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Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Fundamentals

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CHAPTER TASK: CREATE A SAMPLE INCOME AND EXPENSE REPORT

Prerequisites

• A computer with Windows 2000 or XP and Excel 2003 installed.
• An understanding of basic computer functions (how to use the mouse and keyboard).

Welcome to your first lesson of Microsoft Excel 2003. Excel is a powerful spreadsheet software program that allows you to make quick and accurate numerical calculations. Entering data onto a spreadsheet (or worksheet, as they are called in Excel) is quick and easy. Once data has been entered in a worksheet, Excel can instantly perform any type of calculation on it. Excel can also make your information look sharp and professional. The uses for Excel are limitless: businesses use Excel for creating financial reports, scientists use Excel for statistical analysis, and families use Excel to help manage their investment portfolios. Microsoft Excel is by far the most widely used and, according to most reviews, the most powerful and user-friendly spreadsheet program available. You've made a great choice by deciding to learn Microsoft Excel 2003.

This chapter will introduce you to the Excel "basics"—what you need to know to create, print, and save a worksheet. If you've seen the Microsoft Excel program screen before, you know that it is filled with cryptic-looking buttons, menus, and icons. By the time you have finished this chapter, you will know what most of those buttons, menus, and icons are used for.

Figure 1-1: The Windows Desktop

Figure 1-2: Programs located under the Windows Start button.

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Starting Excel

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Figure 1-1: The Windows Desktop

Figure 1-2: Programs located under the Windows Start button.

Figure 1-3: The Microsoft Excel program screen.

Before starting Microsoft Excel 2003, you have to make sure your computer is on—if it's not, turn it on! Start Excel 2003 the same as you would start any other Windows program on your computer—with the Start button. Because every computer is set up differently (some people like to rearrange and reorder their program menu), the procedure for starting Excel on your computer may be slightly different from the one listed here.

1. Make sure your computer is on and the Windows desktop is open.
   Your computer screen should look similar to the one shown in Figure 1-1.
2. Use your mouse to point to and click the Start Button, located at the bottom-left corner of the screen.
   The Windows Start menu pops up.
3. Use the mouse to move the pointer over the word All Programs.
   A menu similar to the one shown in Figure 1-2 pops out to the right of Programs. The programs and menus listed will depend on the programs installed on your computer, so your menu will probably look somewhat different from the illustration.
4. Select Microsoft Office from the menu.
   Almost there.

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What's New in Excel 2003?

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Figure 1-4: Improved lists let you work with the related data outside of the list.

If you're upgrading from Excel 2000 or 2002 to Excel 2003 you're in luck—in most respects, Excel 2003 looks and works almost the same as earlier versions of Excel. Table 1-1 lists what's new in Excel 2003.

Table 1-1: What's New in 2003

New Feature	Description
XML Support	Excel 2003 offers industry-standard XML support, which allows you to take structured data and place it in a file that follows standard guidelines and can be read by multiple applications.
Smart Documents	Smart Documents help you reuse existing information and make it easier to share content by responding to your actions within a workbook. They can interact with numerous databases and other Microsoft Office programs.
Person Names Smart Tag Menu	The Person Names Smart Tag menu allows you to rapidly find contact information and complete scheduling tasks. This option is available any time a person's name appears.
Enhanced List Functionality	Enhancements in list functionality include: the ability to create a list from existing information or from an empty range; the capacity to manipulate list data without affecting the non-list data; new user interface and corresponding set of functionality; AutoFilter is enabled by default; dark blue list borders outline the cells designated as a list; insert rows; total rows; and resize handles.

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Understanding the Excel Program Screen

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Figure 1-5: Elements of the Excel program screen.

You might find the Excel 2003 program screen a bit confusing and overwhelming the first time you see it. What are all those buttons, icons, menus, and arrows for? This lesson will help you become familiar with the Excel program screen. There are no step-by-step instructions in this lesson. All you have to do is look at Figure 1-5 then refer to Table 1-2 to see what everything you're looking at means. And, most of all, relax! This lesson is only meant to help you get acquainted with the Excel screen; you don't have to memorize anything.

