Free Newsletter
If you would like to receive our weekly newsletter just send
an email to
Mary Hanson at:
ComputerTutorTeam@gmail.com.
There are no fancy sign-up forms – just mention newsletter in the subject line of your email.
We've been sending out this PC Help Newsletter since 1994, and it contains no advertising of any kind – just useful computer tips.
Furthermore, your email address is safe with us – we don't share it with anyone under any conditions whatsoesver.
PLEASE NOTICE:
All the information in this article about Excel also applies to other spreadsheets, such as Quattro Pro, Lotus 123, OpenOffice Calc, and the spreadsheets that come with Google Docs and Microsoft Works.
Top of Page
If you would like to receive our weekly newsletter just send
an email to
Mary Hanson at:
ComputerTutorTeam@gmail.com.
There are no fancy sign-up forms – just mention newsletter in the subject line of your email.
We've been sending out this PC Help Newsletter since 1994, and it contains no advertising of any kind – just useful computer tips.
Furthermore, your email address is safe with us – we don't share it with anyone under any conditions whatsoesver.
PLEASE NOTICE:
All the information in this article about Excel also applies to other spreadsheets, such as Quattro Pro, Lotus 123, OpenOffice Calc, and the spreadsheets that come with Google Docs and Microsoft Works.
Top of Page
|
Spreadsheets 101
When I recently suggested maintaining one's email contact list in a spreadsheet, Sheila Schwander wrote to ask what a spreadsheet is. Well, it's a grid whose rows are identified numerically as 1, 2, 3, while its columns are called A, B, C, etc. The intersecting boxes are called cells, with the upper-left cell identified as A1. A contact list of, say, 25 email addresses could be listed in cells A1 through A25, from where they can be copied and pasted into outgoing messages as needed. Someone sending the same message to all 25 contacts would simply mouse-select the cells, copy their contents with Ctrl+C, and then paste them into an email's BCC (blind carbon copy) field with Ctrl+V. One advantage of using a spreadsheet instead of an email program's built-in Address Book is that if you ever change services there will be no need to move the addresses from one program to another. Furthermore, adding and removing addresses within a spreadsheet is quite simple, as is sorting them into different groups if needed. Doing Math with a Spreadsheet Excel is the world's most popular spreadsheet program and Maureen Thompson asked how it is used to solve math problems. Well, the simplest example is to add up a column of figures. For starters, we'll use a short column of small numbers that you could easily add up in your head. Let's use cells A1 through A4, and type a random number into each of them. We'll display the sum of these amounts in A5 by clicking into the cell and typing the formula: =SUM(A1:A4) followed by pressing ENTER.
Now let's say you have a week's worth of daily expenses you want to add up. Use File>New to begin a new spreadsheet and type the word Sunday into B1. Press ENTER and notice that a little black square has appeared in the lower right corner of B1. Grab this square and drag it six cells to the right. Voila — all seven days (Sunday thru Saturday) are now displayed. We'll enter some daily expense figures into the cells below each day. In A2 type in an expense of some kind, say, Cellphone. In cells A3 thru A5 type some others, such as Travel Expense, Meals, & Lodging. Now enter some random amounts into the "expense" cells under the days of the week. (Let's keep the exercise simple by using whole numbers rather than dollars and cents figures.) Now we'll add up the expenses for each day of the week. Get Sunday's total by clicking into B6 and clicking Σ. The next obvious thing to do would be to click into each appropriate cell and then click Σ to get the totals for the rest of the week. BUT THERE IS AN EASIER WAY... Remember the little black square in the lower right corner of the "Sunday" cell? Well, click into B6 (the total of Sunday's expenses) and notice that it, too, has a little black square. Grab it and drag it six cells to the right. Voila — the totals for all seven days will be displayed. Now we'll put the grand total of expenses into cell I6. Put your cursor in the cell and click the Σ symbol again to display the grand total. Here's what happened: the AutoSum command looks above for a column of figures to be totaled, and then looks to its left if no amounts are seen above. If there are numbers in both directions you can mouse-select the cells you want totaled, followed by pressing ENTER. SUBTRACTION To subtract one amount from another (say, a figure in A2 from a figure in A1) type this formula into A3: =SUM(A1-A2) and press ENTER. Alternatively, you could just click the Sigma symbol if you had preceded the figure in A2 with a minus sign (-). MULTIPLICATION & DIVISION For multiplication and division the keyboard characters of * and / are used. To multiply the contents of A1 and B1 you could click into C1, type =A1*B1 and press ENTER. To divide A1 by B1 you would use the formula: =A1/B1. This is obviously just the tip of the Excel iceberg. More instructions can be found HERE. |