheet centered horizontally on the page?
9. Do you need headers or footers to indicate page numbers,
department, etc.?
10. Do you require gridlines on your printout?
11. Is your spreadsheet easy to read after printing it out?

Exercise 15: Edit Cell Contents

Save

Print

Exit

The power of Excel is its ability to recalculate when you make changes to the data.
1. Open the Excel file Basic Functions.xls and go to the J&L Electronics worksheet.
2. Upon re-checking our data we found out that the entry of 1,260,136.45 in cell C8 is incorrect.
(Whew! After all that work!). It really should have been 1,620,136.45. Click once on cell
C8.
3. Go to the Formula bar and click once between the digits 1 and 2.
4. Press the delete key twice on your keyboard to erase 26, then type 62.
5. Press Enter to register the edited value in the cell and notice how the numbers at the bottom
change automatically also.

6. The store manager suggests that we change the spreadsheet subtitle to read Monthly Sales
for 2000. Click once on cell A2.
7. Go to the Formula Bar and highlight the word Department. Type the word Monthly and
press Enter to replace it.
8. The Audio department has been renamed Stereo. Click on cell A6, type Stereo, press
Enter. (Typing over replaces the entire contents of a cell).
9. The Appliances department is now called Small Appliances. We can edit another way.
Double-click cell A11. Click once at the beginning of the word Appliances to position the
cursor there. Type the word Small and press the spacebar. Press Enter.
10. Save your work and print it out once again. Call it VERSION 8: EDITED.
11. Keep the workbook open for the next exercise.

Exercise 16: Print Gridlines and Row and Column

Headings
1. With the Basic Functions.xls file open, double-click the name Sheet2 on the worksheet
tab. Type Grades and press Enter to rename it.
2. Enter the data in the cells as shown. Widen column B to 17 and column F to 11. Leave the
cell blank for those students who did not take the test.

3. The professor has assigned a testing identification number to each student in his class,
beginning with M100 and increasing by 1. To complete the rest of the identification
numbers, highlight the range A7:A8.
4. Point to the Fill handle of cell A8 and double-click it. The remaining numbers will fill in
automatically, courtesy of Excels Fill Series feature. You could have dragged the handle
down to the last cell to accomplish this also.

1. Lets try it again, but with a formula this time. Click on cell F7. To calculate the average of
each student, type the formula =AVERAGE(C7:E7) and press Enter.
2. Dont panic when you see all those decimals appear in the average.
3. Click once again on cell F7 and double-click its Fill handle to copy the formula
downwards.

4. Click on cell C20. To find out how many test papers were submitted we will use the
COUNT function. The COUNT function shows the total number of cells that contain a value.
Type =COUNT(C7:C18) and press Enter. The result is 11; meaning 11 of 12 students took
the exam.
5. For the highest score on Exam 1, type =MAX( only. Click now on cell C7 and highlight all
the way down to cell C18.
6. Type the closing parenthesis ) and press Enter. So that was a shortcut to completing a
formula without typing in the cell range.

7. Try the shortcut you just learned to complete the =MIN formula in cell C22.
8. Copy the formulas you completed for Exam 1 to Exam 2 and Exam 3 by highlighting
range C20:C22 and dragging the Fill handle to the right.

9. The averages need to be fixed. The professor would like to display the averages rounded
off to the nearest whole number. Highlight all the values in the AVERAGE column
(F7:F18) and click the Comma Style button. This will give two decimals.
10. Click the Decrease Decimal button
averages.

twice to remove the two decimals from the

11. On second thought, Professor Engel, would like to show the averages with one decimal
instead. Highlight the averages again and click the Increase Decimal button
Click away when finished and save the file.

once.

12. Finally, it is time to apply your formatting skills to make the grade sheet look good. Use the
skills learned in the previous lab exercises and your Spreadsheet Checklist to obtain your
final product, as shown below. Gridlines are appropriate here. Add headers or footers
also. Save your work and close Excel.

