Office 2013 Bible: The Comprehensive Tutorial Resource

Chapter 13

Entering and Editing Worksheet Data

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding the types of data you can use

Entering text and values into your worksheets, including using the new Flash Fill feature

Entering dates and times into your worksheets

Modifying and editing information

Using built-in number formats

This chapter describes what you need to know about entering and modifying data in your worksheets. As you see, Excel doesn’t treat all data equally. Therefore, you need to learn about the various types of data that you can use in an Excel worksheet.

Exploring Data Types

An Excel workbook file can hold any number of worksheets, and each worksheet is made up of more than 17 billion cells. A cell can hold any of three basic types of data:

• A numeric value
• Text
• A formula

A worksheet can also hold charts, diagrams, pictures, buttons, and other objects. These objects aren’t contained in cells. Instead, they reside on the worksheet’s draw layer, which is an invisible layer on top of each worksheet.

Understanding numeric values

Numeric values represent a quantity of some type: sales amounts, number of employees, atomic weights, test scores, and so on. Values also can be dates (such as Feb-26-2013) or times (such as 3:24 a.m.).

Note

Excel can display values in many different formats. In the “Applying Number Formatting” section, later in this chapter, you see how different format options can affect the display of numeric values.

Excel’s Numeric Limitations

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