How to Basics of Microsoft Excel

A spreadsheet is a rectangle table or grid used to present columns of categories, usually for financial purposes. Excel is a spreadsheet application whose files are referred to as Workbooks. An Excel workbook has one or more worksheets. Listed below are the elements of an Excel worksheet. While reviewing the steps, you can click on the image to enlarge it. For some hands-on assistance, try printing out these instructions to have them in front of you when you have Excel open.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Microsoft Excel 2003

1. 
    
   Control Menu

   CONTROL MENU. The Excel logo is one way to close Excel. You can either click the logo once and choose Close from the drop-down menu or you can double click the logo to close Excel.

2. 
    
   Title Bar

   TITLE BAR. The Title Bar identifies the workbook by name. When you open a new Excel workbook, it will read Book1. After you save it, the file name will display instead of Book1. While Excel is open, the number after the word “book” will continue to rise as more new workbooks are started.

3. 
    
   Min-Max-Close

   MINIMIZE, RESTORE/MAXIMIZE AND CLOSE BUTTONS. Over on the right of the screen, you have the option to minimize the screen by clicking on the minus sign, expand the screen by clicking on the maximize button, or close Excel by clicking on the X.
   
   Immediately below that, you can see a second set of minimize, maximize, and close buttons. That set of buttons is just for the active workbook. If you click the minus sign, the workbook all but disappears. To return it to its previous size, click on the maximize button (the center of the three buttons). Clicking on the X would close the workbook, but leave Excel open.

4. 
    
   Menu Bar

   MENU BAR. The menu bar provides access to Excel features through pull-down menus. You can click on the Menu item and a drop-down list will display.

5. 
    
   Help

   HELP. The Help box is an alternative to using the animated Office Assistant or Help menu for help. You just type a question in the box, press enter, and a task pane of help topics are returned for the requested subject. This is an excellent place to go for answers to your Excel issues.

6. 
    
   Toolbars

   STANDARD & FORMATTING TOOLBAR Partially displayed at left, the Standard and Formatting Toolbars provide quick access to frequently used Excel features. With Excel open on your computer, you can hover your pointer over any button to view its purpose.

7. 
    
   Formula Bar

   FORMULA BAR. If a clicked-on cell has data in it, you can view it in the Formula Bar.

8. 
    
   Task Panes

   TASK PANES. Partially displayed is the location on the right side of of an Excel worksheet is a task pane, which provides access to commands. If you click the down arrow next to Getting Started, you will see a listing of other Task Panes from which to choose

9. 
    
   Worksheet Arrows

   WORKSHEET NAVIGATION ARROWS. If there are multiple worksheets that are partially covered, you can use the arrows to navigate left or right to the respective worksheet. The outside arrows will take you to the very last or first worksheet, while the arrows in the center will jump you one worksheet at a time, left or right.

10. 
     
    Worksheet Tabs

    WORKSHEET TABS. An Excel file is referred to as a workbook, and it can contain multiple worksheets. Here, you can see that this workbook has three worksheets. You can click on the worksheet tab to make that the active window.

11. 
     
    Scroll Bars

    VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL SCROLL BARS. You would use the scroll bars to position different portions of the worksheet in the window, allowing you to move and down, or right and left.

12. 
     
    Tab Split Bars

    TAB SPLIT BARS. Whether or not you have multiple worksheets, you can cover part of the worksheet tabs or all the tabs so only the selected active sheet displays. To do that, you click on the Tab Split Bar on the left end of horizontal scroll bar and drag it left to cover up all the worksheet tabs. Or, you can cover up a portion of the worksheet tabs.
    
    You can drag the tab split bar on the top of vertical scroll bar down to split the screen horizontally. You can drag left the tab split bar on the right end of the horizontal scroll bar to split the screen vertically.

13. 
     
    Status Bar

    STATUS BAR. The Status Bar’s first section describes the current mode. When Excel is in the Ready mode, it is able to accept entries into the cells. If it says Edit, it is currently in the editing mode in the Active Cell. If it says Enter, data is currently being entered into the Active Cell. It will show Point if you are working on a formula and currently pointing or clicking in a cell as part of that formula.
    
    On the right side of the Status Bar there are indicators pertaining to the current mode of the keyboard. The indications include CAPS for when the Caps Lock is on, NUM for when the Number Lock is on and OVR for when in the Overtype mode.

Resources

• Free Video Tutorial: How to Create Simple Formulas in Excel

[Haoie]

on 8/22/2008 Nice source. Spreadsheets are very important.

[showpup]

on 5/10/2008 Fantastic resource. Thank you. I especially appreciate your taking the time to insert the step by step screen shot photos. Very helpful. 5 stars.