Excel 2007 Tutorial | 1

Excel Tutorial
This tutorial is designed to aid biology students with their first few Excel spreadsheet
applications. Excel and most other spreadsheet programs are very powerful
applications with far too many features to learn all in one sitting. If you are interested
in learning more advanced techniques I direct you to the help menu, or try a Google
search. Alternatively, there are many excellent books available.
This tutorial was written for Microsoft Excel 2007 (running under Windows XP). My
previous Excel 2002 tutorial is available on my web site.
I use the following conventions when referring to commands Home > Font > means
to look in the Font portion of the Home Ribbon. Ctrl-C means press the control and
c key at the same time. Similarly, Alt-Ctrl-C means press all three keys at once.
Remember that there are usually several ways to accomplish any one command,
personally I use the right click on my mouse and speed keys for most tasks.
However, for this tutorial I will primarily use ribbon commands as these are usually
more intuitive for new users.
Introduction to the workbook and spreadsheet
A spreadsheet looks a lot like a table you might see in a word processing package,
but it has some very important features that most tables do not. Firstly, spreadsheets
are designed to make repetitive and/or complicated calculations very easy to carry
out. Secondly, most spreadsheet programs have advanced graphing capabilities that
make producing graphs from the data in the spreadsheet relatively simple.
In Excel each document is referred to as a workbook. Within each workbook you
can have multiple spreadsheets; Excel refers to these as sheets. The default in
Excel is three sheets, but you can add as many sheets as necessary. At any given
time, only one sheet is active in your work book. It is important to note that most
page formatting options apply only to the sheet you are working with (for example,
margins, headers and footers). Additionally, when you print, by default Excel will
print only the sheet that is active.
The Excel window
For those of us who have been using Excel for a number of years, Excel 2007
features some radical changes to Excel commands organization. The drop down
menus so many of us are familiar with have been replaced by the Ribbon.
When Excel is first launched you will usually see the window pictured in Figure 1.
This window shows the Home Ribbon. Excel commands are organized into groups
and the groups are organized into ribbons. For example, on the Home Ribbon
(Figure 1) there are seven groups; Clipboard, Font, Alignment, Number, Styles,
Cells, Editing. Ribbons are accessed by clicking one of seven tabs; Home, Insert,
Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, or View. We will not cover all the tabs in this
tutorial but instead will focus on finding the commands you will need to do basic data
analysis and graphing. I will direct you to the location of a command using the
shorthand Home > Font to indicate look on the Home Ribbon in the Font group.
2 | Excel 2007 Tutorial

Tabs
Ribbon

Function bar

Cell
(A1)

Worksheet tabs

Figure 1. The Excel window.

Also note that most groups have additional commands not shown on the ribbon. To
see these commands click the arrow in the bottom right corner of the group.

Immediately below the Ribbon is the Function Bar (or formula bar). The left portion
of the function bar shows you what cells are currently active. In Figure 1 and Figure 2
the active cell is A1. The right part of the bar displays the contents of the cell, and
more importantly, if a function has been entered the function is displayed. The cell
within the spreadsheet normally shows the result of the function. In Figure 1 the cell
A1 shows 16, while the function window shows the formula =4*4.
To see all formulas in the spreadsheet at once press control+.
 Excel 2007 Tutorial | 3

Function
Cell Handle button
Figure 2. The Function Bar. Cell A1 contains the function 4*4. The result
of the function is displayed on the sheet (16) and the function itself is
shown in the function window (=4*4).

Cell addressing and entering data

The spreadsheet itself is laid out as a table made up of columns and rows. Each
column has a letter reference (A, B, C) and each row has a number reference (1,
2, 3). Each square (a cell) in the spreadsheet represents the intersection of one
row and one column. Cells are referenced according to the row and column
intersection. For example: cell A1 is the cell in column A and row 1. This unique row
and column reference of a cell is referred to as its address. One of the beauties of
spreadsheets is that once a datum, label or formula is entered into a unique cell in
the spreadsheet, the contents of the cell can be used elsewhere in the program
simply by referencing the cells address.
To enter data or labels into a cell move the cursor to the desired cell, click to select
the cell, type your datum, and press enter. It's important to note that you must move
out of the active cell or the spreadsheet will not recognize that you have entered
data. You can use enter, tab, the arrow key or the mouse to change the active cell.
If you wish to enter a series of numbers you can speed up the process by using the
auto fill capability. To use auto fill, enter the first two numbers in the series in
adjoining cells. Select both cells, grab the common handle (the little black box in the
bottom right hand corner of the selected cells see Figure 3) and drag down as far
as needed. You should now have a series of numbers, following the pattern of the
first two you entered. This trick will work for letters and formulas as well as numbers,
and works for columns and rows.

Cell Handle

Before auto fill After auto fill

Figure 3. Using auto fill.

