Spreadsheets

Manipulating Spreadsheets
Objectives

• Define the term spreadsheet

• Discuss the purpose of a spreadsheet
• Outline the purpose of Microsoft Excel
• Define and discuss terms such as: Workbook, worksheet,
column, row, cell (cell address, range, label, value)

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Spreadsheets

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Spreadsheet
What’s a spreadsheet?
• A spreadsheet is a computer program that allows the entry, automatic
calculation and storage of data in the form of tables. A single
spreadsheet workbook will contain individual sheets or worksheets

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 Spreadsheet

What’s the purpose of a spreadsheet? What’s Microsoft Excel?

• A spreadsheet is a tool that is used to store, • Excel is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft
manipulate and analyze data. and a component of its Office product group for
• Data in a spreadsheet is organized in a series of business applications.
rows and columns and can be searched, sorted, • Microsoft Excel enables users to format,
calculated and used in a variety of charts and organize and calculate data in a spreadsheet.
graphs. • Excel will be the application that we will use to
create and manipulate our spreadsheets.

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Spreadsheets
Advantages of spreadsheets over traditional
methods (accountant’s ledger and calculator)

Advantages of spreadsheets include:

1. Perform error-free automatic calculation and recalculation every
time a worksheet is changed
2. Format the contents of a worksheet into a professional-looking
document
3. Move or copy sections of the worksheet to another area of the
worksheet or to another worksheet
4. Insert or delete rows or columns at any position in the worksheet
5. Sort the entries in a worksheet
6. Select entries to be displayed using powerful filtering functionality
7. Create graphs and charts from the data
8. Link data in two or more worksheets

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 • Cell – A cell is the intersection of a column and a row.
• Cell Address – The cell address is the column letter and
Key Terms of the row number combination that can be used to
uniquely identify a cell.
Spreadsheets • Examples of a cell address include A6, B4 and C4
• Another term for “cell address” is “cell reference”
• Workbook – A single spreadsheet
file. A spreadsheet workbook is
made up of one or more worksheets.
• Cell Range – The cell range is a group of selected cells.
• Worksheet – A worksheet is a single • Examples of cell ranges include A1:A10, B5:E17 and D10:E15
page of a workbook and is made up
of a grid of cells. This grid is made
up of horizontal rows and vertical
columns.
• The vertical columns are
named after letters (For
example A,B,C)
• Horizontal rows are named
after numbers (For example
1,2,3)

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Key Terms in Spreadsheet
• Cell can contain three types of data. These include:
1. A label – this is simple text, for example ‘Number of Passengers’ or ‘Fare’, A label is usually used
as a column or row header
2. A value – this is numeric data, for example 34, $53 or 27.60
3. A formula – is a form of automatic calculation in the spreadsheet. For example =A5*A6. This
mean the formula will take the value in cell A5 and multiply it by the value in the cell A6. The
answer will be placed in the cell that the formula was written in.
4. A function – is a predefined formula used to perform calculations. For example =SUM(A5:A10).
This means the function will find the total of the cells ranging from A5 to A10. The total (SUM)
will be placed in the cell that the function was entered in.

NB: A formula and function always starts with an “=“ sign. Without an “=“ sign, the formula or
function will never work.

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Class Activity

• Form small groups and create a spreadsheet that takes TEN (10)
customers first and last name, address, item ordered, date ordered and
expected delivery date.

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Home-Work

• Conduct a small research on how to write formulas and functions.

Provide an example of a formula and function you have written in
Microsoft Excel.

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Lesson 2 (Spreadsheets)

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Objectives

• Define formulas and functions in Microsoft Excel

• Create simple formulas in Microsoft Excel
• Use basic pre-defined systems functions: SUM, AVERAGE,
DATE, MAX, MIN

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Formulas and Functions
Formulas • Formulas always start with an
• A formula is considered a simple equal sign (=), followed by the
calculation that is used in values and the operators.
spreadsheet to achieve an Operators include plus (+),
answer. minus (-), multiply (*) or divide
(/).
• You can create a simple formula
to add, subtract, multiply or • Examples of formulas include:
divide values in your worksheet. =a5 / a6, =d6 * a2, =B5 – B2 and
=c10 + c15

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Formulas and Functions
Functions
• A function is a predefined formula that performs calculations using
specific values in a particular order
• All spreadsheet programs include common functions that can be used
for quickly finding the sum, average, count, maximum value, and
minimum value for a range of cells

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Formulas and Functions
Parts of a function • Arguments contain the
• In order to work correctly, a information you want to
function must be written a calculate.
specific way, which is called the • An example of a function is
syntax. =SUM(A1:A20)
• The basic syntax for a function is • The (=) sign indicates the
beginning of the function
an equal sign (=), the function
• SUM is the function name
name and one or more
arguments. • A1:A20 is the argument that will
be calculated.

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Formulas and Functions
Using functions • DATE: Takes the values for the
• There are a variety of functions year, month and day and
to choose from. These include: combines them to form a date.
• SUM: This function adds all • MAX: This function determines
values of the cells in the argument.
• AVERAGE: This functions the highest cell value included in
determines the average of the the argument
values included in the argument. It
calculates the sum of the cells and • MIN: This function determines
then divides that value by the the lowest cell value included in
number of cells in the argument. the argument

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Class Activity

• Continue with the small groups created previously. We are going to create new
columns. That is a column called “Cost”, “Taxes” and “Final Price”
• Add a random value for cost in the “cost column” for each item ordered. 20% of
the cost is the additional taxes. Add the formula for the taxes in the “Taxes”
column
• Create the simple formula to add the final price to the “Final Price” column. The
formula is cost plus the taxes.
• Create new rows for the Total (Final Price), Maximum Value (Final Price),
Minimum Value (Final Price) and Average (Final Price).
• Use the pre-defined functions to get the related answers.

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Home-Work

• Conduct a small research on the following functions: COUNT,

COUNTA, COUNTIF, VLOOKUP, IF, PMT

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