Table 1-2: The Excel Program Screen

Element	Description
Title bar	Displays the name of the program you are currently using (in this case, Microsoft Excel) and the name of the workbook on which you are working. The title bar appears at the top of all Windows programs.
Menu Bar	Displays a list of menus you use to give commands to Excel. Clicking a menu name displays a list of commands. For example, clicking the Format menu name displays different formatting commands.
Standard toolbar	Toolbars are shortcuts containing buttons for the most commonly used commands (instead of having to wade through several menus). The Standard toolbar contains buttons for the Excel commands you use the most, such as saving, opening, and printing workbooks.

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Using Menus

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Figure 1-6: The File menu

Figure 1-7: The Customize dialog box

This lesson explains one way to give commands to Excel—by using the menus. Menus for all Windows programs can be found at the top of a window, just beneath the program's title bar. In Figure 1-6, notice the words File, Edit, View, Insert, Tools, and Data. The next steps will show you why they're there.

1. Click the word File on the menu bar.
   A menu drops down from the word File, as shown in Figure 1-6. The File menu contains a list of file-related commands such as New, which creates a new file; Open, which opens or loads a saved file; Save, which saves the currently opened file; and Close, which closes the currently opened file. Move on to the next step to try selecting a command from the File menu.
2. Click the word Close in the File menu.
   The workbook window disappears—you have just closed the current workbook. Notice that each of the words in the menu has an underlined letter somewhere in it. For example, the "F" in the File menu is underlined. Holding down the Alt key and pressing the underlined letter in a menu does the same thing as clicking it. So, pressing the Alt key and then the F key would open the File menu. Move on to the next step and try it for yourself.
   

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Using Toolbars and Creating a New Workbook

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Figure 1-8: The Standard and Formatting toolbars squished together on the same bar.

Figure 1-9: The Standard and Formatting toolbars stacked as separate toolbars.

Figure 1-10: The Customize dialog box.

In this lesson, we move on to another common way of giving commands to Excel—using toolbars. Toolbars are shortcuts—they contain buttons for the most commonly used commands. Instead of wading through several menus to access a command, you can click a single button on a toolbar. Two toolbars appear when you start Excel by default:

• Standard toolbar: Located either to the left or above the Formatting toolbar, the Standard toolbar contains buttons for the commands you'll use most frequently in Excel, such as Save and Print.
• Formatting toolbar: Located either to the right of or below the Standard toolbar, the Formatting toolbar and contains buttons for quickly formatting fonts and paragraphs.

1. Position the mouse pointer over the New button on the Standard toolbar (but don't click the mouse yet!).
   A Screen Tip appears over the button briefly identifying what the button is, in this case "New". If you don't know what a button on a toolbar does, simply move the pointer over it, wait a second, and a ScreenTip will appear over the button, telling you what it does.

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Filling Out Dialog Boxes

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Figure 1-11: The Format Cells dialog box

Figure 1-12: Using a scroll bar.

Some commands are more complicated than others. Saving a file is a simple process—just select File → Save from the menu or click the Save button on the Standard toolbar. Other commands are more complex. For example, suppose you want to change the top margin of the current workbook to a half-inch. Whenever you want to do something relatively complicated, you must fill out a dialog box. Filling out a dialog box is usually quite easy—if you've worked at all with Windows, you've undoubtedly filled out hundreds of dialog boxes. Dialog boxes usually contain several types of controls, including:

• Text boxes
• List boxes
• Check boxes
• Combo boxes (also called drop-down lists)

It's important that you know the names of these controls, because this book will refer to them in just about every lesson. This lesson gives you a tour of a dialog box and explains each of these controls, so you will know what they are and how to use them.

1. Click the word Format from the menu bar.
   The Format menu appears. Notice that the items listed in the Format menu are followed by ellipses (...). The ellipses indicate that there is a dialog box behind the menu.
2. Select Cells from the Format menu.
   The Format Cells dialog box appears. The Format Cells dialog box is actually one of the most complex dialog boxes in Microsoft Excel, and it contains several different components you can fill out.

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Keystroke and Right Mouse Button Shortcuts

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Figure 1-13: Hold down the Ctrl key and press another key to execute a keystroke shortcut.

Figure 1-14: Opening a shortcut menu for toolbars.

You are probably starting to realize that there are several methods to do the same thing in Excel. For example, to save a file, you can use the menu (select File → Save) or the toolbar (click the Save button). This lesson introduces you to two more methods of executing commands: right mouse button shortcut menus and keystroke shortcuts.