4 | Excel 2007 Tutorial

Making your spreadsheet look pretty

To resize columns and rows, click in the header cell to select the column or row and
drag the margin. Or, right click the header cell and select the column width or row
height option.
Many options exist for formatting cells. Some of the formatting options are available
on the Home Ribbon. You can also access most formatting options by highlighting
the cells you wish to format, right clicking, and selecting the format cells option (see
Figure 16).
Box 1. Spreadsheet Basics.
You must press enter after typing a datum in a cell.
To format cells; select, right click, and select the 'format cells' option.
Auto fill is activated by selecting a cells' handle.
To alter the page format for printing see the Page Layout Ribbon.

Entering formulas
Note that Excel refers to formulas as functions. There are two ways to enter formulas
in Excel, either use one of the functions already programmed in Excel, or enter your
own from scratch.
Entering your own formula
To enter your own formula start by typing an equal sign (this tells Excel you are
entering a formula) and then enter the formula using operands and operators.
Standard arithmetic operators are listed in Table 1, but many others are available.
Operands can either be numbers you enter, or can be cell references. To enter a cell
reference in a formula either type it, or click the cell.
Table 1. Arithmetic operators.
Arithmetic
Meaning (example)
operator

+ (plus sign) Addition (3+3)

- (minus sign) Subtraction (3-1)
*(asterisk) Multiplication (3*3)
/ (forward slash) Division (3/3)
% (percent sign) Percent (20%)
^ (caret) Exponentiation (3^2)

When evaluating operators in a formula Excel follows the order of operation

summarized in Table 2. If a formula contains operators with the same precedence
Excel evaluates the operators from left to right. To override operator precedence,
use parenthesis. For more information on entering your own formulas check in;
Excel Help>Contents> creating and correcting formulas.
 Excel 2007 Tutorial | 5

Table 2. Operator precedence in Excel.

Precedence Operator Description
: (colon)
1 (single space) Reference operators
, (comma)
2 Negation (as in 1)
3 % Percent
4 ^ Exponentiation
5 * and / Multiplication and division
6 + and Addition and subtraction
Connects two strings of text
7 &
(concatenation)
8 = < > <= >= <> Comparison

Using Excel's functions

The easiest way to understand the implementation of Excel functions is by following
a step by step example.

There are three ways to access Excel's functions, click the function button next
to the function window (a popup window appears), find the function on the Formulas
Ribbon, or type = followed by the function name and a bracket {e.g. =sum( }.
In this first example we will calculate the sum of a series of numbers.

Step 1. Start by entering the

series of numbers as pictured in
Figure 4. Place your cursor in cell
A7. Click the AutoSum button on
the Formulas Ribbon. Excel tries
to guess the cells you wish to sum
up. Generally it will select all the
cells containing numerical data
immediately next to the cell you
are inserting the function into.
Notice that the cells Excel has
chosen to sum are surrounded by
a marching box (and the range is
Figure 4. Excel's Auto Sum. displayed in the Function Bar).
6 | Excel 2007 Tutorial

Step 2. You can always override

Excels selection by selecting the
cells yourself, or typing the correct
range in the Function Bar. Hit
enter to see the resulting sum.
The sum will appear in the cell
where the function was entered.
Note that when you select cell A7,
the function appears in the
function window, but the result will
still appear in the cell on the
spreadsheet.
Figure 5. Excel's sum function.

In this second example, we will calculate the standard deviation for the same
numbers used in the sum example.

Step 1. Place your cursor in cell

A8. Select Formulas > Insert
Function.
Step 2. The Insert Function
window appears. Here you can
either search for the function by
name, or select a category, and
then scroll down looking for the
function. Notice the description
of the selected function appears
near the bottom of the window.
Enter 'standard deviation' in the
search window and click 'Go'.
Figure 6. Excel's Insert Function window. Select the function STDEV and
click Ok.

Step 3. The 'Function

Arguments' window now
appears. You can either enter
the cell addresses manually or
select the cells on the
spreadsheet. Notice Excel has
chosen A1 to A7 but A7 I is the
sum so we dont want that
included.

Figure 7. Excel's Function Arguments window.

 Excel 2007 Tutorial | 7

Step 4. Go back to the

spreadsheet and select the
cells A1 through A6. The
Function Arguments window
should now look like Figure 8.
Select OK. Cell A8 will now
show the standard deviation
(4.1833) for cells A1 through A6.
Cell A8 will now show the
standard deviation (4.1833) for
cells A1 through A6. If you click
on A8 you will see the formula
Figure 8. Function Arguments with correct range. used in the Function Window.

Using auto fill to copy a formula

Often, you will want to apply the same formula to a series of cells in a column or row.
Enter the data as shown in Figure 9 (don't enter the mean weight). Use Excel's
average function to calculate the average for sample 1 (remember to press enter
once the formula is typed). Your spread sheet should look like Figure 9.

Cell Handle

Figure 9. Auto filling a formula in Excel.

