Excel 365 Basics Calculating On The Computer

Excel 365 Basics
Calculating on the Computer

dr Peter J. Scharpff RI

DR PETER J. SCHARPFF RI
EXCEL 365 BASICS

CALCULATING ON
THE COMPUTER
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Excel 365 Basics: Calculating on the Computer
1st edition
© 2019 dr Peter J. Scharpff RI & bookboon.com
ISBN 978-87-403-2976-6
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Contents
CONTENTS
About the author 6
1 Introduction 7
1.1 Structure 7
1.2 Format 7
1.3 Software 8
2 Basic actions 9
2.1 Introduction 9
2.2 Starting 9
2.3 Basic concepts 11
2.4 What you see in the window 12
3 Entering data 27
3.1 Introduction 27
3.2 Entering text 27
3.3 Fill Handle 30
3.4 Entering numbers 31
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Contents
3.5 Corrections 33
3.6 Formatting 34
3.7 Saving your workbook 36
3.8 Closing the workbook 37
3.9 Exercise 41
4 Formulas and functions 43

4.1 Introduction 43
4.2 Building formulas 43
4.3 Editing formulas 49
4.4 Analysis 51
4.5 Exercise 55
5 Navigating and selecting 56

5.1 Introduction 56
5.2 Navigating 56
5.3 Selecting 58
6 Editing worksheets 61
6.1 Introduction 61
6.2 Column widths 62
6.3 Copying 64
6.4 Inserting and deleting 72
7 Cell formatting 76
7.1 Introduction 76
7.2 Number format 76
7.3 Text formatting 80
7.4 Borders 88
7.5 Conditional formatting 90
7.6 Exercise 94
8 Print 95
8.1 Introduction 95
8.2 Scope 95
8.3 Printing large sheets 96
Appendix 99
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER About the author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scharpff Consultancy is a consulting organization that has been active in the world of
automation for decades. Information, training and guidance on the use of personal automation
tools are key focuses. One of the specialties is facilitating (and performing) individual training
programs for PC-users. The model for this has been conceived in the early 90s from the
last century by Scharpff Consultancy in collaboration with various experts. Nowadays, it is
used by most training centers and even by mainstream educational institutions. Individual
training has proven to be a better method for learning computer skills than the classroom-
trainings that are still predominant in the training world.
Scharpff Consultancy has a lot of expertise in developing and publishing materials for
individual training purposes. This textbook is a product of that specific know-how. It
will allow you to obtain the necessary knowledge and practical skills on your computer
completely on your own.
Dr Peter J. Scharpff RI, who is both the founder of this consultancy agency and the author
of this workbook, originated from the field of computer-linguistics. His scientific focus was
on the interaction between man and machine, especially on the technical and linguistic
aspects of speech in that proces. Besides developing materials for training purposes for
office automation, he also produced many publications on a broad range of topics such as:
digital security, privacy, hardware, programming, web design, teleworking, social networks
and many more. Several of his ebooks discuss hobbyist topics such as drawing, audio, video
and photo editing.
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Introduction
1 INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this user guide is to familiarize the Excel 365 user with the basic features
and options of this sophisticated program. At the end of this ebook you will understand
the possibilities and skills in using the basic functions of Excel. You can only develop real
skills by using the program yourself a lot!
1.1 STRUCTURE
This ebook is modular in design. Each module can be studied separately. However, some
exercises use files created in earlier chapters. A module is set up in the following way:
• Each chapter starts with a short explanation of the topics that will be addressed.
• If possible, each topic will be presented with a (short) exercise. These exercises
describe a possible situation or problem, the way to handle or tackle it, and the
final outcome.
• At the end of a chapter, there is often an extra exercise to put into practice what
you’ve learned.
Exercises are labelled with a mouse icon next to the text. Please, focus on these
instructions, you don’t need to perform all actions or examples mentioned in the
text. It can be beneficial, however, to experiment with other possibilities suggested
in the text.
Even though it is possible to go through each module independently from the others, in
exercises later in this book we will not mention all needed actions and keystrokes because
we assume that you, working through the material already obtain certain skills. In several
exercises you’ll find only general instructions and you’ll have to figure out yourself how to
accomplish the task. In this way you will learn the most.
1.2 FORMAT
Names of keys and buttons are given between square brackets: [ and ]. In some cases you
have to press two keys at the same time, we will denote this by a plus sign: [Alt]+[F]. When
you have to type two keys consecutively, there will be no plus sign: [F5] [2] [Enter].
Titles, texts and options that you see in your window or on screen are noted in italics, for
example: ‘the Properties window contains several sections and tabs such as View, Security
and others’. File names and folders are shown as bold text.
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Introduction
1.3 SOFTWARE
We assume that you have access to the software described here and that you can perform
standard operations in Windows, e.g. left and right click, double-click and drag. Only
where actions differ significantly from normal use, they will be mentioned in the exercises.
Office 365, and also Excel 365 as a part of it, is a subscription-based software product. In
addition to security updates, Microsoft is also providing new design and functionality during
the subscription period. As a result, the commands, (caption) names or illustrations in this
user guide may differ slightly from your situation. We regularly provide our ebooks with
updates, especially for ‘big’ changes. This is how we try to keep things as close as possible
to the present state of design.
This ebook does not, of course, include all the options and possibilities of the software
discussed here. It is part of a series of ebooks about Office 365. At the end of this book
you will find a brief description of our other Excel ebooks, to determine if they can help
you to deal with other aspects of the software.
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Basic actions
2 BASIC ACTIONS
2.1 INTRODUCTION
Calculating is one of the most powerful and widely used applications on the computer.
Many calculation programs have been developed over the years, with spreadsheet program
Excel taking a very prominent place in the market.
Spreadsheet programs can be used for many purposes. Although the possibilities of a
spreadsheet program are mainly focussed on financial, economical and statistical operations,
also data management and word processing can be done in an Excel worksheet. But to a
lesser extent than in programs such as Access and Word that have been specially developed
for these purposes.
With a spreadsheet program you can create calculation models that allow you to do,
for example, the (financial) controlling of an organization, calculate your tax declaration
or annual accountancy report, but also register your mileage, manage and select your
relations, and so on.
We can define a calculation model as a tabular set of cohesive text labels, values and
calculations. An important advantage lies in the predictive power that can be derived from
such models. For example, by changing the values in certain places in a once built calculation
model you can perform a “what-if ” analysis to investigate how that influences or effects the
(end) results. We will present you many calculation models, methods and techniques with
a focus on ‘ how to do it’ in Excel.
2.2 STARTING
You start Excel 365 by clicking its icon or typing its name in Start or Search mode (see figure
2.1), or by double-clicking a shortcut to the program on the desktop. Another possibility
is – for example, by using Windows Explorer – to double-click an Excel file. This will start
the program and opens the selected workbook.
Start the Excel 365 program, for example, via Start or Search (as shown in figure
2.1 in Windows 10).
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Figure 2.1 Start Excel by searching in Windows 10
Excel opens with a selection window in which you can choose what you want to start with:
a Recent used file, a template, or a new, Blank workbook.
Click on Blank workbook.
You will see a window similar to the one shown in figure 2.2 (it could well be slightly
different in your situation). Please study the appropriate names of the various screen and
windows elements indicated in this image (and used in this book). We’ll elaborate on them
later on in this module.
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Figure 2.2 Excel program window
2.3 BASIC CONCEPTS

In this chapter we discuss various basic operations in spreadsheets. First a short summary
of some basic concepts.
• Spreadsheet
Imagine a spreadsheet as a kind of ‘electronic’ sheet of squared boxes (cells) in which
you can enter text or numbers. Text can explain, for example, what the numbers
represent. The ‘electronic’ contents in the cells can be addressed by a name or a
reference. This way you can create relations between them e.g. for calculation.
Workbooks in Excel can also contain multiple spreadsheets with cross-over relations.
• Rows and Columns
A spreadsheet has rows and columns. The columns (the cells viewed vertically in
the sheet) are indicated by letters, rows (cells viewed horizontally) with numbers.
Excel 365 has per spreadsheet 16,384 columns (labelled A, B, C, D... Y, Z, AA,
AB, AC... AAA, AAB, AAC... XFB, XFC, XFD) and 1,048,576 rows (numbered
1 to 1048576).
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• Cells
The box at the intersection of a row and a column is called a cell. The cell that is
located in the upper-left corner of the spreadsheet can be addressed as cell A1. The
column letter together with the row number form the cell address or cell reference.
This address is also shown in the Name box in the upper-left corner of the window
if the cell is selected (the active cell).
Figure 2.3 The active cell
Besides an outline frame, also the slightly different color of the row numbers and
column letters in the edges of the worksheet indicates which is the active cell. In
figure 2.3, column letter A and row number 1 are displayed in a light color. There
are, given the number of rows and columns in Excel 17,179,869,184 cells per
worksheet, all of which have a unique cell address.
Figure 2.3 also shows the mouse pointer: it is very different in the spreadsheet program
than, for example, in Windows or in a word processor. If you start typing text in a cell, the
mouse pointer changes and looks more like the one in Word.
• Formulas
Formulas perform calculations with values that can be in different cells. The result is
shown in the cell, the formula itself is in the formula bar (above the column letters).
• Functions
To perform all kinds of (pre)calculations or operations on values, Excel has many
functions available. These functions are always included in a formula.
2.4 WHAT YOU SEE IN THE WINDOW

