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Part 4
Microsoft® Excel Basics
Teach yourself how to work with calculations:
1 Welcome to MS Excel
What is MS Excel?
Microsoft® Excel is a ‘spreadsheet’ program. Spreadsheets are useful for working with numbers and
calculations. You can compare a spreadsheet to a table in MS Word, but with a lot of extra functions.
Just like a table, a spreadsheet provides a good solution for presenting information (data) in a neat and
structured way. The difference is that in a spreadsheet you can create relationships between cells and
‘process’ the data: With formulas to add or multiply or functions to put data in the right order. Two examples:
Example 1 - Say you are a teacher and you need a list of students’ grades. After you enter all names and
grades into the spreadsheet, you start ‘processing’. First you calculate the average grade of each student
and of the whole class. Then you sort the list, putting the best student on top and the weakest on the bottom.
This important information is quite easy to get when you are using a spreadsheet instead of a table!
Example 2 - Suppose you are thinking of a business opportunity. A spreadsheet can help to create a clear
picture of how successful the business will be. First you enter what products or services you will sell for what
price. Then you enter the costs you need to make. After that, you can calculate if the business will be
profitable or not. And you can easily see what happens when you change the price or when you sell more!
MS Excel contains many functions which allow you to create complicated spreadsheets. In this part of
Jamani's Guide to Computers, we will only show and tell you the basics about using MS Excel. That is
enough to set up your first own spreadsheet, a students’ grade list or a simple business plan:
Learning MS Excel means understanding the basics of a spreadsheet: entering data (information), sorting
data, using formulas and printing it on paper. For this it helps a lot if you are familiar with basic mathematical
calculations. But even without that you can use Excel quite easily!
Arriving at the last part of Jamani’s Guide to Computers, you should now be comfortable with the general
things: buttons, menu-items, dialogues, etc. In fact, by now you should be curious to find out more! Just
continue to try out different things and make mistakes.
Getting started
Before starting your first document, do the following:
1. Start the program called 'MS Excel’
2. Save the new document in your folder and remember to save
frequently while you work
ò See: Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 1 - Basic Knowledge & Skills
3. Turn this page and take a good look at the first spreadsheet!
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
Although Excel is a totally different program than MS Word, it has a lot of the same functions. If you know
how to work with Word, you already know a lot about Excel: You know how to save your document, copy and
paste text, change the font and size of text, make text Bold and Italic... and how to Undo in case of mistakes!
Just like a table in Word, an Excel spreadsheet consists of cells, rows and columns. You enter information
into cells by clicking the cursor in a cell to select the cell and then start typing the way you are used to.
The first spreadsheet below shows how many boys and girls a school has in each form. The grey areas
show the totals, which have been calculated by Excel. Only six basic actions are needed to do this!
Å Ä
changing the calculating a total
size of columns
? Follow the numbers on the next pages and start typing… ?
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
Where to start?
First enter all the text and numbers,
except for those in the grey areas:
So type what you see in the picture
on the right! Step À explains how. Á Ä
Then go through Step Á to Step Å,
to complete the spreadsheet.
Å
The picture shows what function you Â
need for what step.
For typing numbers, it is easy to use Ã
the ‘number’-keys on the right part
of your keyboard.
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
Note: The ‘AutoSum’ function shows what cells it will calculate the
total from: B3 to B9. To make another selection, click in the first
cell and drag to the last cell. Press Enter to get the result.
With only three clicks you calculated the total number of boys!
Now complete this spreadsheet: Use Step à to copy the ‘SUM’-
formula and calculate how many girls and students there are.
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
3 A students’ gradelist
Creating a students’ grade list is a good example of processing data. Entering the names of the students and
each individual’s grades is only part of the job. After entering the data, Excel offers functions to make the list
complete: calculating averages, rearranging the list, etc. This is called processing the data
The list
The spreadsheet below shows the grades of 13 students on 6 different subjects. In this example, the grey
areas show the averages, which have been calculated by Excel. Also the list shows the best average on top,
ranging down to the student who needs the most attention. Once you finish entering all the data, these final
steps are quite easy to do and will save you a lot of time!
creating vertical
À text orientation
Kiswahili
Average
Physics
Biology
English
History
Math.
Á calculating an average
Students
Makia 89 87 79 74 76 79 81 Â rearranging the list, from the
highest average downward
Maria 82 80 69 82 74 79 78
Douglas 62 79 90 71 72 78 75
James 65 81 63 91 76 71 75
Abeidi 82 81 76 65 77 64 74
Susan 72 76 57 90 63 77 73 Ã marking the high score
on individual subjects
Julius 65 76 62 62 85 82 72
William 71 62 78 72 90 58 72
Benjamin 46 82 66 65 71 91 70 Ä setting the number of
decimals (81.2 or 81)
Rehema 65 76 65 82 46 72 68
Upendo 90 78 56 39 76 65 67
Mrisho 63 70 68 46 71 50 61
Daudi 44 57 48 65 56 61 55
Class average 69 76 67 70 72 71 71
Á Å Æ
calculating an average change column size creating borders
to exactly fit the data and color effects
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
Where to start?
