Excel Basics

A
New York Farm Viability Institute
Computer Training Course
By
Jack Kellogg and Juliet Carroll
Trainer Fruit IPM Coordinator
Professional Studies & Continuing Education NYS Integrated Pest Mangement Program
Finger Lakes Community College Cornell University

2006
THE EXCEL WINDOW
TITLE BAR: Across the top of the window or screen (when
window is maximized). It contains the name of the open
program and the file name.

TOOL BARS: Standard, Formatting, and Address

CURSOR: Note its shape and position.

SCROLL BARS: Found at the bottom and right side of

screen.

CELL ADDRESS: Appears in the left end of the address bar.

The letter & number coordinates in the cell address iden-
tify the intersection of the column and row for that cell
(e.g. A1).

WORKBOOK SHEETS: At the bottom of the Workbook win-

dow there are 3 sheet tabs for the 3 worksheets that
makeup the Workbook (ex. Sheet 1.) A workbook can
have as many as 250 sheets. On a single sheet there is a
Title Bar
possibility of over 65,000 rows along with a possibility of
over 256 columns.
Tool Bars

Cell Address

Worksheet Tabs Scrollbars

NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll


CURSOR NAVIGATION TECHNIQUES
The active cell is outlined in bold. To move to other cells, use
the techniques below:

DOWN: press Enter

UP: press Shift+Enter
ACROSS RIGHT: press Tab
ACROSS LEFT: press Shift+Tab
ARROW KEYS: Up, Left, Right, or Down
PAGE UP KEY or PAGE DOWN KEY allows you to move ap-
proximately 20 rows up or down at a time.
CLICKING THE MOUSE: into any cell changes its position to
that cell.

CREATE THE FOLLOWING SPREADSHEET:

City January February March Quarter Total
Chicago 4 4 6
Denver 4 6 6
Dallas 8 5 4
Boston 7 8 8
Los Angeles 12 15 22
New York 4 6 7
Total

• Adjust column widths as needed.
• Format column headers and row headers
• Use Auto Sum, S on the tool bar, to total the columns
or rows. Remember: Auto Sum does not go through
empty cells.
• Change data for one month and observe the totaling
results.

NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll


COPYING AND PASTING
Sometimes details of data need to be copied over to another
worksheet or to another workbook. This can be done by
copying and pasting rather than re-typing anew. A need for
this could be the start of a new season or start of a new year.
• Open the workbook file you want to copy things into
(the target or new file).
• Select (highlight) the cells to be copied from the exist-
ing worksheet (the source file) and copy them.
• Move to the target workbook file and make sure your
cursor is in the CORRECT Cell and the CORRECT
Sheet, then click paste.

UN-DOING AND RE-DOING

When a mistake is made or you have tried something that
did not work out the way you wanted, such as pasting in the
wrong place, UNDO IT!
Simply click on the Undo button (the left-curving arrow) on
the icon toolbar and it will undo the last operation. Usually
several sequential actions can be “undone” – one action for
each click on the button. Another way to undo is to use the
keystrokes “Ctrl Z” or under Edit on the Main Menu, click on
Undo.
It may be very convenient to REDO an action, such as insert-
ing a column, by using the keystrokes “Ctrl Y” or under Edit For keystrokes Ctrl Z and Ctrl
Y, hold the Ctrl key down while
on the Main Menu, click on Repeat.
pressing the letter key.
Sometimes a subsequent Undo will Redo the first action that
was undone, starting an endless loop.
Once a save has been completed, Undo and Redo are no
longer available options until additional editing is done. Undo
and Redo options can then be used back to the most recent
save baseline.

NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll


USEFUL EXCEL SHORTCUTS
Excel contains several features that help enter or select data
quickly and efficiently. Below are a few suggestions.

SELECT A RANGE OF CELLS – click on the corner cell in the

range to be selected, scroll to the opposite corner and
hold the Shift key down while clicking on the cell in the
opposite corner to select the range.

AUTOCORRECT – Excel automatically corrects many com-

mon typographical errors.

AUTOCOMPLETE – Excel automatically inserts data in a cell

that begins the same as a previous entry in the column.
Example: If “Sunny and calm” has been typed in a cell,
Excel will complete “Sunny and calm” as soon as you
begin to type this in another cell in that column. Press
Enter to accept the AutoComplete word(s).

DRAG TO AUTOFILL – Fills cells with the same or sequential

information. Select cell with data, place cursor on the
lower right hand corner of the cell until the black cross
appears (the fill handle), click, hold, drag and let go.
Cells will fill with same or sequential information.

FILL USING KEYSTROKES “Ctrl D” – Enter information in a

cell. Select that cell and the cells below where the same
information is to be copied. Key in “Ctrl D”. Cells will fill For keystrokes Ctrl D and Ctrl En-
with the same data. ter, hold the Ctrl key down while
pressing the second key.

