atiqa notes on excel

7/31/2019 Atiqa Notes on Excel

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Microsoft Excel

2010(Module-3)

Contents

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Need for Record KeepingHi Friends! The history of accounting is as old as civilization

Almost everyone needs to maintain records of some kind. Teachers have to manage

schedules, grades and attendance lists. Businesses have to manage payroll, budgets,

projects, and other financial data. Accountants and financial analysts too need to

maintain accounting data. Even a home maker needs to manage the family budget.

Advantages of Tabular DataData arranged in the form of a table with rows and columns is always easier to

understand and analyse.

Some of the advantages are as follows:

You can handle large volumes of data

You have a quick and clean view of the data

Such data can be easily restructured to allow changes and additions

The data always holds its alignment between different programs

The data can be easily reorganized and searching becomes easy

Patterns in data can be easily identified

Missing data can be ascertained

Manual Vs. Electronic Spreadsheets

A physical spreadsheet is a large sheet of paper with columns and rows. It spreads or

shows related data on a sheet of paper to enable you to examine it when making a

decision. Manually managing a small volume of data is fine. But what happens when

the number of records to be maintained increases? The manual workforce increases,

the time taken to maintain and analyse the data increases and of course, the

probability of errors increases! In the old days, if you made one error, you would have

to erase, whiteout or rewrite the spreadsheet from the point of the error or in its

entirety. All copies too would need to be similarly corrected. Not to forget, the amountof space required to store physical paper records! Also, the anxiety that the paper

may rot or get infested with white ants or other pests!

The art of recording and keeping track of transactions has grown more and more

sophisticated over the years. In more recent times, modern technology has changed

how accountants function. Larger companies with greater amounts of data to process

have turned to computers to cope with the volumes. The limitations of physical

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spreadsheets have been overcome. Businesses today require that accounting

information and measures of performance are available at the push of a button. There

are many readily available software packages in the market for this purpose.

Welcome to the world of Electronic Spreadsheets! An electronic spreadsheet, also

called a Worksheet, is a computer program that allows the user to enter numbers andtext into a table with rows and columns. He can then maintain and manipulate those

numbers using the table structure. Electronic spreadsheets allow users to input large

amounts of textual and numerical data into an easily accessible format. A worksheet

replaces the traditional handwritten ledger and allows for complicated numerical

analysis and calculations at a fraction of the time it takes to be done manually. Any

number of copies can be created in a few seconds.

Popular Spreadsheet Applications

VisiCalc and Lotus 1-2-3 were two of the earliest spreadsheet programs. Today

spreadsheets are beneficial in various environments because reports can be easilygenerated and they can be used to tabulate many kinds of information, not just

financial records.

Using electronic spreadsheets, data can be manipulated using dozens of functions

available at a click of a mouse. Rows and columns can be inserted as needed, even in

the middle of an existing spreadsheet. Features like font colors and size, display of

grid lines and automatic rounding allow you to convert a functional worksheet into a

document suitable for presentation. Once the data is input, a spreadsheet program

can translate it into a graph or chart, and as you update the data, the graph or chart

is updated as well. Any modification done to even a single entry automatically

updates the rest of the calculations.Using spreadsheet programs proves to be highlycost effective compared to expensive manual cashbooks and accounting software

packages.

Features of Excel 2010The spreadsheet applications today offer easy-to-use graphical interfaces with pull

down menus and point-and-click capabilities using a mouse. Microsoft Excel and

OpenOffice.org Calc are a few of the popular spreadsheet programs. An online

spreadsheet is a spreadsheet document created through a web-based application that

allows multiple persons to edit and share it. Some very useful online spreadsheets are

Google Docs, EditGrid, SocialCalc, Office Web App etc. Well learn to use Microsoft

Excel 2010 which is a complete Spreadsheet Application. It is a component of the

Microsoft Office system and also sold as a standalone product. Once you learn Excel,

youll find it so easy to organise all types of information. So get ready to change into a

meticulous, organized person who never forgets anything!

Starting Excel 2010

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Microsoft Excel 2010 contains an abundance of helpful tools. You can choose from a

variety of ready-to-use templates to quickly design agendas, planners, inventory lists,

receipts etc. One of the biggest benefits of using Excel is its ability to provide users

with the "what-if" option. Users can determine possible outcomes of different

calculations without committing themselves to actually performing any of them.

You can store sensitive information in a secure way by protecting your spreadsheets

with passwords. Features such as Pivot Tables and Sparklines enable you to view

summarized data in different forms using a few keystrokes. Several users can work

together on the same document utilizing a computer network. Users can also share

their work with others via email or by uploading files to a network.

Excel 2010 User InterfaceThe User Interface is the way in which you interact with your computer. The Microsoft

Office user interface is quite uniform across its components. Before you start using

the rich features of Excel 2010, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the Excel2010 screen elements. So lets get started!

You know that the purpose of using Excel is to save your time and efforts. The Quick

Access toolbar helps you do just that. This small toolbar contains buttons that perform

common actions, such as saving a workbook, undoing your last action, or repeating

your last action.

Excel Screen Elements

Title Bar: We all have names, so do our spreadsheets! The horizontal title bar at the

top of the Excel document window displays the program and document titles.

The Ribbon which is displayed below the title bar is an ocean of all Excel commands.

Please do not fear drowning! This ocean contains gentle waves called Tabs. These

tabs are designed to show you just the commands you would need to complete the

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task at hand without overloading you. Within each tab there are Groups that contain

logically related command buttons. These buttons execute a command or display a

menu of commands.

a) Task-oriented tabs.

b) Groups within each tab that break a task into subtasks.

c) Command buttons in each group that execute a command or display a menu of

commands.

Please note that you may sometimes find the same commands on two tabs. This is

because the ribbon is designed to give you easy access to the commands that you

are likely to need.

When you first launch most of the Microsoft Office applications youll find yourself in

the Ribbons Home tab, which includes the most commonly-needed commands. Extra

"Contextual" tabs appear and disappear as you work. For example, if you click on apicture, an extra Format tab under the heading Picture Tools appears. Youll

see similar contextual tabs if you click on a text box. The contextual tabs contain the

controls you need to format items like tables, pictures and text boxes.

The Ribbon displays the important or key commands required for a task. The Dialog

Box Launcher is a button with a small arrow on it which appears in the lower-right

corner of many groups. Clicking it opens a dialog box that provides many more

options.

This is the area which you will work in. It is divided into rows and columns. Columns

run vertically on a worksheet and are identified by a letter. Rows run horizontally and

are identified by a number. The intersection of a row and a column is called a Cell.

The faint lines that appear around cells are called Gridlines.

Active Cell: The active cell is recognized by its black outline. Data is always entered

into the active cell.

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To enable you to store massive amounts of data in worksheets, Excel 2010 supports

up to 1 million rows and 16 thousand columns per worksheet. Specifically, the Excel

2010 grid is 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns which works out to more than 17

billion cells. The columns are named A, B, C, AA, AB, AZ, BA, BB, XFD and the

rows are numbered from 1 onwards.

Formula Bar: The Formula Bar is located above the worksheet and displays the

contents of the active cell. It can also be used for entering or editing data and

formulas.

Name Box: The Name Box is located to the left of the formula bar and displays the

cell address of the active cell. The cell address is also called the cell reference or the

name of the cell.

Sheet Tabs: The sheet tabs at the bottom of the screen display the names of the

worksheets. Clicking them enables you to switch between worksheets in an Excel file.

Scroll bars appear at the bottom and right edge of the worksheet. Each scroll bar

contains a small box, called a scroll box, and two scroll arrows. Drag the scroll box or

click the scroll bar arrows to display additional content.

Status Bar: This horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen displays information

about the document you are editing.

View Buttons: These buttons positioned at the right of the status bar enable you to

change the display mode of the document and specify page breaks.

Zoom Buttons: These appear at the bottom right corner and are used to make your

documents appear larger or smaller. You may click the minus and plus icons or drag

the slider to the required level. This would enable you to view the exact amount of

data you wish.

