(Revised by E.M. Wilcox, August, 1998)
SPREADSHEETS
A spreadsheet is a matrix of information, organized by rows and columns. Each cell of the spreadsheet may contain a number, a character string, or a mathematical formula. An illustrative spreadsheet is shown below.
A B C
D 1 Personal Budget Sheet: September 1998 2 3 Actual 4 Budget
Expense Saving 5 6 Entertainment
$50.00 $60.00 ($10.00) 7 Books $20.00
$0.00 $20.00 8 Groceries
$150.00 $120.00 $30.00 9 Rent $150.00
$150.00 $0.00 10 Stationery $10.00 $0.00 $10.00 11 Transportation
$20.00 $10.00 $10.00 12 Utilities
$30.00 $30.00 $0.00 13 14 Total $430.00
$370.00 $60.00
The spreadsheet has 14 rows and four columns (A-D).
which means, subtract the number in Cell C6 from the number in Cell B6 and put the result in Cell D6. (All formulas begin with equal signs.) The formula in Cell B14 might be
which means add the numbers in Cells B6 through B12 and put the result in Cell B14.
RUNNING EXCEL ON UNITY/EOS WORKSTATIONS
IMPORTANT COMMANDS
Under Program Manager, double-click on MS Office and then on Excel. Excel will open in a new window. If you have never used Excel before, you may want to take a few minutes to work through the "Getting Started" tutorial. Click on "Return to Microsoft Excel" to begin using Excel.
Save frequently while you are working!
TUTORIAL
Getting Started
Some of our descriptions may not exactly match what you seen on your screen. The reason is that two different versions of Excel are installed on the Windows NT and UNIX file servers.
Moving around the worksheet
Scrolling the worksheet.
In the remainder of this tutorial, you will produce a spreadsheet that appears as follows:
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Trial Worksheet: M= 3 |
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| Run | X | Y | M(X-Y) |
| 1 | 2 | 4 | -6 |
| 2 | 3 | 4 | -3 |
| 3 | 6 | 2 | 12 |
| TOTAL | 11 | 10 | 3 |
You will enter the first row, the column titles, the entries for the Columns headed RUN, X, and Y, and the word TOTAL, and you will then enter formulas that Excel will use to calculate the values of M(X-Y) and the column totals.
Entering labels and numbers in cells
We will show you how to enter labels and numbers in the next series of instructions, and we will eventually get to formulas.
Note: Throughout the remainder of the exercise we will tell you to type things enclosed in angled brackets (< >) followed by [Return]: for example, type < 26.3 > [Return]. (Don't type it now.) When you see instructions like this, type what is in the brackets but not the brackets themselves and then hit the Return key.
11. Enter a label in a cell.
12. Move the cursor to Cell C1 (point at it and click the left mouse button). Type < 3 >.
Don't type [Return] yet. (If you did, type another 3.) As soon as you typed the number, it appeared on the edit line preceded by an =. If you had wanted the 3 to be considered a label, you would have preceded it with an apostrophe ('3).
13. Type [Return] to enter the 3 in Cell C1.
14. Move the cursor to Cell A3. Type RUN[Return].
Notice that the text appears at the left of the cell (i.e., it is left-justified in the column). Excel does this automatically when you enter anything but a number or formula.
15. Justify and center labels.
16. Enter a number and move the cursor down one cell.
Move the cursor to Cell A5 and type 1. Then hit the down-arrow key to enter the number and move the cursor down to the next cell. Notice that numbers are automatically right justified.
17. Enter 2 and 3 respectively in Cells A6 and A7, moving down with each entry.
Trial Wormsheet: M = RUN X Y 1 5 4 2 3 4 3 6 2 TOTAL
Not shown but still part of the worksheet is the 27 in Cell AV61.
Erasing and editing cell contents
18. Erase the contents of a cell. Let's now get rid of that 27.
19. Edit (revise) the contents of a cell.
Choose the File menu and select Save As... After a few seconds a dialog window will come up with your current directory name in the Selection window. Click on the file name and type [mod1.xls]. The file worksheet has now been stored under the name mod1.xls and the file name appears at the top of the spreadsheet window. A convenient shortcut for saving the spreadsheet is the Save button on the tool bar, which appears as a floppy disk icon.
20. Select a range with the mouse.
21. Deselect.
22. Select a range using the Select command.
23. Select an entire column, an entire row, or the complete worksheet..
Saving the revised worksheet.
24. Choose the File menu and select Save. Alternatively, click the disk icon on the tool bar. The current version of the spreadsheet will be saved under the same file name (mod1.xls).
You should never work for more than three minutes without saving. If the system crashes while you are working, you will lose everything you have done since the last save.
Quitting Excel
25. Choose the File menu and select Exit.
You can now log off and take a break or proceed directly to Step 26 to continue the exercise. Before you log off, be sure to close the windows emulator.
Recalling stored worksheets
If you logged off before, bring up Excel again. (On a UNIX workstation, press the middle mouse button to bring up the Applications Menu and select MS-Windows Emulators - Soft Windows; under Program manager double click on MS Office; double click on Excel.)
26. Open the previously saved file.
Choose the File menu and select Open. When the dialog window comes up, point to the name of the desired file (mod1.xls), first scrolling to it or changing the drive if necessary, and then double-click with the left mouse button. The worksheet generated previously should appear on the screen. If it does not, recreate it.
Entering Formulas
27. Enter a column heading.
28. Enter a formula in a cell.
Note the following points about formulas:
29. Enter a formula by pointing and clicking on component cells.
Keeping the cursor on Cell D5,
The same formula has now been entered in Cell D5, with the same result.
30. Change the value of a cell that appears in a formula.
Copying a Formula
31. Copy a formula in one cell into selected adjacent cells.
The formula has now been copied, with the appropriate changes in cell addresses having been made automatically. (Check this: click on Cell D6 and look at the formula in the edit line, and then do the same for Cell D7.)
Relative and Fixed Cell Addresses in Formulas
Excel Functions
32. Move to Cell B9. Type < =SUM(B5:B7) >[Return].
You have just used an Excel function called SUM, which calculates the sum of the cell values in its argument (in this case, Cells B5 through B7).
33. Copy the formula in Cell B9 into Cells C9 and D9.
34. Save.
35. Change a cell value and recalculate the spreadsheet.
Printing a Spreadsheet
36. Print the worksheet.
If you only wanted to print a portion of the spreadsheet you would select the desired range and then click on "Selection" in the dialogue box. If you have a number of sheets and want to print all of them, you would choose "Entire Workbook."
37. Exit from Excel. Choose the File menu and select Exit.
APPENDIX: EXCEL FUNCTIONS
If a function has multiple arguments, the argument values or the addresses of the cells containing these values may be listed as ranges (C3:C9), or as individual cell addresses and/or numbers separated by commas (A4,C5,17.3), or a combination (A5,B4:B8,C3). To get a complete list of functions and more information about them, use the on-line help facility.
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ABS(X) |
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COS(X) |
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EXP(X) |
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INT(X) |
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LN(X) |
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LOG(X) |
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RADIANS(X) |
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RAND() |
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SIN(X) |
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SQRT(X) |
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TAN(X) |
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AVERAGE(X:Y) |
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RSQ(R1,R2) |
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COUNT(X:Y) |
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MAX(X:Y) |
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MIN(X:Y) |
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SUMSQ(X:Y) |
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STDEV(X:Y) |
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SUM(X:Y) |
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VARS(X:Y) |
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MDETERM(M) |
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MINVERSE(M) |
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MMUL(M1,M2) |
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TRANSPOSE(M) |
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