Author: Patricia Lynn
Excel Made Easy - A Beginner's Guide
You CAN learn Excel! In this tutorial, you'll learn about rows, columns, cells, worksheets, and workbooks. We'll tell you everything you need to know to get started using Microsoft Excel.
This tutorial also discusses entering data into cells and how to format the cells to display the data exactly as you wish.
picture of a claculator
If you like video-based introduction, check out Excel 2010 Tutorial for Beginners. We've reviewed this course (over 9 hours of hands-on lessons) and found it very well done.
Now - let's begin learning Microsoft Excel!
The Excel Worksheet and Workbook
An Excel worksheet, or spreadsheet, is a two-dimensional grid with columns and rows. Look at the worksheet below. The column names are letters of the alphabet starting with A, and the rows are numbered chronologically starting with the number one. The cells in the first row are A1, B1, C1, and so on. And the cells in the first column are A1, A2, A3, and so on. These are called cell names or cell references.
We use cell references when creating math formulas or functions. For example, the formula to add the contents of cells B2 and B3 together is: =B2+B3. For more information, see our tutorial Excel Math Basics: A Beginner's Guide.
Structure of a Microsoft Excel Worksheet Name Box: displays
the cell name or
cell reference↓ Formula Bar:
displays contents
of selected cell ↓
Column
Letters→ Image of an Excel worksheet showing a few rows and columns, the name box, and the formula bar
↑ Row Numbers ↑ Selected Cell
The Name Box is located in the area above Column A, and displays the selected cell - the cell you've clicked in and where the cursor is resting. In our worksheet above, the selected cell is C2. Notice that the column letter (C) and the row number (2) change color.
The beginning of the Formula Bar can be seen in the area above Column D on our worksheet. The Formula Bar displays the contents of the selected cell.
A workbook is a collection of worksheets. When the Excel program is opened, a workbook opens with three blank worksheets. The names of the worksheets are displayed on tabs at the bottom of the Excel window. We discuss working with worksheets later in this tutorial.
Moving From Cell to Cell
The arrow keys can be used to move left, right, up, and down from the current cell. Press the Enter key to move to the cell immediately below the current cell, and press the Tab key to move one cell to the right.
Selecting Cells
There are a variety of ways to select cells in an Excel worksheet:
* To select one cell, click in the cell.
* To select one or more rows of cells, click on the row number(s).
* To select one or more columns of cells, click on the column letter(s).
* To select a group of contiguous cells, click in a corner cell and, with the left mouse button depressed, drag the cursor horizontally and/or vertically until all of the cells you want selected are outlined in black.
* To select multiple cells that are not contiguous, press and hold the Ctrl key while clicking in the desired cells.
* To select every cell in the worksheet, click in the upper right corner of the worksheet to the left of "A."
Entering Data into Cells
To enter data into a cell, just click in the cell and begin typing. What you type also displays in the Formula Bar. When entering dates, Excel defaults to the current year if the year portion of the date is not entered.
You may edit cell contents from the Formula bar, or from directly inside the cell. To edit from the Formula Bar, select the cell and click inside the Formula Bar. When done typing, either press the Enter key or click inside another cell. To edit directly inside a cell, either double click inside the cell, or select the cell and press the F2 key.
Propagating Cell Contents
There are multiple ways to propagate or fill data from one cell to adjacent cells. Let's begin with two popular keyboard shortcuts that allow us to fill down, or fill to the right:
* To fill adjacent cells with the contents of the cell above, select the cell with the data and the cells to be filled and press Ctrl + D (the Ctrl key and the D key) to fill down.
* To fill adjacent cells with the contents of the cell to the left, select the cell with the data and cells to be filled and press Ctrl + R (the Ctrl key and the R key) to fill to the right.
To propagate in any direction, use the Fill Handle. Click in a cell with data to be copied, hover the cursor over the cell's lower right corner until the cursor changes to a thin plus sign (+) or a dark square, and drag up, down, left, or right to fill the cells.
If the data to be copied is a date, number, time period, or a custom-made series, the data will be incremented by one instead of just copied when the Fill Handle is used. For example, to display the months of the year in column A, type January in cell A1, drag the Fill Handle down to cell A12, and the months will display, in order, in column A!
Moving and Copying Cells
To move cell contents, right-click in the selected cell and click Cut. To copy cell contents, click Copy. Then right-click in the new location and click Paste. To paste a group of cells, right-click in the cell where the top left cell of the group should be located, and click Paste. Remove the animated border around the original cell by pressing the ESC key, or start typing in a new cell.
Adding and Deleting Rows and Columns
To insert a new row in a spreadsheet, right-click on a row number, and click Insert. Excel always inserts the row ABOVE the row that was clicked on. To delete a row, right-click on the row number, and click Delete.
To insert a new column, right-click on a column letter and click Insert. Excel always inserts the column to the LEFT of the column that was clicked on. To delete a column, right-click on the column letter, and click Delete.
About Cell Formats
Each cell in a worksheet can be formatted with many properties. The six tabs of the "Format Cells" window contain all of the formatting options. Multiple cells can be formatted in one step by first selecting the cells as discussed in Selecting Cells above.
The "Format Cells" window can be accessed in all versions of Excel from the right-click menu. In Excel 2007 and 2010, some formatting options are available on the Home Tab on the Font, Alignment, and Number groups. To see formatting options not displayed, click the little arrow in the lower right corner of the group and the "Format Cells" window displays.
How to Format Cells
Number:
The first tab is Number and contains categories for the type of data that is in the cell. The default category is General, and other popular categories are Number, Currency, Date, Percentage, and Text. Some categories have additional options, such as the number of decimal places, how to display negative numbers, and which currency symbol to display, if any. The categories Fraction, Scientific, Accounting, Special, and Custom are also available.