To make it easier to view and edit a large amount of text in a cell, you can adjust the

size of the formula bar. Move your mouse pointer over the bottom and drag

downwards when it changes to a vertical two-headed arrow.

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To accommodate long names, you can also resize the name box. Move your mouse

pointer over the boundary between the name box and the formula bar. Drag to the

right when the pointer changes to a horizontal two-headed arrow.

Clicking the question mark symbol at the right end of the Ribbon brings up the Help

window related to the Office application that you are using. When you move yourmouse over most command buttons, a Super-tooltip is displayed. This provides a

detailed description of what the button does. Equivalent keyboard shortcuts are also

displayed if applicable. These can be used as an alternative to mouse clicks. You may

use them when you are more familiar with the commands.

Built into some tabs are galleries which contain the visual options for changing an

item. The results of a menu or gallery can be viewed before making the actual choice.

You can see the results of selecting an option from a gallery by moving the pointer

over the option. Similarly, moving the pointer over the options in a drop down list

displays a live preview. Now that youre familiar with the user interface, lets move to

the next assignment and start creating an Excel workbook!

Creating a New Workbook

You know that when you first start Excel you see a new blank workbook. When an

existing Excel workbook is open, to create a new blank workbook, click the File Tab

and select New in the left pane. In the central pane, you can see various template

categories. A Template is a pre-designed document created for common purposes

such as a budget, inventory list or planner.

To create a new workbook using one of the standard templates, click Sample

Templates and then the desired template in the central pane. Click the Create icon

in the right pane. Here you are! A new ready-to-use workbook is created based on the

template you selected which can be modified as required. For now, we want to create

a workbook from scratch, so well close this one. Click the X shaped icon close at

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the top right corner. If a window is displayed asking whether to save the workbook,

click Dont Save because we do not want to save this workbook at present.

Using Templates

You may download a variety of templates from the Microsoft website. Click the File

tab and select New. In the Search Office.com for templates box, enter one or

more keywords describing the template youre looking for and then click the arrow at

the right. Click a suitable template from the displayed ones and then click

Download in the right pane. The template is downloaded and a ready-to-use

workbook is displayed. Close the workbook without saving. This template is now

saved on your computer and can be used at any time in the future. To access it, click

the File tab, select New and then click My templates. The downloaded template

is displayed under Personal Templates. Click it and then click OK. An Excel

workbook based on the template is displayed.

Every academic institution needs to keep a record of the marks scored by students.

Maintaining such records manually is surely a voluminous and time-consuming task.

Well use Microsoft Excel 2010 to create a workbook which contains the exam record

of a group of students. Well learn to use formulas for routine calculations such as

totals, averages etc. Additionally, well use charts to show variations in the marks of

different students.

To create a new blank workbookwhen the Excel application is running, activate

the File tab and select New - Blank workbook - Create.

Entering Data

When you create a new workbook, the first blank worksheet is displayed. The first cell

in the top most row is active. In the Name Box, you can see the cell address. This is

denoted by the column number followed by the row number. This cell is at the

intersection of column A and row 1, so the address is displayed as A1.To enter data in

a cell, you must first move to the cell. The simplest way is to click the cell that you

want to activate with the mouse. You can use the arrow keys to move left, right, up or

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down. As you move from one cell to another, you can see that the reference or

address of the active cell appears in the Name Box.

Moving between Cells

Now were ready to start entering data. In cell A1, type the name of the school. Then

enter the text in cells A3, A4 and A6 as shown. As you move between cells, you can

see that the Formula Bar displays the contents of the active cell. Now type the

headings in row 8. The Tab key can be used to move to the next cell in the same

row. The heading given to a column of data is sometimes called a Label. Here

Roll_No, Name etc. are the labels.

In row 9, type the roll number of the first student and press Tab to go to the next

cell. Type the students name. You can see that the name overflows into the next cell.

Pressing Tab takes you to the next cell but the data of the previous cell is still

displayed. Enter the marks for the first subject. But now, the name is only partially

displayed! Well set this right shortly. For now, enter the marks for this student and

data for other students as shown.

Changing Column Width and Row Height

Since the data in the Name column is not displayed fully, you need to increase the

column width. For this, place your pointer on the boundary to the right of the heading

of column B. Double click on the boundary when the pointer appears as a two-headed

arrow. The width of the column will be automatically adjusted to the maximum length

of characters in the column. You can also change the height of a row or the width of a

column by dragging the boundaries between the headings.

Navigating a Worksheet

You know that the easiest way to move to a cell is to click within it. There are other

ways in which you can move to a cell. This is especially useful when you need to go to

a cell which is not visible on your screen. Type the cell address in the Name Box and

press Enter. You could also use the Go To window. This can be displayed using the F5

function key or Ctrl+G. Type the cell address in the Reference box and click OK.

There are some keyboard shortcuts to navigate within the worksheet.

- Use the Page Up and Page Down keys to move up or down one screen

- Use the Home key to move to column A of the current row

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- Use Ctrl+Home to go the beginning of the worksheet i.e. to cell A1

- UseCtrl+End to go to the last cell in the worksheet that contains data.

Selecting Cells

You may want to select multiple cells in a worksheet. A group of cells is sometimescalled a Range of Cells.

To select an entire column, click a column heading. To select multiple columns, drag

across the headings. Similarly, rows can be selected by clicking the row numbers.

To select sequential cells, click the first cell, hold down the Shift key, and click the

last cell you want. Optionally, click and drag the mouse over a group of cells to select

a sequential area.

To select non-sequential cells, click the first cell, hold down the Ctrl key, and click

each additional cell (or row or column) you want to select.

To select the entire worksheet, click the small box located to the left of column A

and above row 1. Optionally, use Ctrl+A.

You may also use the Name Box to specify multiple cells for selection. To select

adjacent cells, enter the cells addresses of the first and last cells separated by a colon

and press Enter. For non-adjacent cells, enter the cells addresses separated by

commas.

Editing Data

After entering data, you may like to make some changes. To delete data and makecells blank, select them and press Delete. To overwrite the contents of a cell, click

within it and start typing. To edit the contents of a cell, double-click within it and make

the required changes. To remove individual characters, you may press "Delete" for

characters to the right of the insertion point and "Backspace" for characters to the

left.

You can also use the Formula Bar to enter and edit data, instead of editing directly in

your worksheet. This is particularly useful when a cell contains a large amount of

information. When you click in the formula bar, a checkmark and an "X" icon appear

to the left of the box. Enter your data. Click the checkmark to confirm your entry, or

"X" to roll it back.

Undoing and Redoing Changes

After making some changes, you may decide they are not necessary after all. You can

reverse your last action by using the Undo command. Let us first delete the

contents of a cell. Click the cell and press Delete. Now to undo this action, you may

select Undo from the Quick Access toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z.

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The data is displayed once again. You can also redo an action that has been undone.

For this, select Redo from the Quick Access Toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut

Ctrl+Y. The data that was displayed is now re-deleted.

Inserting and Deleting Worksheets

You know that a workbook contains three worksheets by default. To add an additional

one, click the Insert Worksheet button to the right of the last sheet tab. To insert a

new worksheet before the currently active one, on the Home tab, from the Cells

group, select Insert Insert Sheet or use the shortcut Shift+F11.

To delete a sheet, right-click the sheet tab and select Delete. You may also use the

Delete Delete Sheet command in the Cells group of the Home tab. To delete

multiple sheets, keep the Ctrl key pressed and click the sheet tabs to select them.

Then right-click and select Delete.

Renaming Worksheets

We plan to insert different data on each of the sheets of the workbook. To know what

each worksheet contains, it would be helpful if the sheets had meaningful names. So

let us rename Sheet1. For this, right-click the sheet tab and select Rename from the

popup menu. Simply type in the new name, say Student Data. You may also rename

a sheet by double-clicking the sheet tab and typing the new name. Let us rename

Sheet2 as Table.