You know that the left mouse button is the primary mouse button, used for clicking and double-clicking, and it's the mouse button you will use over 95% of the time when you work with Excel. So what's the right mouse button for? Whenever you right-click something, it brings up a shortcut menu that lists everything you can do to the object. Whenever you're unsure or curious about what you can do with an object, click it with the right mouse button. A shortcut menu will appear with a list of commands related to the object or area you right-clicked.

Right mouse button shortcut menus are a great way to give commands to Excel because you don't have to wade through several levels of unfamiliar menus when you want to do something.

1. Click the right mouse button while the cursor is anywhere inside the workbook window.
   A shortcut menu appears where you clicked the mouse. Notice one of the items listed on the shortcut menu is Format Cells. This is the same Format Cells command you can select from the menu (clicking Format

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Opening a Workbook

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Figure 1-15: The Open dialog box

Figure 1-16: The Lesson 1 workbook appears in the Excel program.

When you work with Excel, you will sometimes need to create a new workbook from scratch (something you hopefully learned how to do when we talked about toolbars in a previous lesson) but more often, you'll want to work on an existing workbook that you or someone else has previously saved. This lesson explains how to open or retrieve a saved workbook.

1. Click the Open button on the Standard toolbar.
   The Open dialog box appears.
2. Navigate to and open your practice folder or floppy disk.
   Your computer stores information in files and folders, just like you store information in a filing cabinet. To open a file, you must first find and open the folder where it's saved. Normally new files are saved in a folder named "My Documents" but sometimes you will want to save or open files in another folder.
   The Open and Save dialog boxes both have their own toolbars that make it easy to browse through your computer's drives and folders. Two controls on this toolbar are particularly helpful:
   

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Saving a Workbook

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Figure 1-17: The Save As dialog box

After you've created a worksheet, you need to save it if you intend on using it ever again. Saving a worksheet stores it in a file on your computer's hard disk—similar to putting a file away in a filing cabinet so you can later retrieve it. Once you have saved a worksheet the first time, it's a good idea to save it again from time to time as you work on it. You don't want to lose all your work if the power suddenly goes out, or if your computer crashes! In this lesson, you will learn how to save an existing workbook with a different name without changing the original workbook. It's often easier and more efficient to create a workbook by modifying one that already exists, instead of having to retype a lot of information.

You want to use the information in the Lesson 1A workbook that we opened in the previous lesson to create a new workbook. Since you don't want to modify the original workbook, save it as a new workbook named Income and Expenses.

1. Select File → Save As from the menu.
   The Save As dialog box appears (see Figure 1-17). Here is where you can save the workbook with a new, different name. If you only want to save any changes you've made to a workbook—instead of saving them in a new file—click the Save button on the Standard toolbar, or select File → Save from the menu, or press Ctrl + S.
   First you have to tell Excel where to save your workbook.
2. If necessary, navigate to and open your practice folder or floppy disk.
   Next you need to specify a new name that you want to save the document under.
3. .
   The Lesson 1A workbook is saved with the new name, Income and Expenses. Now you can work on our new workbook, Income and Expenses, without changing the original workbook, Lesson 1A.

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Moving the Cell Pointer

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Figure 1-18: Cells are referenced as A1, A2, B1, B2, and so on, with the letter representing a column and the number representing a row.

Figure 1-19: The cell reference for the active cell in this example would be B2.

Figure 1-20: Use the keyboard or the mouse to move the cell pointer.

Before you start entering data into a worksheet, you need to learn one very important task: how to move around in a worksheet. This lesson will teach you how to do just that. You must first make a cell active before you can enter information in it. You can make a cell active using:

• The Mouse: You can click any cell with the white cross pointer ( ).
• The Keyboard: You can move the cell pointer using the keyboard's arrow keys.

Worksheets can be confusing places for many people. To help you know where you are in a worksheet, Excel displays row headings, identified by numbers on the left side of the worksheet, and column headings, identified with letters on the top of the worksheet (see Figure 1-18). Each cell in a worksheet is given its own unique cell address made from its column letter and row number, such as cell A1, A2, B1, B2, etc. You can immediately find the address of a cell by looking at the name box, which shows the current cell address.

