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:

Add a comment Read more

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.

Add a comment Read more

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

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.

Add a comment Read more

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

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.

Add a comment Read more

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.

Add a comment 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:

Add a comment Read more

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.

Add a comment Read more

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.

Add a comment Read more

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