You may change the order of the sheets. Click a sheet tab and drag to the left or right

as required. While you drag, a solid black triangle appears along with a blank page

icon. To copy a sheet, hold down the Ctrl key while you drag a sheet. A + sign

appears on the page icon while copying the sheet. When you copy, another copy ofthe sheet is made. The number of the copy appears in brackets on the sheet tab.

Moving and Copying Worksheets

You can also move or copy a sheet to another workbook. Lets copy the first sheet to a

new workbook. Right click the sheet tab and select Move or Copy. In the Move or

Copy window, select (new book) from the To book list. Click the Create a copy

check box and then click OK. A new workbook with this worksheet is created. You may

also use the Move or Copy window to move or copy sheets within the same

workbook. Use the Before sheet box to specify the position of the sheet.

Changing Tab Color

You may change the tab color of sheets to distinguish between the data stored on

each sheet. For this, right-click on a sheet tab and select Tab Color. Select a color

from the displayed palette. Click on another sheet tab to see the coloured tab clearly.

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When you right-click on a sheet tab, there are some other options displayed. Select

Insert to display the Insert window. Here you can select whether you want to

insert a worksheet, a chart or something else. To select all sheets, right-click a sheet

tab and select the Select all sheets option. To deselect the sheets, right-click a

sheet tab and select Ungroup Sheets

File TabIn the previous version of Excel, the Office Button was situated at the top left corner

of the screen. In Excel 2010, this has been replaced by the File Tab on the Ribbon.

Clicking the File Tab displays the File menu which is also called the Backstage

View. The Office Backstage contains all the Out features i.e. the features which

dont act on a specific point in the workbook, and whose effects dont appear on the

worksheets. It contains the usual options of opening, closing, printing files and saving

in different formats. Options such as setting permissions and document properties

that dont help you change the workbook, but let you use it in various ways are

available in the backstage view. To view the document properties, click Info in the

left pane. You can see information about your workbook such as its size, the date it

was created and modified, its author etc. in the right pane.

Saving your work at regular intervals is very important. This would prevent data loss

due to power failure or unforeseen circumstances. A regular Excel workbook is saved

with the extension .xlsx

Saving a Workbook

There are three ways to save your workbook.

1. Click the File Tab and select Save.

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2. Click the Save icon on the Quick Access toolbar.

3. Use the shortcut keys Ctrl+S. This is the most convenient option.

When you save a new workbook for the first time, the Save As window is displayed.

Specify the name, folder and location for the file and then click Save. The name

appears in the title bar at the top of the document window. You may also save an

existing file with a new name using the File tab - Save As option.

The steps to create a new folder are:

1. Click the File Tab and select Save As.

2. In the displayed window, navigate to the appropriate location where you wish to

place the new folder.

3. Click the New Folder button.

A new folder is created as a subfolder in the active directory. Type the name of the

new folder in the New Folder box and press Enter. Click Open to open the new

folder. Press Save to save your file with the same name in this folder. If you wish to

change your file name, make appropriate changes in the File name box and then

click Save. Your workbook is now saved in the newly created folder.

Closing and Opening a Workbook

To close a workbook, click the File tab and select Close or use the keyboard

shortcut Ctrl+W. Alternatively, you may click on the X shaped icon at the top right

corner of the window. If you try to close an unsaved file, Excel asks you if you want to

save your workbook before closing it. Click the Save button in the displayed dialog

box to save your work. When you close your workbook, the Excel application

continues running if there are other open workbooks. To exit the Excel Application

closing all workbooks, use the Exit option on the File tab.

The simplest way to open a workbook is to click on its icon. This starts the Microsoft

Excel application and opens the file. There are numerous ways in which you can open

a workbook when the Excel application has already been started. You may use the

shortcut keys Ctrl+O or click the File Tab and select Open. In the Open

window, navigate to the location of your workbook; select the file and click Open.

To open a recently used workbook, you may click on the File Tab and then clickRecent. Now click on a workbook name from the Recent Workbook list in the

central pane. You can also access a workbook in any of the recently used folders in

the Recent Places list. For this, click on a folder name and navigate to the required

workbook in the Open window and click Open. Clicking on the Excel taskbar

button displays a jump list displaying a list of recently used workbooks. You can open

a workbook by clicking on an item from this list.

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Printing a Workbook

In a workbook, initially, the active worksheet is the visible worksheet. You may make

multiple sheets active by keeping the Ctrl key pressed and clicking on the sheet

tabs.To print your workbook, click the File Tab and select Print from the left pane.

You may also use the shortcut keys Ctrl+P. The Print interface is displayed. In theright pane, you can see a preview of the first active sheet.

In the central pane, specify the number of copies required at the top. Other default

settings are shown. You might need to change some of them. The displayed visual

would help you with this.

You may use the Printer Properties link to specify settings related to the selected

printer. Use the Page Setup link to specify other finer settings. Finally, click thePrint button to start printing.

Home Tab About the Home Tab

The Home tab contains the most commonly-needed commands. It is divided into

seven groups. A brief description of each of them is given below.

Clipboard: This group contains the main editing commands such as Cut, Copy and

Paste.

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Font: These commands enable you to modify and enhance the appearance of your

data.

Alignment: These commands enable you to position data within cells as required.

Number: These commands allow you to specify various formats for numerical data.

Styles: These commands enable you to apply pre-defined formatting instructions.

Cells: These commands enable you to insert, delete and format cells, rows and

columns.

Editing: These commands help you to find, replace, sort and filter data as well as

clear data and formatting.

Copying, Cutting and Pasting Data

The Copy icon is used to copy a selection to the Clipboard which is a temporary

storage area. This command when used along with the Paste command enables you

to copy data from one location to another on the same worksheet, another worksheet

or even another workbook. Let us copy some data from Sheet1 to Sheet2. Select the

data and then on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Copy. You may

also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C. A moving border appears around the

selection. Now activate Sheet2 by clicking the tab at the bottom. Click in the cell you

want to place the copied data and then on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group,

click Paste. The copied data is now pasted in the new location. You may adjust the

column width of the Name column as required.

The Cut icon is used to write a selection to the Clipboard. This command, whenused along with the Paste command, enables you to move a section of your

workbook from one location to another. Let us move some data from Sheet1 to

Sheet2. Select the data and then on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click

Cut. You may also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+X. A moving border appears

around the selection. Activate Sheet2 and click in the cell where you want to place

the data and then on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group, click Paste. The

data is now moved from Sheet1 to Sheet2. Click the Sheet1 tab. You can see that the

data that you had cut and pasted is no longer there.

The Paste icon is used to insert the latest copied or cut item from the Clipboard into

the worksheet. Copy plus Paste is used to copy a section from one location toanother while Cut plus Paste is used to move a section from one part to another.

Any selected text or objects are replaced by the pasted contents. You may paste the

clipboard contents as many times as you wish. Let us paste the clipboard contents on

Sheet3. Place your cursor suitably.Then, on the Home tab, in the Clipboard group,

click Paste or use the shortcut Ctrl+V. The contents of the clipboard are placed at

the current cursor position.

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Format Painter

The Format Painter icon is used to copy the formatting applied at one place and

apply it to another. First, let us select some cells and change the background color.

Select the Home tab - Font group - Fill Color icon and select a color from the

displayed palette. Now we shall copy the formatting of these cells. On the Hometab, from the Clipboard group, click Format Painter. You can see that your mouse

pointer changes to a paint brush when you place it on the worksheet. Now drag it

over the cells to which you wish to apply the same formatting. Click outside the cells

to see the effect. If you wish to apply the selected formatting at multiple places,

double-click the Format Painter icon. You can then drag over multiple areas. Click

Escape when done.

Changing Fonts, Font Sizes and Colors

A Font is a design for a set of characters. The Font box is used to change the font

of selected text. Changing the font can be used to enhance the appearance of text orto make it appear different from the surrounding text. Select the required cells. Then

on the Home tab, in the Font group, click the down arrow in the Font box. In the

displayed menu, move your mouse over the different fonts. The "Live Preview"

feature allows you to have a preview of how the selected font would affect the

appearance of the text, without actually applying it. Click on the font you like.

