Project 6 – Lab Discussion
This project example uses different data than that required in the Project 6 Description document. The
techniques presented in this lab discussion are very similar to the techniques needed to create your
Project 6 workbook.
In Project 6 we will create a spreadsheet more typical of companies recording data for their sales or
services. This usually means recording data about the level of activity for an entity and then calculating
one or more fields from the recorded data. For the Project 6 example document, we will be recording
data for an ISP selling connections and data service to a number of large corporations. As in most
business, there is a discount based on volume. The data for the customers are in the following table.
Company Name
Boeing Data Services
Caterpillar Engines
IBM Data Services
Motorola Auto Devices
Peabody Investments
Sprint Motorways
Monthly Subscription Fee
6000
3750
8200
4100
2375
2895
Quarterly Data Usage in GBs
209.78
375.60
490.22
215.72
327.06
196.50
The monthly subscription fee is based on the number of connections. The charges for the data are
based on $30/GB for the first 250 GB and $20/GB for anything over 250 GB. The company wants to
calculate the Quarterly Data Usage Fee and the Quarterly Charge for each customer. This means that
we will need to add too additional columns for our data. We will need a title for our spreadsheet and
some room for some constants that represent information about data amount and cost. So let us
position our column headers in row 5. We enter each of the column headers in the next cell ignoring
that the values are wider than the cell width. We end up with row 5 looking like this.
This is not very effective but Excel
provides us with a Wrap Text
function that will wrap the text
within the current cell width.
Select the range A5 through E5 by
first clicking on A5 but continue
pressing down and drag the mouse
cursor through E5. So your
worksheet should look like the
figure below.
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
Now we can apply the Wrap Text
function by using the icon
Home / Alignment section. As you can see from below, some of the
words do not fit within the current cell width and the column headers look crunched. We need to adjust
the cell widths to ensure complete words fit on a single line and the column headers look better. Adjust
the widths of the columns so it looks like the below figure.
We should center the column headers both horizontally and vertically using the icons in the Home
/Alignment section
. Next apply the border and shading techniques
from Project 5 to the column headers and we now have
Now we need to
enter the three columns of data from the table above.
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We now have to
populate the last two columns. The Quarterly Data Usage Fee will be based on how many GBs of data
the company used during the quarter and whether they receive a discount for high volume. Since the
calculation is based on some constants, we need to add the constants to the worksheet. We will add
that information in F2:G4.
In our calculations, we will use absolute
addressing to refer to these constant cells. We will use an =if(…,…,…) statement that permits us to
determine two different values based upon a condition. The condition in our case will be if the company
used more than the Base Usage amount, 250, stored in $G$5. If that is true, then the Quarterly Data
Usage Fee for this company is (Quarterly Data Usage in GB for this company – Base Usage) * Volume
Usage Fee + Base Usage * Base Usage Fee or for the company in row 6 the true expression in the if
statement would be (C6 - $G$2) * $G$4 + $G$2 * $G$3. If the condition is false, then we just need the
Quarterly Data Usage in GB for the company * Base Usage Fee or for the company in row 6 the false
expression would be C6 * $G$3. Putting this together, we would type the following if statement in D6
=if(C6 > $G$2, (C6 - $G$2) * $G$4 + $G$2 * $G$3, C6 * $G$3)
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
So in the case of our
data in row 6, the false expression would be evaluated and the result stored in D6.
The Quarterly Charge for a company is 3 times the Monthly Subscription Fee + the calculated Quarterly
Data so we can express this calculation for E6 as shown below.
Now that both calculated fields have been determined, we can use a fill down operation for the rest of
the rows. We should make sure that our calculations are correct so let’s examine row 7.
Since 375.6 is > than the Base Usage
amount of 250, we only need to
examine the true expression of the if
statement.
(375.6 – 250) * 20 + 250 * 30
125.6 * 20 + 250 * 30
2512 + 7500
10012
So the calculation works out. The
formatting for the numeric values in
the above table need to be made more
consistent. Apply currency formatting
to the first row dollar values and
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
comma formatting with 2 decimal places for the other numeric values.
We need to apply conditional formatting to the Quarterly Data Usage in GB column to highlight those
values greater than the Base Usage constant. You will find the tool icon for conditional formatting under
the Home / Styles section / Conditional Formatting. We want to apply Highlight for cell values Greater
Than
which brings up the following dialogs.
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The project description asks that we apply the sum, average, max, and min aggregate functions to three
columns. First, we need to add some
row headers. We will apply the sum, average, max, and min functions to the data in column B. Make
B13 the active cell and then apply the
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autosum function. The following should now appear
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
but the range should be B6:B11,
not B6:B12. Since the B6:B12 is highlighted, you can either type in the correct range of B6:B11 or use
the mouse to select B6:B11. In either case whether typing in the correct range or selecting the correct
range with the mouse, ensure that you click the Enter key rather than clicking again with the mouse.
You select the average, max, and min functions by clicking on the
down arrow next to the Sum symbol.
The range will also be off for the average, max, and min functions
and need to be adjusted as you did for the sum. You should now
have the following appear on your worksheet.
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Since we want to apply the same formulas against several
other columns but not all of them, we will copy the
formulas to the clipboard and paste them into just the
needed columns rather than doing a fill across.
Position the cursor in D13 and Paste and similarly in E13
and paste.
We end up with the following. To get rid of the bouncing dash line indicating that those are the selected
cells, just click on the Esc key on the keyboard.
The next step is generating the two charts. The 3-D pie chart should be embedded on the Sheet1
worksheet but the 2-D column chart should be a separate chart sheet. To place the 3-D pie chart on the
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
worksheet, we need to select A5:A11 and by pressing the Ctl key while selecting E5:E11, we will have
both ranges selected for the pie chart data. This is called a multi-select.
Using the Insert menu item and the Pie option in the Charts section, we are ready to insert the pie chart.
The pie chart will overlay some of the data so you will need to move it below the existing data. The
chart picked up the title from the column header that contains the data values and the legend
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
information from the first column. If you bring up the Chart Tools / Layout on the ribbon, you can see a
Labels section that allows you to change the Chart title, Legend positioning, and Data Labels.
We will move the Legend position below the
chart rather than keep it on the right side. While
we are doing that, we will also add some Data
Labels. You can get more control over the
positioning and what is placed as data labels by
clicking on the More Data Label Options menu
item at the bottom of the dropdown box.
This option bring up the following dialog window. Under the Label Contains area you can see the
Category Name (has some values as the Legend items), Value, and Percentage. You can choose all three
or just one of them. If you choose to use Category Name as a data label, you must Turn off Legend in
the Legend options. Having both introduces a level of redundancy that is not well tolerated. I picked
the Value and Percentage check boxes and the Outside End radio button. Since there was still space at
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
the bottom of the worksheet, I expanded the height of the 3-D chart. You must ensure that both the
data entry part and the 3-D Pie Chart fit on a single page.
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Since the 3-D Pie Chart is the highlighted object, the legend range, A5:A11, and the data range, E5:E11,
show colored borders.
The project description requests that you place a title on the worksheet by using the Merge and Center
operation. First, we type into A1 the title that we want on the worksheet. Next, select A1:A5 and then
click the Merge and Center tool icon,
. You can now adjust the font size and font face for the
title. Notice in the following figure that even though I clicked in E1, the Name window in the left side
still indicates A1. In other words, A1 includes B1, C1, D1, and E1.
The next chart we want to use in the project document is a 2-D Clustered Column Chart. In this chart we
will pick up the Company Name column for the legend, the Monthly Subscription Fee and the Quarterly
Charge columns as the data series. First select the Company Name column data and then pressing the
Crtl key and select both the Monthly Subscription Fee and the Quarterly Data Usage Fee columns.
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Now using the Insert menu and
the Column options, choose the Clustered Column item which will produce the following chart overlay
the data.
Since the chart is still the highlighted object, you should find the Move Chart tool icon in the Location
section in the right upper corner. Click the Move Chart icon.
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Click the New sheet radio button and enter the name you want for your Chart Sheet. This brings up a
new Chartsheet with the name you chose.
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The 2-D clustered column chart is missing several things requested in the project description – a chart
title, titles on the x and y axes, and data labels. I have decided to move the legend to the bottom of the
chart to give the columns a little more separation. As we saw when we discussed the 3-D pie chart, the
Chart Tools / Layout / Labels section has most of the operators to complete this section of the project.
Using the Chart Title menu item, place a Title on the chart. Also, place labels on the x and y axes using
the Axes Titles tool. Move the legend to the bottom of the chart using the Legend tool and add value
data labels using the Data Labels tool. By right-clicking on one of the Monthly Subscription Fee data
label values and then using the context menu’s Format Data Labels to bring up the dialog window, I was
able to click on the Number entry, select Currency, and change Decimal places to 0 and remove the
dollar sign symbol.
You need a meaningful name for the worksheet, not Sheet1. Right-click on the Sheet1 tab, click the
Rename option, and assign a new, meaningful name to the sheet. You need to delete any unused
worksheets; in this case, Sheet2 and Sheet3. Click on Sheet2, press the Ctrl key and click on Sheet3.
Right-click on one of the sheets, choose Delete.
Click on your worksheet tab, and invoke the Page Layout view,
,
found at the right bottom part of the Excel window in the Status bar. Scroll up to the page header area
and click the middle section. This will bring up the Header & Footer Tools. Under the Design tab you
will find the Header & Footer Elements section. Click on the Sheet Name element which will extract the
name on the tab and place it in the middle section of the Header.
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
A Chart Sheet does not have a Page Layout view so we need to use the Page Layout menu / the little
diagonal down arrow in the bottom right hand side of the Page Setup section to bring up the Page Setup
dialog window. Click on the Header/Footer tab and use the Custom Header and Custom Footer buttons
to Insert the Sheet Name into the middle section of the Header and then in the Custom Footer Dialog
window add your name in the Left section and using the Date tool icon, insert the date into the Right
section.
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Project 6 – Lab Discussion
Finish off the dialogs and then bring up the File / Print to ensure that you have everything needed on the
Chart Sheet.
Now all you have to do is ensure that your Project 6 file has a valid file name and then attach it to the
Project 6 Assignment Manager.
Spreadsheet Techniques found in MS Office 2013
Conditional Formatting
Aggregate Functions
If function
EX 100 - 103
EX 14 - 15, EX 81 - 87
http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/iffunctions/ss/2010-08-03-Excel2007-If-Function-Step-By-Step-Tutorial.htm
Adding charts
EX 37 - 40
Moving chart to Chart Sheet EX 41 - 42
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