Elementary Skills in Information

Technology
ICS 104
WEEK 4
Introduction to Spread Sheet
 Topics
 Concept of Cells

 Resizing Rows and Columns

 The Worksheet Bar & Addresses

 Naming & Renaming Worksheets

 The Accounting Number Format

 Introduction to Spread Sheet

A spreadsheet, also called an electronic work sheet, “is a computer program that organizes data into rows
and columns in the form of a graph. Each row and column can be manipulated with formulas, commands,
and formats. This tool is especially useful for accountants, financial analysts, and business people to analyze
business performance numbers and results”. (Source: Accounting Dictionary)

In Microsoft Excel a workbook is a collection of one or more worksheets, in a single file.

 Excel: Spreadsheet Application
Concept of Cells & Addresses Cell name text box

The Excel working area, called a worksheet, is made up of many,

many blocks known as cells. Each one has an original address or
cell name. This is shown in the cell name text box. Notice how the
name is made up of the Column letter followed by the Row
number. Click anywhere within the worksheet and see if you can
guess what the cell address/name will be. Notice how the column Column label

letter and row number are highlighted. Row label

When we work in Excel, we always refer to the cell address instead of the value within that cell. Excel knows that we want it to look at the
value within that cell. Let’s start by typing in the following information into Excel. This example will be used to demonstrate various things
as we go along. Explanations will be given in regular font, and instructions to you, the student, will be given in bold italics.

NB: The words

“English Mark” are
in cell E2.
 Excel: Spreadsheet Application
Resizing Rows and Columns

Click and drag on the right Column Label cell line to resize a column, or click and drag on the bottom Row Label cell line to
resize rows. (Double-clicking instead of single-clicking will automatically resize the column or row to the minimum amount
necessary to view all the data clearly.)
Resize column E so that the words “English Mark” fit neatly within its borders.

The Worksheet Bar

Navigation button

At the bottom of your worksheet you will notice the worksheet bar. You can move from one sheet to the next by clicking on the
navigation buttons, or by simply clicking on the sheet name. e.g. Sheet1
 Excel: Spreadsheet Application
Naming & Renaming Worksheets
In order to find information easily, it helps to label your
worksheets accordingly. To rename a worksheet, right click on the
sheet name. From the menu that appears, select Rename. Note
how the sheet name appears highlighted. Type the new name.
Once you have completed this, click onto the worksheet page.

Change the name of Sheet1 to “Students Data”.

Changing Order of Worksheets

Click and (holding down the mouse key) drag on a worksheet name to reposition the
sheet.
Move Sheet3 so that it is the first sheet. I.e. move it in front of “Students Data”.

Deleting Worksheets
Right click on the worksheet name of the worksheet you wish to delete, and then
select Delete. Delete Sheet2.

Adding Worksheets
Note the Insert Worksheet tab. Click on this to add a new
sheet. Insert a new sheet
 Excel: Spreadsheet Application
The Home Tab

As you will see, the home tab has similarities to Microsoft Word. The Clipboard and Font Tools
have been covered in the tutorial for Word. In Excel, we merely select the cell/s we want to
apply any of these features to; select the feature by clicking on the icon or selecting an option;
and it is applied to the contents of that cell/s.

The Font Tools

Click back on to the “Students Data” sheet. Select cells A2 to E2
by clicking and dragging. Now click on the Bold icon and then
change the text/font size to 12. See how the column headings
stand out. Now select A1 and change the text/font size to 16. By
using different sizedfont, and bold, we can differentiate between
Titles, Headings and Data.
 Excel: Spreadsheet Application
The Accounting Number Format
Select cells D3 to D5 – the deposits. Now click on the money on the
icon shown above. Excel will automatically format it with the currency
for the country the computer is set to. If the currency is incorrect, click
on the down arrow to the right of the icon to open the Format Cells
window. Use the arrow to the right of Symbol to choose the correct
currency. Press OK when you are happy with your selection. The
comma, a thousand separator, makes it clearer to read big figures.

Click back onto cell D3. Look at the formula bar. Although your cell
now has Naira, you will notice that the value we typed in has not
changed – it still sees the value as 4000.

Formula bar
 Excel: Spreadsheet Application
The Editing Tools

Addition:
The epsilon sign represents addition. If we were to position our cursor in a cell adjacent to some numbers, and click on the sign, Excel would insert
a formula for the addition of those adjacent cells. One would press Enter to accept the formula, or edit it accordingly. Position your cursor in cell
D6. Click on the Epsilon sign. Notice how a formula appears in D6. All calculations must begin with an equal sign. It states that the value in cell
D6 is the sum of cells D3 to D5. If the range of cells is incorrect, simply click and drag to select a new range of cells to add.
Press Enter to accept this. You can alternatively type in your own formula. Any of the following would achieve the same effect.
= D3+D4+D5
= SUM(D3,D4,D5)
=SUM(Here you would click and drag to select the cells to be added, and press Enter when your selection is complete.)

There are many more maths functions available. We will however only deal with SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT
Numbers, MIN, and MAX. We can select these by clicking on the arrow to the right of the Epsilon sign.
Average:
Let’s find the average percent obtained. Position your cursor in cell E6. Click on the arrow to the right of the
icon, and select Average from the menu. Press Enter to accept.
Of course we could achieve the same result by typing in any of the following into cell E6.
=(E3+E4+E5)/3
=SUM(E3:E5)/3
=AVERAGE(E3:E5)
=AVERAGE(E3,E4,E5)
 Excel: Spreadsheet Application
The Editing Tools

Minimum:
If you had a long list of students and wanted to draw from it
the lowest mark, you could use this function. Type in
“Lowest” into cell D8. Now click in to E8. Select the down
arrow to the right of the icon and select Min. Find the
lowest value from cells E3 to E5 and press Enter.

Maximum:
If you wanted to draw the highest mark from a list, you
could use this function. Type in “Highest” in cell D9. Now
click in to E9. Select the down arrow to the right of the icon
and select Max. Find the lowest value from cells E3 to E5
and press Enter.
 References
1. Microsoft Official Academic Course MICROSOFT WORD 2016. Microsoft Office
Specialist (MOS) exams .

2. Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library, Word 2013 for Beginners Handout.

https://we247.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Word-2013-for-Beginners-Handout-.pdf

3. Microsoft Word 2013 Fundamentals Workshop, University of Pittsburgh, Computer

Services and Systems Development.

4. Computer Literacy Training Manual. Centre for Science Access, University of Kwazulu-
Natal.
http://csa.ukzn.ac.za/Libraries/Bursaries/COMPUTER_LITERACY_TRAINING_MANU
AL.sflb.ashx