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Navigating a Worksheet

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Figure 1-21: Worksheets are actually much larger than what you can see on the screen at one time.

The previous lesson introduced you to the basics of getting around in an Excel worksheet. As workbooks get larger, it gets more difficult to find your way around them. In large worksheets, the simple navigation commands you learned in the previous lesson may take you longer to get to a destination than you would like. This lesson covers the more advanced methods of getting around in Excel.

1. Click cell C15 .
   You can quickly move up to the first occupied cell in the table by pressing End and then the ↑.
2. Press the end Ctrl key, then press the ↑ key.
   The cell pointer moves to the first cell that contains information—C10. Try another shortcut navigation keystroke: the Home key, which moves to column A of the current row.
3. Press Home .
   Viola! You're in the A column in the current row.

Figure 1-16 displays all the more advanced navigational keystrokes you can use to quickly get around a worksheet.

When you refer to the shortcuts in the following table, remember the plus (+) sign between two keys (Ctrl + Home) means you press both keys at the same time. A comma (,) between two keys (End, →) means you must first press and release one key, then press and release the other key.

Table 1-6: Keyboard Shortcuts for Moving Around in a Worksheet

Press

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Entering Labels in a Worksheet

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Figure 1-22: Entering text labels in a worksheet.

Now that you are an expert on getting around in Excel, you're ready to start entering data. There are two basic types of information you can enter in a cell:

• Labels: Any type of text or information not used in any calculations.
• Values: Any type of numerical data, such as numbers, percentages, fractions, currencies, dates, or times, usually used in formulas or calculations.

This lesson focuses on labels. Labels are used for worksheet headings and make your worksheets easy to read and understand. Labels usually contain text, but can also consist of numerical information not used in any calculations, such as serial numbers and dates. Excel treats information beginning with a letter as a label and automatically left-aligns it inside the cell.

1. If necessary, open the workbook named Lesson 1B and save it as Income and Expenses .
   Click cell A1 to make it the active cell.
   This is where you want to add a title for your worksheet. Don't worry if the cell already contains text—anything you type will replace the old cell contents.
   
2. Type Income and Expenses .
   If you make a mistake while you're typing a cell entry, you can press the Backspace key to delete any characters, one at a time.

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Entering Values in a Worksheet and Selecting a Cell Range

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Figure 1-23: Entering values in a worksheet and selecting a range.

In the previous lesson, you learned how to enter labels in a worksheet. In this lesson, you will be working with the other basic type of worksheet information: values. Values are the numbers, dates, and other numerical information in a worksheet that are usually used in calculations. A value can be any type of numerical data: numbers, percentages, fractions, currencies, dates, and times. Excel treats information that contains numbers, dates, or times, and certain numerical punctuation as a value and automatically right-aligns it in the cell. Values don't have to contain only numbers. You can also use numerical punctuation including: the period (.) for a decimal point, the hyphen (-) for negative values, the dollar sign ($) for currencies, the percent sign (%) for percentages, and the comma (,) for separating numbers like 1,000.

Entering values in a worksheet is no different from entering labels: you simply type the value and confirm the entry by clicking the Enter button or pressing Enter, Tab, or any of the arrow keys. One more important thing to know about entering values: You can use the numeric keypad on your keyboard to key in values, which for most people is a very fast method to enter data once you're familiar with it.

1. Click cell E7 to make it the active cell, type 2500 , and press Enter to complete the entry and move the cell pointer to cell E8.
2. Type 400 , press Enter, type 7000 , press Enter, type 3000 , and press Enter .
   Up until now, you have only worked with a single cell. In order to be proficient at Excel you need to know how to select and work with multiple cells.

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Calculating Value Totals with AutoSum

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Figure 1-24: Use the AutoSum function to find the column totals.

This lesson introduces what spreadsheet programs are really all about: formulas. A formula performs calculations, such as adding, subtracting, and multiplying. Formulas are actually a type of value, like the numerical values you worked with in the previous lesson. Unlike the values in the previous lesson that contained only numbers, formulas contain information to perform a numerical calculation, such as adding, subtracting, multiplying, or even finding an average. A cell with the formula =5+3 will display the result of the calculation: 8.

All formulas in Excel must begin with an equal sign (=).

