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A number is never just a number! Numbers can represent currency, percentages, dates, times and a range of other things. We may also want to display a certain number of decimal points or other aspects of the way our numbers appear on a spreadsheet.
The “Number” section of the Excel ribbon provides a range of options which you can choose from in the drop down menu bar and even more if you select the “More Number Formats” button at the bottom.
The Number formatting section is located in the middle of the ribbon. Simply highlight the cell or cells containing the numbers you want to format, and then select the correct formatting option from the “Number” drop-down list.
Once you have mastered these skills you will be ready to attend our Advanced Excel Course, and really advanced might want to try VBA for Excel in Brighton, Sussex.
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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
Most spreadheets have some sort of formatting applied to them to make them easier to read and understand. Often you will want to create a border around a group of cells to differentiate them from others, or to put them in to a table.
There are two main ways that you can create a border in Excel.
The first is to draw the border using your mouse. You can draw a border along any cells you wish either horizontally or vertically. To do this: select the “Border options” button from the ribbon; this is the small arrow to the right of the actual “Border” button. This will display a list of options – click on the “Draw Border Line” option in the lower section of the list under the heading “Drawing Borders.”
With this option selected, your mouse cursor will become a pencil. You can now create borders by pressing and holding the left mouse button from where you want to start and dragging it to where you want it to end. You can either create a straight line or drag around a group of cells to draw a box around them.
If you want to draw a grid within your box use the “Draw Border Grid” button beneath the “Draw Border Line” option you used before.
All of this is covered in our Beginners Excel Training Course. Once you have mastered these skills you will be ready to attend our Advanced Excel Training Course, and really advanced might want to try VBA for Excel in Brighton, Sussex.
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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
As well as being able to draw borders by hand, Excel also provides some pre-set options that you can apply to groups of cells. This will be covered in our Microsoft Excel Course in Brighton, Sussex.
To do this, highlight the cells that you wish to affect and then, using the “Border Options” button in the Formatting section of the ribbon, select the border Style you want around them. The options are in the top section of the drop down menu under “Borders” as shown below:
Tip: To save time, simply pressing the Border button will apply the border style you used last which will save you having to choose it from the drop-down menu each time.
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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
Customising Borders
In addition to the standard templates in Excel 2007, you can also customise your borders, adjusting their width, colour and line style. These options are contained in the Formatting section of the ribbon and the Border Options button. All of this is covered in our Beginners Excel Training Course in Brighton, Sussex.
You can also, as in Microsoft Word, change the font and style of the figures and words that you put into your cells, as well as being able to change their size and underline them. Simply highlight the cells you want to format and then select the appropriate border, font and text formatting options you require from the Formatting section.
Changing Cell Size
We’ve already explored how to wrap text to make it fit in to a small cell – however it is also possible to change the width and height of the cell columns and rows themselves.
To alter the row height, move your cursor over the column on the far left of your screen, to the left of A1, where the numbers of the rows are shown. Hover the mouse arrow over the division between two cells, i.e. the top of A2 and the bottom of A1, until it changes to an icon shaped like a cross with directional arrows at either end. Now all you need to do is click and hold the left mouse button and drag the up or down and the height of the cell row will change. The same method is used for changing the width of the cells, by clicking on the divisions between the columns at the top of the spreadsheet.
Once you have mastered these skills you will be ready to attend our Advanced Excel Training Course, and really advanced might want to try VBA for Excel.
Read more
Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
Excel 2007 can create a range of graphs and charts based on data in your spreadsheet, including line, column, area, line, pie, scatter, and bar charts.
Once created, Excel graphs will automatically update to represent any changes in data that you may make.
Before we start you’ll need a set of data so that you can give Excel something to make a graph out of. Copy the data shown below, or use something similar that’s relevant to you.
Using this example, highlight cells A5 to D8, i.e. all the information in the table apart from the total sales and the title. After you have highlighted the cells, click on the insert tab at the top of the ribbon which will give you a range of graph and chart options – select “column chart”. You will now be presented with a list of column charts to choose from, select the “Clustered chart”; this is the first one in the list under the 2D section.
The following basic graph will appear containing the relevant information:
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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
The default size and position of the chart that Excel has created will not neccesarily suit your requirements.
When you select a chart in Excel 2007, handles will appear around the outline. to change the size of the chart, hover your mouse over one of these handles until your pointer turns into a multi-directional arrow. Now press and hold the left mouse button and drag to make the chart bigger or smaller.
You can also move the chart. Simply click and hold while your cursor is over a blank section of the chart and drag the chart to whatever position you prefer.
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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
You may want your chart to appear on its own worksheet within your workbook. To do this open the chart options ribbon by clicking on your graph. Along with the options you have already used earlier, i.e. chart styles; there is an option on the right called the “move chart location” – click on this:
You will now be asked whether you want to move the chart to another worksheet that already exists, or to a brand new chart sheet.
A worksheet is the default sheet format that Excel works from (the sheet that you are currently working from is a standard worksheet). If you choose to move your chart to another worksheet you will have to choose which one you want to send it to, i.e. worksheet 2 or 3.
Tip: These other worksheets are available through tabs at the bottom left hand corner of your current work sheet.
Once you have mastered these skills you will be ready to attend our Advanced Excel Course, and really advanced might want to try VBA for Excel in Brighton, Sussex.
Read more
Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
A Chart sheet is a type of worksheet that is completely devoted to a chart and can’t contain any other information. If you choose this option when you move your chart Excel 2007 will create a new Chart sheet which you can access using the tabs in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
In the Move chart option bar, you can create a chart sheet by clicking on the “New sheet” option. Before you press OK give the chart a sensible name – in this case call it “Vehicle Sales”. When you press OK Excel will take you to the new chart sheet which will look like this:
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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »
