1. IENG 423 Design of Decision Support Systems Modeling with Excel Excel Basics

2. So, let’s imagine… In the spirit of the election season that we are in… You are the treasurer for a newly formed political party… Whose whole platform is to have more parties… Your new political party is called the … Party

3. You have a fund raising team-..and, for December they have turned in… 3 Party Party Contributions Bob1211.00 Mary1008.00 Jim4363.00 Sally5621.00 Fred 325.00

4. You need the total contributions So, you can add the money column 4 Party Party Contributions Bob1211.00 Mary1008.00 Jim4363.00 Sally5621.00 Fred 325.00 Total12528.00

5. 5 Party Party Contributions Bob1211.00 Mary1988.00 1008.00 Jim4363.00 Sally5621.00 Fred1325.00 325.00 Total12528.00 It turns out that not all of the data was in when you start this table … and Fred thought he could keep part of the money for his own party this weekend

6. So, we need to recalculate 6 Party Party Contributions Bob1211.00 Mary1988.00 1008.00 Jim4363.00 Sally5621.00 Fred1325.00 325.00 Total14508.00

7. MS Excel 7 Party Party Contributions Bob1211.001105.00 Mary1988.002200.00 Jim4363.003000.00 Sally5621.005000.00 Fred1325.00300.00 Total Oh, you need to do this for December and January

8. So, how do you get started Like Dennis Hopper says “You need a Plan” What is the spreadsheet suppose to do? – What is it purpose? -- write it down What are the givens, the inputs Are there categories of information that will be part of the spreadsheet? What outputs do you need? What are the relationships between the inputs and outputs

9. So, how do you get started Like Dennis Hopper says “You need a Plan” Make a sketch – yes on paper! Is it laid out to be meaningful, usable and useful to - the end user – not you – the end user? And don’t forget to test it  And test it again

10. So, how do you get started This does not mean that the plan is “carved in stone” In fact, Excel is pretty powerful with respect to letting you modify your model after you have created it (usually) …and it is pretty smart about adapting your model as you make changes (usually)

11. Remember You are developing your spreadsheet application for a customer, client or boss Always try to put yourself in their shoes

12. MS Excel Entering Data Selecting a Cell Entering Text  Excel sort of knows Entering numeric data Entering numbers as text Entering Dates

13. MS Excel Entering arithmetic expressions or formulae Prefix entry with arithmetic operator Recommend using = For example,  Entering an = and a cell reference will enter whatever is in the referenced cell in the current active cell  We will come back to this!

14. MS Excel Selecting Cells Columns Rows Contiguous Ranges Extending selected contiguous ranges Noncontiguous ranges

15. MS Excel Selecting Entire worksheet Other worksheets

16. MS Excel Inserting columns in a worksheet Inserting rows in a worksheet Adjusting column widths Drag column edge Set to specific width Autofit Adjusting row heights Like above

17. MS Excel Erasing cell data Delete – tries to move neighboring cells or delete entire row or column Point to cell and hit space bar – enters a space in cell – will cause cells that use the active cell in a formula to error Clear Contents – will set cell to have no values

18. MS Excel Autofill Will copy active cell contents to other contiguous cells Will copy formula in active cell to contiguous cells – with adjustments Extend a series in two or more selected cells

19. MS Excel Copy and Paste Copies selected contents to other cells Copies formulae with adjustments

20. MS Excel Save Save As Save often

21. For Next Time Read Chapters 3 and 4 of MS Excel 2003 Step by Step Do some research on importing files Txt files Delimited files Other Excel Workbooks XML files