Before we start building a calculation model, it will be useful to elaborate on the window
elements and tools, and how to deal with them in the Excel interface.
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2.4.1 TITLE BAR
The title bar at the top of the window (or in the screen if the window is maximised)
contains from left to right:
• the Quick Access Toolbar with some of the most common features in Excel: by
default, you’ll find here the Save, Undo and Redo buttons. On the left side of
this toolbar there is also the option AutoSave, but you can only switch it on if
you keep your files in ‘the cloud’ via OneDrive or SharePoint Online
• a section (the actual title bar) with the name of the workbook – which is
currently the temporary name Book1 – followed by Excel
• the logged-on user (or a button to [Sign in])
• a button to choose how you want to display the ribbon
• the Windows buttons Minimise, Restore/Maximise and Close.
Figure 2.4 Buttons for Ribbon Display Options and for Windows
2.4.2 THE RIBBON
Underneath the title bar is the ribbon on which you can find various buttons and options
to choose features, functions and settings you need in your actions. They are divided into
categories (‘groups’) with names shown at the bottom of the ribbon such as Clipboard, Font,
Alignment, and so on.
The ribbon is part of the interface in all Office 365 programs, so what we’re discussing here
for Excel about the ribbon, to a greater or lesser extent also applies to other programs of
Office 365, such as Word, PowerPoint, and the like. If you are already using those other
programs, you will be familiar with the ribbon. In that case you can go through this section
quickly.
At the top of the ribbon are tabs to display different collections of groups and buttons in
the ribbon. In addition, Excel can add tabs, components or elements to the ribbon if you
perform certain actions. By default, Excel starts with the Home ribbon on top (the underlined
tab on the left, see figure 2.5) with the most commonly used functions and options.
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Figure 2.5 Home ribbon
The Home tab is not the leftmost tab, as you can see, left to it there is also the File tab. By
clicking on that tab you switch to the general functions in the program like Close, Print
and Options. We will come back to that in a moment.
If you hover over a tab (or click on it), it will look a bit more like a ‘real’ tab: a slightly
different color and a broader underline (in the active tab) show its contour. But you have
to look very closely!
Figure 2.6 The Formulas tab gets some more contour when pointed to
By default, the ribbon contains the following main tabs:
• Home
with the groups Clipboard, Font, Alignment, Number, Styles, Cells, Editing and Ideas
• Insert
for adding objects such as images, tables, charts, text objects, symbols and links
• Page Layout
with many features at page level such as margins, layout themes, and behavior of
objects (like arranging, aligning and grouping)
• Formulas
insert functions (e.g. using the function library), formula auditing and calculation
options
• Data
to create links to external data, sort and filter, or create summaries
• Review
with proofing tools (spell checking), workbook comments (shareable) and notes,
and protection/security options
• View
with options for viewing, windows, and zooming
• Help
with Help information, and links to contact support, reach the community or give
feedback
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Figure 2.7 Help
To the right of the Help tab – see figure 2.7 – there is a search box Tell me to find more
help information: click in it and type your question. You should preferably use keywords
within the common terminology of Excel as the program, of course, is not a search engine.
On the right-hand side of the tab row you find a button [Share] (see also figure 2.7). With
this option you can collaborate on files with real-time users for example via a SharePoint
environment. We do not elaborate on this here, because this is usually organised in a business
network environment.
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At the far right of the ribbon is a small button to collapse (minimise or hide) the ribbon.
Click the Collapse the Ribbon button on the right. Note that the tabs of the ribbon
are still visible.
Figure 2.8 Hiding the Ribbon
Shortcuts
The tooltip of the button in figure 2.8 tells you that this action can also be performed with
keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[F1]. This key combination switches between Collapse and Expand,
and that’s much faster then hiding of showing the ribbon via the Ribbon Display Options button
in the title bar.
Excel has many shortcut possibilities: not only with function keys, but also with letters and
numbers. For example, press the [ALT] key to make them appear (see figure 2.9 in the collapsed
ribbon below).
Figure 2.9 Shortcut letters and numbers
They can bring you ‘quickly’ to an option if you understand the logic in the used letters (and
numbers). But practice shows that the letters and numbers are not always ‘deductable’ and
then they are not easy to remember. Find out how it works by pressing some of those hotkey
letters, numbers and combinations. In the figure below you see the result of pressing [H] from
the Home tab.
Figure 2.10 Convenient or complex?
Because using these keyboard shortcuts in programs with a ribbon is basically a common
Windows skill, we don’t elaborate further on it.
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Expand the ribbon: this can be done with the Ribbon Display Options button in the
title bar, option Show Tabs and Commands. Instead you may also use the shortcut
key combination ([…]+[…]).
Now explore the different groups of the ribbon by hovering over options and
commands (read the tooltips). After examining the Home tab you can take a look
at some other ribbons: just click the tabs and see what groups, buttons and options
they include.
Instead of clicking the tabs on the ribbon, you can also rotate your mouse wheel when the
mouse pointer is above the ribbon to place another tab on top. Just try.
Many buttons have extra selection options, some groups have a dialog box launcher
in the lower right corner that leads you to (extra) options or settings. If so, examine
the possibilities. If you (accidentally) click a button and you enter a drop-down
list or a window, wait a moment and then click anywhere else on the worksheet
to deactivate it or click [Cancel] to close a window.
There is something special about the display of the ribbon: the wider the window in which
it is displayed (also in a widescreen), the more buttons or (caption) texts will be visible. If
the window is too narrow to display everything, groups collapse and a group button appears
at the bottom. With this you can activate the functions in the group via a drop-down list.
Display the program in a window, not full screen. If necessary, click on the second
rightmost button Restore down in the title bar.
Select one of the tabs and then gradually narrow the window (drag the right edge)
so that buttons and texts disappear, and groups collapse. Pay close attention to how
that works: large icons and buttons are replaced by small ones, options are hidden
in drop-down lists, caption texts disappear from the buttons, et cetera.
Continue until all the groups are collapsed.
Widen the window slightly, so that only groups – if possible without the options
and buttons – (re)appear in the ribbon.
Go to the View tab. That could be a bit tricky, because that tab is probably no
longer visible in the narrow window (see also figure 2.11). You can use the arrow
button on the right side of the tab row to get there.
Return to the Home tab.
Click the Clipboard group button and see how the group expands.
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Figure 2.11 Display a group in a narrow ribbon
As you can see in figure 2.11, in the narrow view you’ll find also a dialog box launcher
in the lower right corner in the Clipboard group just like in ‘normal view’. Even in this
unpractical view of the Excel window, you can still display all functions and options from
a group in a dialog box or panel.
Click the dialog box launcher in the Clipboard group. On the left side of the narrow
window a pane appears with the contents of the clipboard.
Close the window pane (click X).
Figure 2.12 Close the Clipboard window pane
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Restore your window to a normal width so you can see most of the buttons and
options in the ribbon again. You may also want to maximise the window.
Now look at the ribbon on the different tabs to see which groups have a dialog
box launcher (not all of them do), and try out a few of them. Close windows that
appear with [Cancel]. Note that sometimes you end up in the same window, but
on another tab (as is the case with Font, Alignment, and Number on the Home tab).
Figure 2.13 Tabs in the Format Cells window
Excel 365 has a special feature to optimize the interface for touch screens. This option
increases the space between the elements on your screen so that you can easily touch, control
and use them with your finger(s).
Figure 2.14 Extra space between the elements on a (touch) screen
In this special touch mode, you will also see fewer options or caption texts in the buttons
in the ribbon, especially in smaller screens. Later we’ll explain how to switch this mode on
via the Quick Access Toolbar.
2.4.3 SHEET
The worksheet you type your data in is named Sheet1 (see the tab at the bottom) of the
Excel workbook named Book1 (see title bar). The letters, numbers and characters you type
appear in the active cell (the one with the thick border). When typing, you’ll see a blinking
dash in that cell (the text pointer) just like in a word processor. The entered characters also
appear in the formula bar.
In the work area on your screen you see the ‘regular’ Excel mouse pointer: a block that
looks like a thick white plus. This mouse pointer can change its appearance, depending on
what you do. Outside the Excel worksheet – for example, in the Windows environment but
also in the Excel program window when you hover over tabs, options or buttons – usually
this mouse cursor looks like a left up pointing arrow.
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By clicking the left mouse button when pointing at a specific cell on the worksheet, you
select that cell. And holding down the mouse button, you can select multiple cells. We will
come back to that later.
The window shows only part of the worksheet. A worksheet consists of 16,384 columns
and 1,048,576 rows in total, so they can never be shown all together in the window, even
if you zoom out maximally.
On the View tab zoom to the smallest possible value. The column letters and the
row numbers are now no longer readable.
Press the [End] key followed by the [] key: This will bring you to the rightmost
column of the worksheet labelled XFD. This is still not readable in the edges of
the worksheet, but you can find out where you are in the Name Box next to the
formula bar.
Now press [End] [] and navigate to the bottom row: 1048576. The active cell
then will be XFD1048576 (check that in the Name Box).
Zoom back to 100%: now you can read the marked column letters and row
numbers of the active cell.
Go back to cell A1. That can be done in several ways, the fastest way by far is
with hotkey [Ctrl]+[Home]. Later on we will discuss more navigating in (large)
worksheets.
The tab of your worksheet at the bottom of the window is labelled Sheet1. A workbook in
Excel can also consist of multiple worksheets all with their own tabs. The tab of the active
worksheet is then emphasized (bold and underlined), the others are not.
Figure 2.15 Tabs for (new) worksheets
By clicking on a tab at the bottom you can switch to another worksheet in the workbook.
To the right of the worksheets tabs there is a plus button to add a new sheet. As you can
see in figure 2.15 we’ve already used that button twice to get three sheets (and tabs).
Left of the first tab you see navigation buttons for browsing through the worksheets. If you
have many worksheets, buttons to navigate to the first or last one appear as well. Read the
explanation in the tooltips. The buttons will only be available if there are a lot of sheets or
long worksheet names that cannot all or completely be listed at the bottom tab row.
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2.4.4 FORMULA BAR
Between the ribbon and the worksheet you find the formula bar. We will come to that
element later on more extensively when we’ll use it. Now only a short explanation of its
form and function.
Figure 2.16 Icons in the formula bar
If you enter data and formulas in your worksheet, they will also appear in the formula bar.
To the left of the input in the bar there are three buttons:
• Cancel (the X icon) to cancel the input of characters;

• Enter (the checkmark) to permanently place the data in the active cell (not
moving the cell pointer); and
• Insert Function (the button with [ƒx]).
Actually there is a fourth symbol: three dots on the left as a ‘handle’ to make the formula
bar longer or shorter. The Name Box will grow or shrink with it. On the right side of the
input box there is also a button to make the formula bar higher.
Type any character in cell A1 and see it appear in the formula bar as well.
Click the Cancel button in the formula bar: the character will not be entered in
the cell! Instead of clicking the X icon, you can also press the [Escape] key on
your keyboard.
2.4.5 STATUS BAR
The status bar at the bottom of the Excel window contains a number of elements:
• On the left you see the status of the program: Ready