All formulas must start with an equal sign (=). The equal sign tells Excel you want to perform a calculation. Once you have entered an equal sign, you must specify two more types of information: the values you want to calculate and the arithmetic operator(s) or function name(s) you want to use to calculate the values. Formulas can contain explicit values, such as the numbers 5 or 8, but more often will reference the values contained in other cells. For example, the formula =A5+A6 would add together whatever values were in the cells A5 and A6. You're already familiar with some of the arithmetic operators used in Excel formulas: they include math symbols, such as the plus sign (+), to perform addition between values, and the minus sign (-), to perform subtraction. Functions are used in formulas to perform calculations that are more complicated. For example, the SUM function adds together a range of cells, and the PMT function calculates the loan payments based on an interest rate, the length of the loan, and the principal amount of the loan. In this lesson, you will learn how to use one of the most commonly used functions in Excel, the SUM function, which finds the total of a block of cells.

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Entering Formulas

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Figure 1-25: Entering a Formula in Excel to find the Net Income.

The previous lesson introduced you to formulas and how you can use the AutoSum button to total a cell range. This lesson takes a closer look at formulas, and instead of using the AutoSum function, you'll get a chance to enter a formula yourself.

Before you start the exercise, let's review. A formula is a value that performs calculations, such as adding, subtracting, and multiplying. Formulas start with the equal sign (=), which tells Excel you want to perform a calculation. After the equal sign, you must specify two more types of information: the values you want to calculate and the arithmetic operator(s) or function name(s) you want to use to calculate the values. Formulas can contain explicit values, such as the numbers 4 or 5, but more often will reference the values contained in other cells. For example, the formula =A3+A4 would add together whatever values were in the cells A3 and A4. Look at Table 1-7 to see a variety of formulas that contain different operators, references, and values.

1. If necessary, open the workbook named Lesson 1C and save it as Income and Expenses .
   Click cell A13, type Net Income , and press Tab .
   This row will contain the net income, which you can find by subtracting the total expense values from the sales value.
2. Type = (the equal sign) in cell B13 .
   Typing an equal sign at the beginning of a cell entry tells Excel you want to enter a formula rather than a value or label.

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Using AutoFill

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Figure 1-26: Use Auto Fill to enter a series of incremental dates.

Figure 1-27: The Auto Fill Options button drop-down list.

AutoFill is the best time saving feature for data entry in Excel. AutoFill automatically enters a series of values in any cells you select. For example, imagine you're entering all 12 months as labels in a worksheet. With AutoFill you have to enter a couple of months only and let AutoFill enter the rest for you! Excel can't read your mind (Microsoft's still a few versions away from that feature), so the first cell or cells you select must contain the values and increment you want AutoFill to use when it automatically enters values. AutoFill makes a lot more sense when you see it in action, so let's start this lesson...

1. Click cell B3, type January , and then click the Enter button on the Formula bar.
   Here's how to use the AutoFill feature:
2. With the cell pointer still in cell B3, position the mouse pointer over the fill handle—the tiny box in the cell's lower-right corner—until the pointer changes to a .
   
3. Click and hold the fill handle and drag the mouse pointer to the right until the cell range is extended to include cell G3, then release the mouse button

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Previewing and Printing a Worksheet

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Figure 1-28: The Print Preview screen.

Figure 1-29: The Print dialog box

Once you have created a worksheet, you can create a printed copy of it (if your computer is connected to a printer.) Sometimes, it is a good idea to preview a document on your screen to see if something needs to be changed before sending it to the printer. You can preview a document using Excel's Print Preview feature.

1. Click the Print Preview button on the Standard toolbar .
   The worksheet is previewed on the screen, as shown in Figure 1-28. You can enlarge the spreadsheet by clicking the area of the worksheet you want to magnify with the pointer.
2. Move the pointer over an area of the spreadsheet that contains data and click the mouse button.
   Excel magnifies the selected area. Once you have seen an enlarged area, you can zoom back out to see the overall page again.
3. Move the pointer over any area of the spreadsheet and click the mouse button.
   Excel returns to the previous preview size. Your worksheet looks okay so you can go ahead and print it from the Print Preview window.

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Getting Help

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Figure 1-30: Asking a question in the Excel Help task pane.

Figure 1-31: Office Online search results.

Figure 1-32: Offline Help search results.

Figure 1-33: Possible topic answers for your question.

Figure 1-34: Help text for the selected topic.

