Introduction to Excel

1. Anatomy of a Spreadsheet

a. An Excel file is called a “workbook” and is structured like an accounting ledger.

b. Within each workbook there are “worksheets” (or simply sheets) – you can have as many worksheets in a single workbook as your computer’s memory will allow.

c. Each worksheet is organized into rows and columns – you can have up to 65,536 rows and 256 columns on a single worksheet.

d. A “cell” is the smallest element on a worksheet and is referred to by its column letter and row number. For example the cell F3 is located at the intersection of column F and row 3.

e. A rectangular block of cells is called a “range” and is referred to by the cells that form the top-left and bottom-right corners of the block. For example the range C3:F8 is the block of cells where the top-left corner is C3 and the bottom-right corner is F8.

2. “Zoom Box”

a. When Excel opens a new workbook the cells can be fairly small and sometimes hard to read.

b. To increase the size of the workbook go to the “Zoom box” located at the right-hand side of the “Standard toolbar” (Note that it is the box that shows a number with a percentage). Choose a value such as 150% or even 200% (you don’t need to type in the % symbol) and press “return”.

3. Entering Numbers

a. By default numbers are right-justified (however you can change this).

b. If a number is too big to fit in the cell Excel displays “##########”. To fix this you need to make the column wider.

i. Move your mouse to the top row where the column letter appears.

ii. Move your mouse to the right-hand edge of the column – the cursor will change to a vertical line with arrows pointing left and right.

iii. Click and drag until you have made the column wide enough.

iv. Release the mouse when you are done.

c. Excel does special formatting on certain numeric entries, for example values entered as “4-7” or “4/7” are interpreted as a date and displayed as “April 7” (or something similar).

4. Entering Text

a. By default text is left-justified (however you can change this).

b. Text can “spill” over to adjoining cells provided there is nothing in those cells.

c. To enter text that may be interpreted by Excel to be a special entry (such as a date), precede the text with a single quote ( ' ). For example to actually enter the text “4-7” you must type it in as '4-7. (If you simply type in 4-7 then Excel will display something like “Apr-07”.)

5. Selecting (or Highlighting) Cells

a. In many cases you need to select a group of cells to copy them or apply formatting to them.

b. To do this:

i. Click on the first cell in the group.

ii. Hold the mouse button down and drag until you get to the last cell in the group.

iii. Release the mouse button when you have finished highlighting the cells you want.

6. Selecting (Highlighting) an Entire Row or Column

a. Move your mouse to the top row where the column letter appears. Click on the column letter or row number that you want to select.

b. To select multiple rows or columns, click on the first one and drag your mouse to the other rows or columns.

c. Release the mouse button when you have finished highlighting the rows or columns.

7. Entering Simple Formulas

a. Excel follows the standard math rules of PEMDAS for performing mathematical operations.

b. You can use parentheses to group operations.

c. Excel uses the symbols: +, –, *, /, and ^ to represent the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and exponents, respectively.

d. All formulas in Excel start with the “=” sign.

e. To calculate “12 × (4 + 3) ÷ 5” you would enter: =12*(4+3)/5, then press “return”.

f. If you type in a the wrong symbols or make an error in your formula, Excel will display #NAME?, #REF! or #VALUE!.

8. Using the “Undo” Button

a. Don’t be afraid to experiment with Excel – if you do something that you don’t like the look of, you can always use the “undo” button to reverse the last few actions you performed.

b. The “undo” button is the rounded, left-pointing arrow usually located in the middle of the “Standard toolbar”.

c. The “undo” button in Excel works exactly the same way as the “undo” button in Word – just keeping clicking on it until you are back to where you want to be.

d. When you click on the “undo” button the “redo” button (located immediately to the right) lights up allowing to you to “un-undo” the last action.

9. Copying Cells

a. A single value in a cell can be copied to other cells immediately adjacent to it.

b. The easiest way to copy cells is to use the “fill handle”.

i. Highlight a single cell or block of cells.

ii. Move the mouse to the bottom right-hand corner until the cursor changes to a black “plus” symbol.

iii. Drag the plus symbol down to where you want to copy the cells to.

c. Note that there is a small yellow box to the right of the cursor that shows you what the value will be in the current cell you are copying to.

