1. Return To Index Excel 05 - 1 Microsoft Excel Basics Lesson 05 Creating & Saving A Simple Formula Force = Mass * AccelerationForce = Mass * Acceleration - 2 Justify (Right, Left, Center) cell contents - 3 Fill Bucket Colors - 9 Borders - 12 Saving a File For Future Use - 14 Justify (Right, Left, Center) cell contents Fill Bucket Colors Borders Saving a File For Future Use

2. Return To Index Excel 05 - 2 Let’s develop a simple EXCEL spreadsheet to automate the following formula. F = MA (Force = Mass times Acceleration) Let’s begin by labeling cell A1 as F, B1 as M, and C1 as A. Type the above capital letters in the appropriate cell. Note : The letter is at the left justified in the cell.

3. Return To Index Excel 05 - 3 Let’s center the letters we have typed in the cells. Select all the cells by: place your mouse pointer over cell A1, hold your left mouse down, pull it over cells B1 and C1. Note : Do not pull the lower corner (+ sign) of cell A1. This will cause a “copy” of the contents of cell A1 to B1 and C1. We will discuss “copy” later.

4. Return To Index Excel 05 - 4 Now left click the Center Icon on the toolbar at the top of the Excel spreadsheet. Note: The letters are now centered in the cells as shown on the next slide. This procedure can be followed when labeling cells. You can either left justify, center, or right justify labels that you type in a cell.

5. Return To Index Excel 05 - 5 Now that we have labeled our cells. We will develop our formula and put the answer in cell A2. Cell A2 will represent the F (Force) calculation when a value for M (Mass) is entered in cell B2 and a value for A (Acceleration) is entered in cell C2. Enter the formula for F ( =B2*C2 ) in cell A2. Note : The Formula Toolbar shows the formula in cell A2.

6. Return To Index Excel 05 - 6 When you depress the keyboard Enter Key the value which shows up in cell A2 is 0. Note : This is because cells B2 and C2 are void of any data.

7. Return To Index Excel 05 - 7 We have now set up a formula which can be used repetitively by changing cells B2 and C2. Enter 2 in cell B2 and 32 in cell C2. Note : The value in cell A2 is calculated automatically to 64 which is 2*32.

8. Return To Index Excel 05 - 8 Enter 4 in cell B2 and 20 in cell C2. The value in cell A2 is automatically calculated to 80 which is 4*20. Note : All numbers are by default right justified, while all text is left justified. To change the justification place the cursor over the cell and click the appropriate justification icon.

9. Return To Index Excel 05 - 9 Note : This formula will reside in cell A2 until you change the contents of cell A2. If you accidentally type over the contents of cell A2, the formula will be lost and have to be re-entered. So how do we know what is a data cell and what is a formula cell? One way to identify input cells from output cells is to color code the cells. One easy way for most of us to remember is green means go and if you have ever been pulled over by a highway patrol person you know blue means stop. Color coding is easily done with the Fill Color Icon. Color Coding Your Spreadsheet

10. Return To Index Excel 05 - 10 Place the cursor over cell A2. Locate the Fill Color Icon and left click the arrow to the right of the Fill Bucket. This will bring up a pop-up menu of colors. Left click the light turquoise color.

11. Return To Index Excel 05 - 11 The color scheme you choose is entirely up to you. However, the convention used for the majority of my lectures is the one shown here. Light turquoise means formula cell … don’t change it Light green means input cell … can change it

12. Return To Index Excel 05 - 12 Because a spreadsheet may take many hours to create and may be used many times, the easier it is to read, the less time one needs to spend documenting how the spreadsheet works. I endorse the use of borders to help the readability. Hilight all the cells as shown above then find the Borders Icon and left click the all borders option.

13. Return To Index Excel 05 - 13 The result is an easy to read spreadsheet where the green cells can be changed and the blue cells should not. Fairly easy … isn’t it. We will talk more about how to Protect Worksheet Cells in a later lesson, but this is an easy to remember method to help minimize the chance of wiping out a cell formula. Another way is to always keep a saved copy of the spreadsheet … just in case.

14. Return To Index Excel 05 - 14 Once a spreadsheet is created and has been tested … usually with a simple set of data and a calculator … it is now time to save the spreadsheet for use at a later date. To do this requires a floppy disk. Special care should be taken with floppy disks to ensure that they work when you want them to. Before you save your spreadsheet … one of the most important considerations is to come up with a name for your spreadsheet. Since you will be using the spreadsheet frequently, it should be a name which can easily be recognized on the floppy disk table of contents. For our example, let’s choose the name F01-Force Calculation. The simple name might mean that this is your first formula (F01) and it does force calculation. Saving Your Spreadsheet …

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