• Right next to it is the Macro button to start recording a new macro (don’t use it
right now)
• On the right side of the status bar you will find the view buttons Normal, Page
Layout and Page Break Preview (just hover over them to find out which is which)
• To the right is the zoom tool: by dragging the slider or clicking the buttons with
+ or - you can zoom in or out on your worksheet
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Zooming in and out is also possible by holding down the [Ctrl] key and rolling the mouse
wheel, just try it. In the View ribbon you’ll find some more useful options in the Zoom group,
such as Zoom to selection and 100%.
Hover over the elements in the status bar and read the tooltips that appear.
Zoom in to a high level (in any way you like), and then return (quickly) to 100%.
2.4.6 QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR
On the left side of the title bar of the window you find the Quick Access Toolbar. First
option on this toolbar is AutoSave – switched On or Off – and, by default, the Save,
Undo and Redo buttons. You can add more buttons if you like, for example for options or
commands not present in the default ribbons, for complex commands or to run macros.
In figure 2.17, we added the frequently used commands New (workbook) and Close File (the
current workbook). It is relatively easy to add or remove any such buttons or commands
from the Quick Access Toolbar. In the exercise below we demonstrate two methods of
customizing the toolbar. Once you know how to do this, you’ll be quickly adding all sorts
of useful options and commands yourself.
Figure 2.17 Customize the Quick Access Toolbar
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Click on the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button on the right side of the toolbar.
Select the New option from the drop-down list. The icon appears in the toolbar,
hover over the item to check that it is the right option.
Add the Open button in the same way.
Figure 2.18 Delete commands from the Quick Access Toolbar
Right-click on the just added Open button and remove it from the toolbar.
Add the Touch/Mouse Mode button from the drop-down list. As we mentioned
earlier, this makes working with the Microsoft Office interface on touch screens
much easier.
Switch to the Touch Mode using this newly added button. View and try out working
with the enlarged space between the options, and then switch back to Mouse Mode.
If you never work with Office programs on touch screens, turning on this mode is of course
a waste of space in the screen display. In that case you might as well remove this button
from the toolbar.
It is also possible to customize everything completely to your own liking, but that is a little
bit more complicated. However, it can be useful to know how to do it, so we present it
to you briefly.
Click the Customize button at the end of the bar again and go to the More Commands
option. Alternatively, you can right-click the toolbar and work through Customize
Quick Access Toolbar. In both cases, you’ll end up in the Excel Options window, in
category Quick Access Toolbar.
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Figure 2.19 Customize the toolbar via Options
Use the drop-down list under Choose commands from: to show All Commands.
Locate the Close File command, and then add it to the Quick Access Toolbar using
the [Add > >] button between the two list boxes.
The command is now added at the end of the list on the right, on the toolbar it will appear
to the right. With the small buttons to the right of the list box you can adjust the order
of the commands. You may as well place a separator between options or commands using
the <Separator> option at the top of the left list box. You’ll have to experiment with it to
explore the possibilities.
Make your customizing final: click [OK]. See the Close icon appear in the bar,
check this by hovering over it.
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There is one more way to add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar, that is very useful,
for instance, with options on ribbons that most of the time are not on top. Let’s assume
you use the translation tools in Office quite a lot, but for opening the window pane for that
you have to go to the Review tab every time. Via the options list when right-clicking that
option in the ribbon, you can add the tool to the Quick Access Toolbar. Go ahead and try
out how the button works (and remove it after that).
You may display the Quick Access Toolbar below the ribbon (via the Customize Quick Access
Toolbar button) and collapse the ribbon: this looks like the interface with menus and toolbars
in older versions of Excel. Some users of those earlier versions prefer working that way.
Figure 2.20 Quick Access Toolbar under the collapsed ribbon
If you also like this interface, then you might want to change to it permanently. But do so
after working through this user guide, here we stay with the default interface with the Quick
Access Toolbar as part of the title bar and full display of tabs and commands in the ribbon.
2.4.7 THE FILE TAB
The Excel Options window that you just visited to customize the Quick Access Toolbar can
also be accessed in a different way: through the File tab, by Microsoft often referred to
as the ‘backstage’. You will not find any ribbon or toolbar here: options and buttons are
presented in a ‘full screen’ window. The backstage consists of overall commands and options
for the Excel program – which cannot be found in the ribbon, but could be added to the
Quick Access Toolbar – such as New, Open, Close, Print or Save (as).
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Figure 2.21 The items in the backstage (Info selected)
For example, if you click Open on the left side and then (if necessary) Recent, you will find
a list of your recently created or edited workbooks. And in the left-lower corner of the
window you can see the ‘important’ command Options: through here you can organise all
your settings in Excel.
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Entering data
3 ENTERING DATA
3.1 INTRODUCTION
In this module we’ll create a calculation model in which we enter some data. We type some
texts and numbers, and look how Excel shows them in the cells. We’ll discuss briefly the
format of the data and the worksheet. Then we show how to correct or delete data that is
entered in the cells.
Furthermore, in this chapter we focus on saving the data: how and where to store your
workbook, how to continue working with, and the like.
3.2 ENTERING TEXT

We begin in cell A1 of the empty worksheet Sheet1 in workbook Book1. If there’s anything
else already entered in your worksheet at this moment, just click on the Undo button in
the Quick Access Toolbar (or use the hotkey [Ctrl]+[z]) to delete all content in the cells.
As you will see later on there are several other ways to clean up or delete content, but this
method should work as well.
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In cell A1, type the text Quarterly Sales Data followed by [Enter]. The text is spread
across cells in row 1 (probably A1 and B1), and the active cell will now be A2.
If you had clicked the checkmark left in the formula bar to enter the text in the cell, A1
now would still be the active cell. What you type is also entered into the cell when you
navigate to another cell by any other means, e.g. with an arrow key or with the [Tab] key,
or when you activate another cell by clicking it with the mouse pointer.
Select cell A1 (if necessary) and increase the font size of the text to 24 points. You
can do that in the Font group on the Home tab by choosing the size in the list
box, or by clicking a few times on the Increase Font Size button right next to it.
Figure 3.1 Entering and formatting text
See that the height of the row is automatically adjusted to the font size, and that the text
is now displayed across multiple cells. That is possible because right to A1 all cells (B1, C1,
D1 etc.) are still empty and therefore transparent. As soon as something is entered into
those cells, they lose this property of transparency.
Now select cell B1 by clicking it (you may also navigate to it using the arrow keys
on your keyboard) and enter the text Summary Sheet. This moves the right part of
the text in cell A1 to the background.
In the row with the column letters double-click the right boundary of column A.
This will make the column as wide as needed for showing the widest value in it:
in this case to fit in the text with the large font size.
Now adjust the width of column B by dragging the right boundary in the column
headings row to the right. If the text fits into the cell, the gridline between columns
B and C reappears after releasing the mouse button.
Increase the height of row 1 by dragging the lower boundary (in the column with
row headings – see in figure 3.2) slightly downwards.
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If you make columns wider or narrower in your worksheet, it applies to all cells in the
column. That means that other data entered in that column are also placed in cells of the
same width. The same goes, of course, for the heights of rows.
Figure 3.2 Column width fits the text
In cells A3 and A4 enter the Revenue and Cost labels as shown in figure 3.2.
If you start typing in a cell immediately below existing data, Excel will suggest earlier entered
data as long as they have the same starting letters. For instance, starting with ‘r’ in cell A5
would give you ‘Revenue’ as possible input again. Try it to see how this handy input trick
works, then cancel or undo this entry.
You don’t need such a wide column for the relatively small labels, as you can see in figure
3.2. So in the exercises below we’ll make column A somewhat narrower. And we also have
to be sure that the entire text in cell A1 is visible.
Drag the right boundary from column A back to approximately the original width.
To set it exactly, right-click the column letter and type the value 8.43 via the
Column Width context menu option.
Select cell B1 and press [Delete]; this clears the content in the cell and restores the
transparency of it. Now the full text in A1 is visible again.
Restore the original width of column B.
Double-click the lower boundary of row 1 to fit the font size of the text in A1.
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3.3 FILL HANDLE

A special technique for quick entry of certain data is to Fill (a range of ) cells. For that, you
may use the Fill handle as we will show you in the next exercise. The handle (also known
as Copy Tool) is the little green block at the bottom right of the active cell or selected cells.
Figure 3.3 The Fill handle
In cell B2, type the text Quarter 1 and enter it with the check icon of the formula bar.
Drag the fill handle (notice that the mouse pointer changes to a plus) from cell
B2 to F2: this will fill the cell range with the next quarters.
Figure 3. 4 Quick entry of quarters
The text and numbering of the quarters fit in, but probably you will need more space in the
sheets columns to enter the data in. You don’t have to do that separately for each column;
first select all columns you want to modify, and then set the desired width of the selected
columns in one combined action.
Click and drag from column letter B to F (in the letters row) to select the five
columns.
Figure 3.5 Select Columns
Excel shows you exactly what you have selected now in your worksheet, as you can see in
figure 3.5: all rows in five columns of the sheet, so 1048576R x 5C.
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Right-click anywhere in the selected area or on one of the selected column letters.
In the context menu, choose Column width, set the width to 15 (which will be
applied to all five columns), and confirm with [OK].
Of course, you already noticed that our filling action above resulted in a bonus quarter, that
Excel provided very cleverly with number 1 again as for the first quarter of the next year.
That was, of course, on purpose just to show you a case of ‘IntelliSense’ in the Microsoft
software. But we don’t actually need this extra quarter now, so let’s delete it. There are several
ways to delete the undesired label: the first one is using the fill handle itself.
Select the five quarter labels, and then drag the fill handle (of the right-most cell)
one column to the left. That deletes the contents in cell F2.
Figure 3.6 Delete with the fill handle
The button that appears to the right of the fill handle (see figure 3.6) opens a palette of
options to create a quick analysis on the selected cells, to draw a chart, or to set some
formatting options, et cetera. These are advanced features, we’ll go into them in more
detail in other ebooks in this series.
But in fact, it’s much easier to delete the undesired entry in other ways, e.g. with the
[Delete] key or by typing new content in the cell.
Undo the delete action with the fill handle (use the Undo button in the Quick
Access Toolbar or use hotkey [Ctrl]+[z]).
Now delete the contents in cell F2 in a different way.
3.4 ENTERING NUMBERS