10. Creating a Sequence or Pattern of Values

a. If you have a list of values following a regular pattern (such as a list from 1 to 100) Excel can usually fill in the rest of the pattern after you give it the first 2 or 3 values in the list.

i. Enter the first 2 or 3 values in the list.

ii. Highlight the block of cells containing the pattern.

iii. Use the fill handle to copy the pattern to where you want it.

b. Note that there is a small yellow box to the right of the cursor that shows you what the value will be in the current cell you are copying to.

11. Formatting Cells

a. To do any kind of formatting of text, numbers and formulas in Excel, you need to highlight the cell or cells you want to format, go to the “Format” menu and select “Cells”.

b. This menu has the tabs “Number”, “Alignment”, “Font”, “Border”, “Patterns”, “Protection”.

i. Number – you can specify numeric pattern for the cells – you might want to experiment with “Number”, “Currency”, “Date”, “Percentage” and “Scientific”.

ii. Alignment – you can specify the alignment of the cells, such as left, center or right justified, or even angled.

iii. Font – you can specify the type, size and color of the font.

iv. Border – you can add borders to cells.

v. Patterns – you can add shading and other effects to cells.

vi. Protection – you will probably never use this feature.

12. Toolbars

a. Toolbars have many of the most commonly used commands and save you having to use the pull-down menus.

b. The most common toolbars are:

i. The “Standard toolbar” which has icons for “New”, “Open”, “Save”, etc.

ii. The “Formatting toolbar” which has boxes for the font type, font size and icons for bold, italics, underline, etc.

iii. The “Drawing toolbar” which has icons for drawing objects and is usually displayed at the bottom of the page.

c. Sometimes toolbars may not be displayed on the screen – to get them back, go to the “View” menu and select “Toolbars” and choose the one you want to display. Note that the ones that are currently displayed have a checkmark next to them.

d. You can also get the drawing toolbar to appear by clicking on the icon that has the letter “A”, a cube and a cylinder on it (located just to left of the “Zoom” box).

13. Inserting Rows and Columns

a. To insert one or more blank rows or columns:

i. Select or highlight the row or column where you want to insert the new row or column.

ii. From the “Edit” menu, select “insert”.

b. To insert multiple rows or columns:

i. Start from the where you want to insert them and highlight as many rows or columns that you need to insert.

ii. From the “Edit” menu, select “insert”.

14. Deleting Rows and Columns

a. Select or highlight the rows or columns that you want to delete.

b. From the “Edit” menu, select “delete”.

15. Changing the Width of a Column or Height of a Row

a. Highlight the columns or rows that you want to change.

b. From the “Format” menu, select “Column width” or “Row height” as appropriate.

c. You can also change the width of a column by moving your mouse to the row with the column letter, moving to the right-hand edge of the column until the cursor changes to a dark vertical line with arrows going left and right – then “drag” the column width to the size you want.

d. You can change the row height by applying the same set of steps on the row number.

16. Highlighting Non-Adjacent Blocks of Cells

a. Sometimes you need to select a group of cells that may be in two or more blocks that are not touching. You do this as follows:

i. Select the first group of cells.

ii. Press and hold down the “Apple” key (look for the z symbol next to the spacebar).

iii. Select any additional blocks of cells.

iv. When you are done, release the mouse and the “Apple” key.

v. Note that in Windows you can do this by holding down the “ctrl” key.

17. The “Right-Mouse Button” on the Mac

a. If you are used to working with the right-mouse button in Windows, you may find it awkward that the Mac only has a single button. You can access the right-mouse menus on the Mac in two ways:

i. Hold down the key labeled “Control” on the keyboard while pressing the mouse button.

ii. Hold the mouse button down and keep pressing it until the right mouse menu appears.

18. Keyboard Shortcuts on the Mac

a. If you use keyboard shortcuts in Windows, you can continue to use them on the Mac. The Mac equivalent analogous to the Windows “ctrl” key is the “Apple” key, located on either side of the spacebar (it has the symbol z on it).