Exercise 17: Insert Row and Column

1. Open the Basic Functions.xls file and click on the Grades worksheet.
2. For his own record-keeping, Professor Engel would like his MGT303 grade sheet to indicate
his students major. He would like this information next to the students name. Therefore he
needs to insert a column between the NAME column and EXAM 1 column.
3. On the Column Bar, click once on the letter C so that the entire column C becomes
highlighted.

4. From the menu, click InsertColumns. A new column is inserted on the left of the column
you had highlighted. This column becomes column C while EXAM 1 is now on column D.
(Tip: You can also right-click the column letter C, and then click Insert from the menu that
pops up).
5. From the menu, click FormatColumnWidth. Type 12. Click OK.
6. Click on cell C6 and type MAJOR. Press Enter.
7. Complete the data for this column as shown.
8. Notice as you begin typing an entry that you had typed before in a cell above, Excel
automatically displays the complete entry for you. Press Enter to accept it, or continue
typing the data if you do not want Excels suggestion.
9. Center the all the entries in the MAJOR column. Save your work.

10. Professor Engel forgot to include the scores of student Daniel Hillenbrandt who is auditing
the class. Since the names are in alphabetic order, Daniel Hillenbrandts record must be
inserted between Shair Hero and Linda Joseph.
11. In the Row Bar, click once on the row number 10 so that the entire row becomes highlighted.

12. From the menu, click InsertRows. A blank row is inserted above the row you had
highlighted. This new row is now row 10.
(Tip: You can also right-click the row number 10, and then click Insert from the menu that
pops up).
13. Click on cell A10 and type A955. Press the tab key. Type Hillenbrandt, Daniel and tab
over again. Type BIS as his major. Fill out the grades of 82, 75 and 81 as his test scores.

14. To calculate his average, click on cell G9 and drag the fill handle only one cell down.

Did you notice how the numbers for Papers Submitted increased by one?
15. Print a copy of the revised grade sheet. Save your work.

Exercise 18: Delete Row and Column

The academics office does not require the students majors to be listed on the grade sheet, nor the
scores be submitted for those students auditing the course. Professor Engel would like to
temporarily remove that information and print the grade sheet to submit to academics.
1. Click once on the column letter C to highlight the column. From the menu, click Edit
Delete (or right-click the column letter C and select Delete from the pop-up menu).

2. To delete the record of Daniel Hillenbrandt, click once on the row number 10. From the
menu, click EditDelete (or right-click the row number 10, then click Delete from the popup menu).
3. Print this copy that will be used for the academics office. Close the workbook. Do not save
these changes. Close Excel.

Exercise 19: Autosum

1. Open the Basic Functions.xls file. Double-click on the Sheet3 tab and type Invoice to
rename it. Press Enter.
2. Change the width of column A to 11, column B to 36, and columns C, D and E to 12 each.
3. Complete the data for the invoice as shown below. An invoice is similar to a bill for goods
sold or services rendered. Save your work.

4. Insert a row above the total on row 25. Delete row 3. Insert a row above the Sold To: line
and also a row below the Phone: line.

5. Lets complete our missing values by writing formulas. Click on cell E18.
6. To calculate the amount on column E, we must multiply the Quantity on column C by the
Unit Price on column D. Type the formula:

=C18*D18

and press Enter

7. Click once again on cell E18 and copy the formula down to C25 (Try double-clicking the fill
handle of E18).

8. Click once on cell E27 to get ready for the Total. To sum up all the values in the Amount
column, we can do it several ways.
9. Type the formula

=SUM(E18:E25)

and press Enter. The result will be 1001.6.

10. Click the Undo

button to try the next method.

11. Type =SUM( . Click on cell E18 and drag down to highlight through E25. As you drag
downwards, the formula fills in the range E18:E25. Be careful not to drag the Fill handle.
12. Type the close parenthesis ) to complete the formula and press Enter. Again the result is
1001.6.

