Learning to excel using MICROSOFT EXCEL

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Learning to excel usingMICROSOFT EXCEL

• By Lauren Pickle

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How to get it

• Microsoft excel is one of the programs included
  in the Microsoft Office Package
• Latest edition Microsoft Excel 2003
• Most computers these days come with MS Office as
  part of the computer package
• But, if you dont have it or need an upgraded
  version, you can go to
• http//software.tamu.edu and buy it for 15 or
  upgrade for only 5. (This offer is for AM
  students only and has a one of each product
  limit.)
• Any electronics store that sells software or
  computer manufacturer website. Retail costs
  100-300 (depending on home or professional
  edition).

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Your Current Excel Usage

• None the battleship board looking screen is just
  too much for me!
• Minimal maybe to take attendance or record
  student grades
• Experienced using it for charts, spreadsheets,
  formula functions, graphs
• Would you use it more if you had a refresher
  session on the excel features and
  applications????

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Excel Tutorial

• Lets take the next few slides to learn or for
  some of you review the following applications of
  Excel
• Basics
• spreadsheets
• functions
• Charts and Graphs

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Basics

• Since Excel is a Microsoft program, most all its
  toolbars and some applications are identical to
  MS Word.
• So, since we all are pros at Word, just learning
  the few extra applications Excel has will bring
  everyone to excelling in excel!

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Spreadsheetsgetting started

• Spreadsheets are composed of rows, columns, and
  their intersections or cells
• Types of data that can be entered into the cells
  labels (texts), numbers, or formulas.
• Okaynow its time to refresh on the bells and
  whistles of spreadsheets.

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Spreadsheetsfreeze frames

• Picture 1
• By using a FREEZE FRAME, we can freeze the row or
  column of titles as we scroll down the screen...
  Great for being able to have a students name
  directly next to a grade instead of trying to
  guess if you are putting the grade in the right
  row.
• Picture 2
• Click Freeze Panes on the Window menu.
• Picture 3
• Freeze column titles by selecting the row below
  the titles.
• Freeze row titles by selecting the column to the
  right of the titles.
• Freeze both column and row titles by selecting
  the cell that is just below the column titles and
  to the right of the row titles.

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SpreadsheetsFill it up

• Type less and get more when you are making rows
  and columns of consecutive, patterns, or
  identical months, numbers, or labels.
• All you have to do is type in the first two cells
  and drag down or across from the bottom
  right-hand corner of the cell.
• Wonderful to use when students all get the
  same grade on a assignment and you can just click
  to fill instead of typing in the same number a
  hundred times.

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SpreadsheetsConditional Formatting

• Suppose you want to be able to easily see what
  students are not above a certain letter grade.
  Conditional Formatting is an easy way to have any
  condition of data bolded, colored, underlined,
  etc.
• All you have to do is click on Format, then
  select Conditional Formatting.
• The pop-up box will allow you to enter in the
  cell value and whether it is less than, greater
  than, or equal to as well as the type of
  formatting desired.

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SpreadsheetsQuick check

• Do you ever want to check a class test average
  without adding to the grade book workbook? Heres
  how you can simply check the average, min, max,
  and sum
• Just highlight the cells that you want to check
• Right click and select the calculating option
• Look at the bottom of the screen for the answer.

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Formulasauto formulas

• Inserting a function is easy! Just go to Insert
  and click on function.
• It will allow you to choose an appropriate
  function and then give you a box to fill in the
  numbers

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Formulasmore auto formulas

• List of some of the formulas you can use on
  excel

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FormulasManual

• If you already know how to type the function, you
  can skip the inserting function and just type
  the formula directly into the cell.
• Just make sure you begin each function with an
  equal sign and only include cells with numerals
  in them
• When writing a function you can either type or
  highlight the appropriate cell.

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Formulastroubleshooting

• What are the funny things that appear in a cell
  sometimes?
•     The column is not wide enough to display
  the contents of this cell. Increase column width,
  shrink the contents to fit the column, or apply a
  different number format.
• REF!    A cell reference is not valid. Cells may
  have been deleted or pasted over.
• NAME?    You may have misspelled a function name
  or used a name that Excel does not recognize. You
  should know that cells with error values such as
  NAME? may display a color triangle. If you click
  the cell, an error

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FormulasFormatting

• Formatting Numbers using the toolbar
• Just highlight cells that you want to apply the
  format to and click on the appropriate toolbar
  option.

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Charts and GraphsInserting

• Excel has made charts super-easy for users. All
  you have to do is highlight a data field and
  click on the Charts and Graphs Icon.
• The wizard allows you to choose a type of graph,
  labels, and titles. It will generate a beautiful
  looking chart/ graph and will automatically
  update anytime you change the data.

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Charts and Graphstypes

• The chart/graph wizard has several different
  types of charts and graphs to choose from

Pie
Bar
Stacked
Line
Scatter Plot
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Students and Excel

• Okay, now that we are a little more familiar with
  using excel ourselves, lets take these last few
  slides to look at how a pre-cal student can use
  excel to do learn concepts and do assignments.

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Examples

• Using charts, spreadsheets, and PMT functions to
  determine how much money needs to be deposited,
  or to figure out an interest rate, etc
• Charting and Graphing the progression of a
  particular stock overtime

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More Examples

• Using a scatter-plot graph to assist in looking
  at linear regression.
• Graphing and using Trig functions
• Finding average, maxes, and mins on a graph or
  table
• Comparing multiple data sets in the form of
  tables, graphs, or charts.