The Font Size box is used to apply a uniform size to the characters of selected text.

It is measured in points; a point is 1/72 of an inch. Normally, a larger font size is used

for headings and important text. On the Home tab, in the Font group, click the

down arrow in the Font Size box and select a suitable option.

The Increase Font Size icon is used to proportionately increase the size of selected

text. This icon enables you to increase the font size without specifying the actual size

in points. On the Home tab, in the Font group, click the Increase Font Size icon

to increase the font size. You may click it as many times as needed to get the

required size. Similarly, the Decrease Font Size icon is used to proportionately

decrease the size of text.

The Font Color icon is used to change the color of selected text. Using different

colors makes text more attractive. On the Home tab, in the Font group, click the

arrow next to the Font Color icon and select a color from the displayed palette. Have a

look! Your text is now displayed in the selected color.

Emboldening, Underlining and Italicizing

The Bold icon is used to make text appear darker and thicker. Bold text is often

used for titles and other text required to be prominently displayed. Select the cells in

which you want bold text. Then on the Home tab, in the Font group, click Bold.

You can see that the text appears in bold fonts.

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The Italic icon is used to make the characters of selected text slant to the right.

Italics are often used to emphasize words or make them appear different from other

text. Select the required cells and then on the Home tab, in the Font group, click

Italic. Your text now appears in italics.

The Underline icon is used to draw a line below text. Text is normally underlinedwhen you wish to call attention to it. Select the required cells and then on the Home

tab, in the Font group, click Underline. Your text is now underlined. To draw a

double line below text, click the arrow to the right of the Underline icon and select

Double Underline. Theres a double underline below your text now!

Creating Borders

The Borders icon is used to apply borders to the selected cells. Let us create

borders around the marks that we have entered. Select the cells cell A8 to H28. Then

on the Home tab, from the Font group, select Borders All Borders. This

displays a border around each cell. Now select cells A1 to H1. This time, well create aslightly different border. Select Borders Outside Borders. Then click the Borders

icon again and select Bottom Double Border. Click outside the selection. You can

see that the lower border has a double line in place of the previous single line. Create

other borders as shown.

Shading Cells

The Fill Color icon is used to color the background of selected cells. Let us shade the

cells in the first row. On the Home tab, in the Font group, click Fill Color and

select a color from the displayed palette. Your cells are now shaded with the selected

color. Color the background of the other heading rows using attractive colors as

shown.

The Format Cells dialog box is used to apply a combination of various effects to the

selected cells. On the Home tab, in the Font group, click the Dialog Box Launcher

at the bottom right. This brings up the Format Cells window with the Font tab

active. You may use this window to apply a combination of various formatting effects.

Click OK to close this window.

Alignment of Data

The Align Text Left, Center and Align Text Right icons are used to specify the

way text is positioned horizontally in a given space. This may be the space within acell, text box, or in any other object that can hold text. Lets see how each of these

icons works. In Excel, by default textual data is aligned to the left and numeric data to

the right. The Align Text Left icon is used to align text to the left. Select some cells

containing data and then on the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Align

Text Left or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+L. You can see that the text gets

aligned to the left side. Similarly, the Align Text Right or Ctrl+R is used to align

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text to the right. The Center icon or Ctrl+E is used for central alignment of text

such that it is equidistant from the left and right sides.

The Top Align, Middle Align and Bottom Align icons are used to specify vertical

alignment of cell data. Select some cells containing data and then on the Home tab,

in the Paragraph group, click Top Align. Your data moves to the top of the cells.Now click Middle Align and then Bottom Align. You can see that each time the

data moves vertically within the cells as specified.

The Orientation icon is used to rotate the data to a diagonal angle or vertical

orientation. This is often used for labelling narrow columns. In the displayed

worksheet, you can see that some column headings are not displayed fully. Since the

actual figures of marks contain only two digits, you may not wish to have very wide

columns. In this case, you can change the orientation of the heading text within the

cells. Select the heading cells. Then on the Home tab, in the Alignment group,

click Orientation. Now select a suitable option from the displayed ones. Here you

are, the headings are orientated as specified and the row height is adjustedaccordingly. You can also specify the exact orientation angle you require. Select

Alignment - Format Cell Alignment to display the Alignment tab of the Format

Cells window. Here you may click a point in the box under Orientation or specify a

value in the Degrees box. Then click OK.

Indentation determines the distance between the cell border and the data within the

cell. Indentation ensures proper alignment as well as makes the worksheet look well-

formatted and professional. Select the required cells. Then on the Home tab, in the

Paragraph group, click Increase Indent to move the data. Click the same icon

once again to move it further. Now click Decrease Indent twice to move the data

back to its original position.

Wrapping Text

When the amount of data in a cell is very large, the Wrap Text icon is used to make

all of it visible by displaying it on multiple lines. In the worksheet displayed, you can

see that the data in the central column is not fully visible. Select the required cells

and on the Home tab, in the Alignment group, click Wrap Text. This displays the

data on multiple lines and adjusts the row height automatically.

The Merge & Center Feature

The Merge & Center icon is used to join selected cells into a larger cell and centres

the contents in the new cell. This is often used to create headings that span across

multiple columns. Let us apply this feature to the name of the school at the top of our

worksheet. Select cells A1 to H1 and on the Home tab, from the Alignment group,

click Merge & Center. You can see that the school name is positioned exactly at the

center.

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Inserting Rows and Columns

The Insert icon is used to insert additional columns, rows, cells and sheets. You

need two additional headings next to the subjects. Click in the cell next to the last

subject and enter the heading Total. Press Tab and enter the heading Grade.

Create borders for these two columns. Later you decide that you need an additional

column between these two for Percentage. This can be easily done. Click anywhere

within the Grade column. On the Home tab, in the Cells group, click Insert Insert

Sheet Columns. Now enter the heading Percent for this column. Similarly a row can

be inserted by clicking a cell and using the Insert Insert Sheet Rows option.

To insert multiple rows, we need to select an equal number of cells from different rows

first. Let us select some cells from two rows. Now select Insert Insert Sheet Rows.

You can see that two additional rows have been inserted. Multiple columns can be

inserted in a similar way.

The Delete icon is used to delete columns, rows, cells and sheets. Select some rows

to delete. Then on the Home tab, in the Cells group, select Delete Delete

Sheet Rows. You may delete columns in a similar way.

Inserting Cells & Shifting Cells

Ok, now we want an additional heading Marks above the subject headings. So we

need to insert a cell above these headings. Select the subject headings. Then on the

Home tab, from the Cells group, select Insert Insert Cells. The Insert window is

displayed. Ensure that the Shift cells down option is selected and then click OK.

Now merge the newly created cells, enter the heading Marks and create a border.

But whats this? The last operation has created some problems in the alignment of

the students names with their marks. We need to shift the roll numbers and student

names down by one row. This involves inserting additional cells again. So, select the

cells containing the roll number and name of the first student and insert cells above

them. Yes, now this is fine. We need to create borders for cells I29 to K29. Widen the

cells containing headings at the top to span across the additional columns and create

appropriate borders. Apply suitable cell shading.

The Format icon is used to perform various functions such as changing the row

height and column width as well as organizing sheets. Let us change the height of arow. Select the row or click a cell within the row. On the Home tab, in the Cells

group, select Format - Row Height. Enter the exact row height you want and click

OK. Your row now has the specified height.

The AutoSum Function

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The Sum or AutoSum icon is used to display the sum of selected cells directly

after the cells. Well use it to display the total marks of all students. Select the cells

C10 to H10 containing the marks of the first student. Then on the Home tab, in the

Editing group, click Sum. The sum of the selected cells appears in cell I10. Wasnt

this so easy? Now click in any blank cell. The AutoSum icon in the Function Library

group on the Formulas tab offers the same functionality.

The AutoFill Feature

Auto Fill is a very useful Excel feature. Now that we have the total marks for one

student, we can use this feature to display the total marks of the others. Click in cell

I10 again and move the mouse pointer to the bottom right corner of the cell. When

you see a black plus sign which is the fill handle, drag downwards till cell I29. You can

see that all the cells are filled with the correct total marks of each student.