19. Saving Files to the Mac

a. You can save files on the Mac for future use, however, this is not recommended in public computer labs since files can be erased or changed without your knowledge.

b. To save a file in Excel go to the “File” menu and select “Save” – or click on the “Save” icon on the Standard toolbar (it looks like a 3½-inch diskette).

c. You then see a “dialog box” asking you to decide where you want to save the file.

d. In MacLab C files should be saved in the “Scratch Folder”.

i. Select “Desktop” from the pull down menu if it doesn’t already say “Scratch Folder”.

ii. From the list of items locate “Scratch Folder”.

iii. Double-click on it or highlight it and select “Open”.

iv. Enter the name of the file you want to save (if it doesn’t already have one) and make sure that you add the letters “.xls” after the filename (this will allow you to later open the file in Windows).

v. Click on the “Save” button.

20. Entering Formulas with Cell Referencing

a. One of the most powerful features in Excel is the ability to create formulas using cell references rather than actually entering numerical values. What this means is that the formula will be evaluated based on values that are in other cells. The formula will reflect any changes that are made to these values.

b. For example if the following values are entered in a new workbook in Excel:

· Cell A1: “Principal” Cell B1: “5000”

· Cell A2: “APR” Cell B2: “0.06”

· Cell A3: “Years” Cell B3: “10”

· Cell A5: “Balance” Cell B5: “=B1*(1+B2)^B3”

Then the value in cell B5 will display 8954.238 (calculated as 5000 ´ (1 + 0.06)¹⁰). Note that the value may display differently depending on the formatting in the cell.

If cell B1 is changed to 2000 then the value in cell B5 changes automatically to 3581.695.

Note that if any other value is changed in cells B1 to B3 the value in B5 will change automatically.

c. Any formula can be entered in Excel using cell referencing in place of numerical values.

21. Opening Files

a. Usually you can open a file in Excel by opening the folder where the file is located (on the Mac this will be the “Scratch Folder”) and “double-clicking” on the actual file.

b. In some cases this doesn’t work – often when you are trying to open a file on a Mac that was created in Windows or vice-versa.

c. You can open any file from inside Excel by going to the “File” menu and selecting “Open” – or click on the “Open” icon on the Standard toolbar (it looks like a partially open file folder).

d. You are shown a “dialog box” asking you to locate the file that you want to open.

e. In MacLab C files should be stored in the “Scratch Folder”.

i. Select “Desktop” from the pull down menu if it doesn’t already say “Scratch Folder”.

ii. From the list of items locate “Scratch Folder”.

iii. Double-click on it or highlight it and select “Open”.

iv. Locate the file you want to open, double-click on it or highlight it and select “Open”.

22. Emailing a File to Yourself

a. Once you have saved a file in the “Scratch Folder” you can email it to yourself. This will allow you to work on the file at home or on another computer – it will also protect you in case the file is deleted off the classroom machine.

i. Open your email program.

ii. Create a new message.

iii. Type your email address in the “To” box (if you do this a lot you might want to create an alias or nickname for yourself to avoid having to type your email address each time).

iv. Find the appropriate command to “Attach” a file to your message.

v. You will be shown a dialog box asking you to locate the file or files you want to attach.

1. Select “Desktop” from the pull down menu if it doesn’t say “Scratch Folder”.

2. From the list of items locate “Scratch Folder”.

3. Double-click on the file you want to attach (you may instead have to select a command such as “OK” or “Open” or “Attach”).

vi. Repeat these steps if you have more files to attach (most email programs allow you to attach multiple files to a message).

vii. Once you have finished attaching files, send the message to yourself – it will appear in your inbox.

viii. You can then open the email and select each individual file and “detach” or “save” the files to the machine you are currently working on.

23. Excel With No Open Workbook (on the Mac only)

a. Sometimes you are pretty sure that Excel is running but there doesn’t appear to be an open workbook (you see the desktop but no worksheet).

b. Check that the Excel icon is showing in the top right-hand “taskbar”.

c. Click on the “New” icon at the far left on the Standard toolbar (it looks like a blank page with the corner folded over).

24. Changing the Name of a Worksheet

a. To change the name of a worksheet from Excel’s default “Sheet1” type names, simply double-click on the existing name (the name will be highlighted) and type in a more descriptive name.

25. Moving Worksheets Around in a Workbook

a. When you have a number of different worksheets in an Excel workbook, you might want to change the order of the worksheets (rename them first to something more descriptive). Simply click on the tab with the name of the sheet and drag it to its new position.

