Microsoft Excel 2011: Basic Tutorial

1. Create a new blank workbook In Excel, you create and save data in a workbook. You can start with a blank workbook, an existing saved workbook, or a template. When you open Excel, the Excel Workbook Gallery opens. It provides a variety of template choices and quick access to recent workbooks. Let's use the Excel Workbook Gallery to open a blank workbook. If you have not already opened Excel, on the Dock, click Excel.

In the Excel Workbook Gallery, under Templates, click All.

Tip If you don't see the Workbook Gallery, quit and then reopen Excel. Click Excel Workbook, and then click Choose.

Tip To always start with a blank document when you open Excel, select the Don't show this when opening Excel check box.
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Notice that a blank workbook (Workbook1) appears.

Hints

To create a new blank workbook at any time in Excel, on the File menu, click New Workbook (also written as File > New Workbook in this tutorial). To show the Excel Workbook Gallery at any time while using Excel, click File > New from Template.

2. Explore the Excel interface In a new blank workbook, you can simply click in a cell and begin entering data. However, before you begin entering data, you should familiarize yourself with some of the user interface elements that you can use in all workbooks. Let's take a look at some of the Excel user interface elements.

Menu bar: The area at the top of the screen where all menus are displayed.The File, Edit, and View menus have the most commonly used menu commands. Standard toolbar: The toolbar that displays the name of the workbook (in this case, Workbook1) and buttons for some of the most common tasks, such as opening, saving, and printing a workbook. Ribbon: The tabbed command bar at the top of a window or work area that organizes features into logical groups. The Home tab has the most commonly used commands for formatting workbook data. Name box and formula bar: The address of the active cell appears here. If you dont see this box, click View > Formula Bar. Worksheet: A single page in a workbook. Each workbook can have multiple worksheets, or "sheets." Cell: The intersection point between a column (A, B, C) and a row (1, 2, 3). Each cell has an address (for example, cell A1 is the intersection point of column A, and row 1). The active cell has a blue highlight around it. Hints

To hide the ribbon while you work, on the right side of the ribbon, click . To see a tip for a button on the ribbon or toolbar, rest the pointer over the button.

3. Move within worksheet cells To enter data, you first need to know how to move between worksheet cells. You can use a mouse, keyboard, or menus to get to any cell. Let's explore some of the ways that you can move between cells. Click cell B2. The column heading (B) and row heading (2) appear in dark gray, and a highlight appears around the cell to indicate that it is the active cell.

Tip The cell address, or "cell reference," for the active cell (for example, B2) appears in the Name box, located to the left of the formula bar. On your keyboard, press the TAB key once. Cell C2 becomes the active cell.

Press the down arrow key twice, and then press the left arrow key twice. Cell A4 becomes the active cell.

Click Edit > Go To.

In the Reference box, type A1, and then click OK.

Notice that cell A1 is now the active cell.

Hints

To change the color of the highlight around the active cell, on the Apple menu, click System Preferences. Then, under Personal, click Appearance, and select the highlight color that you want. For the change to take effect, you must quit and reopen Excel.

4. Enter data Data in Excel can be text, numbers, or a combination of the two. To enter data, you simply type in the cell where you want the data to appear. Let's enter some basic text and numerical data.

In cell B1, type North, in cell C1, type East, and in cell D1, type South.

Note To commit data to a cell, you can press RETURN, TAB, or any of the arrow keys. The key you press determines which cell becomes the active cell. In cell A2, type January, in cell A3, type February, and in cell A4, type March.

In cell B2, type 5000, in cell B3, type 10000, and in cell B4, type 15000.

Notice that text data appears aligned to the left in cells and numerical data appears aligned to the right.

5. Select and format data To make data easier to read and understand, you can format it. For example, you might make the top row of column labels (for example, North, East, and South) appear centered and bold. To format data, you first have to indicate which data you want to work with by selecting it.
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Let's select a range of cells and format the data in the selected cells. Move the pointer over cell B1, and when the pointer becomes a white cross, hold down the mouse button and drag across cells B1, C1 and D1. The highlight around the cells indicates that they are selected.

On the Home tab, under Font, click Bold.

Under Alignment, click Center Text.

Select cells B2, B3, and B4.

On the Home tab, under Number, click Currency.

Notice that the geographical regions are formatted as bold and centered, and that the numerical data is formatted as currency.

Hints

To select non-adjacent cells, hold down the z key, and then click each cell that you want to select. To see additional formatting options, select the cell(s) that you want to format, and then click Format > Cells. To clear a selection, click any worksheet cell. 6: Copy and paste formatting and data To save time, rather than reentering and reformatting data, you can copy and paste data, as well as data formatting, into other cells. Let's copy and paste some data and worksheet formatting. Select cell B1, and then on the Standard toolbar, click Format Painter.

Notice that a moving marquee appears around the selected cell (B1), and the cursor now appears as a small paintbrush and white cross.

Select cells A2, A3, and A4.

Notice that cells A2, A3, and A4 have the same formatting as cell B1, and the cursor now appears as the regular white cross.

Select cells B2, B3, and B4.

Click Edit > Copy.

Tip To copy data by using the keyboard, hold down the command key, and then press C. This is a keyboard shortcut, and you will see it written in Help as z+C. Click cell C2, and then click Edit > Paste. A copy of the data appears in cells C2, C3, and C4.

Tip The keyboard shortcut for the Paste command is z+V. Click in cell D2, and then click Edit > Paste.