When entering numbers in cells Excel puts in some more IntelliSense as the program tries
to determine what format to apply to the numbers you type in.
Select cell E1 and type in the current date in the format day-month (dd-mm using
cardinal numbers), for example, 1-4 for April 1 or 31-12 for December 31. See
how your entry turns up in the cell; the program ‘thinks’ that you entered a date
in the current year: 01-Apr. Take a look in the formula bar (with cell E1 selected)
and see how that date is shown there: most likely in the format dd/mm/yyyy.
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For dates in this series of ebooks we use the UK format that is commonly used in many
countries, rather than the US order mm-dd-yyyy. The order in the date format is a general
Windows setting used in Excel, but you can change this setting to another format if you
like. You may also set your own format in Excel. We’ll come to that later.
Clear the cell with [Delete], and then enter the number 1000. Maybe to your
surprise, again a date now appears: 26 September 1902. Based on the previous
input Excel has changed the format of the cell to Date format. Because dates are
based on numbers as well, so that you can make calculations with dates, the value
1000 can be displayed as a date too.
Undo all actions until cell E1 displays today’s date. Change the date to 25 December.
On the Home tab in group Number, choose the Long date format from the Number
Format drop-down list.
Figure 3.7 Long Date format
The complete date in Long Date format does not fit into the cell due to the text length of
the month. But Excel has a different way of dealing with that than when you would have
typed text. If a cell is too narrow to display the number – whether or not formatted in a
certain way – Excel shows number signs (hashtags) in the cell: ######. Apparently when
large (formatted) numbers are entered into a cell, the transparent property of the adjacent
cell(s) is not used to display the complete number or date.
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Change the width of column E until you can read the full date.
Set the width of column E to 15.00 (110 pixels) by dragging the right boundary.
Figure 3.8 Setting the width by dragging
Set the format of the date to Short Date.
3.5 CORRECTIONS
When entering complex or large numbers and complicated text fragments, you can easily make
typo’s and errors in the input. So let’s examine a few methods you can use to correct them.
Enter the following (large) numbers into your model.
Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4
Revenue 8945365 7347115 8699250 10458522
Cost 7288511 7544721 7154887 8956559
If you have entered a number, word, or formula incorrectly you can make corrections as
follows:
• Simply enter the correction as new content into the cell (is in many cases the
fastest way).
• Change part(s) of the content as you would do in a word processor by deleting
one or more characters or digits, or selecting and replacing them with others.
You can edit the input in the formula bar (click) or in the cell (double-click).
Check the numbers you entered: is everything okay? If not, correct the errors.
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3.6 FORMATTING
Until now we mainly typed the ‘flat’ texts and numbers just like in a word processor, and,
except for some font sizing, left the formatting to Excel. The large numbers we entered
don’t get a specific format at first, and that makes them not very easy to read: are they, in
fact, millions or hundreds of thousands, and in what currency are they? You can format
the numbers manually to show what your figures mean.
Select all cells with numbers by dragging from B3 to E4 (this ‘area’ or range of
cells is noted as B3:E4 and it contains all eight quarterly numbers here).
In the Number group of the Home tab, set the format of the selected cells to
Accounting.
Figure 3.9 Accounting Number Format
Because all numbers in this example are rounded amounts, we don’t need the two decimals
at the end: it only takes space. For showing more or fewer decimal places, the number group
has two buttons (hover over the options in the group if you can’t find them right away).
Maintain the selection of the range of cells (or if necessary select it again).
Increase the number of decimals step-by-step to four or five, and see what happens
e.g. when amounts including formatting no longer fit in the cells.
Now remove all decimals. This is a very common way to present quarterly or
annual figures.
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Figure 3.10 Quarterly figures
Notice that all numbers in the figure above are in pounds since this user guide is written
for the UK version of the program. Of course, it is also possible to display the amounts of
money in a different currency. We’ll come back to that later.
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3.7 SAVING YOUR WORKBOOK

When you ‘re done working with your workbook for the time being – after entering all
quarterly figures is a good moment – you can save it. Depending on what you want to do
next, you can choose from the following two options:
• If you do not want to continue working with this file, select Close on the File
tab, or use the Close button you added to the Quick Access Toolbar. After
naming and saving the workbook as a file, the workbook will be closed.
• If you want to continue working with this workbook, choose Save on the File
tab or in the Quick Access Toolbar. After saving the file, the workbook remains
in your window for further editing.
Click the Save button in the Quick Access Toolbar (or choose the Save option on
the File tab).
Figure 3.11 Saving the workbook via the Quick Access Toolbar
You will end up in the backstage option Save as (because your file has no name yet),
where you can specify the file name and the location where you want to store the
file. Choosing Browse in the Save as window brings you to the Save As dialog box.
Name the workbook: Sales Data (in real life you’d probably add a year, but we
don’t do that here).
Now specify that the file is stored in a folder on your local system (This PC): for
example, in \My Workbooks somewhere on your hard drive C: or D: or on your
desktop (if necessary, create a folder in the dialog box).
Close the dialog box with [Save].
The file named Sales Data is now saved in the My Workbooks folder. Excel adds the
extension .xlsx to the file name so that Windows recognises the file as an Excel workbook and
will start the program when you open the file in e.g. Explorer. Usually you don’t see those
extensions in the Windows environment, unless you have set them to always be displayed.
36
There are, of course, other locations to store your files: on a memory stick or card or on an external
hard drive, or perhaps online somewhere in the Cloud e.g. OneDrive or SharePoint Online. If
online and signed in, you could switch on the AutoSave option in the Quick Access Toolbar.
Also the file type to save your workbook in can be quite different: maybe you need to save the
workbook in an older version because others do not already have the latest software, or you
want to publish only the results in a PDF. Or perhaps you must convert the data to a certain
format so that others can import them in other programs. We’re not going into these matters
right now, you can find more about these options in our ebook on advanced topics in Excel.
After saving the file as suggested in the exercise above, you still have the choice whether or
not to continue working in this workbook: the file is still open.
3.8 CLOSING THE WORKBOOK

If you do not want to continue with this file, but e.g. start with a new workbook or open
another one, you may close the saved workbook by clicking Close (on the File tab or on
the Quick Access Toolbar). If you have not made any changes to the open workbook, it
will close immediately. When closing a new workbook (which has not been saved yet) or
if there were changes in an existing workbook, Excel prompts you in a dialog box to save
the workbook. After that the file will be closed.
In Excel you can work on multiple workbooks at the same time, and leave open files that
don’t need editing at all or right now. But realise that every workbook (certainly a large
one) takes up a considerable part of the internal memory of your computer. In the long
run you might experience ‘slow’ reaction or operation of the program due to this lack of
available memory.
Close the current workbook. After this, an ‘empty’ program window of Excel will
remain without any open or new workbook.
Closing the file is also possible using the Windows Close button (marked with ‘X’) on the
right side of the title bar in the program window. It not only closes the current workbook,
but also exits the Excel program. In the case of multiple open workbooks – each of them
represented by an icon on the Taskbar – the Windows Close button closes the active
workbook; another workbook then is activated and that one has a Close button too. Closing
the last open workbook with the Close button on the right side of the title bar, will close
the program Excel as well.
37
3.8.1 A NEW WORKBOOK
Let’s start with a new workbook now. Earlier you’ve added a New button to the Quick
Access Toolbar, so if the ‘empty’ Excel window is still available, you can use that option now
to start a new workbook. If you have accidentally closed the program in the last exercise,
then restart Excel, and start with a Blank workbook in the Start screen New. These are two
ways to start with a new workbook, but as you will later see there are other possibilities too.
Click in the backstage (File tab) the New option.
Figure 3.12 New workbook based on templates
Excel now suggests to start a new workbook based on a template. This is a type of model
document that already contains certain content, attributes, formatting, or layout. The default
template Blank workbook can be found at the top left.
All templates have a thumbnail, when you click on one you will see a larger preview. In
some cases, templates have a lot of content already present, but you cannot see it in the
preview: you then have to [Create] the new workbook to see all contents and layout. You
can easily do that for experimenting and studying purposes only, of course.
Templates are very useful, many practical cases are elaborated in comprehensive models, so
you don’t have to reinvent the wheel over and over again. You can choose from a variety
of included (and via the internet available) templates.
38
Check out some of the templates in the window: for example, ‘Take a tour’ (Welcome
to Excel) or ‘Daily work schedule’. Clicking in most cases opens a preview including
a desciption and a [Create] button.
To the left and to the right of the preview window there are two navigation buttons:
you can use them to view other template examples.
Close the preview window (button in the upper right corner).
At the top of the New page in the backstage, click on a category from the Suggested
searches (below the search box): you’ll find many more templates there.
Study some of the example templates there as well.
Return to the start page of the New option via  or All.
Figure 3.13 Back to the templates start page
With the search box, you can search for (Microsoft) online templates, for instance templates
not currently listed in the categories. Or maybe you’re looking for something completely
different. Just try it. If you’re looking for templates from other parties, you’ll have to google
in your browser.
If you have created any workbook while examining the templates – by accident or
for viewing – then close it again, but do not close Excel.
Finally, go back to the New start page, and then click the Blank workbook template.
There’s a third way to start with a new workbook.
You can now enter data in the (new) workbook with the temporary name Book2 (see the
title bar). This name will change, of course, as soon as you save the workbook and give it
an appropriate name. We will not use this new workbook now.
Close the new blank workbook (not Excel), you will not be prompted to save it
since there was no entering or editing data in the new book.
3.8.2 NEW WORKBOOK IN WINDOWS
It is also possible to start new workbooks in the Windows environment. In the context
menu of the desktop or in any Explorer window, you can find the option New, Microsoft
Excel Worksheet.
39
Figure 3.14 New Workbook via the context menu
The new book will appear in the window or on the desktop as an icon that you can give an
appropriate name. Double-click it and it will start Excel with a new (blank) workbook. This
is a very fast method to begin a new workbook right after starting the computer, because
you do not need to start the program first. Also, if you want to first specify the name and
location of the file before starting to enter data, this is very handy. We will use this method
in an exercise at the end of this chapter.
3.8.3 OPENING A FILE
Instead of starting new workbooks, you can, of course, also open existing ones. This is also
possible in various ways both inside and outside of Excel.
• In Excel, go to the File tab, and select (if necessary) Open. A variety of options
appear to retrieve the file you want to open in a particular location, like
in This PC or via Browse. There is also a list of Recent used Workbooks and
locations (Folders). If you see the file you want in any of the lists, you can
click it there to open it.
• The keyboard shortcut for the previous method is [Ctrl]+[o].
• You may add the Open button to the Quick Access Toolbar (you know how).
In the Windows environment – without having started Excel – there are the following
options for opening an existing file:
• Go in Windows Explorer to the location of the file, and double-click the icon
(or click it followed by [Enter]).
• If the Excel program icon is on the taskbar, right-click it: in the Jump list that
appears the file you want to open might be listed there. This is the case when
the workbook has been used recently, or when it is pinned to the list.
• Your file can also appear in a list of (recently used) documents from Windows
(for example, in the Start menu, or in a list of search results). In such cases,
there is usually a hyperlink that you can click to open the file.
40
Open the file Sales Data in any way you like.

Alternatively, try a few other methods (close the file and reopen it in a different way).
If you want to check whether the file you are about to open is the right one, use the Windows
Explorer method: by using the preview pane in the Explorer window (if necessary, switch it
on in the View tab) you’ll see part of the contents of the file.
Figure 3.15 Open Preview Pane in Explorer
3.9 EXERCISE
At the end of this module, we have some more exercise for you in creating and editing
calculation models. We adjust the Sales Data file and create a new file with revenues and
costs. Save all workbooks because you will need them later on.
If necessary, open the file Sales Data (probably it is still open after the previous
exercise).
Remove the date from cell E1.
Change the revenue and cost figures to the values as shown in figure 3.16 below.
Figure 3.16 Model with round numbers
41
From now on, we will be using these relatively ‘easy’ amounts, so that in the next module(s)
you’ll be able to calculate and check totals by heart, when we introduce formulas and
functions for that.
Save the file (button on the Quick Access Toolbar).

Now in Windows – if necessary minimise the window of Excel – go to the folder
\My Workbooks and start a new Excel Worksheet with the name First Quarter
(in real cases you will probably also add a year).
Open the workbook.
Create the model as shown in figure 3.17.
Figure 3.17 First quarter data
Apply the necessary formatting (including column widths).