13. Click the Undo button once more to remove the total.
14. With your cursor on cell E27, click the AutoSum
button on the Standard toolbar. The
AutoSum button is a quick way of adding up a column of numbers, but be careful.

15. Notice that the formula =SUM(E18:E26) pops up in the cell. It really should be
=SUM(E18:E25), but AutoSum is also including the blank cell E26.
16. To make the formula accurate, click on the right of the 6 in the formula then press the
Backspace key once to erase it. Type 5. Press Enter.
17. To calculate a 6% sales tax on the total, type

=E27*6%

and press Enter.

(Note: You could also type =6%*E27 and you do not need parentheses in a simple formula like
this).

18. Shipping and Handling is a flat rate of $12. Type 12 in cell E29 and press Enter.
19. The Amount Due in cell E30 is the sum of the merchandise total + tax +
Shipping/Handling. The formula in E30 is therefore

=SUM(E27:E29)
(Note: Use the SUM function when you add three or more cells. Otherwise, just use the plus +
sign to add two cells).

20. Net 30 days means the customer has 30 days to pay the bill. Click once on cell D9. Press
Ctrl + ; and Enter to insert todays date.

Exercise 20: Row Height

1. To get more spacing between the lines listing the items ordered, click on the number 17 on
the row bar and drag straight down to row 25.
2. From the menu, click FormatRowHeight.

3. In the Row height: box, type 20 and click OK. Notice the increased spacing between the
rows.

4. Click away to take off the highlighting. Save your work.

Exercise 21: Merge and Center

1. The word INVOICE should be big, bold and centered at the top. Highlight the range
A1:E1.
2. On the Formatting toolbar, click the Merge and Center
3. Change the font to Arial Black, 24 pt.

button.

4. Format the remainder of the worksheet using the Spreadsheet Checklist. Save and print
the final product.

Exercise 22: Custom Lists

1. With the Basic Function.xls file open, click InsertWorksheet.
2. Drag the new worksheet, named Sheet1, to the end.
3. Rename the worksheet Income. Here is yet another way to do this. Right-click the sheet
name Sheet1. Click Rename from the pop-up menu. Type Income. Press Enter.

4. Change the width of column A to 25. Here is a fast way to do it. Right-click the column
letter A. Click Column Width from the pop-up menu. Type 25 and press Enter.

5. Complete the data shown below.

6. Click on cell B6. Drag the Fill handle to the right until JUN appears. Release the mouse.

7. Excel automatically fills in the months because the months of the year and the days of the
week have been built into the program as Custom Lists. You can type the month or
weekday in short or long format (Jan or January; Mon or Monday) and it will still work. You
can fill across or downward if preferred.
8. Complete the rest of the data as shown.

9. Click on cell B11. To calculate the Total Revenue, use the SUM function by clicking the
AutoSum button, then press Enter.

10. Click on cell B17. Click the AutoSum button and press Enter.
11. Click on cell B19. Total Revenue minus Total Expenses will give the Gross Pre-tax
Income/Loss. Therefore the formula is

=B11-B17
12. Click once again on cell B11. Drag the Fill handle to copy the formula across to June.

13. Use the same procedure to copy the formulas for Total Expenses and Gross Pre-tax
Income/Loss.
14. Now for some final formatting touches. Click on cell A7. Hold down the Ctrl key and click
on cells A13 and A19. Those three cells are now selected. Click the Bold button

15. Highlight the range A8:A10. Hold down the Ctrl key and highlight the second range
A14:A16. Click the Align Right button

16. Click on cell A11. Hold down the Ctrl key and click on cell A17. Click the Italic button
. Click the Increase Indent button

twice.

17. Continue formatting your sheet to achieve the result below. What a nice-looking spreadsheet!
Save and print it. Close Excel.

Excel Error Codes and What They Mean

If you type an incorrect formula, Excel will usually respond by indicating an error code. Here are
some common ones with an explanation of their meaning.

Error Code

Meaning

######

#N/A

Not really an error. The result is too long to fit in the cell.
Widen the column.
Refers to a value not available in the cell you referenced in
your formula.

