Basic Excel Skills [Eel may be the most versatile software program ever created. Is used daily by nallions of people in every caeivable walk of fie. Some ofits users are simply ‘ding up stortcokumns of numbers, wii others ae creating sophisticated apis tions in which Excel i perfoening complex merical esleulatons while interacting with several other software sytem. With such a versatile and fexble toc it {ical for any wero determine just which of the thousands offeaturesin Excel are really worth knowing In thie chapter, we describe the haic Excel skills we think ate [important for every busines nals "Ths chapter ist intended to seve a8 a beginners tutorial op Excel. Those ‘who are new toExcel and who need ttl should work througha book CD. or Take an oolineeoutee Severalof these ar itedin the sugaestedreadings Those who thave a working knowledge of Excel wil nd in tis chaper some reminders about familiar tos and perp pointers o some new one a well We have found that many experienced users have never taken thetine to expore Excel stematcally.s0| their silsare deep insome arearbat shallow in others Werecommead that you skim {his chapter fo Encl features that are new to you and ad them to your skillset. fevv minutes spent in lemning how to ure Feel more eficenly, oven ifyou area experienced user can pa dividends inthe future everytime you build a spreadsheet model Se ‘What spreadsheet sill ate prerequisites for an analyst who would like to learn to model nel? The mart tai sil sad oe tha dest show upintbe books, isthe Sty to leam by til anderrr Few suceasulusers of software lear primarily from manuals lp faites, Most ave learned to sean themonus and searchin party ‘idm, pry oteligent fashion forthe ool they need and Yo experiment freely. “knowing hat almost) pobing they cannot he undone. lnfac the Undo command iscome of te most important features in Excel! “Getting down to Excel, the rst necessary skills tbe able to vwonheet and between worksheet in mor bovk, Thi alesis ‘Srolling ing te Home en End kes, and soon. Even the novice modeler needsto fe textandentr date and choose the formatoftesc entries ishandy to beable ‘change the font name, sh, andsze:touse bald and ales andtocolor acelorits ‘Sontets The sly tothe content cll isimportant. Other nevessary skills inciadeinsering and deleting tos of columns aad entice woskshocts; cuting, opying, and pasting, print! aa drawing chars. ‘Skill ee of formulas a fonctions separates the aovcespreadshest us from the advanced ure. To crete formulas effectively, users most understand bath relative cll adresing a absolute cell addressing. Excl has iamumerable bul in| functions aa an rascal simplify exeuations. Some ofthe most useful are SOM,in Spaton TF, ox MEK AVERAGE, and NPV. The Insert Function window not ony fist al the avalable functions by category, but also species the syntax ofeach function, ‘explaining what inputs each requites and in what ordet. Beyond these hase tools, Excel contains erally hundreds of specialized features, Few modelers use more than several dozens ofthese soutincly, and even {ewercaaromemberal of them hetween uses, Its nor necessary to master lf See specialized tools in order to sueoed at modeling ‘Wevillusea simple spreadsheet model a an example throughout this chapter ‘The reader should ope thismodel and use ito test out the features described below "The spreadsheet set x shown in Figure 3. Pont investors in 9 ofce bulla consrstion project have ake ws to vane si ‘opportunity. Our task o pro he after ech ows eing Som soto ‘pera ths proposed oc bldg ver fn year povod Ata planned sto 8000 ‘Sue feet te expected contraction cont $8 pe quae fot, The investor pan fake ‘uta morgage for percent of he cost of he busing paying he einer cs). and {hey hve Bee arated arate of 1 poent fra er of 30 yea The owner math 1) forthe cow of operating te adn, Mic nls nes sre, enenance, and eran les They same ht the average opting sot pe gue fot wil be $10 “They hve ao ema tha they can hare a etal ae of 15 por agar oo, with an ‘oxcupang ato 70 percent. The cet ofeapalis 1 perent Renner are expected to grow poet pe yea, whe operating expense row 6 peo the oecpangy ae sop peeetae points yearly asthe bul ages Te owner pln sel the ug at the end the ith Year for 12 Une he fal ear ne operating ie 7 3.3_THE EXCEL WINDOW, Exch Exel le iscalled a workbook. A workbook consists of number of individual worksheets. We will se the word “sprendsbeet” to refer to bath workbooks and Wworksbets ‘The basic spreadsheet layout consists fa rid of rows and columns cll ee Figure 32). The rows are labeled with numbers andthe columns are labeled with letters The maximum number of rows in a single worksheet f I,M&S76 the ‘maximum number of columns is 16.388. The addess ofa cll correspond to ts column and row label—for example, C3 or ABSST, “etd tri chap rts dn Compu Si weetExcel displays on the computer sreen a portion of this grid surrounded by other ‘nforration, Some ofthe important features ofthe Excel window are desribed here fd noted in Figuee 32 ‘Othce Button The Office Huion, which i located atthe upper let comer ofthe Srndow, provides accesso the mest coramonly wed commands such 3 New, Opes, {lose Sve, Save As; and Prin, It also provides access to Excel Options. Quick Acces Toalbar Just to the right of the Office Button is the Quick Access ‘Toolbar. Ths toolbar provides set oconsthal provide shortcuts a frequent used commands, You can customize this toolbar by selecting the dowaward pointing sr0w tothe right ofthe eons. ‘Tobe ‘The main Ese nmmandsare cried pronto telowing + Home wert + Page Layout + Formulas + Data + Review + View + Addins Adatonal abs mayne eran conditions, appeas tothe right of the eight iste ‘ove. Ribbons and Groups Each tab gives acces toa ribbon in which commands ace fngasized into groups, For example, the Home tab has the following proups of commands+ Ciipboura + Font + Alignment = Number + Seles + Calls + Baiting “The Foot group ineudes the fllowing commands + Font size (increase and decrease) + Bold italics, undertine + Borders + Fil color + Font color addition, the Font group includes a small downward-pontng arrow ison (\) that ‘opens the Format Cel Window. Message Area When Excel performs lengthy calculations, a mesage will ppearin ‘his area giving information onthe progres of the procedare Scroll Bars ‘These bars allow the user 1 change the portion of the spreadsheet ‘splayed on tho sreen ‘het Tabs. These tabs allow the user to select which worksheets displayed, The selection allows the user to move fom sheet to sheet within & workbook. ‘TabScroling Buttons These small triangles alow the dspay of diferent tbs in ‘workbooks where not all of the tabs ae visible at once [Name Box This box displays the cell adress where the cursors ocated aswell as| the ist of any named ranges. (Named ranges are covered in Chapter 4) Formula Bar This box displays the contents ofthe cell where the cursor leat, whether a number formula or text This is usually the area in which the user enters information into el, Mouse Cursor The location ofthe cursor is shown with an open eros symbol (CalCursor Whena cellhasbeenseected, itis outlined witha dark border. When ‘ange of cells hasbeen selected, its colored blue and outlined! with a dark hose Fil Handle the lower sight hand comer f the cell orders cos that ean be selected for copying the contents ofthe cll 0 adjacent eels. When this eos Selected, the mouse cursor changes t a darkened cross, 3.4_ CONFIGURING EXCEL ‘Many users are not aware that tbey ean control the look and behavior of their spreadsbeets by sting certain patameters Select Office Button Exes! Options, and a window appears with ane tabs listed in a column on the left (sce Figure 33)OURES3 Trees pene ao "Except where noted below, most of the choices provided on these tabs ca safely be left at tht default valves Popular Tab Scoot an appropriate font and font size Formulas Tab In most wes, its preferable to have the spreadsheet calelate ll formula cols each time a change is mado to any cell. Tht updating occurs if hutomat te Calculation selected under Caleutetion options. On octsion, itisurefulotrn this feature off To do so, check anual Caletation. When the ‘manual calculation option is chosen he spreadsheet ean be realelated at anytime by pressing F9, but lt wl not recacalate automatically when a cll changed. The fchsage “Calculate wll appear in the Message area when a cel hasbeen changed but the spreadsheet has not been recalculated ‘When a spreadset contains simaltaneous relationships, calculations cannot tbe made in the usual manner, This situation typically generates an error message Warning of @cireuler reference, This eror message is useful because circular {eferences usally occur when there isa mistake inthe logic. However, there are ‘reunstances where a Editing» FillpSeras command wil enter vat: ious kinds of series (ce Figure 37). ‘The same effect can be accomplished by entering the ist two cell entries, highlighting them, and copying tothe rest of the Tange using the Fill handle. Excel can usally gues the pattern60 curren anscexce sms correctly. Forexample, enter 1 and2in one column, Highlight the two cells. illdown | tothe nexteight cells using the Flhsndle, andthe remainder of heseries 3 45,6,7, 55,10) will appear, To ener the numbers between 10 and 30 insteps of 5, enter 10 nd 18 in adjcont ells and fll down unt 30s reached. 3.9 _EDITING CELLS cuneate ‘Thore are several ways Io edi the information in cells. Here are the most well alternatives Formula Bar The simplest way to eit sto cick onthe Formula ba. A vertical ‘cursor wll appear inthe Formula bar, and information can be entered oF modified {ing all he normal Windows typing options. I the elected cel not empry, its ‘ontens will appear i the Formula bat- Clicking onthe text there will make the editing cursor appear. Double-Cck A handy sternative approach ito double-lick ona cell, or equiva- Jems, toprestheF2 ey. Thisallons editing nthe celitslf the selectedcell snot tempéy, any celle refereed to in the formula willbe highlighted in eolor, a useful ‘Sehugping dovice Se Figure 3, where we have double-licked on cll EJ9and the {ovrmla in the cele displayed. The four cell references used to calculate the result incall E19 (CA, CS, Co, and C0) ae highlighted in color, and «border wih the ‘matching colors drawn around exch of thse cal Finally, te function used inthe oemula (SPMT)isdsplayed below the cel long wits arguments Ifwe click on ‘the function name, the Help page for that function wll spear. "We can modi the cellcantentshy inserting the vertical cursor whee itis needed and ypingdirety int the cell orb) moving the vertical cursor to the Formula ar and ‘yping there. Alternatively, we can alter any cl reference in a formula by dragging the ihlphtedoutine to anaerleatio, This option provides visual device fren, ‘whi is convenient when the forma is based on ssnetve reference pattems, Insert Function An alternative fr eciting a formula Taser Function (the icon torthelet of the Forma ber) 1 we lick on this icon when the curser son cell that ‘des not contain afuncion, it wilbringup the Inset Punetin window, wih stall valle freon. Ifa specie funtion is then selected, it wil be entered into the