AutoFill copies the same formula to all the cells and the row numbers are changed in

the cell addresses as required. Click in cell I11. Have a look at the formula bar at thetop. This shows that the sum of the data in cells C11 to H11 has been calculated. In

Excel, a formula always begins with an equal to sign (=). Now click in cell I12. The

formula bar now displays cells C12 to H12 in the formula.

The Auto Fill feature can be used to complete common series such as days of the

week and months of the year. Type the entry January in a cell. Drag the fill handle to

the right as far as you want the cells to fill. The cells will be filled with names of

months starting with January. You can also fill cells downwards. Type Monday in a

cell. Now drag downwards to display the other days of the week. Other such auto fill

entries are - days of the week in short, names of the months in short, number series

like 1000, 2000, 3000, etc. Please note that for number series, you need to fill at leasttwo cells. Then select both cells and drag the fill handle.

Using Formulas

A formula is nothing but an expression that performs calculations on data contained

in a worksheet. A formula uses arithmetic operators like +, -, *, /, %, and ^ to perform

addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percent and exponentiation respectively.

A formula is evaluated from left to right and in the following order: percent,

exponentiation, multiplication and division, addition and subtraction. If a formula

contains operators of the same precedence, they are evaluated from left to right.

We shall use a formula to calculate the percentage marks of each student. The

percentage can be calculated by dividing the total marks by the number of subjects.

Click in cell J10 and enter the formula =I10/6 and press Enter. The percentage for

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the first student is displayed. This time lets use Copy-Paste instead of Auto Fill to

copy the formula for percentage calculation of all students. Click cell J10 and press

Ctrl+C to copy the formula. Then select cells J11 to J29 and press Ctrl+V to paste

the formula. The correct percentage is displayed for all students. Excel changes the

row numbers in the cell addresses as required.

The percent marks are displayed with many decimal places. We want the percent

marks to be displayed with two decimal places. Select all cells containing the percent

marks. On the Home tab, from the Cells group, select Format Format Cells. In

the window displayed, on the Number tab, select Number from the Category

list. Set Decimal places to 2 and click OK. The numbers in the Percent column

are now displayed with two decimal places.

The Increase Decimal and Decrease Decimal icons are used to increase or

decrease decimal places of numeric data. Enter a number with many decimal places

and click outside the cell. Now select the cell and on the Home tab, in the

Number group, click Decrease Decimal. The decimals are reduced by one. Clickas many times as required to get the number of decimals you wish. Similarly use the

Increase Decimal icon to increase the number of decimal places.

Displaying Formulas

The Show Formulas icon is used to display the actual formula applied to a cell

instead of the resulting value. This proves useful when you need to view or print your

worksheet with the formulas to check if they are correct. To display all the formulas

instead of the results, activate the Formulas tab and from the Formula Auditing

group, select Show Formulas. Scroll to the right to see all formulas. To redisplay the

results, click the Show Formulas icon once again. Optionally, you may use thekeyboard shortcut Ctrl plus the key above the Tab key to quickly switch between the

display of formulas and their results.

It is important that all formulas are correctly written. Excel displays error messages

such as the ones displayed when certain events occur due to an improper formula.

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The Auto Calculate Feature

A special feature of Excel is Auto Calculate. By default, Excel automaticallyrecalculates formulas when the cells that the formula depends on have changed.

Excel also recalculates all formulas each time a workbook is opened. If you change

one or more numbers in your spreadsheet, all related formulas are recalculated

automatically. Let us change the marks in one cell and press Enter. You can see that

the values in the Total andPercent columns are changed automatically.

Types of References

You know that when a formula is copied, the cell references are automatically

changed as per the address of the cell to which it is copied. This is called RelativeCell Referencing. An Absolute Reference is a cell reference used in a formula which

does not change when the formula is copied. If you do not wish to have the cell

references automatically changed when copied, type a $ (dollar) sign before the

column or row number. When such a formula is copied to another row or column, the

row or column number in the cell reference does not change. When only the row or

only the column is fixed, it is called a Mixed Reference. The displayed visual

describes the different types of references.

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Using Absolute References

The displayed worksheet contains the Unit Test marks of the students. Now, for the

Final Exam, you need to calculate 20% of the Unit Test marks for each student. We

shall use an absolute reference for this calculation. If the percentage changes later,

you need to change it in just one cell which is cell G3 in this case. Now, to calculate

20% marks, activate cell E8 and type =D8*$G$3 in it and press Enter. By adding $

before G and 3, you have made the column and the row references absolute.

Copy this formula from cell E8 to the remaining students. Now click in a few cells

within the column and check the formula in the Formula Bar. Although the formula

has been copied, the reference of cell G3 has remained constant.

Referencing Multiple Sheets

While working, you may need to reference data from more than one sheet. This is

called referencing multiple sheets. In the displayed workbook, Sheet1 contains the

marks scored by the students in the exams. Sheet2 contains the marks scored in the

tests. Now in Sheet3, we want to display the totals of both exam and test marks.

Click cell C2 in Sheet3. Enter the formula =Sheet1!C2+Sheet2!C2 and press Enter.

You can see that the sum of the figures on the other two sheets is displayed here.

Thus Sheet1!C2 refers to cell C2 on Sheet1 and Sheet2!C2 refers to cell C2 on

Sheet2. Copy this formula to the other cells in the column to display the total marksof all students. In this way, you can perform calculations on data from different

worksheets in a workbook.

Using FunctionsA Function is a prewritten formula that performs calculations automatically. Each

function has a specific syntax i.e. a set of rules associated with it. This means that

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when you enter a function in a cell, you need to enter certain predefined arguments

for it.

The DATE Function

For example, the DATE function requires three arguments the year, month and

day. Functions can be entered in two ways. The first one is by directly entering the

function and its arguments in brackets. In a cell, type =DATE. As you start typing a

small popup box appears from which you may make your selection. Now in brackets

type the arguments. As you type the open bracket sign, another popup box comes up

showing the arguments required for this function. Enter the arguments separated by

commas and close the bracket. Now press Enter to display the result. Please note that

you may enter a function in both capital and small letters.

The second way to enter a function is to use the Function Arguments window. This

proves more convenient when there are many arguments and the functions are more

complex. Lets enter the DATE function using this window. Click in a cell. Then onthe Formulas tab, in the Function Library group, select Date & Time - DATE. In

the Function Arguments window enter the Year, Month and Day in numeric form and

click OK. The date is displayed in the default format.

Changing Date Format

To change the format of the date, on the Home tab, in the Cells group, select

Format Format Cells. In the displayed window, ensure that the Date category is

selected and click on a suitable format in the Type box. Then click OK. Your date is

then displayed in the format you selected. Now try exploring other date and time

functions such as TODAY, NOW, DAY, MONTH and YEAR on your own.

The IF Function

The IF function returns one value if a specified condition evaluates to TRUE, or

another value if it evaluates to FALSE. Well use the IF function to assign grades to the

students in the displayed worksheet. First well find out which students have secured

an A+ grade. From the balance well find those with an A grade and so on. The

conditions for assigning grades are as follows:

Percent marks greater than or equal to 80, A+ grade

Percent marks greater than or equal to 75, A grade

Percent marks greater than or equal to 60, B grade

Percent marks greater than or equal to 50, C grade

Percent marks greater than or equal to 35, Pass grade

All others, Fail.

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We require multiple nested IF statements to specify the conditions for grading. This

is because the output of one IF statement has to be used as the input of the next one

for arriving at the correct grade. Click in cell K10 and enter the formula

=IF(J10>=80, "A+", IF(J10>=75, "A", IF(J10>=60, "B", IF(J10>=50, "C",

IF(J10>=35,"PASS", "FAIL"))))) and press Enter. The percentage for the first

student is displayed. Copy the same formula to display the grades of other students.

