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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Posted by Alistair Wylie in Excel Training on May 1st, 2009 | No Comments »

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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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 »