FILL USING “Ctrl Enter” – To enter the same data in several

cells, select all the cells first. Then type your data in the
first cell and press “Ctrl Enter”.

If entering data in a specific set of cells, select the entire

range of cells first, type the first data entry. Then when
you press Enter, the next cell in the selection becomes
active.

NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll


SAVING A FILE
You know that your original save was successful by looking
at the title bar of the program and seeing the file name. SAVE your files before CLOSE ‘ing
them.
• Click on the Save icon on the tool bar. If this is the CLOSE your files and programs
first time the file is saved a window will appear so you before SHUT ‘ting DOWN.
can select the folder and assign a file name as illus-
trated below.
• Or Select Save As from the drop down list under File
on the Main Menu and you can also select the folder
and assign a file name as illustrated below. Sub-
sequent saves, using the Save icon, will over-write
the older version without asking for the folder or file
name.

Folder where it is saved in Down arrow

File name

• Select the Folder where it is to be saved by clicking

on the Down arrow by “Save in:” and selecting the
appropriate folder (directory).
• Type the File name at the bottom of the window, then
press enter or click Save.

NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll


BACK-UP FILES FOR SAFEKEEPING
With the file open, click on the File menu and select Save As.
The Save As window appears (shown on page 6). Select the BACK UP your files (data, photo,
music, etc.) frequently and rou-
backup location (drive) by clicking on the Down Arrow next
tinely.
to Save in. The backup location (drive) should be something Make and store copies on floppy
OTHER than the hard drive (C:), for instance a CD-Rom (D: disks, CDs, etc.
drive), a floppy disk (A: drive), or a network drive. The file
name can remain the same for identification later. Like in the
old days - putting an extra paper copy in a safe place.

SPELL CHECK ON A WORKSHEET

To run spell check on an entire spreadsheet could be rather
tedious, but to check just a column or some rows could be
very beneficial. Using consistently spelled words enhances
accurate data filtering and sorting in Excel.
• Select (highlight) the cells, columns, or rows to spell
check, then click on the ABC spell check icon on the
Standard Toolbar.
This will start the spell check wizard. If misspelled words
In Excel, SPELL CHECK does
are found, a window appears, as below, giving options for NOT run in the background like in
changing the spelling, adding to the dictionary, etc. a word processor.

If no misspelled words are found, spell check will display a

finished window.

NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll


FINDING DATA IN A WORKSHEET
If you are looking for something somewhere in a large
spreadsheet, Excel can search each cell for you. Click on
the Edit menu, then the binoculars icon (Find). The following
window will appear:

• Find will find whatever you type in the Find what box,
searching by rows or columns.
• The Find Next button will take you to the next occur-
rence.
• Remember the Find is often very literal, so the check
mark(s) shown in the illustration above may be elimi-
nated.

NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll


PRINT PREVIEW
Before printing a worksheet, it is often helpful to see it as the
printer would see it. Use print preview to see an overview
of your work. The print preview icon on the toolbar will get
you started by opening the print preview window, as shown
below.
• Click the Next and Previous buttons for navigation
to other pages or use the scroll bar on the right hand
side.
• Click on the Margins button to click & drag margins as
needed.
• Click on the Setup button to setup headers and foot-
ers, gridlines, page orientation, etc. This is the same
setup as under the File menu.
CLOSE Print Preview using the
• When done with Print Preview, click the CLOSE but- CLOSE button and NOT the X in
ton on the tool bar (not the “X”) to return to your the upper right hand corner – this
could close the file and program!
worksheet in the open workbook file.

The Print Preview window (sample shown above) displays

the number of pages in the worksheet that will be sent to the
printer. By using the scroll bar you can see what these pages
look like and on what page numbers they are. See the follow-
ing section for more on printing groups of pages and select-
ed ranges of cells.
NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll

PRINTING OPTIONS
Clicking the Print icon on the toolbar results in 1 copy of the
contents in the entire active worksheet being sent to the local
(default, regular, or primary) printer for printing.
To print multiple copies, specific pages, parts of a worksheet,
and other options, click on File, then Print to open the Print
window, as shown below.

• Choose a different printer from the drop-down list in

the box next to Name.
• Choose specific page(s), if needed, under Print range,
and enter the beginning and ending page numbers
(From:---___ To:___).
• If a limited section of the spreadsheet or group of
cells needs to be printed, Select those cells first. Then
come back to File, Print, and under Print What, click
Selection to print only those cells.
• Set the number of copies.
• Click OK and the printer will go to work.

NYFVI Excel Basics – Instructor’s, Kellogg & Carroll

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