When you’re done, save the file. If you proceed with the next chapter, you don’t
have to close the workbook(s) now.
42
EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Formulas and functions
4 FORMULAS AND FUNCTIONS
4.1 INTRODUCTION
The two models you have created so far – let’s say for a business group of stores – only
consist of texts and numbers. That’s nice and well-organized, but you might as well have
done that on a sheet of paper. Therefore, in this module we will add an essential aspect
to the models, namely the ability in spreadsheet programs to perform calculations using
formulas and functions. We’ll show you how to build formulas in a variety of ways and
how to embed all kinds of functions into your formulas.
4.2 BUILDING FORMULAS

There are several ways to enter (type) or ‘build’ formulas, as you can try out in the exercises
below. Whichever method is the most convenient, for example to avoid typos, you will
have to experience yourself.
Open (if necessary) the Excel workbooks Sales Data and First Quarter.
Go to the View tab and arrange – in group Window, option Arrange All – both
windows Tiled in your screen (close dialog box Arrange Windows with [OK]).
Figure 4.1 All windows side by side
That looks like the situation in figure 4.1: the last opened workbook First Quarter is the
active one, so Excel places it to the left. The reason why we do this will be clear to you later.
43
Note that Excel uses two windows to present the worksheets in. Both windows have the
full set of features and elements like title bar, ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, status bar, et
cetera. Consequently, due to the limited space in each window, some of the groups are
collapsed. But you already know how to deal with this.
4.2.1 TYPING FORMULAS
In the First Quarter overview worksheet, select cell E3, and enter the text label Total.
In cell E4, type the formula =b4+c4+d4 using the keyboard. While typing the cell
references in the worksheet, Excel sets a color to each cell that matches the cell
addresses you typed.
Figure 4.2 Entering formulas with the keyboard
When finished typing the formula, press [Enter]. The formula will immediately
calculate the total sales of the web shop in the first quarter. Notice that Excel also
makes the column fit and assigns the number format Accounting that is already
applied to the other cells.
4.2.2 CLICKING THE CELLS
Using the preceding method involves a considerable risk of making typos of course. Another
method of entering is by clicking the cells needed in the formula instead of typing in the
references.
In cell E5, type the equal sign ([=] key) with the keyboard.
Click (with the mouse) on cell B5.
Press the [+] key and then click C5.
Press the [+] key and then click D5.
Now press [Enter]: the three months total for the stores appears in the cell.
It seems a cumbersome, time-consuming way of working, but in fact the combination of

typing operators and entering references by clicking the cells is very useful to build your
formulas with low rick of typos.
44
4.2.3 AUTOSUM BUTTON
A third method of calculating the totals is by using the AutoSum button in the Editing group
of the Home tab. To the right of that button is a small arrow to choose other functions,
such as Average or Max (we will come to those later).
Figure 4.3 AutoSum button with drop-down list
Select cell E13 (so in the cost overview) and click the AutoSum button once. You’ll
probably be more comfortable with the Editing group expanded, so for the time
being you could restore or maximise the window of this workbook (e.g. by double-
clicking the title bar).
Figure 4.4 Hinting
Excel now suggests to add up the three figures to the left of the result cell: press
[Enter] and the program performs that calculation.
Select if necessary the cell with the result (the outcome of the formula) and see
what the SUM formula looks like in the formula bar.
This also works the other way around: first select the cells (for example, one row
down cells B14:D14) and then click the AutoSum button. Just try it, it will work
fine in this case: it results in the (correct) sum of the cost for the stores in cell E14.
But in other situations, this method may have undesirable results because Excels
IntelliSense in some cases ‘thinks’ differently than you would.
4.2.4 INSERT FUNCTION BUTTON
The last method of calculating the totals we want to show you here, is by inserting a function
into the formula with the Insert Function button of the formula bar. You will experience
45
it here as a very complex method – and quite unnecessary, with the many alternatives you
could use – but our goal is to demonstrate in general how you can insert functions into
formulas. When inserting more complex functions you will understand the purpose and
usefulness of that.
Figure 4.5 Insert Function button in the formula bar
Select cell E10 and click the Insert Function button of the formula bar once. The
Insert Function dialog box appears.
In the Search for a function box, type a search word or phrase to find a function for
making the addition and press [Go] to search for possible functions. The lower list
box can display several functions dependant on what search (key)words you entered,
but unless you used ‘sum’ as your search keyword the SUM-function probably will
not be in the list of results.
46
Figure 4.6 Insert function
If the SUM-function is not found, select the category All from the drop-down list,
and then locate the function manually.
Select the function in the list (click once) and read below the list what this function
does (adds the numbers in a range of cells, of course).
When searching for a complex function or to find out how a specific function works, please
refer to Help (using the link at the bottom of the window) for more information on attributes
or options of the desired function.
Click [OK].
47
Figure 4.7 Entering and checking function arguments
In the next dialog box Function Arguments Excel suggests E4:E9 as the probable range
of cell values to sum. Notice to the right the numbers to be summed in that range, and
below that, the result of the addition with the SUM function. If you have entered the same
numbers as we did, the total sum should be equal to the Revenue amount for Quarter 1
in the Sales Data spreadsheet (in cell B3).
Be careful: if there were totals in cells E6:E9 for the regions listed in column A, they would
also be summed in the formula result. But is that what you want? If the numbers in rows
6 to 9 are the sales figures for another division of this fictitious company, let’s say the
merchandisers or sales reps in the field, then you certainly would take them into account
in the total.
Click [OK] and see the result appear in cell E10.

Now calculate the total of the monthly sales figures of the North region in a way
of your choice.
If you perform the calculation by clicking on the AutoSum button, you will see that Excel
suggests the wrong range: the program ‘thinks’ you want to sum the cells above the result
cell, but actually you want to add up the cells to the left of it. You have to change that (with
the mouse or by typing, see next paragraph).
48
The result in cell E10 is also updated. If that means that the column is too narrow
to display the new total, the cell will be filled with hashtags (###). If necessary,
increase the column width, preferably to the same width as the other columns, i.e.
15 characters (110 pixels).
The total revenue for Quarter 1 is now no longer equal to the revenue you see in the Sales
Data model. What is the case here? If you study the numbers closely, you’ll see that the
figures in the fifth row (with label Stores) are in fact the totals of the four regions below. We
have done this on purpose, so that you can learn to recognize and deal with such pittfalls
in your models. And of course, we are going to solve this ‘problem’.
4.3 EDITING FORMULAS

You’ve seen how to enter formulas by typing, so you’ll understand that it’s relatively simple
to edit an entered formula in the formula bar with the keyboard. So by typing you could
easily edit the formula =SUM(E4:E9) to =SUM(E4:E5) so that the regional sales figures
won’t be a part of the summation. But we prefer to do that through the Function Arguments
dialog box, because that gives better overview and control of what you’re doing.
Select cell E10, and then click the Insert function button in the formula bar, the
Function Arguments dialog reappears.
Modify the range of cells in the Number1 box to E4:E5. Look (in the dialog box)
what is summed up now and what the outcome will be.
While you’re in this dialog box, please notice the following useful options:
• The SUM-function can add up multiple cells or ranges: for example, by filling in
a cell or range reference in the Number2 input box. If you do so, automatically
a box Number3 will appear, and so on. Similar options you will also find
in other functions.
• The dialog box can cover the cells or ranges you wanted to select. If so, use the
Collapse button to the right of the input box to temporarily resize the dialog.
Try out how this works (selecting your range once again won’t hurt). When in
the smaller dialog, revert to the original size of it with the Expand button on
the right side.
49
Figure 4.8 Dialog temporarily collapsed
• There are more ways to end up in the Insert Function dialog box – or directly in
the Function Arguments dialog starting from a cell with a formula – one of them
is via the More Functions option in the drop-down list of the AutoSum button.
But let’s be honest, the button in the formula bar is by far the most convenient.
All entered as desired now in the Function Arguments dialog? Then click [OK].
Based on the assumption that the turnover of the stores is apparently the result of the sum
of the four regions, the total revenue for the Stores is now correct and equal to the Quarter
1 sales figure in the other workbook. By now, you’ll probably have a few ideas of your own
where to edit or insert formulas or functions in this model. We’ll come to that later. First we
have to discuss some basic actions about the use and the effect of formulas and functions.
Save the First Quarter workbook.
Look in the title bar, and notice that the word Saved is added to the name of the file.
This way Microsoft notifies you – for the first time in the long history of the software
development company – that what you see on your screen is not different from what is in
the file at your storage location. As soon as you alter or edit something in your sheet, the
Saved addition disappears. It will not return, even if you undo the changes, until you have
saved the workbook again.
Excel has many functions to insert in your formulas, but, of course, we cannot discuss all
of them. Here and now we stick to the relatively simple functions, to practice the most
important basic actions. In our ebook on advanced topics in Excel you’ll encounter more
complex functions with the necessary explanation.
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4.4 ANALYSIS
One of the most important goals of using calculation models is to analyse figures, for
example, as argument(s) for important decisions or to discover trends and (cautiously) make
predictions for the future. Let’s elaborate on this with a few simple examples.
4.4.1 MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM
Let’s say you want to know what division scored the highest revenue in January. You can
‘calculate’ this with the MAX function.
Select cell B10 in the First Quarter overview.

Enter the Max-function in the cell via the AutoSum button.
Figure 4.9 Max function
The selected function including the equal sign appears as a formula in the cell, and all cells
above it are suggested as the range to find the maximum in.
Figure 4.10 IntelliSense hinting
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Press [Enter] and see the result. With what number in the range above does it
match? That would be the Online shop, as this division has indeed made the highest
turnover in that month.
Now suppose you want to know the maximum only for the regions of the stores: then you
have to edit the formula and change the range within the parentheses in the function. You
may accomplish that by typing new cell references, but there’s another way with a lower
risc of typos.
Double-click in cell B10. The (text) insertion point appears, and the range reference
text (B4:B9) is displayed in a color which is also used in the model for a selection
border line around the relevant cells above it.
Figure 4.11 Modifying a cell range
Now change the dimension of the selected area by dragging one of the upper corner
blocks – to analyse only the four cells above the formula – and re-enter the formula.
Let us do this exercise again for the month of February, this time using another, quicker
method.
Select the range C6:C9.