26. Sorting Data

a. Sometimes you may need to sort a group of cells in order to gain some insight into your data.

i. If there are rows that are related and you want to preserve this relationship after you sort your data, highlight the entire block of cells. If you don’t need to preserve the relationship between the rows then highlight only the cells you want to sort.

ii. From the “Data” menu, select “Sort”.

iii. In the “Sort by” section, select the column to sort by and whether you want it sorted in ascending or descending order.

iv. In most cases this will be enough and you can select “OK”.

v. However, if there are repeated values in your “Sort by” column and you want these sorted according to a second column then enter this column in the “Then by” section (you will also need to specify ascending or descending order).

vi. If necessary you can select a third sorting column.

vii. When you are done, select “OK”.

27. Making Charts in Excel

a. A powerful feature in Excel is the ability to make different types of graphs or “charts”. Excel’s “Chart Wizard” covers the basic steps involved in creating graphs and walks you through the procedure. You can find more detailed instructions on the separate handout.

b. A basic graph has two columns of data corresponding to the horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) axes. Excel will try to “guess” how you want your chart to look so it is important that you organize your data following certain standards so that Excel can “guess” correctly.

i. Highlight the data that will be in your graph – make sure that your first column of data consists of the X values and the second column are the Y values.

ii. Choose the “Chart Wizard” by clicking on the icon that looks like a graph with three colored bars on it. It is usually on the Standard Toolbar to the left of the “Zoom box”.

iii. Note that the first menu is titled “Step 1 of 4: Chart Type”. Select the chart type you want and click “Next”. The most common types are:

1. Column (for “bar” graphs and histograms)

2. Line (for some line graphs)

3. Pie (for pie graphs)

4. XY Scatter (for scatter graphs and some line graphs such as time-series graphs)

Important Note: If you want to make a line graph where your X values are numerical or quantitative values, then you should choose “XY Scatter” and NOT “Line”.

iv. The next menu is titled “Step 2 of 4: Chart Source Data”. This one shows a rough outline of your graph. If you have organized your data properly then there is nothing to do at this step and you can click “Next”.

v. The next menu is titled “Step 3 of 4: Chart Options”. This menu has many options for you to select. Depending on type of chart you selected in Step 1, you will have different options available. The following list applies to all charts except for the “Pie” chart which is shown separately below.

1. “Titles”: Enter the title of your chart and labels for the X and Y axes.

2. “Axes”: This determines whether the X and Y axes are displayed. You will normally not need to change anything here.

3. “Gridlines”: This determines where and how many vertical and horizontal lines will show on your graph. You will normally not need to change anything here.

4. “Legend”: Select whether you want a legend shown on your graph and its location. Note that you only want a legend if you have more than one set of data displayed.

5. “Data Labels”: You can have the number and data labels displayed for each data point on your graph. You may want to experiment with these to get the look you want.

6. “Data Table” (not available for “XY Scatter”): Allows you to have the actual data values displayed at the bottom of the graph. Rarely used.

vi. For a “Pie” chart you will have the following options:

1. “Titles”: Enter the title of your chart.

2. “Legend”: Decide where you want your legend to appear. Most pie charts should have a legend but can be omitted if you show your data labels (see next option).

3. “Data Labels”: You can have the data value, percentage of the pie or data label next to each slice or wedge of your pie. Experiment with these to get the look you want.

vii. The next menu is titled “Step 4 of 4: Chart Location”. You should ALWAYS select “As new sheet” then click “Finish”.

Note that at any time you can select the “Back” button to go back to an earlier menu.

Graphing in Excel

Overview

· A powerful feature in Excel is the ability to make many different types of graphs. (However, note that Excel uses the word “chart” instead of graph.)

· Creating a graph involves going through a series of 4 steps: telling Excel where the data is located, choosing the type of chart, specifying the options that will be displayed on the chart, and deciding where Excel should display the chart.

· In order to simplify these steps, Excel has a “Chart Wizard” which covers the basic requirements in each step and walks you through the procedure.

· A basic graph has at least two columns of data, the first column corresponds to the horizontal (X) axis and the other columns correspond to the vertical (Y) axis.

· Excel will try to “guess” how you want your chart to look so it is important that you organize your data following certain standards so that Excel can make these guesses correctly.