Clicking the small arrow to the right of the Sum icon in the Editing group of the

Home tab displays options such as Average, Min and Max. These can also be used

to calculate the average, minimum and maximum values from the selected cells.

Well first create a structure for entering these values. Draw borders and format the

cells B32 to C34 as shown. Then enter the headings.

The MAX, MIN and AVERAGE Functions

Let us calculate the maximum marks by directly entering the function arguments.

Click in cell C32. We want the maximum marks displayed in this cell. So type =MAXwith an open bracket symbol ( and then select cells I10 to I29 since these cells

contain the totals of all students. Type the close bracket symbol ) at the end. Press

Enter after your formula is complete to display the result. Instead of selecting the

cells, you could also enter the formula giving the actual cell addresses as

=MAX(I10:I29).

The Insert Function icon is used to insert various types of functions in your

worksheet. Now we need the formulas for minimum and average marks calculation in

cells C33 and C34. Lets use the Formula Bar for the insertion of these. Well first

calculate the minimum marks. Click cell C33 and then click the Insert Function icon

on the formula bar. In the Insert Function window, if you do not see MIN in theSelect a function box, type the text minimum in the Search for a function box

and click Go. Then click MIN in the Select a function box and click OK. The

Function Arguments window is displayed. If column I is not visible, move this

window to the left. Drag to select the range I10 to I29. This is displayed in the

Number1 box. You may also type the range I10:I29 in the box without dragging for

selection. Then click OK. The minimum marks are now displayed in the cell.

Calculate the average marks in a similar way. The Insert Function icon in the

Function Library group on the Formulas tab offers the same functionality.

The LEN Function

In Excel, the LEN function returns the length i.e. the number of characters in a

specified string. In computer terminology, a string is a group of characters. It may

be a word or phrase and may include letters, numerals, symbols and punctuation

marks. The blank spaces between characters are also counted as characters. The

displayed worksheet contains a list of words. Lets find the length of each of them.

Click in cell B2. Now type the function =LEN and in brackets type the cell containing

the string i.e. B1. Press Enter. The length of the string is displayed. Now drag the fill

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handle at the bottom right corner of cell B2 downwards, to copy the formula to the

other cells. Now you have the lengths of all the words!

The UPPER, LOWER and PROPER Functions

When textual data is copied into an Excel spreadsheet, sometimes the words may

have incorrect capitalization. You may correct this using different Text functions. The

LOWER function is used to convert the text in a cell to lowercase i.e. small letters.

Enter some text in cell B2 in capital letters, say MICROSOFT EXCEL. Now to display

the contents of this cell in lowercase, click B4 and then type =LOWER(B2). Press

Enter. Your words are displayed in lowercase now. Next lets display these words in

Proper case i.e. the first letter of each word in uppercase and the rest in lower case.

So click cell B6, type =PROPER(B4) and press Enter. To display the words once again

in upper case, click cell B8, type =UPPER(B6) and press Enter. In this way you may

decide the capitalization of text in your worksheet. Please Note: When these functions

are applied to cells containing characters in text that are not alphabets, there is no

change.

The SUMIF and COUNTIF Functions

The SUMIF function is used to add up the values in cells in a selected range that

meet certain criteria. The worksheet displayed contains a list of employees with their

departments and monthly salaries. Now we want to calculate the total salaries

received by the employees of each department. Lets start with the Accounts

department. Click in cell H9 and then on the Formulas tab, in the Function Library

group, select Math & Trig - SUMIF. In the Function Arguments window, click in the

Range box and type B2:B21 since this is the range we will match our search

criteria with. In the Criteria box, type ACC since this is what we want to search for.In the Sum_range box, type C2:C21 since this contains the actual values to be

summed. Now click OK. The total salary of the Accounts department is now

displayed. Calculate the total salary of the other departments in a similar way.

The COUNTIF function is used to count the number of cells in a selected range that

meet specified criteria. In this worksheet, we want to calculate the number of

employees in each department. Lets start with the Accounts department. Simply put,

we have to count the number of cells containing the word ACC. The syntax of the

COUNTIF function is =COUNTIF (Range, Criteria). So, click in cell H9 and type

=COUNTIF and in brackets type B2:B21 since this is the range of cells well be

checking. Type a comma followed by the criteria ACC in quotes. Close the bracketsand press Enter. Here you are, the number of employees in the Accounts

department is displayed. Now calculate the employees in the other departments in a

similar way.

The VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP Functions

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The Lookup & Reference icon is used to insert various functions that return values

by looking them up in reference tables. The displayed worksheet shows a list of

employees with their department codes. Now we want to display the department

names based on the lookup table at the right. We shall use the VLOOKUP function

for this. Please note that the first column of the lookup table must be sorted in

ascending order. Click the first cell below the heading Department Name i.e. cell C2.On the Formulas tab, in the Function Library group, select Lookup & Reference -

VLOOKUP.

The VLOOKUP function searches the first column of a range of cells, and then returns

a value from any cell on the same row of the range. In the Function Arguments

window you can see that this function requires four arguments. In the Lookup_value

box, you need to specify which value youre going to search for in the lookup table. So

click cell B2 since this contains the department code. Now click the Table_array box.

Here you need to specify the range of cells which contain the reference values i.e. the

lookup table. Drag over cells G2 to H4. This range appears in the Table_array box.

We need to change the range to an absolute one since we require the same rangewhen we copy this function later in all cells of the Department Name column. So

type $G$2:$H$4 in the Table_array box.

Now click in the Col_index_num box. Here you need to specify the column number

of the lookup table from which you wish to return data. Since the department name is

the second column, enter 2. Entry in the Range_lookup box is optional. The

default is FALSE. This means that you are looking for exact matches for your

department codes in the lookup table. So lets leave it blank and click OK. The

correct department name has appeared for the first employee. Now drag the fill

handle downwards till the last employee to display the department names for the rest

of the employees.

In the displayed worksheet, the VLOOKUP function has been used to search for

approximate matches. In this case, the fourth argument i.e. Range-lookup must be

set to TRUE. As you can see, all entries beginning with F in the main table have

been matched with F in the lookup table. Also, all V entries have been matched

similarly.

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The HLOOKUP function is similar to VLOOKUP. The difference is that it horizontally

searches (i.e. left to right) the topmost row of a Lookup table until it locates a value

that matches or nearly matches the one that youre looking up.

Conditional Formatting

The Conditional Formatting icon is used to format cells based on certain criteria. In

our worksheet, we want to highlight all the cells which have marks less than 35 with a

different color. This would enable us to know, in a glance, which subjects the students

have failed in. Well use the conditional formatting feature for this. Select all the cells

containing the marks i.e. cells C10 to H29. On the Home tab, in the Styles group,

click Conditional Formatting. From the options displayed, select Highlight Cell Rules

Less Than. In the Less Than window enter 35 in the left box and in the right

box select a suitable option from the ones displayed. Click OK. Click outside the

selected cells. You can see that all marks less than 35 are highlighted in the specified

colors.

You may apply conditional formatting of different types. For example, you could

highlight the various grades differently using Conditional Formatting Highlight Cell

Rules Equal To.

Formatting As Table

The Format as Table icon is used to quickly format a range of cells and convert it

into a table by choosing a pre-defined table style. We want to create a table

containing only the names and subject wise marks of the students. So lets select this

data first and copy it using Ctrl+C. Well create the table on a separate worksheetin the same workbook. Click the sheet tab Table to display the second worksheet.

Use Ctrl+V to paste the copied data here. Resize column A, if required, so as to

display the complete names. Enter the heading Name in cell A1. Now select all cells

in this worksheet which contain data. To display this data as a table, on the Home

tab, in the Styles group, click Format as Table. Select a table style from the

displayed gallery. Click OK in the Format As Table window. Your data now appears

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as a table with small arrow buttons next to the column headings. Click outside the

table.

Sorting Table Data

When data is organized as a table, you can sort and filter it very easily. For example,

you may wish to sort the students in descending order of the marks scored in the first

subject. This can be very easily done. Click the arrow next to the Subject1 heading. In

the displayed menu, select Sort Largest to Smallest and click OK. Here you are!

