Microsoft Excel XP Tutorial

Peter Kitson

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Sample Chapter From Microsoft Excel XP Tutorial
Copyright © University of Kansas

Introduction

Excel is a spreadsheet program that allows users to create worksheets that store
information in workbook files. The built-in functions allow users to create and edit
formulas; copy and move data; format worksheets; and set up worksheets for printing.

Opening Excel

When you first open the Excel program, a new workbook (named Book1) will be created
automatically with three worksheets. The worksheets will be labeled Sheet1, Sheet2, and
Sheet3. Worksheet tabs can be found at the bottom of the workbook window. To move
from sheet to sheet, you can click the sheet tabs.

Each worksheet contains 65,536 rows and 256 columns. The columns are labeled
alphabetically and run along the top of the worksheet. The rows are labeled numerically
and run along the left side of the worksheet. Columns are labeled A through Z, AA
through AZ, BA through BZ, etc. Rows are numbered from 1 through 65,536. A cell
forms where a row and column intersect. The scroll bars on the right and along the
bottom of the worksheet can be used to scroll to any location of the worksheet.

Text

Text is any combination of numbers, spaces, and nonnumeric characters. All cells that
Excel considers to be text will be left aligned. In the following example, these entries
would be treated as text:

1025A63N (this has numbers and letters)
123XYZ (this has numbers and letters)
10[72 (contains a non-numeric character )
123 456 (contains a space)

Numbers

Numbers include the numeric characters 0-9 and the following special characters:

, + - ( ) / E e $ % .

If a number is wider than the cell, ######## is displayed. To display the cell contents,
resize the column. Excel stores numbers up to 15 digits of accuracy (but fewer digits
may be displayed at any time). The largest positive number is 9.99999999999999E307
and the smallest positive number is 1E-307. By default, negative numbers are preceded
by a minus sign. However, they can be formatted to be enclosed in parenthesis or
displayed in red. Entering a dollar sign ($) before a number or a percent (%) symbol after
changes the display of the number.

Dates and Times

Internally, Excel stores dates and times as numbers. They can be displayed, however, in
several built-in formats. The way that a time or date is displayed on a worksheet depends
on the format applied to the cell. When a date or time is entered into a cell, Excel
automatically changes the cell’s format from General to one of the built in date or time
format. By default, dates and times are right aligned in a cell. If Excel cannot recognize
the date or time format, the date or time is formatted as text, which is left aligned in the
cell. Date and time can be mixed into one cell, however slashes and hyphens cannot be
used to separate the date from the time. To type a date and time in the same cell, separate
the date and time with a space.

To type a time based on the 12-hour clock, type a space followed by AM or PM (or A or
P) after the time. Otherwise, Excel bases the time on the 24-hour clock. For example, if
you type 3:00 instead of 3:00 PM, the time is stored as 3:00 AM.

Times and dates can be added, subtracted, and used in other calculations. To use a date or
time in a formula, enter the date or time as text enclosed in quotation marks. For
example, the following formula would display a difference of 68:

="5/12/94"-"3/5/94"

Note that to get meaningful results from date and time arithmetic, the format of the cell
with the result should be a number format, not a date or time format. For example, the
above subtraction would yield “3/8/1900” in a cell formatted for dates.