Click here for Excel Basics - Day 1
Instructor: Robin Wood - robin 'at' wctrain dot net
Usually when you are working in an application you click the left mouse button to click and object to select or activate it. The right mouse button is used to display "context sensitive menus". Right click text and a menu will appear with text editing options. Right click the toolbars and a menu will appear with options for turning on and off the toolbars. The right click is very handy when you can remember where a menu option or feature is; try to right click on the option and usually the needed feature will be available.
There are times when you may want to select cells that are not next to each other. You can select cells that are non-contiguous by selecting the first range of cells using your mouse pointer, then hold down the CTRL key on the keyboard and select the second set of cells. You can then apply formatting to the cells. You can also select multiple rows or columns using this method; click the first row or column heading, hold down the control key and select the second and succeeding rows or columns.
The Formatting toolbar is used to apply basic formatting to a worksheet. If you want to apply more advanced formatting to cells, select the cells you want to format and click Format > Cells from the menu or right click anywhere on the worksheet and select Format Cells.
The Number tab is used to set numeric formatting. First select the Category style, then select the number of Decimal places, the symbol, and the display method for the negative numbers. Where you are satisfied with the appearance, click Ok.
The Number tab is also used to format dates. 
On the Alignment tab you can rotate the text in a cell in the Orientation box (pretty nifty!)
In the Alignment tab the Horizontal and Vertical alignment of a cell can be set and indentation can be applied.
Text wrapping can also be applied. Text wrapping allows you to type more than one line of text in a cell. This is useful for headings. Text wrapping can also be turned on when you are typing data into a cell. Type the first line of text and press Shift+Enter; type the second line of text and press enter.
The Font tab is used to apply font formatting. Change the font face, size, and color. Apply effects like Underline, Strikethrough, Superscript, and Subscript.
The Border tab is where you can apply borders to a single cell or a group of cells.
The Patterns tab allows you to apply background colors and patterns to selected cells. Select the desired color and pattern and click Ok.
Select the cell(s) you want to copy. Copying text makes a duplicate of the original, if you want to move text use Cut. Do one of the following:
Click the Copy icon 
Press CTRL+C
Click Edit > Copy
Right click the text and select Copy from the menu
Using one of the above actions copies text, graphics, or other objects to the clipboard. After copying, move your cursor to the location where you want to copy the text to and do one of the following:
Press the Paste icon 
Press CTRL+V
Click Edit > Paste
Right click the place where you want to copy the text to and select Paste from the menu
Select the text you want to move. Do one of the following:
Click the Cut icon 
Press CTRL+X
Click Edit > Cut
Right click the cell(s) and select Cut from the menu
Using one of the above actions moves text, graphics, or other objects to the clipboard. After cutting, move your cursor to the cell where you want to move the text to and do one of the following:
Press the Paste icon
Press CTRL+V
Click Edit > Paste
Right click the place where you want to copy the text to and select Paste from the menu
The Clipboard can also be used to copy or move text. To access the Clipboard click View > Toolbars > Clipboard. When you copy or cut text or other objects they are stored in the Clipboard (the last 12 objects). Hover the mouse over the clipboard object to display the contents of the clipboard item (see image to the right). Move your cursor to the location where you want the text or object inserted and click the clipboard object you want to insert.
The Format Painter 
is one of my favorite tools. It is used to copy formatting from one block of text to another. Highlight the text that contains the formatting that you want to copy and click the Format Painter icon . The mouse pointer will change to a small paint brush 
. Select the text that you want to apply the formatting to and the format is copied to the text. If you want to apply the formatting to several instances of text double click the Format Painter and the formatting will be applied to whatever text you select until you turn the tool off by clicking once on it when you're done.
All formulas must begin with the equal (=) symbol. A basic formula takes on the following format:
=cell address [operator] cell address or
=b3*b4
| If you want to | Use this operator |
| Add | + |
| Subtract | - |
| Multiply | * |
| Divide | / |
To enter a formula, press the = key. Click the first cell you want to include in the formula type the mathematical operator and click the second cell you want to include in the formula.
Press the Enter key on your keyboard to complete the formula.
Excel follows a basic order of operations when more than one operator is used in a formula. Here is the order:
| - | negation |
| % | percentages |
| ^ | exponentiations |
| * | multiplications |
| / | divisions |
| + | additions |
| - | subtractions |
| () | parentheses overrides the order of operations. |
Excel will apply formatting to cells only when a certain criteria is met. For example, you can apply an orange background color to cells that are over $500.
Select the cells that you want to apply conditional formatting to. Select Format > Conditional Formatting.
First set the Condition. Frequently, you will want to find out if a cell value is equal to, less than, greater than some number. Once you have set the Condition, then click the Format button and set the formatting you want the cell to display if it meets the condition.
While I prefer the quick method of adjusting column widths and row heights that we discussed in the day 1 class, the widths and heights can also be adjusted via the menus for precise measurements. Click Format Columns (or Rows) and select width. In the width box type the column width value.
You can resize the width of multiple columns or rows at the same time by dragging across the column or row headings and then selecting Format > Column (Row) > Width.
From the Column/Row menu you can also select AutoFit or Hide/Unhide.
The easiest way to format an existing chart is to right click on the part of the chart that you want to format. A context sensitive menu will appear that's specific to the object to right clicked on.
For example, if you right click on one of the titles that appear at the bottom of the chart a menu will appear that with a Format Axis option. From this menu item the font size, rotation, color, and number format of the text can be changed. Right click a bar or a slice of a pie chart and Format Data Series will appear. The data series colors, patterns, and shapes can be changed. Formatting options will be different for each object on the chart.
In addition to the right click method, the chart toolbar will allow you to select chart areas for formatting. 
First select the chart object you want to format and click the chart format icon 
. From the chart toolbar you can also change the chart type by clicking the small down arrow next to the chart type button 
.
To rename a worksheet, double click the sheet tab 
type a new sheet name and press enter.
To move a worksheet, hold down the left mouse button on the sheet tab and drag it to the left or right. 
To insert a worksheet, right click a sheet tab and select Insert. Select Worksheet and click Ok.
From this menu you can also delete, rename, move, copy, or select all sheets.
You should always Preview your worksheet before you send it to print. Click the Print Preview icon 
to display a preview of your document. Print Preview will display the number of pages in your document in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. 
If your document is displaying on several pages there are several options you can use to get it to fit on one page. From the menu at the top of the Print Preview screen click Setup.
The Page Setup menu will appear.
On the Page tab you can set the document to print landscape and you can scale the document to fit to one page.
On the Margins tab you can adjust the default margins and vertically and horizontally center the document. You can also set the margins by clicking the Margin button in Print Preview. Vertical and horizontal lines will appear; hover the mouse over the lines until a double headed arrow appears. Drag the lines to a new location.
The Header/Footer tab is used to add headers (appear at the top of every page) and footers (appear at the bottom of every page) to the document. You can select a predefined header/footer from the list or you can create custom headers and footers by clicking either of the custom buttons.
You can type the desired text or click one of the available buttons to insert preformatted page numbers, date, time, filename, and worksheet name. When you are done, click Ok.
If you are working with more than one worksheet, you must select all the worksheet tabs before you apply a header/footer or print. To select all sheets, right click any of the sheet tabs and select. To continue to edit a worksheet you must deselect the sheets; right click a sheet tab and select Ungroup sheets.
From Print Preview click Print to bring up the Print dialog box.
If you have more than one sheet in the workbook, it's important to select Entire workbook for the Print what options.