This is an intermediate guide to Microsoft Excel, for a basic introduction to Microsoft Excel
see the Introduction to Microsoft Excel. In this guide we look at more advanced uses of
Microsoft Excel including a closer look at formulas.
The use of formulas in spread sheets makes it easier to calculate totals. Totals can be placed
in any cell so various calculations can be made with the same spread sheet.
First we need to look at some terms that you will encounter while using spread sheets.
Cell
A small section of the spread sheet that contains an item of data
Data
The contents of a Cell, for example an amount like 5.68
Row
A horizontal line of cells denoted by a number down the left hand side
Column
A vertical line of cells denoted by a letter across the top
Total
A value which is the result of the calculation of two or more cells
Formula
A mathematical operation performed on the values of two or more cells
Right click
Pressing the right mouse button, this produces a relevant menu for the
item you have clicked on
Pressing the left mouse button to select something
Left click
If you are using this guide I will assume that you know and understand the basics of using a
spread sheet. The table you will be using for this tutorial is shown below.
Type this into Excel, business accounts will have business type labels and amounts, we are
using something easier to understand but the same principles still apply.
We’ll start off by looking at formulas. There are two ways of typing a formula, you can type
it directly into the cell you wish to put the result in or you can type it in using the formula
bar, this tutorial will use the formula bar. An example of the formula bar can be seen below.
This can be found along the top of the spread sheet
A formula whether typed into a cell or into the formula bar always starts with an = sign.
Formulas are designed around mathematical expressions such as addition +, subtraction -, division /
and multiplication * and sometimes the use of brackets () or [] and maybe logical operators
NOTE:- don’t forget the order of mathematical precedence, < brackets, exponent, multiplication or
division ( these operations are considered equal so it will carry them out on the order in which
they occur) then addition or subtraction (similar to multiplication and division they are considered
of equal importance and will be carried out in the order in which they occur.
I’ll explain this a bit further. In the example table above, take the line of values for potatoes,
say you wanted to add together weeks one and two, then divide by week 4 and add week 3.
Typing
= D6 + E6 /G6 + F6 into the formula bar would result in a total of 4.58 which would be
wrong because you told it to add D6 to E6 then divide by G6 and then add F6, what we want
to do is add together D6 and E6 then divide that total by G6 and add F6 to that, so the
correct formula would be:
=(D6 + E6) / G6 + F6 = (1.56 + 2) / 1.78 + 1.90 = 3.56 / 1.78 + 1.90 and the final total is 3.9
An exponent is a power, for example in algebra a * a = a squared written a ^ 2, the ^ (caret)
means raised to the power of and the 2 in this case is the exponent, another short way of
writing this, which you may have already encountered is a exp 2.
You may never need to use formulas using the mathematical precedence but it is always a
good idea to understand it and bear it in mind.
Now to get down to the nitty gritty. Formulas can be as simple or as complex as you need
them to be. Let’s start off with a simple formula. We’ll find the total for the first two weeks
potatoes. For the purposes of the examples you can use cell I6 on the weekly total column.
Place the mouse pointer in the cell I6 and press the left mouse button to make it active
(select it). Type into the formula bar
=D6 + E6 then press the Enter (Return) key
The result of adding them together 3.56 will appear in cell I6. This can also be done with
subtraction, multiplication and division as follows:
Subtract the values of two cells (D6 and E6)
1. Keep the cell I6 active and move the mouse pointer up to the formula bar and place it
at the end of the existing formula then press the left mouse button to place the
flashing cursor
2. Keep pressing the back space key until the current formula has been deleted
3. Type into the formula bar =D6 – E6 then press the Enter (Return) key
4. You should see the result -0.44 appear in the cell I6
5. The number is negative because a larger number was subtracted from a smaller
number
Divide the values of two cells (D6 and E6)
1. Keep the cell I6 active
2. Move the mouse pointer up to the formula bar and delete the existing formula
3. Type into the formula bar =D6 / E6 then press the Enter (Return) key
4. You should see the result 0.78 appear in the cell I6
Multiply the value of two cells (E8 and F8)
1. Keep the cell I6 active
2. Move the mouse pointer up to the formula bar and delete the existing formula
3. Type into the formula bar =E8 * F8 then press the Enter (Return) key
4. You should see the result 2.32 appear in the cell I6
Add the values of two cells (E8 and F8)
1. Make cell J13 active by moving the mouse pointer to it and pressing the left mouse
button
2. Move the mouse pointer up to the formula bar and delete the existing formula
3. Type into the formula bar =E8 + F8 then press the Enter (Return) key
4. You should see the result 3.12 appear in the cell J13
These are examples of easy formulas, they work on two numbers and no matter which two
cells you apply these formulas to or which cell you place the result in, it will still work. Now
that you have seen how formulas work and how you apply them to cell references we will
move on to more advanced formulas.