The student scoring the highest marks in the first subject is displayed at the top of

the list while the one with the lowest marks is displayed at the bottom.

Using Cell Styles

The Cell Styles icon is used to quickly format a cell by choosing from pre-defined

styles. A cell style is a defined set of formatting characteristics, such as fonts and font

sizes, number formats, cell borders, and cell shading. To apply a style, first select the

cells. Then on the Home tab, from the Styles group, select Cell Styles. Click a

style from the displayed gallery. Your cells now have the selected style applied.

Filtering Data

The Sort & Filter icon is used to arrange data in a way that it is easier to analyse.

You may sort data in ascending or descending order. You can also temporarily filter

out certain values. Lets learn to sort data. In the displayed worksheet, click any cell

containing data. On the Home tab, from the Editing group, select Sort & Filter

Filter. You can see that small arrow buttons appear in the first row which contains the

column headings. These arrows enable you to sort and filter data within the different

columns. Click the arrow next to the Name heading. In the displayed menu, selectSort A to Z. The data in the worksheet is now sorted alphabetically according to

student names. Next, click the arrow next to the Subject 3 heading and select Sort

Largest to Smallest. Your data is sorted and shows the student who has scored the

highest marks in subject 3 at the top. In this way you may sort your data as desired.

The Sort & Filter icon also enables you to filter data as required. Filtering is

particularly useful when the data contained within a worksheet is very voluminous. If

you wish to display records for the students who have secured B grade only, click

the arrow in the Grade column and in the box at the bottom, uncheck the box in

front of (Select All) and click the box in front of B. Then click OK. Your data is

filtered and you see only the information you need. To display the data as it originally

was, you may remove the applied filter. For this on the Home tab, in the Editing

group, select Sort & Filter Clear. Your complete data is re-displayed now.

Finding and Replacing Data

The Find & Select icon contains options which can be used to find specific data,

select the related cells and also replace data. Let us search for some text in our

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worksheet. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select Find or

press Ctrl+F to display the Find tab of the Find and Replace window. In the Find

what: box, enter some text and click Find Next. The next occurrence of the

specified term after the current cursor position is selected. Click Find All to see a list

of all occurrences of the entered text. You may click in the list to move to a specific

cell where the text has been found.

You may search for some text in your worksheet and replace it by some other text.

Click Find & Select Replace from the Editing group on the Home tab or press

Ctrl+H to display the Replace tab of the Find and Replace window. Enter the

text you wish to find in the Find what box and the text with which you wish to

replace it in the Replace with box. Click Replace to replace the next occurrence of

the search text by the specified new text. Click Replace All to replace all

occurrences of the search text by the specified new text. A window appears showing

the number of replacements made.

Applying Number Formats

The commands in the Number group on the Home tab allow you to choose how

values in cells containing numeric data are displayed. For example, you could display

the data as a percentage, as currency, as a date or time etc. Click the down arrow in

the Number Format box and select the number format you require from the options

displayed. The Accounting Number Format icon allows you to choose an alternate

currency format for a cell. The Percent Style icon is used to display the value in a

cell as a percentage. The Comma Style icon displays the value of the cell with

thousands separators.

Insert Tab About the Insert Tab

You may try to enhance the worksheet on your own by using different options and

variations from the Home Tab. Theres a lot more that you can do with your workbook.

You can make it more attractive and informative by adding Pictures, Charts and other

objects. These can be done using the Insert Tab. So lets move to next Lab and learnto effectively use the Insert Tab.

The Insert Tab is the next tab in Microsoft Excel 2010. This tab has a lot of useful

features that enable you to insert things like pictures, graphics, charts and many

other items. Let us review a few of these features in this exciting new tab. First, lets

see which groups are contained in this tab.

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Groups in the Insert Tab

Tables: The options in this group enable you to insert tables and pivot tables in your

worksheet.

Illustrations: These commands enable you to insert various types of pictures,

shapes and graphics.

Charts: These commands enable you to insert various types of charts.

Sparklines: These commands enable you to insert sparklines which are small cell-

sized charts.

Filter:This group allows you to insert slicers which are visual controls that allow you

to quickly filter your data in an interactive way.

Links: This group allows you to create hyperlinks.

Text:These commands enable you to present your text in different ways and insert

headers, footers and embedded objects.

Symbols: These commands enable you to insert equations and symbols.

Using Pivot Tables and Slicers

The Pivot Table icon in the Tables group of the Insert tab is used to create Excel

pivot tables. These are summary tables which are used to present information in a

report format. Instead of analysing countless spreadsheet records, a pivot table can

aggregate your information and show a new perspective in a few clicks. It is created

by defining which fields to view and how the information should be displayed. A pivot

table can be manipulated by selecting items from drop down lists.

Using Pivot Tables

Lets start creating a pivot table. The first thing you need for a Pivot Table is some

data to go in it. Well use the data in the displayed spreadsheet. This spreadsheet

contains three sets of marks for two students only. Now you can imagine how much

data there would be for a complete year of a class of say 40-50 students. We want to

analyse the data to be able to view average marks student wise, month wise and

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subject wise. This is where Pivot tables come in. They summarize the data so that

you can easily analyse large volumes of data.

First, lets select the data for the Pivot Table. Select cells A1 to D37. Now on the Insert

tab, from the Tables group, click Pivot Table. The Create Pivot Table window is

displayed with your selection displayed in the Table/Range box. We do not want tochange this. By default, the pivot table is created on a new worksheet in your current

workbook. This is fine. So simply click OK.

A new worksheet is inserted before the sheet containing your data. You are presented

with a rather complex layout. But do not worry; its quite easy to work with it. We

want to be able to see the marks in a summarized format with an option of selecting

the students, the months and the subjects. So tick all four boxes in the field list at the

right. Excel will create a basic Pivot Table for you. This is not exactly what we want. So

were going to place our 4 fields appropriately into the 4 areas at the right.

Filtering Data in a Pivot Table

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We want to be able to filter our data student wise. So click on Student in the Row

Labels box and drag it in to the Report Filter box. We want the various subjects to

be displayed as the column headings. So drag Subject to the Column Labels box.

You can see that the Pivot Table on your spreadsheet has been changing with each

action that you have performed. It is not complete yet. The marks displayed are notcorrect. This is because Excel is using the wrong formula. Its using the default Sum

formula. The numbers have all been added up. But we want averages, instead. To

change the formula, click on Sum of Marks in the Values area. Select Value Field

Settings from the popup menu. In the displayed window, click Average in the lower

box and then click OK.

Now you do not want any decimal places displayed. So lets remove them. Select cells

B5 to H8. Then activate the Home tab. From the Cells group select Format Format

Cells. In the displayed window, on the Number tab select the Number category. Set

Decimal Places to 0 and click OK. Yes, now this is fine. Let us center the data in

cells B4 to H8. Our Pivot Table is now ready.

We have considered the data for two students in our worksheet. The pivot table we

created displays a summary of all the data in the worksheet. You can see the average

marks of both students displayed subject wise and month wise. Isnt this so

convenient? And thats not all. We can use this pivot table to see summarized data in

many other forms. For example, you may wish to see the data for one student only.

Click the down arrow in the cell next to Student. In the popup window, click on a

student name and then click OK. Now you see summarized data for that student only.

Similarly, you may like to see data for three subjects only. So click the down arrow in

the Subject cell. In the popup window, click the box in front of (Select All) todeselect all subjects. Then click the boxes in front of the three subjects you require

and click OK. You now see summarized data for three subjects only. In this way, you

can analyse large volumes of data using different criteria with great ease.

Using Slicers

The Slicers icon is used to insert a Slicer to filter data interactively. Slicers are a new

feature of Excel 2010. They are visual controls that allow you to quickly filter your

Pivot Table data in an interactive way. They make pivot tables more powerful. The real

usage can be appreciated when you are dealing with a huge amount of data.