#VALUE

Structure or content of formula is incorrect.

#REF!

A cell referenced in the formula is not valid.

#DIV/0

You are trying to divide by zero.

#NUM!

A number was not used correctly

#NAME?

An invalid name was specified. Check the spelling of text you

used in the formula and enclose the text with double quotes,
e.g. Larry

Circular
Reference

You are using the address of the active cell in the formula you
are writing. Do not include the address of the current cell in
your formula.

Excel Assignments
Assignment 1: Family Budget
1. Start Excel so that you have a new workbook. Save the workbook as Excel Lesson One
Practice.
2. Rename Sheet1 as Fam-Budget.

3. The sheet below shows Jason Winthrops family budget for the first six months of this year.
Enter the data as shown.
4. Calculate the total expenses per month and the savings.
5. Use the Spreadsheet Checklist to format and print the spreadsheet.
6. Include your name, workbook name and sheet name in the footer area.
7. Do not print gridlines or the row and column headings in the exercises for this Lab.

Assignment 2: Financial Portfolio

1. Rename Sheet2 on the Excel Lesson One Practice.xls workbook to Portfolio.
2. Enter the data as shown and calculate the missing values for Sarah Doughs financial
portfolio.
3. Format and print the spreadsheet.

Assignment 3: Long Island Yankese

The new manager of the Long Island Yankese would like to evaluate the past years performance
of his team based on the batting averages. In baseball, the batting average is calculated by
dividing the number of hits by the number of times at bat. Baseball batting averages are
expressed as three-digit decimals, for example .298.
1. Enter the data below on Sheet3 and rename the worksheet Yankese.
2. Write formulas to calculate the batting averages and format the averages to three decimals.
3. Format and print the sheet with gridlines, but without row and column headings.

Assignment 4: Stock Portfolio Analysis

Maria Chavez has been carefully monitoring the Dow Jones Industrial Average to check on how
her stock portfolio is doing. Today, she would like to calculate the values of her individual stocks
in order to check if she will make a profit or loss by selling them. The portfolio value means the
total current market value of all stocks combined.
1. Add a new worksheet to the Excel Lesson One Practice.xls workbook. Rename the
worksheet Stocks.
2. Calculate the stock values for the TOTAL COST, TOTAL VALUE and GAIN OR LOSS
columns. Calculate totals for these columns also.

3. Format and print the sheet in Landscape mode.

4. What can you tell Maria about her stock portfolio?

Assignment 5: Cyber-Shopping for Computer Stuff

For being a good employee, you have been given a budget of $1,000 by your department
manager to spend on upgrading your computer. You have had a wish list for some time now and
here is your chance to make the best use of this money. You decide to scour the websites on the
Internet to find the best prices. Your objective is to spend every penny without exceeding the
$1,000 and get the best possible value for your money.
The wish list includes the following items: an LCD monitor, a three-piece speaker system with
subwoofer, a scanner, a 250 Mb Iomega External Zip Drive, a PDA, and a wireless wheel mouse.
1. Insert another worksheet in workbook Excel Lesson One Practice and a lay out a grid (as
shown below) that will enable you to calculate your total spending so that you dont go over
the budget. Remember, you might not be able to purchase all the items you want, and you
might have to compromise on brand, specifications and quality on some items in order to get
the most for your money.

2. In cell F5, type the formula =SUM(C5:E5) that will add up the total cost of each item.
3. Copy the formula in F5 downwards to F10. Zeros will appear in the cells until your begin to
put in the numbers on each item.
4. Enter the formula =SUM(F5:F10) in cell F12. The value in F12 will represent your total
spending.
5. Save your work and start your cyber-shopping. When you have obtained the best prices on
the items, enter them on your spreadsheet.
6. If you go over the budget, look around for lower prices or consider not buying an item at all.
7. Make sure to spend as close to $1,000 as possible.
8. Save and print your formatted spreadsheet when you have finalized your shopping research.
Good luck!