First of all remove the values in cells I6 and J13 by clicking on it to select it then pressing the
enter key. The spread sheet should be in the same state as when you first opened it, if not
just load it up from the hard disk again.
Some things to note with formulas:
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If you place a formula into a cell and click on the cell you placed the result in, the
formula for the cell will appear in the formula bar which can then be edited if you
wish.
If you change the value of a cell that you have used in a formula the result of the
formula will change to reflect that change.
The formulas you have just learnt about are easy, straight forward formulas that you will use quite
regularly, we’ll now look at a few more complex formulas to let you see how they work so that you
will be in a better position to create your own if and when you need to.
More complex formulas include more than one mathematical operator and possibly the use of
brackets. Lets first look at a relatively straight forward formula using more than one mathematical
operator.
Using more than one mathematical operator
Example 1
From the shopping list table that you have loaded say we wanted to add week 1’s tomatoes to week
2’s onions and subtract week 4’s potatoes and put the total in cell I13. This includes two
mathematical operators, the plus (+) and the minus (-) and we do it like this:
1. Place the mouse pointer on cell I13 and press the left mouse button to select it
2. Move the mouse pointer up to the formula bar and press the left mouse button to place the
flashing text cursor
3. Type in =D7 + E8 – G6 and press the Enter key
4. The total of 2.56 should appear in cell I13
Example 2
Now let’s get a little more adventurous and use three mathematical operators in a formula. Say we
wanted to divide week 3’s apples by week 1’s onions multiply by week 1’s turnips and then subtract
week 2’s grapes and put the result in cell I14. It would be done as follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Click on cell I14 to select it
Click in the formula bar to place the flashing text cursor
Type in =F10 / D8 * D9 - E11
The total of -1.76 should appear in cell I14
Example 3
Say we wanted to change the formula above round and have D9 – E11 * F10 / D8, we now find that
we need to consider the mathematical precedence and will include the use of brackets. If we take
the formula as it is we get D9 – E11 * F10 / D8 = 0.57 – 2.89 * 2.46 / 1.23 = -5.21 which would be
wrong. The actual working out that the computer will do is as follows:
First E11 (2.89) would be multiplied by F10 (2.46) the sum of that would be divided by D8 (1.23) then
that would be subtracted from D9 (0.57)
Excel would perform the calculation as E11 * F10 / D8 and subtract that from D9, don’t forget that
multiplication and division are done before addition and subtraction. Bearing this in mind we need
to tell excel that we are aware of this and that the formula should be (D9 – E11) * (F10 / D8) Excel
will then calculate the values in the brackets first then multiply the first sum by the second sum as in
(0.57 – 2.89) * (2.46 / 1.23) = (-2.32) *(2) = -4.65 so the result of -4.65 should appear in cell I14.
You will probably never have to use brackets and formulas as complex as this but at least you know
that they do exist and can be applied.
