SC ICT Certification Level 1 07 Spreadsheets By Ross Parker

Spreadsheet wikipedia.org: “A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper worksheet. It displays multiple cells that together make up a grid consisting of rows and columns, each cell containing either alphanumeric text or numeric values. A spreadsheet cell may alternatively contain a formula that defines how the contents of that cell is to be calculated from the contents of any other cell (or combination of cells) each time any cell is updated.”

3 of many MS Excel 2007 Replacing Word 2003 De facto standard Experimental interface Part of MS Office suite Desktop application Costly OpenOffice Calc Open standards Traditional interface Part of OpenOffice suite Desktop application Free/open Source Free (gratis) Google Docs Part of Google Docs suite Web-based application docs.google.com Integrated collaboration Limited Functionality Free (gratis)

MS EXCEL 2007, OPENOFFICE CALC, GOOGLE DOCS Basics

OpenOffice Calc New Document MS Excel Google Docs 1. 2.

Working with cells Select cell : single left click cell Enter new data : type in selected cell Edit existing data : double left click cell or F2 Highlight multiple cells –Mouse 1.Hold left button down 2.Drag mouse over cells –Keyboard Use arrow keys to go to first cell Hold shift key down Use arrow keys to go to last cell

1 l MS Excel 2007 Formatting Cells Cut, copy, paste Font, size Formatting Alignment ColourStyles OpenOffice Calc Cut, copy, paste Font, sizeFormattingAlignmentBordersStyles Google Docs Font, size FormattingAlignment Colour Borders Number formatting Merge cells Number formatting Colours Merge cells Borders Merge cells Cut, copy, paste Number formatting

Saving and conversion Save regularly Organise files using folders Many formats: –.xls –.xlsx –.ods –.csv.xls is defacto standard Standards are not always compatible

Current worksheet tabs Tabs wikipedia.org: “In the area of graphical user interfaces, a tabbed document interface (TDI) is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs to navigate between them.” Tabs are becoming more prominent in computing, but are a staple of spreadsheets. Tab scroll bar New worksheet

MS EXCEL 2007 Intermediate Focus

Printing Print only when needed. Consider: –Which printer –Split sheet into pages –Quality –Color vs greyscale –Duplex –Page Range –Number of copies –Pages per sheet

View Control what you see: Normal Page Layout Page Break Layout Zoom

Cells are referred to by: –Letter (horizontal axis) –Number (vertical axis) If a cell is copied, references are updated relative to the new location. –To prevent this, use the $ symbol Cell reference to other sheets Cell reference to other documents Cell reference This is cell B2 This is cell $B$2

Formulas Formulas allow data to be manipulated. Some sample formulas: = =A1+B1 =SUM(C1:C6) =AVERAGE(C1:C6) =IF(C6=42,"Y","N") Formulas can be “nested” =IF(C6=42,AVERAGE(C1:C6),"N") Troubleshooting formulas is tough Formula Nested formula

Charts Enter and highlight data Select a chart type Use “Chart Tools” to edit the chart

Allows data organisation Enter and highlight data Apply a sort or a filter Sort and filter

Allows automatic colour marking Enter and highlight data Click on “Conditional formatting” Choose your formatting type (you may be prompted for more information) View output Conditional Formatting

MS EXCEL 2007 Advanced Focus (optional, not assessed)

Advanced Features Comments : mark documents with suggestions Track changes: work together asynchronously Data tools : powerful data manipulation External data : connect to databases Forms : enable data input (Google Docs is much easier on this, and allows online submission) Macros : automate process

Licensing All original work used here is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. For more details please look at This license has been chosen to permit a high degree of sharing, whilst protecting the author’s control as to how the content is used. Please respect this license and use accordingly! Recycled and borrowed works from other sources are used under appropriate licenses, which are not affected by this license. The original source is always given. All original work created by Ross Parker (Sha Tin College, English Schools Foundation, Hong Kong), except where specified.