Transcript The Briefest Excel Tutorial You’ll Ever See

The Briefest Excel
Tutorial You’ll Ever See
Microsoft Excel, or any spreadsheet for
that matter, is an incredibly rich
calculation program
 In this most skimpy of lessons, we will
discuss only:
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Labels
Numbers
Formulas
Graphs
Excel is like a map: each cell has an address
 Columns use letters, rows use numbers
 Addresses therefore are like A3, F89, CC34, etc.
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A label is simple text
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You can edit a label by clicking in the edit bar
◦ In this case the word ‘Label’ is in cell A1
◦ Excel cannot do math if any letters are in a cell
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A number is, well, a number
3.14 is in cell A2
You can edit numbers in the edit bar
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A formula is what make a spreadsheet
powerful
◦ It’ll blow your TI Eighty-Whatever out of the room!
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Formulas always start with =
You can enter numbers in a formula, but…
Sometimes it’s better to point to a cell
◦ However, you can mix numbers and cell addresses
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Some simple math functions are:
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Addition +
Subtraction –
Multiplication *
Division /
Powers ^
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Here the formula adds 1 to the contents of
cell A2
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No surprise: 4.14
See the option to edit in the edit bar?
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The truly wonderful part is drag and copy
Place the cursor in the lower right-hand corner
of the cell you wish to copy
Hold down the left mouse button and drag
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Voila! The formula looks in successive
cells and adds 1 to each cell’s value
This way if you change a cell’s contents
you don’t have to adjust the formula
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Now let’s graph
◦ Highlight the values you wish to graph
◦ Click on the scatter chart icon in the toolbar
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For the XY sub-type choose the one that
does not connect the dots
Click it and the graph will pop into existence
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Right click on
a data point.
A dialog box
opens
Choose “Add
Trendline…”
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Choose the type
that best fits
your data,
meaning that
the line/curve
hits the
maximum
number of
points
◦ N.B. Sometimes
you will be
directed to use a
Linear trendline
◦ If so, choose
Display Equation
Click on your
chart and go
to Chart
Tools/Layout
 Add a Chart
Title
 Add both Axis
Titles
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This just touches the surface of what Excel can do. I
encourage you to explore the program; you can do no
harm and it will only enhance your abilities
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Exercise
Exercise
Exercise
Exercise
1
2
3 (For Teacher TRaC students)
3A (for Astronomy Students)
Three Exercises