Now, grab the cell handle for the cell containing the formula you just entered and
drag down four cells. Go back and click in the cell for the mean weight of sample 2.
Notice in the formula bar, the function is still AVERAGE, but the cell reference has
moved down one row (in my example it would now read B5:E5). This is referred to as
relative addressing and it is the default method Excel applies to copying formulas.
Occasionally you will need to make an absolute reference to a cell. To do this, add
dollar signs to the cell reference. In my example I need to correct the mean weights
of all the samples by multiplying them by the Z factor of 1.0035, which is entered in
cell H1. To do this, I enter a formula, as shown in the formula bar of Figure 10, using
H$1 to reference the Z factor. Now, when I auto fill the row number remains #1 and
all mean values are multiplied by the value in cell H1. Give it a try; also check what
happens when you don't use the absolute reference.
If you need the column number and the row number to not change, you would enter
$H$1 for the absolute reference.
If you needed only the column number to be absolute you would enter $H1.
8 | Excel 2007 Tutorial

Figure 10. Using an absolute reference in Excel.

Box 2. Entering formulas.

All formulas start with an = sign.
Case is not important when entering the formula.
Cells containing non numerical entrees will be ignored in calculations.
Excel functions are listed in; Excel Help>Contents>Function Reference.
The default for auto filling formulas is to use relative addressing.
 Excel 2007 Tutorial | 9

Graphing
The following example will show you how to make a scatter plot, add a linear
regression trend line, and how to fine tune the graphs appearance.
Making a scatter plot

Step 1. Let's start with a

data set for establishing a
standard curve. Enter the
data into Excel as pictured in
Figure 11. Select the data as
shown. From the Insert
Select this Ribbon choose the first
type scatter plot option as shown
in Figure 11. Do not use line
graph, this will not give us
what we want.
Figure 11. Selecting a chart type.

Step 2. Excel will guess

what data you wish to use. It
may or may not guess
correctly. Check the axis to
see if the correct numbers
were used for x and y.
To make changes to the
data used in the graph, right
click the graph and choose
select data. In the popup
window you can change the
data by adding or deleting
series or by editing the
series.

Figure 12. Excel's Chart Wizard, step 2, selecting the

source data.
10 | Excel 2007 Tutorial

To check the X values click

the small box containing the
red arrow next to the X value
window. This button takes
you back to the spreadsheet.
The data being used as X
values will be in a marching
dash box. To change the
data being used, just re-
select it. Similarly, check the
Y data.
Remember, your X axis is
always the controlled
Figure 13. Excel's Chart Wizard, step 2, selecting the variable (in this case the
source data. protein concentration).

This button appears in many Excel source data windows, clicking it will always
take you back to the spreadsheet, allowing you to select cells for input.

Clicking this button will take you back to source data window you started from.

Step 3. To add axis titles and change the chart formatting, select the chart and go to
the Layout Ribbon. The buttons are pretty much self explanatory. Here I added an
Axis Titles and a Chart Title, removed the series title (not needed if only one series),
and the Gridlines (Figure 14).

Figure 14. Modifying the chart layout.

 Excel 2007 Tutorial |11

Step 4. As this is a standard curve that will be used to estimate protein concentrations
from OD600 readings I also did a regression analysis. Under Trendline I selected
linear trendline and under Trendline > More Trendline Options, I selected Display
Equation on chart and Display R-squared value on chart (Figure 15).

Figure 15. Trendline options.

Box 3. Graphing basics.

Once your graph is made it will automatically be updated to reflect any
changes you make to the data used to create the graph.
To modify most things on your graph use the Layout Ribbon.
To modify the chart layout, the chart must be selected.
The default formatting offered by Excel is rarely appropriate for science
applications.

Formatting Spreadsheets
Most formatting can be done from the Home Ribbon, or by right clicking a cell(s) and
selecting Format Cells. The Format Cells window has several tabs that control most
cell features (see Figure 16). For example, under the Number tab you can select a
variety of formats for the cell contents. If you format the cell contents as Number, you
can set the number of decimal places (Excel will automatically round the number for
you). Once you have formatted a cell as a number, any non-number characters are
ignored by Excel when the data is sorted.
12 | Excel 2007 Tutorial

To change the data format in a

cell use either the Number tab in
Format Cells or the drop down
tab in the Number Group (Home
Ribbon).

Figure 16. Formatting cells.

To change sheet formats (adding Headers or Footers, adding gridlines etc.) use the
Page Layout Ribbon.
Often you will find you want to insert a spreadsheet directly into a report you are
writing. If you are working with Word and Excel, there are two ways to add
spreadsheets to a Word document. You can create the spreadsheet directly in Word
by choosing Excel Spreadsheet from Insert > Table. When you create an Excel
spreadsheet in Word, you are actually working in Excel (notice when you are in the
spreadsheet the ribbons change to Excel ribbons). The second way is to select the
cells in Excel, copy the cells and then paste them into Word. The Excel cells will be
converted into a Word table. The cells will now behave as a Word table, not as a
spread sheet.