OK – we now know how to highlight cells, but we still don’t have any data in them!

Cells can hold all sorts of data, including text, numbers and calculations.

In order to enter data into a cell, first select it. After you have highlighted the cell you want, you can add data to it either just by starting to type straight away, or by clicking the in to the right hand side of the formula bar and typing there:

To delete any unwanted or incorrect information simply press backspace. If you highlight a cell that already has data in it and start typing, the original data will be wiped. If you want to edit the data that is already in the cell, highlight that cell and press F2.

After you are satisfied that you have put what you want to in the cell, press enter to finish or if you prefer use the directional key buttons or mouse to move to another cell or area.

All of this is covered in our Beginners Excel Course in Brighton, Sussex.

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The cells in a spreadsheet are quite small, so typing in a lot of information can lead to it overlapping and covering up other cells. One method for confining lots of information to just one cell block is text wrapping.

Try this out by typing a lot of text in to a cell so that is overlaps the edge. Next, select the cell by clicking on it, and then click on the Wrap text button in the ribbon above. After you have done this the text should be confined to the vertical cell borders, as seen below:

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Two of the main reasons to use Microsoft Excel are its ability to format data and to calculate mathematical equations. We’ll start off by looking at some basic examples of this – but once you’ve got to grips Excel, you can use it to perform some quite powerful calculations that will save you a lot of time working out sums manually! All of this is covered in our Beginners Excel Training Course in Brighton, Sussex.

Before we start, we first need to check that your Enter key is set to move one cell down when you press it. If this is not the case then you need to change your settings by clicking on the excel “options” button at the bottom of the Microsoft Office Button’s menu list:

Each cell in a spreadsheet can contain text, a number or a formula. A cell that contains a formula can be used to display the results of a calculation based on the numbers in other cells.

The benefit of this is that once you have entered a formula in to a cell, the results of the calculation will update automatically when you change the numbers in the cells the formula refers to. You don’t have to do a lot of manual calculations when your figures change.

This can sound complicated and daunting, so first lets take a look at the the basic calculations that are available:

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The basic mathematical formulae that you will need in a spreadsheet are as follows:

Important: When entering any formula in to a cell, you must always start with a “=” sign

For example, lets say that in cell A4 you wanted to show the result of the numbers in cells
A1 and A2 added together. You would need select cell A4, type in “=A1+A2″ and press enter.

The result will then display as follows:

Note: Cell A4 now displays the result of the calculation.

If you look in the formula bar when you have the cell selected,  it will display the formula.

Try changing the numbers in cells A1 and A2, and watch the result of the calculation on A4 change automatically.

This same method is used with each of the other four basic calculations.

Let’s change the formula in A4 to a multiplication instead of an addition. Select the cell, and click your cursor in to the formula bar above the spreadsheet where it currently says “A1+A2″. Replace this with “A1*A2″
and press enter. The result of the sum is now a multiplication.

The equation you choose can be as complicated as you want and can just contain numbers as well as call names: = 15+15. In the case of a more complicated equation excel will work out division and multiplication before and then move on to adding and subtracting. To prevent this you will need to tell it to do the adding or subtracting first. The way you do this is to put the bit you want done first in brackets, i.e. (1+2)/3< ><–>

All of this is covered in our Beginners Excel Course in Brighton, Sussex. 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.

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OK – so we can add the numbers in two cells together which is a good start.

Let’s say we want to add together a whole row of numbers. One way to do it would be to write a long formula – something like “=A1+A2+A3+A4+A5″. But that’s a right pain!

That’s why Excel has the “Auto Sum” button – it looks like this:

Try it out by entering a list of numbers that you want to add together in different cells one below the other – say A1-A4. Now highlight the cell below your list (in this case A5) press the Auto Sum button and hit enter. Excel will automatically add up the list of  numbers by adding a formula to the cell. If you look in the formula bar, you’ll now see “=SUM(A1:A4)”.

Auto Sum also lets you add together numbers from a wider area. To do this, highlight the cell you want the result to appear in and press Auto Sum again. Now, instead of hitting return straight away, click your mouse cursor on another cell and drag to select a range of cells. Once you’ve selected the area you want to add up, hit return and Excel will write the formula for you.

Click image to view full size

Tip: A quick way to write any equation rather than having to type in every cell, is to select the cells you want with the mouse.

To try this out, type “=” into a blank cell, which from now on will hold your equation, and then click on a cell with a number in it. When you have highlighted this, press “+”. You will then see that this has been added to your formula bar. Now click on another cell with the mouse and see that Excel adds the cell reference to the formula. You can keep adding “+” and more cells as much as you like. When you’re done, simply hit enter to finish the formula.

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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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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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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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.

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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 6th, 2009 | No Comments »