Use the AutoSum button to select the Max function. The result appears immediately:
that was fast, wasn’t it…
52
In the upper-left corner of cells B10 and C10, a small green triangle has appeared, which means
that Excel attached a comment to the cell. When selected, next to the cell an attention button
(with exclamation mark) appears to remind you of this comment, in most cases signalling a
possible problem (but that’s not the case here). Just hover over the button and read the comment.
Figure 4.12 A warning
Excel’s comment is, of course, completely true, but our range selection was intentional in this
situation. So here we can ignore the comment. It is important that you take a look at such
comments or warnings from Excel when they pop up.
Now calculate with an appropriate function where the cost was lowest in January.
This time, start typing the formula and function in B19: =M ... you’ll see a list of
hints appearing with functions you could enter starting with ‘m’.
This last presented method of entering the formula can be useful as well, but in many cases
requires more accuracy and precision in avoiding typos. And don’t forget to type in the
(closing) brackets if needed.
The use of the MIN and MAX functions here is a bit doubtful, since you still have to
interpret what company division has established the highest sales or lowest costs. Using a
Lookup & Reference function, you could retrieve the label of the corresponding outcome
value and show it in the model. But that would require a complex function, and we are
not going to perform this action now.
Delete the minimum and maximum formulas in cells B10, C10 and B19. Either
use [Delete] from your keyboard or the Delete button in the Cells group of the
Home tab to clear the contents in the cells. Don’t use the Delete Cells option from
the drop-down list of that button as this could get you in trouble in deciding what
to do after removing the cells.
4.4.2 WHAT IF..?
Another interesting function to insert in formulas for analysis in your calculation model is
the IF function. This can add signalling or predictive power to your models.
53
In cell F10 – so right next to the revenues total for this quarter – enter an IF-
function using the Insert Function button, go to the Function Arguments dialog, and
fill in the arguments as shown in figure 4.13 below. You may use the [Tab] key to
enter the (next) input box (and [Shift]+[Tab] backwards) in the dialog. Read all
the information carefully!
Figure 4.13 IF function
The input in the dialog box is also displayed in the formula bar, but in a different form,
see the syntax in figure 4.13 above. Clicking [OK] puts the result of the formula in cell
F10: the text “Sales target not met” will appear, because the total in E10 is less than the
10 million you set in the Logical_test box of the IF function.
You will probably understand the power of such a formula even better when you experiment
with the sales figures. If they change, it will also change the sales total and, if necessary,
the resulting message in cell F10. These kind of try-out actions are usually called ‘what if ’
analyses.
Change in cell C4 the February Online shop revenue to three and a half million:
now cell F10 will show that the sales target is met!
Instead of the conditional formula with the IF-function we demonstrated here, you could
also use Conditional Formatting. This useful feature makes the cell’s formatting dependent
on the value (or the result of the formula) in the cell so that, for example, negative numbers
appear in red. We will come back to that later in this user guide.
54
Save the current workbook and close it.
4.5 EXERCISE
For some calculations in your model you will have to invent and build your own formulas
without the use or help of functions such as IF, SUM or MAX, and the like. For example,
there is no function =PROFIT(...) or something like that, but of course, you can easily
create a formula for this yourself.
Maximise the Sales Data window.

In cell A5 enter the text label Profit.
Select B5 and in the formula bar type the formula that will calculate the profit:
sales minus cost, so for the first quarter you need the formula =B3-B4.
Enter the same formula for the second quarter directly in cell C5, but now by using
only the keyboard (besides typing the operators, you must also use the arrow keys
to navigate to the appropriate cells).
Use a combination of techniques for the formulas in quarters 3 and 4.
Figure 4.14 Adding averages to the model
In column F calculate with a formula the average revenue, cost and profit. Also
apply the column with an appropriate label (see figure 4.14 above).
Save the Sales Data workbook (if you go on to the next chapter right now, you
don’t have to close it).
55
EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Navigating and selecting
5 NAVIGATING AND SELECTING
5.1 INTRODUCTION
In the preceding chapters you have already been navigating and selecting in the spreadsheets
a lot: you clicked in cells, navigated to other cells using [Enter] or an arrow key on your
keyboard, selected ranges by dragging, et cetera. Especially in larger models that don’t fit into
your window, navigating and selecting is a bit more difficult, which is why we summarise
here the most important actions for that. We demonstrate the possibilities with a keyboard –
with many useful keys and key combinations – as well as with the mouse.
5.2 NAVIGATING
The active cell is indicated in the worksheet with a thick border. This active cell indicator
can be easily moved using the arrow keys on your keyboard: [] [] [] and []. But
if you want to go down let’s say 100 rows, this is not a very convenient method, so that’s
why Excel has other navigating possibilities to get you to a certain location in the workbook
much faster. Quick navigation in a (large) Excel worksheet is a very useful skill.
5.2.1 USING THE KEYBOARD
Excel has many navigation options with the keyboard. In the next paragraph you will see
how this can be done with the mouse. The most important navigation keys are listed in
the following table.
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Key (combination) Effect
[] [] [] [] Go to the next cell in the direction of the arrow
Go one screen up (a screen here corresponds with the

[Page up]
number of rows you see in the current sheet)
[Page down] Go down one screen (idem)
Go one screen to the right (a screen here is the number

[Alt]+[Page down]
of columns you see)
[Alt]+[Page up] Go one screen to the left (idem)
[Home] Go to the beginning of the row
[End] followed by [] Go to the end of the row
[Ctrl]+[Home] Go to cell A1
Go to the bottom right corner of the used cells in the

[Ctrl]+[End]
worksheet
Go to the first or last not-empty cell in the direction

of the arrow. If no more data is found in that direction,
[End] [], [End] [], [End] [], or [End] []
you go to the edge of the worksheet.
or
In combinations with [End]: do not press
[Ctrl]+[], +[], +[] or +[]
keys simultaneously, but consecutively. Press
combinations with [Ctrl] simultaneously.
Function key to activate the Go To: dialog. Enter the

[F5]
desired cell address to go to followed by [Enter].
In the Sales Data workbook, navigate as efficiently as possible – with as few

keystrokes as possible – to the following cell addresses:
A1 B2 B5 F5 XFD5
A5 A1048576 XFD1048576 F1 A1
Sometimes there are several possible ways to work, the whole thing is, of course, to develop
your skills in navigating. In the exercise above, some cell references are chosen so that you
should, for example, go to the bottom right corner of the model, or to the edge of the
worksheet. And which key to use also depends on how you have chosen to work through
the addresses in the exercise: in rows or in columns.
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5.2.2 USING THE MOUSE
With the mouse you can easily navigate to a certain cell just by clicking. But for that the
cell must be visible in your screen. If it’s not, you have to move to another part of the
worksheet using the horizontal and/or vertical scroll bars in the window. In vertical direction
you may also use the mouse wheel.
Figure 5.1 Horizontal scroll bar
• Moving the rectangular block in the horizontal or vertical scroll bar moves the
visible contents of your worksheet.
• By clicking in the ‘empty’ section of a scroll bar (between the block and one of
the arrow buttons at the end of the bar), you move the worksheet to the right,
left, top or bottom.
• By clicking one of the arrows at the end of a scroll bar, you move the worksheet
by a column or by a row. Holding down the mouse button on those arrow
buttons, makes the sheet scroll through your screen.
You cannot use the scroll bars to navigate to the edges of the worksheet, because Excel
limits their scope to only scroll through the not-empty cells in het sheet.
Do the navigation exercise in the last paragraph again, but now only use the mouse.
Notice that for some movements the use of the keyboard is much more convenient,
and in some cases unavoidable.
5.3 SELECTING
Another important basic skill in Excel is selecting (one or more) cells. It is necessary for
copying, formatting, setting colors or patterns in cells or ranges in the models, et cetera.
Selecting using the mouse is somewhat easier than using the keyboard, which is possible
as well. Sometimes the combination of a mouse and a keyboard method can be useful,
especially in larger models. The method you use is often inspired by where your hands
are at that moment: on the mouse or on the keyboard. Both working methods and their
combination you’ll experience in the following exercise.
Make A1 your active cell.

Select cells A1 through E4 – thus cell range A1:E4 – by dragging from A1 to E4.
Extend the selection one column using [Shift]+[].
Now select the whole model by pressing [Shift] and clicking cell F5 with the mouse.
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5.3.1 WITH THE KEYBOARD
Use the following key combinations to make or extend a selection with the keyboard:
Key combination Effect
[Shift]+[], +[], +[], or +[] Extends selection in the direction of the arrow
[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[], +[], +[], or +[] Extends selection with a block of data
[Shift]+[Home] Extends selection to the beginning of the line
[End] followed by [Shift]+[] Extends selection to the end of the line
[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Home] Extends selection to the beginning of the worksheet
[Shift]+[Page Up]
Extends selection with a window
[Shift]+[Page Down]
[Shift]+[Space] Selects a row
[Ctrl]+[Space] Selects a column
[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[Space] Selects the entire worksheet
Use the keyboard to select:

B2
Range B2:E2
B3:E4
Row 10
Rows 2:5
Column F
Columns B:E
Entire Worksheet
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5.3.2 WITH THE MOUSE
You can also use the mouse to select certain cells or ranges in a worksheet in the following ways:
Selection Method
Single cell Click the cell you want
Click the starting cell (upper-left corner of the area) and drag to the bottom right
corner of the area you want, or:
Range
Select the upper left corner, press the [Shift] key and click on the bottom right
corner with the mouse.
Click the column letter above the desired column (and drag to select multiple
Column(s)
columns)
Row(s) Click the row number (and drag if necessary)
Entire Click the box with the triangle in the upper-left corner of the sheet at the
Worksheet intersection of column letters and row numbers.
Do the previous exercise again, but now using the mouse.
5.3.3 MULTI-SELECTION
It is also possible to select multiple (not adjacent) cells or ranges together: this is called
multi-selection. With the keyboard you may add a selection to the currently selected cell(s)
after pressing the key combination [Shift]+[F8]. When using the mouse you can add a
selection by clicking while holding the [Ctrl] key.
Select the cells as shown in figure 5.2 below.

Try it both with the keyboard and with the mouse.
Figure 5.2 Multi-selection
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Editing worksheets
6 EDITING WORKSHEETS
6.1 INTRODUCTION
When designing your models, it is most likely that you have to make changes to a worksheet
now and then. It would be, for instance, very lucky if you immediately had set the right
column width to display all your data. Or how about inserting or deleting a row or a
column somewhere, or using certain formulas in other cells too, and so on.
In this chapter you’ll learn how to make such changes in a worksheet. We will show that
the adjustments can have consequences in some cases. For example, in operations like Cut/
Copy & Paste an important aspect is the way how cells are referred to in formulas: by
relative or absolute reference. And in some cases it is useful to give a meaningful name to
a cell or a range of cells.
In the next exercise, we create a new model with some data. We are going to edit all kinds
of things, but for the moment we will not change the formatting of the cells: this will be
discussed in the next module.
Start a new workbook, and enter the labels and numbers as in the model below
(in your situation the columns will be much narrower, we’ll come back to that in
the next paragraph).
Figure 6.1 New model for the second quarter
Save the model with the file name Second Quarter (do not close it).
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6.2 COLUMN WIDTHS

In a new worksheet, by default all columns have the same width: 8.43 characters (who on
earth thought of that…) or 64 pixels. As you can see, some columns are wider than strictly
necessary, others are too narrow to show the whole content. When entering the text labels
in the model above you will have experienced that: initially the whole text of the labels
was visible because of the transparency of the adjacent cells, but in most cases was hidden
when you entered data in the second column.
In many situations you don’t know yet how wide columns need to be to show all data,
think e.g. of the Total column: how large a number the outcome will be, and how much
space you’ll be needing to display the total including the number format.
You can change the column width in several ways:
• On the Home tab, in the Cells group, click the Format button, choose the
Column Width option, and enter the desired width in the dialog.
• Right-click a cell somewhere in the column – or the heading, this will also select
the entire column – and choose the Column Width option from the context
menu to enter the dialog box.
• Drag the boundary on the right side of the column heading to set the desired
width manually. In most cases this is much easier than to have to guess a value
(as in the previous described methods).
• Let Excel ‘figure out’ the needed column width via AutoFit.
Let’s try out these different methods.
Click in one of the cells in column A.