· Spending a little bit of extra time making sure that you enter the data in the columns correctly will go a long way towards making your graph turn out right.

Using “Chart Wizard”

1. Highlight the data that will be in your graph – make sure that your first column of data consists of the X values and any other columns will be the Y values.

2. Choose the “Chart Wizard” by clicking on the icon that looks like a graph with three colored bars on it. It is usually on the Standard Toolbar to the left of the “Zoom box”.

3. Note that the first menu is titled “Step 1 of 4: Chart Type”. Select the chart type you want and click “Next”. The most common types are:

a. Column (for vertical “bar” graphs and histograms)

b. Bar (for horizontal “bar” graphs)

c. Line (for some line graphs)

d. Pie (for pie graphs)

e. XY Scatter (for scatter graphs and any line graphs that have numbers in the X axes)

4. The next menu is titled “Step 2 of 4: Chart Source Data”. This one shows a rough outline of your graph. If you have organized your data properly then there is nothing to do at this step and you can click “Next”.

5. The next menu is titled “Step 3 of 4: Chart Options”. This menu has many options for you to select. Depending on type of chart you selected in Step 1, you will have different options available. The following list applies to all charts except for the “Pie” chart which is shown separately below.

a. “Titles”: Enter the title of your chart and labels for the X and Y axes.

b. “Axes”: This determines whether the X and Y axes are displayed. You will normally not need to change anything here.

c. “Gridlines”: This determines where and how many vertical and horizontal lines will show on your graph. You will normally not need to change anything here.

d. “Legend”: Select whether you want a legend shown on your graph and its location. Note that you only want a legend if you have more than one set of data displayed.

e. “Data Labels”: You can have the number and data labels displayed for each data point on your graph. You will normally not need to change anything here, however, you may want to experiment with these options when making more advanced graphs.

f. “Data Table” (not available for “XY Scatter”): Allows you to have the actual data values displayed at the bottom of the graph. Rarely used but can look good on some graphs.

6. For a “Pie” chart you will have the following options:

a. “Titles”: Enter the title of your chart.

b. “Legend”: Decide where you want your legend to appear. Most pie charts should have a legend but you may choose to omit it if you show your data labels (see next option).

c. “Data Labels”: You can have the data value, percentage of the pie or data label next to each slice or wedge of your pie. You should experiment with these options to decide what type of appearance you want.

7. When you have finished selecting the chart options, click “Next”.

8. The next menu is titled “Step 4 of 4: Chart Location”. You should ALWAYS select “As new sheet” then click “Finish”.

9. Note that at any time you can select the “Back” button to go back to an earlier menu.

Important Observations

· For “Column”, “Bar”, “Line” and “Pie” charts, Excel assumes that the X axis values are text values. If you have numbers in the first column (such as years) then your chart won’t turn out correctly. To remedy this situation precede numbers with a single quote. For example to enter the years 1995 to 1997 on the X axis, type them in as '1995, '1996, '1997 (press “return” in place of the comma).

· If you want to make a line graph where your X values are numerical or quantitative values, then you should choose “XY Scatter” and NOT “Line”.

· You can have more than one set of values displayed on the Y axis, simply highlight as many as you need. Y axis values can only be numbers, otherwise Excel gets very confused. If you highlight an empty column of data your graph will look odd since Excel assumes zeros for values in that column.

Required Elements on a Graph

There are five required elements on a graph but #2 – 4 are optional for certain types of graphs.

1. Title and source: Required on every graph. Must be located in the top middle of your graph and the source must be in italics and smaller than the title.

2. Scale and label on vertical axis: Not required for pie charts.

3. Scale and label on horizontal axis: Not required for pie charts.

4. Legend: Should not be included when there is only a single set of data on the Y axis. This is required for pie charts unless text labels are indicated on each “slice”.

5. Your name: Required on every graph. Your name must be entered in a text box and located in the bottom right-hand corner of your graph.

Specific Commands and Instructions

1. Going Back to the Chart Wizard

a. If at anytime while working on your graph you realize that you would like to go back to the “Chart Wizard” you can do this by clicking somewhere in the “white area” of your graph and choosing form the “Chart” menu. The four items listed (“Chart Type”, “Source Data”, “Chart Options”, “Chart Location”) correspond to the four steps in the “Chart Wizard”.

