How to Set Up a Basic Excel Spreadsheet

Spreadsheet cells can contain text, numbers, formulas or other objects.

Microsoft Excel allows you to create and work with spreadsheets. Each spreadsheet is a grid of cells formed by columns and rows. You can set up a basic Excel spreadsheet that can perform mathematical calculations on the numbers in specified rows, allowing you to update individual cells and have Excel automatically update the calculated values. Or, you can use a spreadsheet to create a document and arrange data in spreadsheet format. A spreadsheet can include both numbers and text, and cells can have custom colors and other text-formatting options.

Instructions

1. Open Microsoft Excel by clicking "Start," "All Programs," "Microsoft Office" and then "Microsoft Excel." Microsoft Excel will open with a new, empty spreadsheet.

2. Click a cell on the spreadsheet and type a number or value to fill in the cell. If you want to insert a link, image, shape or other type of special object, click the "Insert" tab on the ribbon at the top of the window and select from the Insert pane the type of object you want to insert.

3. Select a column or a row of cells by clicking the first cell, holding "Shift" and clicking the last cell.

4. Click the "Formulas" tab on the ribbon at the top of the window.

5. Add the contents of the selected cells by clicking the "Autosum" menu at the upper-left corner of the Formulas pane and selecting "Sum" in the menu. You can also select another mathematical operation to perform in the menu, such as "Average." The cell below your selected cells will be filled with the formula. When you change the original cells, this cell will automatically update with the new sum or average of the selected cells.

6. Move a cell, such as the cell with the formula in it, by clicking it, pressing "Ctrl" and "X" to cut the cell, and then clicking a new cell and pressing "Ctrl" and "V" to paste the cell. Note that the cell will appear as a number on the spreadsheet, but it has a formula, such as "=SUM(A1:A3)," in the text box above the spreadsheet when you click the cell.

7. Click the "Home" tab on the ribbon and use the formatting tools on the Home pane to apply fonts, sizes, colors, highlights and text-alignment settings to cells on your spreadsheet. The formatting changes will be applied to the currently selected cells when you click them.

8. Click the "File" menu, select "Save" and provide a file name to save your Excel spreadsheet.

Tips & Warnings

• Excel includes templates, which you can use to put your own data in a spreadsheet that's already been set up. Create a new spreadsheet from a template by clicking the "File" menu, clicking "New" and selecting a template from the list of available templates.

• Click the "Sheet1," "Sheet2" and "Sheet3" tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet to switch between worksheets. Each Excel file can have multiple worksheets inside it. You can rename these worksheets by right-clicking them and clicking "Rename," or you can add a new one by clicking the "Insert Worksheet" icon to the right of the tabs.

References

• Microsoft: Basic Tasks in Excel 2010