Set the column width in the Cells group of the Home tab. By default, the column
width in the dialog box is 8.43 (64 pixels). Change that value to 6 and click [OK].
The text label Stores now fits perfectly, but for the other text labels there is even
less space available now, and in most cells the full content is no longer readable.
Place the mouse pointer on the boundary between column headings A and B, and
press the mouse button, now you can read the actual column width.
Figure 6.2 Column width by dragging
62
Drag the boundary between column headings A and B – the mouse pointer’s shape
in that position has two arrows, see in figure 6.2 – to the right to set the column
width to 15 (110 pixels).
Now select the columns B:D and set their width to 6 characters. If you want to
practice some more with this, try different methods to set the width.
Some strange things are occurring now: in the situation of this narrow size of the column,
Excel tries to apply a different number format to display the numbers. Therefore, in some
cells, exponential notations appear: for example, 3E+06 is the format for two and a half
million, rounded up due to the lack of space.
And if you had set the Currency or Accounting number format for your figures here, Excel
would have displayed a series of hashtags (#####), as you may have seen before.
Undo the last width setting action for the columns B:D.
Excel can also automatically determine an appropriate width for the contents in the cells:
AutoFit. By double-clicking a boundary between two column headings, the column to the
left is made wide enough to fit the longest text or ‘widest’ value (including formatting) in
the column.
Make column E fit the longest text: in this case, this is the word Total which in fact
makes the column quite narrow (as you can see in the background of figure 6.3).
Figure 6.3 Column width via context menu
63
Now select all columns with non-empty cells (A:E), and set their width to 15 by
right-clicking the selection.
You can change the row height(s) in a worksheet in a similar way as the column width,
just explore and try out the possibilities.
6.3 COPYING
Copying is a useful skill when designing models: the same labels and formulas are often
needed in different cells. There are several methods to copy things, and also the ways you
paste the copied data into the new location can be quite various.
Let’s start with the basic methods for copying something at a source location and paste it
at the target location:
• Copy a text, value (number), or formula in a cell to another cell using the
Clipboard group (on the Home tab): at the source location click the Copy button
and in the target cell click Paste; or
• Right-click the source cell(s), choose Copy from the context menu, then right-
click the target cell and choose one of the Paste options (which one we’ll discuss
later) in the shortcut menu; or
• Use the Fill button in the Editing group of the Home tab to copy a cell content
to the adjacent cells in the desired direction; or
• Use the Fill handle to ‘drag’ (with the mouse pointer looking like a plus sign)
the contents of a source cell to adjacent target cells.
The last described method is by far the fastest way to copy labels, numbers or formulas.
But beware of the sometimes surprising consequences of this action … you have seen it
before when we created the labels for the quarters.
Figure 6.4 The Fill handle (some call it the ‘Copy Tool’)
In cell E4, enter a formula to sum the cells to the left of it.
Select E4 (if necessary) and click Copy in the Clipboard group on the Home tab.
Now select E5 and paste the content of the clipboard in that cell.
64
After copying the source, Excel suggests in the status bar: Select destination and press
ENTER or choose Paste. This works fine and very fast, and it has an extra advantage: the
dotted selection line around the copied cell(s) disappears after pressing [Enter]. In the other
copying methods you would have to press the [Escape] key to make the dotted selection
frame disappear.
You see in the formula bar that the content of the pasted formula in cell E5 has changed:
it is adjusted to the row in which it is now.
Select the cells E5:E8 using the mouse. Note that the cell where you started
the selection – with the formula – stays white, whereas the other cells get a
background color.
Go to the drop-down list of the Fill button in the Editing group of the Home
tab, and click the Down option. In all colored cells, the formula is now copied
from the white cell and adjusted to the row in which it ends up. This way, you
can quickly copy the formula to all the cells involved (this could as well have
been the whole column).
Click in cell E8. Drag the Fill handle at the bottom right of the cell to E9 and
release the mouse button. The formula is now copied to E9 (and adjusted to the
new situation).
6.3.1 KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
So, now you know quite a few methods for Copy & Paste in Excel, some of them requiring
quite a lot of clicks and actions. In some cases the use of keyboard shortcuts is a lot easier.
Probably you already know these commonly used key combinations from the Windows
environment. Maybe you already use them but never realised they are actually general
keyboard shortcuts, which also can be used in Excel.
Hotkeys for options and features in programs are usually mentioned in the menus. But
because Microsoft Office software (since version 2007) no longer uses menus, the way to
find out in a ribbon what shortkeys may be used, is a bit different. Hovering over options
or buttons like Cut, Copy and Paste in the Home tab, will display tooltips including the
information on the keyboard shortcuts you may use instead of clicking the ribbon options
or buttons. This way you’ll find out that you can use [Ctrl]+[c] for Copy, [Ctrl]+[x] for
Cut and [Ctrl]+[v] for Paste.
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Figure 6.5 Keyboard shortcuts are mentioned in tooltips
Also in the Quick Access Toolbar you’ll find information about keyboard shortcuts in
the tooltips when hovering the buttons: [Ctrl]+[s] for Save, or [Ctrl]+[z] for Undo. The
alternative hotkeys do not appear always and everywhere in the tooltips. A lot of options
and features don’t even have a hotkey.
Now explore some other options, features or buttons in the ribbon, also on other
ribbon tabs, and find out if they have keyboard shortcuts.
Sometimes this kind of information is hidden deep into the ribbon and drop-down list
structure. For instance, the information that you may use [Crl]+[1] to open the Format
Cells dialog box to set the properties of the cell(s) in your datasheet can only be found in
the tooltip while hovering the last option in the drop-down list of the Format button in
the Cells group of the Home tab.
Figure 6.6 Information hidden deep
66
And on the other hand, there are keyboard shortcuts like e.g. [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[$] (that
applies the number format Currency with two decimal places to a cell) not listed anywhere
in the ribbon, not even when hovering the options in the Number Format list box. We
don’t elaborate further on these issues, you can find extensive lists of useful hotkeys and
key combinations in Help (search for ‘keyboard shortcuts’).
Shortcuts are easy and useful, and using them can also prevent Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)
that many office workers suffer from working long periods with a mouse on a computer
or repeatedly performing the same action or operation. So use those hotkeys as often as
possible when you do that kind of work!
In the next exercise, use only the keyboard shortcuts as mentioned above to copy and paste
the labels and formulas.
In cell A11, type the text Cost.

Beginning in row 12, create a copy of the labels from the Revenue model so that
the next Cost overview is generated.
Figure 6.7 Copy the model labels
Hopefully you haven’t copied one cell at the time (although that would have been a good
exercise with the technique), and made bigger selections first. By the way, multi-selection
cannot be used when copying.
6.3.2 QUICK MOUSING
Besides keyboard shortcuts, there are also techniques to quickly perform certain actions
with the mouse. For example, you can move cells with their full content and formatting
by dragging the border of a selection from one place to another in the sheet.
67
Select E4:E9 (with the formulas to calculate the total revenues).

Point to the border of the range (at the end of the mouse pointer a cross of arrows
appears), and then drag the selected cells to the empty cells under Total in the
Cost part of the model.
Figure 6.8 Moving cells
The result of this action is that the formulas disappear at the source location and end up
in the target cells. And they still sum the figures of the Revenue part of the model. In this
case that’s not what we want: we need a copy of the formulas in the Cost model.
Moving is actually the same operation as Cutting & Pasting. If you want to Copy the
cells instead of moving the range, you have to hold down the [Ctrl] key while performing
this operation. This technique is exactly the same as you would use handling files in the
Windows environment.
Undo the previous action.

Drag the range with formulas from the Revenue part in the model to the Cost
part again, but now holding down the [Ctrl] key. Your mouse pointer will display
a plus (similar to what happens in Windows and other programs) indicating that
you’re going to copy the contents of the range.
The result is now that column F will have a series of zeros. That makes sense, because the
copied cells with the formulas contain references to empty cells (just select one and check
it in the formula bar), and the sum of those empty cells is zero, of course.
68
Enter in range B13:D18 the Cost figures as shown in figure 6.9 below. As you type
all entries, you’ll see the totals directly being recalculated.
Figure 6.9 The cost figures
Save the model again (do not close).
The moving operation you performed above is as we mentioned before a matter of Cut
& Paste. The difference with Copy & Paste is simple: cutting will clear the contents of the
source location, and copying does not. But always beware of the consequences when moving
cells so you won’t get faulty references or unexpected results.
Pasting the copied cell contents from the clipboard into the target cell(s) is also an important
topic that we have to discuss in more detail. We will come back to that in the next chapter.
6.3.3 RELATIVE OR ABSOLUTE
The formulas that you have copied in different ways, all contain relative cell references, which
means that a formula in the pasting or filling process is adjusted to the new situation. In
the next exercise you will see that this is not always what you want.
Add the data to the model in columns F and G as shown in figure 6.10 below: so
type the labels in cells F1 and F3, enter the percentage in G1 and construct the
formula in F4. If necessary modify the width of column F.
69
Figure 6.10 Calculating VAT
Show the result ([Enter]).

Copy the formula one cell down.
Undoubtedly you will confirm that the value in cell F4 of the total including 20% VAT is
correct, as you may recalculate it by heart. For this outcome, Excel uses 0.2 as a calculation
factor for the percentage you have entered, in the formula added to 1, thus calculating
120% of the Total in cell E4.
In cell F5 with the copied formula you can clearly see that there is no VAT added to the
total result, as the values with or without VAT are the same. And that’s correctly calculated:
just check the formula in F5 and you’ll notice that there’s a relative reference to cell G2, but
that is an empty cell. So, the total amount in E5 is multiplied by (1 + 0) and the outcome
of the formula in F5 is the same value as the original amount.
The solution for this issue: use an absolute reference in the formula. In all formulas where
you want to calculate VAT, the percentage must be retrieved from cell G1. To prevent
updating of cell references in formulas being copied, you can add a dollar sign to the
reference numbers or letters. If you change the formula in F4 to =E4*(1+$G$1) – so with
dollar signs preceding the row and column reference of the cell that contains the VAT rate
percentage – you can then copy it down, where only the first part of the formula (the
reference to the cell in the adjacent column) is adjusted to the new situation.
Edit the formula in cell F4 as described above. You can insert the dollar signs
yourself by typing, but you may also select the G1 cell reference in the formula
and then press the [F4] function key.
Pressing the [F4] key repeatedly, Excel shows you all possible insertions of the dollar signs
in the cell address. This way you can also make only the row reference or only the column
reference absolute. In some situations that is necessary, we will not elaborate on this.
70
After inserting the dollar signs, click or press Enter: this will not change the outcome
of the formula in this cell, of course.
Now copy the formula down for all revenue totals.
Study the formulas in column F one by one, and you’ll see that in all of them the
absolute cell reference $G$1 has not been updated.
6.3.4 NAMES
As an alternative to absolute referencing you can give a cell a name. Instead of using the
dollar-sign notation, you can use the name as a reference in the formula. Let’s find out
how that works.
Select cell G1.