2. Selecting Objects in Graph Mode

a. Whenever you select or highlight something in Excel’s graph mode, the item you have selected has a box around it with small squares along the edges and corners. These squares are called “handles”. In some cases there isn’t a box but simply a series of squares indicating that a group of objects has been selected.

b. You can change the size of most objects in Excel by clicking and dragging on the handles. If you drag on a handle in the corner then you can change both the height and width. If you drag on a handle on the left or right side then you can only change the width. If you drag on a handle on the top or bottom then you can only change the height.

3. Using the “Undo” Button

a. Don’t be afraid to experiment with Excel – if you do something that you don’t like the look of, you can always use the “undo” button to reverse the last few actions you performed.

b. The “undo” button is the rounded, left-pointing arrow usually located in the middle of the Standard toolbar.

c. The “undo” button in Excel works exactly the same way as the “undo” button in Word – just keeping clicking on it until you are back to where you want to be.

d. When you click on the “undo” button the “redo” button next to it lights up allowing to you to “un-undo” the last action.

4. Modifying the Title and Adding the Source

a. Make sure that you have a title on your chart. If you don’t then from the “Chart” menu select “Chart Options” and on the “Titles” tab enter a “Chart title”.

b. Once you have a title you can modify it and add additional text to it such as the source.

c. Click once on the title. You should see a box around the title with handles.

d. Click inside the box and your cursor should change to a vertical line indicating that you can enter text inside the box.

e. To add the source go to the end of the line, hit “return” and type in “(source: …)”.

f. You can also highlight text inside the box and change the font size and whether it is bold, italics, etc. The source should always be italics and a smaller font size than the title.

g. Select the text and modify its characteristics by making selections on the formatting toolbar.

h. Once you are done, simply click somewhere on the graph outside the title box.

5. Creating a Text Box for Your Name

a. In order to create a text box to enter your name you need to display the “Drawing toolbar”.

b. This toolbar usually is displayed at the bottom of the screen. If it is not currently displayed then click on the icon that has the letter “A”, a cube and a cylinder on it (located just to left of the “Zoom” box).

c. Choose the “text box” tool which looks like a printed page with the letter “A” on it. Your cursor will change to look like an upside down cross.

d. Move your mouse to the top right-hand corner of the page and “draw” a box: while pressing the mouse button down, drag until you have made a box. Don’t worry about the size of the box since you can adjust this later.

e. You should now have a box with handles on the outside and a flashing cursor inside. Type in your full name and don’t worry if it doesn’t look quite right.

6. Resizing a Text Box

a. Select the text box: if the handles are not showing, click outside the box and then click on the text box.

b. Drag on one of the handles to resize the box. Note that if you drag on a handle in the corner then you can change the height and width. If you drag on a handle on the left or right side then you can only change the width. If you drag on a handle on the top or bottom then you can only change the height.

7. Moving a Text Box

a. Select the text box: if the handles are not showing, click outside the box and then click on the text box.

b. Move your cursor to the shaded edges of the box where there are not any handles. Note that the cursor changes to a four-headed arrow.

c. Click on the box and drag it to its new location. The text with your name should always be located in the bottom right-hand corner of your graph.

d. Release the mouse when you are done.

8. Making a Histogram

a. A histogram is a special kind of “Column” chart where the X values are the classes or bins and the Y values are the frequencies.

b. Highlight the two columns from your frequency table.

i. Note that you should NEVER include relative and cumulative frequencies in a histogram.

ii. Also do not include the totals at the bottom of the frequency table in your graph.

c. Click on one of the bars on your graph. You should see handles on each bar.

d. Go to the “Format” menu and select “Selected Data Series”. If something else is listed in this menu then you haven’t selected the correct part of the graph – go back and try again.

e. Go to the “Options” tab and enter “0” for the “Gap width”.

9. Making Line Graphs and XY Scatter Graphs

a. If you want to make a line graph where your X values are numerical or quantitative values, then you should choose “XY Scatter” and NOT “Line”.

b. Most of the modifications you are likely to want to make on Line and XY Scatter graphs involve changing characteristics of the data set – such as color of the data points and line, size and shape of the data “markers”, whether the markers are displayed, whether the line is “connect-the-dots” style or smoothed.

c. To change any of these properties, click on one of the points on your graph. You should see handles on each data point.

d. Go to the “Format” menu and select “Selected Data Series”. If something else is listed in this menu then you haven’t selected the correct part of the graph – go back and try again.

e. Experiment with this menu to see investigate all the properties you can change.

