Chapter 2. Adding Information to Worksheets
Now that youâve created a basic worksheet, and youâre acquainted with Excel and its spiffy new interface, itâs time to get down and dirty adding data. Whether you want to plan your household budget, build a sales invoice, or graph your soaring (or plunging) net worth, you first need to understand how Excel interprets the information you put in your worksheet.
Depending on what kind of data you type into a cell, Excel classifies it as a date, a number, or a piece of text. In this chapter, youâll learn how Excel makes up its mind, and how you can make sure it makes the right decision. Youâll also learn how to use Excelâs best timesavers, including the indispensable Undo feature.
Adding Different Types of Data
One of Excelâs most important features is its ability to distinguish between different types of information. A typical worksheet contains both text and numbers. There isnât a lot you can do in Excel with ordinary text (other than alphabetize a list, perform a simple spell check, and apply some basic formatting). On the other hand, Excel gives you a wide range of options for numeric data. For example, you can string your numbers together into complex calculations and formulas, or you can graph them on a chart. Programs that donât try to separate text and numbersâlike Microsoft Word, for exampleâcanât provide these features.
Most of the time, when you enter information in Excel, you donât explicitly indicate the ...
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