Start a new Excel document
and first type all the data as  Ä
shown on the right.
Á
Do not worry about the order of
grades or when the text is bigger Æ
than a cell: that comes later!
After typing all data, follow Step À
through Step Æ to complete the list.
The picture shows what function you
need for what step.
3. Click on the small arrow (next to ‘SUM’) on the left side of the
formula-bar
4. From the menu, select ‘AVERAGE’
5. Click the ‘OK’-button: The result is now in cell H2.
You already know how to copy this formula downward:
1. Move the cursor on the lower right side of the selected cell
2. Click the left mouse button and drag the cursor down
Note: Repeat this step to calculate the averages in B15 up to H15
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
Note: Always be careful when you sort (and move around) cells!
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
If you are serious about a business opportunity, a business plan will help you in many ways. It shows how
good the business will be, based on the prices and sales you hope to realize. Moreover, you can easily
calculate different situations: What if I sell more? What if I use a higher price? A spreadsheet like this allows
you to shape and prepare your own business, instead of copying what others are doing!
The example on this page shows a financial business plan for a batik shop for a period of one month. It
specifies what products will be produced, how much that will cost and how many they hope to sell. The grey
cells show the ingredients of the business: prices and expected sales figures. When you change one of
these numbers, you immediately see what happens to your business!
( sales forecast )
Revenues price amount turnover
Small pictures (10x15 cm)
Postcards 1,000 25 25,000
on white carton + envelope
Sets of heavy tablecloth
Tableware 18,000 3 54,000
with 6 matching napkins calculating
Group course (6x4 hours)
Batik training
incl. materials, per person
16,000 3 48,000 Ã the turnover
(price x amount)
Total revenues per month 127,000
Extra costs
Rent Workshop/room 7,500
Electricity 1,500
Transport To Dar es Salaam 2,500
Other Tools, salary, unforeseen 10,000
Total extra costs per month 21,500
copying values
Å from other cells
Turnover 127,000
Materials -41,850 calculating the
Extra cost -21,500 Æ total for different
situations
Total income per month (before taxes) 63,650
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
Where to start?
Look at the Business Plan. In a new
document, first type all the text data,
as shown right: In cell A2, type
‘Revenues’, A3 ‘Postcards’ etc.
Adjust the size of each column so
that it looks the same as in the Á
example. (You should know how!)
Now follow Step À through Á to
make the text fit neatly in the cells.
Then type all the numbers in the
grey areas and follow Step Â
through Æ.
Note: Of course you can also use
your own data and create a real
business plan!
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
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Jamani's Guide to Computers Part 4 – MS Excel Basics
During your work, you will often have to make small changes to the original spreadsheet setup. Two tips:
After creating a spreadsheet, press the 'Print Preview' button to see how the spreadsheet will look on paper.
When you only want to print a selection of the spreadsheet, you first define the ‘print area’. When the
spreadsheet is bigger than the paper, you can make it fit on one page.
Getting Help
By now you should have learned one thing: Every time you use a computer you learn new things yourself,
just by clicking and trying. And there is more to discover. For instance, try to copy a selection of cells and
paste it into a Word document: it becomes a table! If you are really stuck, you can always use Excel’s Help-
function to get assistance on functions or problems. Try it!
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Jamani's Guide to Computers
Jamani's Guide to Computers is intended for people without computer experience and
supports the use of computers with Microsoft® Windows 95, 98, etc. Jamani's aim is to
enable whoever is interested to take the very first steps into the wonderful world of
computers and internet.
In cooperation with:
Agency for the Development of Education Management, Bagamoyo, Tanzania
ADEM offers courses and consultancy in education management and administration and conducts
research into operational problems of educational institutions. E-mail: adem@ud.co.tz
Jamani's Guides were created on Pentium 1-100MHz computers with 16MB RAM. Jamani's Guides may be copied, printed and
distributed freely in Tanzania. Free downloads are available on www.jamani.nl. Please keep us informed about distribution
activities. Contact us at: education@jamani.nl
Jamani supports and develops initiatives in the field of education and entrepreneurship in Tanzania.
Jamani is an informal Dutch non-profit organization founded in 2002 by Paul Flier and Marjolijn van Eijk.
Internet: www.jamani.nl E-mail: info@jamani.nl