Excel 2002/2003

The Basic Worksheet

Spreadsheet, Workbook, Worksheet?

Before starting the first point is to define the difference between a Spreadsheet, Workbook and a Worksheet. A workbook is a spreadsheet file. By default, each workbook in Excel contains worksheets. The term spreadsheet is often used to refer to a workbook, when in actual fact, spreadsheet refers to the computer program, such as Excel. So, strictly speaking, when you open the Excel spreadsheet program it loads an empty workbook file consisting of blank worksheets for you to use.

Basic Worksheet: Layout

Title bar Menu bar Name box Select All Formula bar Column headers Row headers Active cell

Toolbars

Type a question for help

Vertical split bar

Vertical scroll bar Work area 256 columns 65,536 rows Tab split bar Horizontal split bar Tab scroll buttons Horizontal scroll bar Worksheet tabs

Status bar

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Basic Worksheet: Title Bar

Title Bar. Contains the name of the application, file name, and buttons to Minimize, Maximize (or Restore Down), and Close the application.

Application Name Minimize

Maximize Close

File Name Restore Down

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Basic Worksheet: Menu Bar

Menu Bar. Contains all the pull-down menus that enable you to select various commands. It also contains the Type a Question for Help box and buttons to Minimize, Maximize (Restore Down), and Close the active document.

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Basic Worksheet: Toolbars

Toolbars. The toolbars contain a series of buttons that when clicked perform Excel commands. There are 18 different toolbars plus you can build you own customized toolbars (highly recommended). Right click on the toolbar to bring up the other toolbar choices. The normal Excel setup has the Standard and Formatting toolbars at the top and the Drawing Toolbar at the bottom. The example shown below are toolbars I customized with my most commonly used commands.

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Basic Worksheet: Toolbars

The picture to the left shows the various toolbars choices. An arrow indicates which toolbars are active. Note the toolbars I built for myself. To maximize the work area only select the tool bars you need at any time.

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Basic Worksheet: Formula Bar

Formula Bar: This bar has three areas: Name Box. Displays the current cell reference (location). This box will also display the name of the cell or group of cells if they have been named. Cancel, Enter, Insert Function. Cancel and Enter are used when entering and editing data in the current cell. The Insert Function button is used to bring up the Insert Function dialog box. Very useful if you cant remember a functions name or purpose. The third area displays the contents or formula in the current cell.
Cancel, Enter, Insert Function

Name Box Cell contents

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Basic Worksheet: Insert Function Dialog Box

The dialog box gives you a choice of which functions to display in the Select a Function box.
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Basic Worksheet: Row & Column Headers

Row & Column Headers Row: Numbers
65536 max (1-65536)

Column: Alphabetic
256 max (A-IV)

Grand Total of 16,777,216 cells. The row and column of the active cell is highlighted. The active cell always has a thick border around it.

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Basic Worksheet: A1 vs. R1C1 Reference Style

The styles are different methods of referencing a cells location. Note the examples below. The active cell is R4C2 vs. B4. The only change is that columns now use numbers vs. alphabetics. There are pros and cons to both styles. The A1 style is shorter in length thus quicker to type. The R1C1 is intuitively easier to determine a cells location (i.e. R2C55 vs. BC2). The A1 style is typically the recognized standard. The choice of styles is made in Tools Options General tab.

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Basic Worksheet: Select All

To select all the contents of the active worksheet click the Select All box. Note the entire work area is now highlighted.

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Basic Worksheet: Split Bars

Vertical and Horizontal Split Bars are used to divided the active worksheet into multiple work areas. They are located in the top and bottom on the right side of the worksheet. Just click & drag to make them work. The next page depicts what this can look like.

Split Bars

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Basic Worksheet: Split Bars

Note the worksheet is now divided into four areas. Look at the row and column headers. The division can also be just a horizontal or vertical split. To remove the split just move the Split Bar back to its original location. This function is also found under WindowSplit in the Menu toolbar (or WindowRemove Split).

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Basic Worksheet: Tabs

A workbook can have multiple worksheets (only limited by your computers memory). Tabs at the bottom of the work area are used to navigate between worksheets. Click on a tab to select the worksheet. The Tab Scroll buttons are only used to scroll the tabs back and forth. Use the buttons to scroll one tab to the left or right or to the first or last tab. These buttons dont select the worksheet.

Tabs

Tab Scroll Buttons

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Basic Worksheet: Tabs

Use the Tab Split Bar to expose more of the tabs; or Right click on the Tab Scroll buttons to bring up a list of all the worksheets. Click on a worksheet name to select it.

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Basic Worksheet: Status Bar

The Status Bar is at the bottom of the worksheet. The Status bar keeps you informed of the current state of the program. In the example you can see that besides being Ready there are also four other modes on: ADD, CAPS, NUM, SCRL

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Basic Worksheet: Status Bar

Some modes are turned on and off via the keyboard. For example CAPS is for Caps Lock. In addition to Ready you can see Enter or Edit on the left side. If manual calculation is turned-on you will see Calcul to the right of the Ready.
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Summary
This was an introduction to the basic Excel worksheet. It is important to understand the location of the different parts of the worksheet and their basic function.

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