10. Making Pie Charts

a. Pie charts are very different from any other type of chart in Excel.

b. You can change the size of the pie chart by clicking in one of the four corners just outside the circle. You should see a box touching the outside of the circle with handles in the corners. Drag these handles to change the size of the circle.

c. You can “explode” a slice (i.e. pull it out of the pie) by clicking once on the circle (you should see a handle on each slice) then click a second time on the slice you want to “explode”. There should be handles along the boundaries of this slice. Simply drag the slice away from the rest of the pie. You can do this to other slices also.

d. You can rotate the entire pie by clicking once on the circle (you should see a handle on each slice) then from the “Format” menu choose “Selected Data Series”. On the “Options” tab modify the number in the “Angle of first slice” box.

e. There are also other options that you might want to experiment with.

11. Changing the Background Color on a Chart

a. Excel makes the background color on a chart dark gray by default. Although this might look OK on the screen it often makes the print out look too dark and uses a lot of unnecessary ink.

b. To change this:

i. Click somewhere anywhere on the graph that is gray. You should see the handles and a box around the X and Y axes on the graph.

ii. Go to the “Format” menu and select “Selected Plot Area”. If something else is listed in this menu then you haven’t selected the correct part of the graph – go back and try again.

iii. In this dialog box you can change the color of the border where the graph is and the background color.

iv. On the right-hand side where it says “Area” select “None”.

v. Click on “OK”.

12. Changing a Data Series

a. Each column of data in Excel is called a “data series” and (with the exception of pie charts) is displayed with similar characteristics such as color and shading. You can change these characteristics in Excel.

b. To select the data series click on a bar, line or dot on your graph. You should see handles along the length of graph corresponding to that data series.

c. Go to the “Format” menu and select “Selected Data Series”. If something else is listed in this menu then that means you haven’t selected the correct part of the graph – go back and try again.

d. From this menu you have many options that you can change such as the color and shading of bars, the color, size and shape of data markers and many others. You will probably want to experiment with these to get the best look for your graph.

e. More importantly, this is where you can change the width between the bars in a “Column” chart to produce a histogram. Go to the “Options” tab and enter “0” for the “Gap width”.

13. Changing the Vertical and Horizontal Axes

a. Each column of data in Excel is called a “data series” and (with the exception of pie charts) is displayed with similar characteristics such as color and shading. You can change these characteristics in Excel.

b. To select the axis click somewhere along the axis. You should see handle at both ends of the axis.

c. Go to the “Format” menu and select “Selected Axis”. If something else is listed in this menu then that means you haven’t selected the correct part of the graph – go back and try again.

d. From this menu you can change the characteristics of the axis by selecting the “Pattern”, “Scale”, “Font”, “Number” and “Alignment” tabs.

e. To change the scale (the starting and ending values on the axis) enter numbers for the minimum and maximum values. You can alter these values to produce dramatic “clipping and scaling” effects. Adjusting the value for the “Major unit” you will change the spacing between the horizontal lines on your graph.

f. You can also change the scale on the horizontal axis provided that your X axis values are numeric – which is generally only for “XY Scatter” charts.

14. Highlighting Non-Adjacent Blocks of Cells

a. Sometimes you need to select a group of cells that may be in two or more blocks that are not touching. You do this as follows:

i. Select the first group of cells.

ii. Press and hold down the “Apple” key (the one with the z symbol on it on either side of the spacebar).

iii. Select any additional blocks of cells.

iv. When you are down, release the mouse and the “Apple” key.

15. Changing the Name of a Worksheet

a. To change the name of a worksheet from Excel’s default “Sheet1” type names, simply double-click on the existing name (the name will be highlighted) and type in a more descriptive name.

16. Moving Worksheets Around in a Workbook

a. When you have a number of different worksheets in an Excel workbook, you might want to change the order of the worksheets (rename them first to something more descriptive). Simply click on the tab with the name of the sheet and drag it to its new position.

viii.