Basics of Excel
Please sit in the back if you are inexperienced with
Excel—Heather will be there to help
2
Worksheets
• Excel’s main screen
is called a
“worksheet”.
• Each worksheet is
comprised of many
boxes, called
“cells”.
3
Selecting a Cell
• “Select” a cell by
clicking on it once
(don’t double click).
• You can move from
cell to cell with the
arrow keys.
4
Entering Information / The Formula Bar
• To enter information in
a cell, just start typing.
• When you are done
either
– Press the Enter
Key
– Press an arrow
key
• The information in the
selected cell is also
displayed in the
“formula bar” above
the worksheet.
5
Double Click to Modify a Cell
Double click to
change “hi there”
to “hello there”
6
Column Names (letters) & Row Names
(numbers)
• The columns of the
worksheet are
named with letters
• The rows are
named with
numbers
Selected
Cell
7
Cell Names (ex. B4)
• The name of a cell is Name Selected
a combination of the Box Cell
Letter Of The
Column that the cell
is in followed by the
Number Of The Row
that the cell is in.
• Example: the selected
cell in the picture is
named B4 (NOT 4B)
• Excel automatically
shows the the name
of the currently
selected cell in the
“name box” (located
above the worksheet).
8
Excel Formulas
• You must have an equals sign ( = ) as the first
character in a cell that contains a formula.
• The = sign tells excel that the contents of the cell is
a formula
• Without the = sign, the formula will not calculate
anything. It will simply display the text of the formula.