Notice that a copy of the numerical data now appears in column C and column D.

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Hints

If you see ######## in a cell instead of data, the column is too narrow for the data, and you need to increase the width of the column. To hide the moving marquee around a copied selection, press ESC (located in the upper-left corner of your keyboard). To use the Format Painter to format multiple, non-adjacent cells, on the Standard toolbar, double-click Format Painter, and then select (or "paint") the cells that you want to format. When you are finished formatting, press ESC. To undo a mistake entering data, click Edit > Undo (or press z+Z). 7. Edit data If you enter data incorrectly, or if you just want to change something, Excel makes it easy to edit data at any time. Let's edit data by replacing the data, editing directly in the cell, and editing in the formula bar. Click cell C2, type 6000, and then press RETURN.

Double-click cell C3. The cursor blinks in the cell to indicate that you are in cell editing mode.

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Press the right arrow key until the cursor reaches the right of the cell, press DELETE to make the value 1000, and then press RETURN.

Tip The keyboard shortcut to enter cell editing mode is CTRL+U. If it is not already selected, select cell C4. In the formula bar, select 15, and then type 7 to make the value 7000. Then press RETURN.

Notice that C5 is the active cell and all of your edits are committed to the cells in column C.

Hints

To delete data from a cell, click the cell, and then press DELETE. On a MacBook keyboard, you must press FN+DELETE. To exit cell editing mode without committing a change, press ESC.

8. Insert and resize columns As you enter and edit data, you can insert new columns to make room for new data or resize columns to make data fit better in the column.
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Let's insert and resize columns. Click the column D heading. A highlight appears around all cells in the column to indicate that the column is selected.

Click Edit > Copy. Hold down CONTROL and click the column C heading, and then click Insert Copied Cells.

Notice that Excel inserts a copy of the cells and shifts the other data to the right.

Click cell C1, type Northwest Region, and then press RETURN.

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Move the pointer over the border between column heading C and D. When the pointer appears as a double-headed arrow, double-click.

Tip To set an exact width of a column, drag the border between column headings. Notice that column C resizes to the width of the text.

Hints

You can select and insert rows in the same way as you do columns. To force text to wrap to the width of a column, first select the column. Then, on the Home tab, under Alignment, click Wrap Text, and then select an option. 9. Save a workbook in a new folder At this point, none of the changes that you have made to the workbook have been saved. The generic filename (Workbook1) above the Standard toolbar indicates that the workbook has not been saved. Let's save the workbook in a new folder on your computer. Click File > Save.

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In the Save As box, enter a name for the workbook (for example, Excel Basics).

On the Where pop-up menu, click Documents, then click the arrow next to the Save As box so that the arrow faces upward. All folders in your Documents folder appear.

Click New Folder.

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In the New Folder dialog box, enter Excel Practice Folder, and then click Create.

Click Save. Notice that the file name (for example, Excel Basics.xlsx) of the saved workbook appears above the Standard toolbar.

Hints

To open a workbook that you worked on recently, click File > Open Recent, and then click the workbook that you want to open. To see a list of all Excel workbooks saved on your computer, click File > New from Template. Then in the left pane, under Recent Documents, click All. To quit Excel, click Excel > Quit Excel, or press z+Q.

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Quick Reference Card To Create a new blank workbook Open the Excel Workbook Gallery at any time Hide the ribbon Move between cells in a sheet Format cells by using the Format Painter Hide the moving marquee that appears around a copied selection Find the keyboard shortcut for a command Edit data directly in a cell

Do this In the Excel Workbook Gallery, click Excel Workbook, and then click Choose. If the Excel Workbook Gallery is not open, click File > New Workbook. Click File > New from Template. On the right side of the ribbon, click .

Click in a cell, or use the arrow, TAB, or RETURN keys on your keyboard, or click Edit > Go To, and then type a cell address (for example, A1). Select the cells that use the format that you want to copy. Then, on the Standard toolbar, click Format Painter, and then select (or "paint") the cells that you want to format. Press ESC.

Keyboard shortcuts are located to the right of a command on a menu. For example, on the Edit menu, the keyboard shortcut for Copy is z+C. Double-click in the cell that you want to edit, and then make your changes. The keyboard shortcut to enter editing mode is CTRL+U. Press ESC. Drag the border between column headings (for example, A, B, C). Select the column. Then, on the Home tab, under Alignment, click Wrap Text, and then select an option. Click File > Open Recent, and then click the workbook file name.

Exit editing mode without committing changes. Set an exact width of a column Force text to wrap to the width of a column Open a recently opened workbook

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More Hints A worksheet, or "sheet," is a single page in a workbook. Each workbook can have multiple sheets. The cell address, or "cell reference," for the active cell (for example, B2) appears in the Name box, located to the left of the formula bar. The column and row headings (for example, A, B, C, and 1, 2, 3) for selected cells appear in a darker gray than non-selected cells. To commit data to a cell, you can press RETURN, TAB, or any of the arrow keys. The key you press determines which cell becomes the active cell. By default, text data appears aligned to the left in cells and numerical data appears aligned to the right. To format data (for example, to make numerical data appear as currency), you first have to select the cells containing the data that you want to format. Some of the more commonly used keyboard shortcuts include: z+C to copy data, z+V to paste data, and z+Z to undo the last change. You can edit data directly in the cell or in the formula bar. Closing a workbook does not quit the application. To quit Excel, click Excel > Quit Excel.

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