A quick guide to using Excel. (A PDF for printing is here)

Excel is actually no more difficult to use than a word processor. In fact, you can think of it as a word processor for numbers. There are, however a few differences as you can see in the following figure.

• Menu functions include File/New, File/Open. and many of the operations that you already know from word. Some of the menu functions shown on my spreadsheet will not be seen on your (Quicksheet, Documents to Go and ThinkDB.
• The tool bar has many of the common functions listed (file stuff, printing, cutting and pasting, sorting, etc.).
• Format tools can bold text or change color and work pretty much the same as in Word.
• Unlike word, which has only rows (unless you work in a table), Excel has both rows and columns.
• The intersection of a row and column is called a cell. Cells can contain words, numbers, or even formulae. Cells also have an address given as their column-row characters. The cell indicated in the above figure has the address A1. The one below it is A2. The one to the right of it is B1. Cell addresses are important when using formulae.
• Another difference between Excel and Word is that Excel makes it especially easy to make a graph.

Let's try some operations.... Follow along with your own copy of excel.

Create a new spreadsheet (File...New or use the toolbar as shown on the right.
Go to the first cell (A1) by clicking on it. Note that your cursor has changed to the excel cell editing cursor (a plus sign) rather than an arrow. Note also that the cell address is shown right above the cursor.
We're going to make a two column table. The first will just be the numbers 1,2,3...10. For the second column we'll put in random numbers. Enter the number 1 in cell A1 and hit return.
We could continue numbering from 2 through 10 and it wouldn't be too much work, but if we needed 1000 numbered rows that would be a real pain. So instead, we'll use a formula! Go to A2 and type +1+ (the first + tells excel to expect a formula; you can also use = or any other math notation to start a formula).
Click on cell A1 with your mouse (or just type in A1). The formula (+1+A1) tells excel to take 1 and add it to the contents of cell A1
Hit return and excel calculates the result of the formula (2 in cell A2).
If we had to enter the formula for the rest of the cells, we would be doing even more work! But excel has a trick. Click on cell A2 where you just entered the formula and then choose Copy from the edit menu (or Ctrl+C- most of the same shortcuts from Word work the same in excel).
Use your mouse to select A3 through A10 (click and drag to highlight, just like you would a sentence in Word).
Now paste the formula from the step before last into the highlighted area (Edit...paste or Ctrl+V)
And there you are! The formulae have been entered. Note that in Word when you paste something you get exactly the same characters pasted into the destination. In a spreadsheet formulae are updated for their new location (address). While the formula in A2 is =1+A2, the formula in A3 is =1+A3 (check it out by clicking on A3 and looking in the formula bar (next to the fx window).
Now let's enter the random numbers in column B. Like before we'll use a formula rather than typing in 10 random numbers. Click on the B1 address and then choose the pull-down next to the function list (a sigma or "S"). If you don't see the menu list, then make sure you select the little down arrow next to sigma, not sigma itself. Hit the escape key if you get the wrong window (escape backs out of nearly everything).
I don't remember where random is stored, so I typed in "random" in the search window and hit the Go button. Excel came up with this. I highlighted RAND and there's a description shown below. That function will work, so I clicked the OK button.
Gotta hit OK again after the information panel.
And there we are! A Random Number! (Joy!) Your number will be different.
Now we'll copy the formula for a random number to B2 through B10. Make sure cell B1 is selected then Edit..copy or Ctrl+C.
Click and drag to highlight the destination.
And then paste the results (Edit..Paste or Ctrl+V)
And a bunch more random numbers!
Go to A11 and enter SUM:, MEAN:, and Count: as shown. Use the text formatting tools to Right-justify the words.
Next to sum, let's calculate the sum using a formula (Click on the pull-down next to sigma, select the Math & Trig category, scroll down to SUM and hit OK.
Unlike Rand, which has no arguments, you have to tell sum what needs summing (B1 through B10- add them all up). Click on the figure at the right for a readable version. Highlight B1 through B10 using your mouse and click OK.
There's our SUM! Again, your result will be different since your computer will have calculated different random numbers.
Use the same method to enter the Mean or Average. You'll find average under the statistical menu.
Highlight B1 through B10
As shown here. This tells excel where to get the mean.
Click OK.
Now do the count, also under statistical.
Highlight B1 through B10...
And hit OK. Now let's make a chart. Tell excel what you want to chart by clicking-dragging to highlight B1 through B10. Then click on the Chart Wizard as shown in the tools menu at the right.
We'll make a line chart. Navigate to the line chart and choose the first.
An example chart is shown. Click Next.
You can give a chart title and legends for the X and Y axis.
The axis tab gives you some other options.
Gridlines Tab
Click Show legend off. If you look in the last picture you can see "Series 1" on the chart. Sometimes you may have more than one column plotted on the same graph. In those cases the legend helps you keep the various lines straight (maybe blue vs. green vs. red).
Data label tab...
Show a data table?
Hit next.
Charts can be placed on the sheet you are now using, or on a separate sheet. I like them on the same sheet. Click finish.
A chart is made and placed on your data sheet. It can be re-sized and moved (click on the picture at the right to see a larger version).
Anyway, here's a resized and positioned graph.
You can also insert rows or columns. Click on A1, then insert a row.
Row inserted!
Type in headings, center them, and Bold them.