Click any cell in your pivot table. On the contextual Options tab, in the Sort &

Filter group, click Insert Slicer. If you see a window saying that the Pivot Table

needs to be refreshed, click OK and click Insert Slicer again. In the Insert Slicer

window, you may select the fields on which you wish to interactively filter data. Lets

select all of them and click OK. Slicers are displayed for each pivot table field you

select. You may size and position the slicers as required. You can use these slicers to

filter data simply by selecting the items you want. Let us click on a month in the

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Month slicer. Similarly, select a Student and a Subject. As you click, your data is

automatically filtered.

You can select multiple items within a slicer as well. Hold down the Ctrl key and

click to select non-consecutive items. Use Shift to select a series of sequential

items. So you can see that with Slicers, you can filter down your data in more detail.To display your slicers in attractive colors, first click near a slicer name to select it.

Then on the contextual Options tab, select a suitable Slicer Style.

Inserting and Enhancing Pictures

The Picture icon is used to insert a picture in your worksheet. Let us insert a picture

of the school logo in our main worksheet. Click in the cell next to the name of the

school. On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click Picture. In the Insert

Picture window, browse to the required picture and click Insert. Size the picture as

required by using the sizing handles. Place your pointer on the picture and drag to

position it suitably.

When you insert a picture or select an already inserted picture in a worksheet, a new

Format tab appears under the heading Picture Tools. This tab contains various

tools you can use to modify the appearance of your picture. For example, you could

choose to color the picture differently, apply artistic effects or apply a picture style.

Try exploring the various options yourself!

Using Charts and Sparklines

A chart is a visual representation of data and conveys the information in an easy to

understand and attractive manner. There are different types of charts available in

Excel 2010 such as Column charts, Line charts, Bar charts, Area charts, Bubble chartsand many more. You may select a suitable type depending on the data you want to

chart and the emphasis you want the chart to impart. We shall create a column chart

like the one displayed which shows the total marks scored by the students. Column

charts make it easy to see the differences in the data being compared.

Parts of a Chart

The parts of a chart are as follows -

Chart Title This is the tile of the chart Student Vs Marks.

Value Axis Is the Y-axis on which the value is shown.

Value Axis Title The title Marks.

Category Axis Is the X-axis on which the category for which you have charted the

values is shown.

Category Axis Title The title Name

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Chart Area The entire area on which the chart is drawn.

Plot Area The area on which the data is plotted

Legend The legend, as in a map, is a key showing which color is used to represent

what: Series 1 in this case.

Inserting Charts

The icons in the Charts group on the Insert tab are used to insert various

types of charts in your worksheet. Before we begin with chart creation, we need to

select the data that we want to chart. So select the Name range i.e. cells B10 to

B29. Hold down the Ctrl key and select the Total range i.e. I10 to I29. Now on the

Insert tab, in the Charts group, click Column. Click on a suitable option from the

ones displayed. A chart is inserted and three new contextual Chart Tools tabs are

displayed.

Let us move this chart to a separate worksheet. On the Design tab under ChartTools, from the Location group, click Move Chart. In the Move Chart window, click

the New sheet button and click OK.

Modifying Charts

You can make changes to your chart and enhance its appearance using various Chart

Tools. First, let us apply a chart style. On the Design tab, in the Chart Styles

group, click the More arrow to see all available styles. Click on a suitable one.

Now let us add more details in our chart. Activate the Layout tab under Chart

Tools. Click Chart Title and select Above Chart. A text box with the text ChartTitle is displayed above the chart. Now type the title Student Vs Marks. As you type,

your text appears in the Formula Bar at the top. Press Enter. Your title is now

displayed in the chart title text box.

Similarly, to enter the description for the X-axis, select Axis Titles Primary

Horizontal Axis Title Title Below Axis; type Names and press Enter. To enter

the description for the Y-axis, select Axis Titles Primary Vertical Axis Title

Rotated Title; type Marks and press Enter.

Data Labels are used to label the elements of a chart with their actual data values.

Select Data Labels Outside End. You can now see the actual total marks of each

student in the chart.

Next, well enhance the appearance of the chart further by colouring the background.

Click in the Chart Area and activate the Format tab under Chart Tools. From the

Shape Styles group; click on a suitable style from the styles gallery. Yes, now the

chart looks great!

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Even after a chart has been created, you can select different data. Suppose you

decide that you want to create a chart for the marks of the first subject only and not

the total marks. Activate the contextual Design Tab. Now from the Data group,

click Select Data. The Select Data Source window is displayed and the data

currently used is highlighted in the chart. You may move this window a little if you

cannot view the highlighted data. Since you want different data, select the data in theName column and Subject 1 column and click OK in the Select Data Source

window. You can see that the chart now displays the marks of Subject 1.

Changing Chart Type

You can also change the chart type after it has been created. On the Design tab, in

the Type group, click Change Chart Type. In the displayed window, select a chart

type and click OK. Your chart is redesigned as per the new chart type.

Printing Charts

In a worksheet containing a chart, you may have other data as well. You may print the

chart along with the rest of the data on the worksheet in the normal way. To print only

the chart, click on the chart and then execute the Print command.

Types of Sparklines

New in Microsoft Excel 2010, a sparkline is a tiny chart in a worksheet cell that

provides a visual representation of data. Sparklines help in visualization of data trendsand bring meaning and context to numbers being reported. You can quickly see the

relationship between a sparkline and its underlying data, and when your data

changes you can see the change in the sparkline immediately. Unlike regular charts in

an Excel worksheet, sparklines are not objects; a sparkline is actually a tiny chart in

the background of a cell. You can enter text in a cell and use a sparkline as its

background, as shown in this picture. On the Insert tab, in the Sparklines group, you

can see that there are three types of sparklines Line, Column and Win/Loss.

The Column icon in the Sparklines group of the Insert tab is used to insert

Column sparklines. These are miniature column charts. Column charts make it easy to

see the differences in the data being compared.

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The Win/Loss icon in the Sparklines group of the Insert tab is used to insert

Win/Loss sparklines. A Win/Loss sparkline is similar to a column chart. In this type of

sparkline, negative values are displayed below the axis. This is usually used in the

sports field to indicate the wins and losses of a team. The data used for creation of

such sparklines is normally -1 for a loss and +1 for a win.

Creating Sparklines

The Line icon is used to insert Line sparklines. We shall create Line sparklines to

show the variations in the subject wise marks for each of the students. Select the

cells C10 to H29. On the Insert tab, in the Sparklines group, select Line. In the

Create Sparklines window, you can see the selected cells displayed in the Data

range box. In the Location Range box we need to specify where we want to place

the sparklines. Drag your mouse over cells L10 to L29. The Create Sparklines

window becomes smaller and the range over which you are dragging is displayed in

it. Once you release the mouse button, the window reverts to its original size. Click

OK. Here you are, your sparklines are ready! You can easily see the trends regardingwhether the marks are increasing or decreasing.

Modifying Sparklines

Lets make some changes to the sparklines. If you want to make the sparklines larger,

simply increase the row heights. Click any sparkline cell to display the contextual

Design tab under the heading Sparkline Tools. This tab contains various tools to

modify the sparklines. In the Show group, you may click the different boxes to

highlight the High Point, Low Point, First Point and Last Point. Click Markers to

highlight all points.

In the Style group, select a style to make the sparkline more colourful. In the Type

group, you may click Column to change the sparklines to miniature column charts. So

you can see that sparklines offer a completely different approach to visualizing data.

To delete sparklines, select them and on the Design tab, in the Group group, click

Clear.

Using Text Boxes

The Text Box icon is used to insert Text Boxes in your workbook. Text boxes give you

control over the position of a block of text in your worksheet. You can place text boxes

anywhere in the worksheet and format them as required. Let us create a text box to

display the school slogan. On the Insert tab, in the Text group, click Text Box.

Drag with the mouse and draw the text box at the top left corner of the worksheet

near the school name and logo. Enter the slogan using suitable fonts. To color the

background, on the contextual Format tab, select a suitable shape style.

You may insert headers and footers on the pages of y

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