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Working with Excel tables: step-by-step instructions, features and recommendations

Most users of computer systems based on Windows with the installed Microsoft Office package certainly faced with the application MS Excel. At beginners, the program causes some difficulties in mastering, nevertheless work in Excel with formulas and tables is not so complicated, as it may seem at first glance, if you know the basic principles contained in the application.

What is Excel?

In essence, Excel is a full-fledged mathematical machine for performing a multitude of arithmetic, algebraic, trigonometric and other more complex operations, using several basic data types that are not always relevant to mathematics.

Working with Excel tables means using more ample opportunities with combining and computations, and plain text, and multimedia. But in its original form the program was created precisely as a powerful mathematical editor. Some, however, initially accept the application for a calculator with advanced features. The deepest delusion!

Work in "Excel" with tables for beginners: first introduction to the interface

First of all, after opening the program, the user sees the main window, which contains the basic controls and tools for work. In later versions, when the application starts, a window appears, prompting you to create a new file, called "Book 1" by default, or select a template for further actions.

Working with Excel tables for beginners in the first stage of acquaintance with the program should be reduced to creating an empty table. For now, consider the basic elements.

The main field is the table itself, which is divided into cells. Each has a numbering, thanks to two-dimensional coordinates - the line number and the letter designation of the column (for example, take Excel 2016). Such a numbering is necessary in order to clearly define the cell with the data in the dependency formula, the operation on which will be performed.

Above, as in other office applications, is the main menu bar, and just below - the toolkit. Below it there is a special line in which formulas are entered, and a window with coordinates of the currently active cell (on which the rectangle is located) can be seen slightly to the left. Below is a panel of sheets and a horizontal slider, and below it are buttons for switching the view and zooming. On the right is a vertical strip for moving the sheet up / down.

Basic types of data entry and simple operations

At first it is assumed that the work in Excel with tables by the novice user will be mastered by familiar operations, for example, in the same text editor Word.

As usual, the table can perform the operations of copying, cutting or pasting data, enter text or numerical data.

But the input is somewhat different from the one that is produced in text editors. The fact is that the program is initially configured to automatically recognize what the user prescribes in the active cell. For example, if you enter line 1/2/2016, the data will be recognized as a date, and in the cell instead of the entered digits, the date will appear in a simplified form - 01.02.2016. Change the display format can be quite simple (this will be discussed later).

The same is true for numbers. You can enter any numeric data, even with an arbitrary number of decimal places, and they will be displayed in the form in which they are all used to seeing. But, if an integer is entered, it will be represented without a mantissa (decimal places in the form of zeros). It is also possible to change this.

But when the data entry is complete, many novice users try to move to the next cell using the arrow keys (as you can do in Word tables). And it does not work. Why? Yes, only because the work with the Excel spreadsheets differs from the text editor Word quite noticeably. The transition can be done by pressing the Enter key or by setting the active rectangle to another cell with the left mouse click. If you press Esc after writing something in the active cell, the entry will be canceled.

Actions with sheets

Work with sheets at the beginning of difficulties should not be called. On the bottom panel there is a special button for adding sheets, after clicking on which a new table will appear with automatic switching to it and setting a name ("Sheet 1", "Sheet 2", etc.).

Double-clicking can activate the renaming of any of them. You can also use the right-click menu to bring up an additional menu, which has several basic commands.

Cell Formats

Now the most important thing is that the cell format is one of the basic concepts that determines the type of data that will be used to recognize its contents. You can call up the editing of the format through the right-click menu, where the corresponding line is selected, or by pressing the F2 key.

The window to the left shows all available formats, and the right side shows the options for displaying the data. If you look at the example with the date shown above, the "Date" is selected as the format, and the desired view is set on the right (for example, February 1, 2016).

To perform mathematical operations, you can use several formats, but in the simplest case, choose a numeric format. On the right there are several types of input, a pointer to the number of characters in the mantissa after the comma and the field for setting the delimiter of the groups of digits. Using other numerical formats (exponential, fractional, monetary, etc.), you can also set the desired parameters.

The default setting for automatic data recognition is a common format. But when you enter text or several letters the program can convert it spontaneously into something else. Therefore, to enter text for the active cell, you need to set the appropriate parameter.

Work in Excel with formulas (tables): an example

Finally, a few words about the formulas. And first, let's look at an example of the sum of two numbers in cells A1 and A2. In the application there is an automatic summation button with some additional functions (calculation of the arithmetic mean, maximum, minimum, etc.). It is enough to set the active cell, which is in the same column below, and when the sum is selected, it will be calculated automatically. The same works for horizontally located values, but the active cell for the sum needs to be set to the right.

But you can enter the formula manually (working with Excel tables also implies the possibility that an automatic action is not provided). For the same amount, you should put an equal sign in the formula line and write an operation in the form A1 + A2 or SUM (A1; A2), and if you want to specify a range of cells, this type is used after the equal sign: (A1: A20) The sum of all the numbers in cells from the first to the twentieth inclusive is counted.

Drawing charts and diagrams

Working with Excel tables is also interesting because it involves the use of a special automated tool for plotting graphs of dependencies and diagrams based on selected ranges.

To do this, there is a special button on the panel, after clicking on which you can select any parameters or the desired view. After that, the diagram or graph will be displayed on the sheet as a picture.

Cross-linking, importing and exporting data

In the program it is also possible to establish data links that are on different sheets, use cross-references to files of a different format or objects that are on servers on the Internet, and many other add-ons.

In addition, Excel files can be exported to other formats (for example, PDF), copy data from them, etc. But the program itself can open files created in other applications (text formats, databases, web pages, XML- Documents, etc.).

As you can see, the editor's possibilities are almost unlimited. And, of course, they simply do not have enough time to describe them. Here are only the initial basics, but the interested user will have to read background information in order to master the program at the highest level.

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