Excel Lesson 6

Use the Start menu to start Excel.

Column headings/readability:

Open the file GAMES1.xls. It contains a list of names of students, and the number of video games each student has.

It would be helpful if the worksheet itself gave you info about what it contained. Let’s add COLUMN HEADINGS so that it does.

Insert a blank row of cells at the top of the spreadsheet. (In case you need help in doing this, click in a cell in the first row. Go to the INSERT menu, and choose ROWS).

In the new first row, type NAMES above the names, and NUMBER OF VIDEO GAMES OWNED over the numbers.

This worksheet might be easier to read if there were a blank line in between the column heading and the data. Insert another row there.

Save the file, and open the file CANDY1.xls.

This file looks a lot like the GAMES1 file. It contains a list of names (of candy bars) and the number of candy bars of each kind that someone has.

Insert a row at the beginning and make up some column headings. Insert an additional blank row between the column headings and the candy data.

Save the CANDY1 file, and open up the MUSIC1.xls file. It contains a lit of CD names, along with the band or artist who did the CD. Create column heading for this file, and save it.

Let’s go back to the CANDY1 file. (A shortcut to finding this file is to go all the way to the bottom of the FILE menu, where there is a list of files you have edited recently. Choose CANDY1 here.)

Click in the cell underneath the column of numbers. Write an expression, using cell names, that will give you the total number of candy bars. Hit enter to see the number. How many candy bars are there?

You learned two different ways to find sums. One of them uses + signs, the other uses the =SUM function. If you used + in your expression, delete it and try rewriting it using the =SUM function. Ask for help if you get stuck.

Save the CANDY1 file, and go back to the GAMES1 file. Click in the cell underneath the column of numbers, and use the =SUM function to write an expression that will give the total number of video games.

Someone looking at your worksheet may wonder what the last number is. Think of a label- something you can write to the left of the sum, or above the sum, that tells what the number is. You may want to write something like ‘The total number of games:’, or you may be able to think of something better. You may have to widen a column or insert a blank row so that you label fits.

Now, here is a question for you to think about. (After you think about it, you can try answering it in the spreadsheet). The three people in the spreadsheet have different numbers of video games. If they got together and decided to put their games together and then divide them up so that each of them had an equal number of games, how many would each of them have?

Did you come up with a number? How did you figure it out?

This number is called an AVERAGE.

We have a function, =AVERAGE, so that Excel can figure out averages for you. It is typed like =SUM.

Click in the cell underneath the sum, and type =AVERAGE(B3..B5) and hit ENTER.

There is another way to find averages in Excel. In the cell below the one you type =AVERAGE in, type: =(B3+B4+B5)/3

The parentheses are important because they keep the addition part together, so that Excel doesn’t divide by 3 until it had added up the three numbers.

Save the work you have just done. Go to the FILE menu, choose NEW, and bring up a new sheet.

Use the new sheet for typing in some data of your own. You can use this spreadsheet for typing in data about anything you want, but you should have AT LEAST two columns and two rows of data. It will be more interesting if you have more data than that! You data can have numbers, or just words, or whatever you would like. Take your time in typing it in.

When you are done typing in data, make column headings so that people looking at your data can easily tell what it is.

Think of a good name for this file- something that tells what’s inside- and save it to your Excel folder.

Go to FILE and choose NEW again, and think of some other data you would like to keep track of. Type in this data, add column headings, and save it as well.

Exit from Excel.