The default category, General, is very flexible. Dates display as dates, text displays as text, and numbers display as numbers. Don't indiscriminately format large portions of a worksheet with a different category or you may end up reformatting cells and re-entering data. For example, if a date is entered into a cell formatted for currency, the date's serial number will display. If a formula is entered into a cell formatted for a date, the answer will not display. The cell will have to be reformatted and the formula re-entered.
Alignment:
The second tab is Alignment. Use the options on this tab to align text in the cell, indent text, wrap text, and merge cells. Text direction and text orientation in degrees can also be specified.
Font:
The third tab is Font and the usual options are presented. Font, font style, color, size, underline style, and special effects.
Border:
The fourth tab is Border. The Border tab provides a variety of border styles, and any color may be selected for a border. A border style and border color can be set for each side of an individual cell or a group of cells.
Many folks have trouble applying a border style or color because Excel is fussy about the order in which steps are taken. Always select the border style and color first; then select the side or sides of the cell to receive the border by clicking one of the presets or clicking one or more sides of the box. A cell or group of cells can have four borders - each with a different color and style.
Patterns or Fill:
The fifth tab is called Patterns or Fill - depending on the version of Excel. The background of cells can be filled with any imaginable color, a colored pattern, or a custom gradient. These options can make a worksheet more attractive, and techniques like shading every other row with a light gray color or simple pattern can make worksheet data easier to read.
Protection:
The last tab is Protection. This feature allows the user to define certain cells as Locked and/or Hidden. A Locked cell cannot be formatted, nor can its contents be changed or deleted. This is a great feature for preventing formulas and functions from being accidently changed or erased. When a Hidden cell is selected, its contents do not display in the Formula Bar, but they can still be deleted.
All cells are locked by default. To unlock all but a few cells, click in the top-left cell of the worksheet to select all cells, right-click and select "Format Cells," and remove the checkmark in the Lock box. Then lock individual cells that need protection.
IMPORTANT: In order for the Lock or Hidden option to go into effect, the worksheet or workbook must be Protected.
Protecting a Worksheet or Workbook
To protect a worksheet or workbook in Excel 2007, click the Review tab, click Protect Worksheet or Protect Workbook, and click OK (entering a password first, if desired). When a worksheet or workbook is already protected, the icons in the Review tab are Unprotect Worksheet and Unprotect Workbook.
In earlier versions of Excel, click Tools > Protection, click Protect Sheet or Protect Workbook, and click OK (entering a password first, if desired). When a worksheet or workbook is already protected, the menu items read Unprotect Sheet and Unprotect Workbook.
Don't enter a password unless absolutely necessary. If you forget the password, you won't be able to unprotect the worksheet, so you won't be able to change, delete, or format any of the Locked cells!
Working with Worksheets
Viewing, Renaming, Inserting, and Deleting Worksheets
Worksheet tabs are found in the bottom left area of the workbook. To view a worksheet, click on its tab. If the workbook window is not wide enough to display all of the tabs, use the arrows to the left of the tabs to navigate left or right, or right-click on any of the arrows and select the tab from the list that displays.
To rename a worksheet, right-click on the worksheet tab, select Rename from the context menu, and type a new name. Or, double-click on the worksheet tab and type a new name.
To insert a worksheet, right-click on a worksheet tab and select Insert from the menu. Excel always inserts the worksheet to the left of the current worksheet.
To delete a worksheet, right-click on the worksheet tab and select Delete from the context menu.
Moving Worksheets
Sometimes we want our worksheets to be arranged in a different order. To move a worksheet in the same workbook, right-click on the tab of the source worksheet and click "Move or Copy." In the Move or Copy window, click the name of the worksheet that you want the sheet to be inserted before, and click OK.
To move a worksheet to a new workbook, right-click on the tab of the source worksheet and click "Move or Copy." In the Move or Copy window, click the drop-down arrow under “To Book:” and click (new book). Excel removes the worksheet from the existing workbook and opens a new workbook containing the moved worksheet.
To move a worksheet to another existing workbook, we recommend copying the worksheet as instructed below, and then deleting the original worksheet when the worksheet has been successfully pasted. Using cut and paste is an option, but if something happens to the PC before pasting occurs, a valuable worksheet could be lost.
Copying Worksheets
Rather than start from scratch, it is often easier to copy, and then modify, an existing worksheet. To copy a worksheet in the same workbook, right-click on the tab of the source worksheet and click "Move or Copy." In the Move or Copy window, check the “create a copy” box, click the name of the worksheet that you want the sheet to be inserted before, and click OK.
To copy a worksheet into a new workbook, right-click on the tab of the source worksheet and click "Move or Copy." In the Move or Copy window, click the drop-down arrow under “To Book:” and click (new book). Excel opens a new workbook containing the copied worksheet.
To copy a worksheet from one workbook to another existing workbook, right-click the top left corner cell to select all cells and click Copy. Open the other Excel workbook, find an empty worksheet, right-click the top left corner cell to select all cells, and click Paste. Return to the first worksheet and press ESC to remove the animated border.
In Closing...
Excel error messages begin with a pound sign (#). The most common error, #####, indicates that the cell is too narrow to display all of the data. Make the column wider by placing the cursor on the right side of the column heading and dragging the column edge to the right.
We hope this article has been helpful. If you want to learn more about Excel, and you're interested in a video-based course, check out Excel 2010 Tutorial for Beginners, with over 9 hours of hands-on lessons. We've reviewed it and it's a good deal. Cheers!