The F1 key is the help key for all Windows-based programs.

When you don't know how to do something in Windows or a Windows based program, don't panic, just look up your question in the Excel Help files. The Excel Help files can answer your questions, offer tips, and provide help for all of Excel's features. Many Excel users forget to use Help, but this is unfortunate, because the Help files know more about Excel than most Excel reference books do!

You can make the Excel Help files appear by pressing the F1 key. Then all you have to do is ask your question in normal English. This lesson will show you how you can get help by asking the Help files a question in normal English.

1. Press the F1 key.
   The Excel Help task pane appears, as shown in Figure 1-30.
2. Type How do I create a formula? in the "Search for:" text box, as shown in Figure 1-30 .
   You can ask Excel Help questions in normal English, just as if you were asking a person instead of a computer. The program identifies keywords and phrases in your questions like "create," and "formula."

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Changing the Office Assistant and Using the "What's This" Button

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Figure 1-35: You can choose a new Office Assistant.

Figure 1-36: Click the "What's This" button ( ) to view a brief description of all the controls in a dialog box.

Figure 1-37: Click a link to find more information about the controls in the tab.

The Office Assistant is a cute animated character (a paper clip by default) that can answer your questions, offer tips, and provide help for all of Excel's features. Many Excel users don't use the Office Assistant, but it can be a very helpful tool. If you like using the Office Assistant but want a change of pace from Clippit's antics, you can choose one of eight different Office Assistants to guide you through Excel. Of course, if you really hate the Office Assistant, you can always shut it off.

The other topic covered in this lesson is how to use the "What's This" button. During your journey with Excel, you will undoubtedly come across a dialog box or two with a number of confusing controls and options. To help you find out what the various controls and options in a dialog box are for, many dialog boxes contain a "What's This" ( ) button that explains the purpose of each of the dialog box's controls. This lesson will show you how to use the this button, but first, let's start taming the Office Assistant.

1. Select Help → Show the Office Assistant from the menu.
   The Office Assistant appears.
2. Right-click the Office Assistant and select

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Closing a Workbook and Exiting Excel

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Figure 1-38: The Excel program window without any open workbooks.

Figure 1-39: The Program and Workbook close buttons.

Because the tasks covered in this lesson are so simple—closing a workbook and exiting the Excel program—this is one of the briefest lessons in the book. Before you close a workbook or exit Excel, you should always make sure you save any changes you've made to the active workbook.

1. Save the Income and Expenses worksheet by clicking the Save button on the Standard toolbar.
   Your disk drive whirs as it saves the changes you've made to the worksheet. Once the worksheet is saved you can close it.
   
2. Click the workbook close button. (Make sure you click the worksheet close button, not the Excel Program close button.)
   You will probably see two close buttons on your screen—make sure you click the lower close button. The current worksheet closes, but the Excel program does not. The close button located in the far upper-righthand corner of the screen closes the Excel program. You can close a worksheet when you're finished working on it but still want to remain in the Excel program—perhaps to open and work on another worksheet. You've finished both this lesson and this chapter, so now you want to exit or close the Excel program.

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Chapter One Review

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Starting Excel

Click the Windows Start button and select All Programs → Microsoft Office → Microsoft Office Excel 2003.

Understanding the Excel Screen

Be able to identify the main components of the Excel program screen.

Using Menus

To Open a Menu: Click the menu name with the mouse pointer, or press the Alt key and the letter that is underlined in the menu name.

Excel 2003's new personalized menus hide more advanced commands from view. To display a menu's hidden commands, click the downward-pointing arrow ( ) at the bottom of the menu, or open the menu and wait a few seconds.

To Change How Menus Work: Select View → Toolbars → Customize from the menu, check or clear either the Menus Show Recently Used Commands First and/or Show Full Menus After a Short Delay options, then click Close.

Using Toolbars and Creating a New Workbook

To Use Excel's Toolbars: Simply click the toolbar button you want to use. Leave the pointer over the button to display a screen tip of what the button does.

To Stack the Standard and Formatting Toolbars in Two Separate Rows: Click the button on either toolbar and select Show Buttons on Two Rows from the drop-down list.

To Create a New Workbook: Click the New button on the Standard toolbar or select File → New from the menu.

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Chapter 2: Editing a Worksheet

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