Introduction to Excel – Course notes

1
Index
Page #

Column and row references 5-6

Name box 7

Formula bar 8-10

Working with spreadsheets 11-13

Operations with rows and columns 14-18

The Ribbon 19

Explore the Ribbon 20-27

Right-click on a cell 28

Format cells 29

Repeat the last action 30

Editing a cell’s content 31

Creating an Excel formula 32

Copying of cells 33

2
Index
Page #

Paste 34

Paste Special 35

Cut 36

Undo & Redo 37

Select an area of cells 38

3
Column and Row references

Columns
Columns are referred to with
letters

Rows
Rows are referred to with
numbers

4
Column and Row references

A1

For example A1, refers to the cell at the

intersection of column A and row number 1

5
Name box

Name box
Displays the cell reference of the
active cell (the one we have
clicked on)

Later…
We will see how to assign names
to cell ranges using the name box

6
Formula bar

Formula bar
We use the formula bar to type or edit formulas

7
Formula bar

Formula bar
Once you start typing, the formula bar provides
suggestions for the formula you are looking for.

8
Expanding the formula bar

After clicking the button, the formula bar

enlarges two or three times
Formula bar
If a formula you are typing becomes too large, you may
consider clicking on this button to expand the formula bar

9
Working with spreadsheets

Spreadsheets
An Excel file can have many spreadsheets. We
can find them here

10
Working with spreadsheets

Spreadsheets
If there are too many sheets, and you are not able
to see the one that you need, you could use the
Ctrl + PgUp/ PgDn combination to navigate
through the various worksheets with ease

11
Working with spreadsheets

Delete the worksheet

Change the name of the worksheet

Move or Copy the worksheet

Change the sheet color Spreadsheets

By right clicking on a worksheet, several formatting
options become available:

12
Adjusting the size of a column/row manually

Drag

Size of a Column/Row
To adjust the size of a column (or a row) manually, click with the left button of the
mouse at the beginning of the column (row) as shown above (below). You can
adjust its size by dragging.

Drag

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Adjusting the size of a column automatically

If the content of some of the Double-click with the left The column would
cells within a column does not mouse button and adjust the automatically fit the cells’ size
fit its size (as shown above), column’s size
you can do the following:

14
Selecting a row/column with the keyboard

Select a column
The shortcut for selecting a column is Ctrl + Space

Select a row
The shortcut for selecting a row is Shift + Space

15
Inserting a row/column

Insert a column
If you want to insert an empty column in a sheet, select the column before
which you would like to insert a new column, right-click with the mouse and
choose “Insert”, or just use the Ctrl Shift + shortcut.

Insert a row
If you want to insert an empty row in a sheet, select the row before which
you would like to insert a new row, right-click with the mouse and choose
“Insert”, or just use the Ctrl Shift + shortcut

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Deleting a row/column

Delete a column
If you want to delete a column in a sheet, select the column, right-click with the
mouse and choose “Delete”, or just use the Ctrl - shortcut

Delete a row
If you want to delete a column in a sheet, select the column, right-click with
the mouse and choose “Delete”, or just use the Ctrl - shortcut

17
The Ribbon

Ribbon
The Excel Ribbon has 8 main tabs: File, Home,
Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View

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Explore the Ribbon Tabs: Home

Home Tab
The Home tab contains some of the most frequently used commands. It includes buttons such
as Cut, Copy, and Paste, which can transfer text, data or objects within your files. Most of the
formatting options are included here as well. You will find features such as Font, Font Size, Cell
Borders, Font Color, Alignment etc. In addition, within the Home tab, we can also find the “Find
& Select” tool, which is very useful in certain situations

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Explore the Ribbon Tabs: Insert

Insert Tab
The Insert Tab in Microsoft Excel will let you add external objects to your workbook. You can
insert elements such as pictures and clip art images. Insert would also allow you to add charts,
pivot tables, hyperlinks, headers and footers, etc.