So enough of formulas and on to other things. We’ll look at:
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Copying cell contents
Moving cell contents
Changing the colour of sheet tabs
Inserting a column or row
Deleting a column or row
Formatting text and numbers
Creating charts of your spread sheet
Copying Cell Contents
Sometimes instead of typing in values again you can utilise values you have already typed
into a cell(s), these may be individual cells, a range of cells in a row or a range of cells in a
column, they can still be copied to another part of the spread sheet. You will copy the label
Potatoes into cell B12. The steps below outline this procedure:
1. Left click on cell B6 to select it
2. Right click on the cell and select the Copy option from the resulting menu as shown
below
3. Left click in cell B12 to select it, you will also notice that the cell B6 has a dotted line
around it as shown here
4. Right click in cell B12 and select the paste
option from the paste selections
5. Potatoes will now have been copied to cell B12
Copying a range of cells
Copying the contents of one cell is all well and good but a label on it’s own as in the previous
exercise doesn’t really mean anything and the rest of the values need to be copied also. Lets
move the data items in the row for Potatoes down to the label Potatoes that you copied
earlier. A method for doing this is given below:
1. Place the mouse pointer on the first cell you wish to copy and press the left mouse
button
2. Keeping the left mouse button pressed drag the mouse pointer along the row or
down the column you wish to copy
3. When you get to the last cell you in the row or column you wish to copy release the
left mouse button. An example of the highlighted row of cells is shown below:
4. Select the Copy option
5. Move the mouse pointer down to row 12 and select cell D12
6. Right click in cell D12 and select the Paste
option
7. The row of values for the potatoes item will be copied to row 12 as shown on the next page
Moving Cell Contents
There will be times when you need to move cell contents from one part of the spread sheet to
another, this deletes the moved cells from where they were and places them where you want them
to be so there is only one copy. The steps below tell you how to do this. You will move the entire row
for onions down to row 14:
1. Place the mouse pointer on cell B8 and press the right mouse button
2. Keeping the right mouse button pressed drag the mouse to the right until all the cells up to
G8 are selected
3. Right click and select the Cut option as shown below
4. Move the mouse pointer down to cell B14 and press the left mouse button to select it
5. Right click with the right mouse button and select the Paste
option
6. The contents of row 8 will have been copied to row 14 as shown in the example below
Formatting cell contents
There are various ways to format cell contents, you can change the font, change the colour, change
the style, change the type, for example, change the values from currency to decimal, change the size
of the cell contents and many more.
Here we will Change:
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the type of cell
the colour of the contents of the cell
the colour of the background of the cell
the font style
This should provide you with enough practise to try any other type of formatting yourself.
Change the type of cell
Example 1 - Date
This will change the type of cell, for example we can make it a general type which won’t display
decimal places as they should be displayed, or we could change one or more cells to a date format
which will display the data you have entered as a date. The steps below outline a method for doing
this:
You will change the cell G14 to date format, remember the present value of 1.23
1. move the mouse pointer to cell G14 and click with the left mouse button to select it
2. Right click on it and select the format cells option, the options box for this is shown below
with the date option selected, the first date format is suitable for this
3. Click on the OK
button and the existing value in cell G14 will have changed into
a date as shown in the example below
NOTE:- As you can see only a date can be placed into a cell designated as a date
Example 2 – Fractions
This will change the value of cell D12 into a mixed number (fraction) and is done as follows
1. Move the mouse pointer to cell D12 and click with the left mouse button to select it
2. Right click and select the Format Cells option
3. Select Fraction from the list of cell types leaving the default fraction type as shown in the
example below
4. Click on the OK button
5. The value in Cell D12 will have been changed to a fraction as shown in the example below
Note:- Any numerical value that you place in cell D12 now will be converted to a fraction
Changing the colour of sheet tabs
There may be times when you have more than one spread sheet on different pages, accessible via
the tabs labelled Sheet 1, Sheet 2, Sheet 3 found in the bottom left hand corner of the spread sheet,
these tabs will take you to different sheets for the use of creating another spread sheet or extending
the existing one. Changing the colours of the tabs may help you keep track of which spread sheet is
which or maybe just to look fancy and colourful. The steps to doing this are given below:
1. Move the mouse pointer to the tab you wish to change the colour of
2. Press the left mouse button to select that tab
3. Press the right mouse button and let the mouse pointer rest in the Tab Colour option and
the table of colours will be displayed as shown below