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Explore the Ribbon Tabs: Page Layout

Page Layout Tab

In the Page Layout tab, you can organize the content of your worksheet. You can also select
the printable area of your sheet with “Set Print Area”

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Explore the Ribbon Tabs: Formulas

Formulas Tab
The Formulas tab divides the functions in Excel into categories: Recently Used, Financial,
Logical, Text, Date & Time, Lookup & Reference, Math, etc. It also features some formula
auditing tools, such as Trace Precedents, Trace Dependents, Error Checking, etc.

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Explore the Ribbon Tabs: Data

Data Tab
This is where we can find the commands for working with lists and groups of data. Here we
have a number of useful applications such as Remove Duplicates, Text to Columns, Data
Validation, What-if analysis – all of which we will see in detail later on in the course. This is also
where we find some of the common data management tools such as cell grouping and data
sorting

23
Explore the Ribbon Tabs: Review

Review Tab
This tab furnishes the instruments which allow you to proofread your Excel files. In addition, it
contains some protection functionalities

24
Explore the Ribbon Tabs: View

View Tab
The View Tab allows you to customize the way you see your spreadsheet: you can select
among different workbook View and Zoom options

25
Explore the Ribbon Tabs: Developer

Developer Tab
We will show you how to add additional tabs. One of these tab is the Developer tab. It allows
you to record, run, write and operate with macros

26
Right-click on a cell

Right-click on a cell
Several options are available when you right-click on a cell. You can copy its content, paste the
content of a previously copied cell, shift its position (insert or delete), format the cell, etc.

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Format Cells

Format Cells
Within the Format Cells menu, we can select
from a variety of formatting options. For
example, in the first tab “Number”, we can
change the appearance of a number without
changing the number itself. In the other tabs we
can find options regarding the alignment, font,
borders and the fill of the selected cell/cells. We
will see many practical examples of how the
Format Cells menu is used, throughout the
course

28
Repeat the last action (F4)

Using F4
If you would like to repeat the last action that
was performed, you can do that by using the F4
button. In the example on this page, D5 was
colored in yellow, by assigning a color with the
Fill Color button. Next, in E5, the same action
was performed by pressing F4

29
Editing cell content

Editing with F2
You can edit the content of a cell by selecting it and then
clicking F2. Performing such an action would allow you to
start typing directly in the formula bar

30
Creating an Excel formula

Create an Excel formula

Type = or + at the beginning of your formula. By
doing this, Excel understands that you would like
to create a formula and not just type text

Main formula operators

+ Addition ^ Elevation
- Subtraction > Higher
* Multiplication < Lower
/ Division = Equal

31
Copying of cells

Copying cells
To copy a cell or a range of cells, you have two
options:
1) Right-click on the cell and select “Copy”
2) Select the cell and use the “Ctrl + C”
shortcut (preferred)

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Paste

Paste
Once you have copied the content of the cells,
you can paste it in another location. You can
either do it with a right-click and then selecting
paste as shown here, or use the Ctrl + V
shortcut, which is much faster

33
Paste Special

Paste Special (Alt + E + S)

The Paste Special dialog box (which you can
open by using the “Alt + E + S” shortcut) provides
many pasting options. For example, you can
choose to paste the formulas of the copied cells
only, paste the values of the copied cells, or paste
the format of the copied cells only, etc.

34
Cut

Cut (Ctrl + X)
Cut allows you to move a cell’s content from one location to another. You need to
select the Cut command as shown here, or use the “Ctrl + X” shortcut (preferred).

35
Undo & Redo

Undo & Redo

The Undo feature of Excel allows you to quickly correct mistakes. On
the other hand, the Redo button lets you Redo what has been
previously Undone. It is worth memorizing the shortcuts for the two
commands: Undo (Ctrl + Z) and Redo (Ctrl + Y)

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Select an area of cells

Select cells (Shift + Arrow key)

You can easily select cells by pressing shift and navigating with the
arrow keys through the cells of the spreadsheet

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