In group Defined Names on the Formulas tab, click Define Name.
Figure 6.11 A cell with a name
In the dialog New Name Excel suggests a name VAT_Rate for the selected cell based
on the cell to the left of it; this name refers in absolute addressing to G1 (see the
box at the bottom).
Edit the name to VAT and exit the dialog with [OK]. Notice that the (new) name
you defined is also displayed in the Name Box to the left of the formula bar.
In the formula in cell F4, replace the ‘$G$1’ cell reference with the name VAT.
Of course, this too will not change the outcome.
Now copy this new formula down again.
It is also possible to define a name for a whole range of cells and use it in the formulas
that you build. We’ll demonstrate it in the next exercise using a different defining method.
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Select the range of cells E3:E9.

In the group Defined Names (on the Formulas tab) now choose Create from Selection.
Use the labels – obviously, there’s only one selected here – in the top row to create
the name(s).
Figure 6.12 Names created from a selection
Now change the formula in cell F4 to: =Total*(1+VAT) – while editing you’ll see
the name Total appearing as a hint from Excel.
Copy the new formula down. The results still do not change, because in the
background Excel appears to have updated the row numbers in the copies of the
formula all the same.
Using names, you create ‘easier to read’ and comprehensible formulas. In a relatively small
and simple model like this, you can easily understand a formula with plain cell references
(using the cell ‘coordinates’), because you immediately see which cells are involved in the
calculation. But especially in large worksheets with complex formulas and labels not visible
at the time, you can benefit a lot from defined names.
6.4 INSERTING AND DELETING

You may want to insert or delete rows or columns in a worksheet at some stage. This can
affect the formulas in your calculation model, and sometimes they have to be updated
(manually or automatically). See what happens in the next exercise.
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Select the range E4:F10 and click the AutoSum button: the totals in the bottom
cells of the selection are calculated immediately in one action (because Excel ‘derives’
your intention from the selection)! Take a look (in the formula bar) at the two
formulas the program placed in the cells.
Now select rows 6:9, right-click somewhere in the selected cells, and choose Delete
from the context menu.
Deleting the four rows results in very different outcomes in the cells with the SUM formulas
in row 6. We discussed this issue before, when we stated that the store figures were the totals
of the four regions below it. So, the calculation we made with AutoSum above is actually
not the right one. After deleting the rows the totals now in fact are correct, look what the
formulas do in E6 and F6.
Important conclusion: deleting rows, columns, or cells will affect the formulas in a calculation
model. And the same goes for inserting rows or columns.
Select the rows 6:9 again (this may seem like a rather strange selection).
Open the context menu and Insert four rows (at the position of the selected rows).
Would you have guessed yourself how to do this..?
Figure 6.13 Inserting rows
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Select cell E10 (so below the four empty cells in that column) and see what the
formula is now.
Because you inserted rows outside of the range reference in the formula, that range is not
updated. For example, if you had inserted four rows between the Online shop and Stores
rows to enter the regional figures, the formulas in row 10 to calculate the totals would have
been updated to include the inserted rows.
Undo the last action (inserting the four rows).

Select rows 5:8, and now insert four rows in that position (this time use the Insert
button in group Cells on the Home tab).
Check in cell E10 what the formula is now.
The range reference in the formula has been updated, and now includes the four rows between
Online shop and Stores. This is because those rows were inserted within the original range. As
soon as numbers will be entered in those rows, they will be added to the totals in row 10.
It is very important to realise that deleting or inserting rows and columns – and also cells
that require other cells to be moved – affects the formulas that you use in your calculation
model. It also often explains false or unexpected results of the calculations in your model.
Undo your actions until the region figures reappear below the Stores row.
Edit the range references of the formulas in E10 and F10 so that only the totals
of the Online shop and Stores are added up.
Figure 6.14 The green cells contain the formulas
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Study the model in figure 6.14, the colored numbers indicate in which cells we
used a formula. Compare it with the model that you have build so far. If needed,
add formulas and/or modify the contents in the cells.
Copying your formulas with the defined names to the cost model will cause problems because
the intended range does not exist in that part of the model. And defining a similar name
for the range in the cost section can also cause problems if you want to use the label from
the row above it: you can better think of another name. If the naming issue is going to be
too much of a problem now, you know how to build a new formula – using cell references
and only VAT as a reference name – that Excel can update automatically when you copy it.
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Cell formatting
7 CELL FORMATTING
7.1 INTRODUCTION
Excel has many options for formatting the cells of a worksheet. You have already seen some
examples of this in previous chapters. For example, you can change the way numbers are
displayed, you can choose whether to place the contents of a cell on the left, right, center,
top or bottom, you may change the font and size of the characters used, et cetera. In this
module we will discuss a few formatting matters in more detail.
7.2 NUMBER FORMAT

Of course, in a calculation program numbers are very important, and also the way they are
displayed so you can see what they represent. Let’s return to the workbook with the sales
data in the first quarter, because there we already applied some formatting.
Open the workbook First Quarter. All figures in the cells are formatted as amounts
with currency signs, as you would do in a financial report. You must agree, this
looks a lot better than the unformatted numbers in Second Quarter workbook (if
necessary , reopen it).
Place the windows of the first and second quarters side by side on your screen, this
way you can compare the different ‘looks’ of the two models.
As you may have seen earlier in this workbook, you can set several commonly used formatting
properties for numbers using the tools in the ribbon. But beware, the formatting with these
tools is not always exactly what you want, and sometimes it needs a lot of customising.
In the Second Quarter workbook, select all amounts (multi-selection of two ranges).
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Figure 7.1 Setting a number format using the ribbon
Click the Comma Style button (in the Number group on the Home tab). The selected
numbers will now be displayed as thousands (comma separated), and with two
decimal places (as shown in figure 7.1). In Excel this format is called Accounting
(by default without a currency symbol).
Use the button in the ribbon to decrease the number of decimal places to zero.
From the Accounting Number Format button’s drop-down list to the left of the
group, choose the desired currency symbol, in this case: £.
You’ll understand that you may also pick euros (€) or dollars ($) in the list, or find even more
currency symbols via the More Accounting Formats option. Just try it and find out how the
numbers are displayed. In this ebook we’ll be using the UK pound symbol (£).
You can also set various number formatting properties at the same time in the Format Cells
dialog box for one cell, or – like in this case – for the currently selected range(s) of cells.
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Undo all number formatting. Keep to the multi-selection you made!

Go to the Format Cells dialog box (e.g. by clicking the launcher symbol in the
lower-right corner of the Number group, or with keyboard shortcut [Ctrl]+[1]).
Set for the selected cells (on the Number tab in the Format Cells dialog) the same
accounting format as the cells in the First Quarter workbook (also choose the
currency symbol and decrease the number of decimal places). The sample box shows
a preview, after [OK] the formatting is applied.
Figure 7.2 Setting number formats
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The Currency number format will place the currency symbol directly to the left of the amounts
(in this case with the £-symbol even without a space separating them). When using amounts
of various lengths – for example £1.75 and £1,234,567.89 – the currency symbols will not
be nicely lined up. The Accounting formats line up both the currency symbols (on the left
in the cell) and the decimal points.
There are many options for formatting numbers, amounts, percentages, dates, times, et
cetera. General is the default format when entering numbers, it displays the numbers in the
cell the way you type them including the number of decimal places that is possible within
the width of the column. Should the number of decimal places be too much in relation
to the width of the cell, Excel will adjust it by displaying fewer decimal places. This also
means that the values have to be rounded. That will happen in the same way as if you
would reduce the number of decimal places yourself. This may have strange consequences
when, as a result of the rounding, the calculations or outcomes do not seem to be correct.
Figure 7.3 Rounding with strange consequences
In the left column in figure 7.3 above, percentages are entered with two decimal places, and
added up with the SUM function. The outcome is exactly 100%. In the next columns we
have reduced the number of decimal places of the same entered values, thus forcing Excel
to round. The totals will still be 100% (because the program calculates with the original
values) but recalculating it yourself based on the rounded values you see in the cells above
the totals, would actually lead to different results: 100.1% and 99%.
You may also design your own custom formats using one of the existing codes as a starting
point. In the Format Cells dialog box on the Number tab you can use the Custom category
for this.
In the Second Quarter workbook, select cell G1 with the VAT rate.
Read in the Number Format list box in the ribbon which format is set for the cell
(and you didn’t do that yourself ).
Set the percentage format to one decimal place (can be very useful if rates like e.g.
22.5% occur and you don’t want them to be rounded to 23%).
Go back to the Format Cells dialog and on the Number tab click the Custom category
(at the bottom of the list): the ‘new’ format you set for the percentage was added
at the end of the list (0.0%).
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Now you can choose this formatting again if you need it in another cell. But this requires
a lot of actions to perform, and quite frankly that’s completely unnecessary since you can
easily increase the number of decimal places by clicking a single button in the ribbon.
Click [Cancel] to exit the Format Cells dialog.
7.3 TEXT FORMATTING

In the labels in your model – and also for the individual characters of the texts – you can
use a variety of formatting features just like in a word processor. See how you formatted
the text labels in the First Quarter workbook. We won’t be repeating all the formatting
actions here, but instead we’ll transfer the formatting from one cell to another in various
different ways.
7.3.1 FORMAT PAINTER
Select cell A1 in the First Quarter workbook.

In the Clipboard group of the Home tab, hover over the Format Painter button and
read the information on how to use it.
Figure 7.4 Format Painter
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Now click the Format Painter button, and activate the Second Quarter workbook.
Note as you move the mouse, that a small brush accompanies the pointer; also in
the second sheet as soon as it is activated.
Click in cell A1 in Second Quarter to apply the selected formatting there.
A different method to transfer the formatting is via the ‘usual’ process of copying and
pasting. During the procedure you can indicate if you want to copy not only the content
of the source, but also the formatting, or even only the formatting. As we mentioned before
there are several ways to paste it in the target cell(s).
In the First Quarter workbook, select cell A2 with the word Revenue in a larger
font size.
Now, as extra formatting, apply a different text color, e.g. red, using the Font Color
button in the Font group of the Home tab.
Copy the cell (by any method, except copying as a picture).
Right-click cell A2 in Second Quarter.
Figure 7.5 Paste Special
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The context menu now displays several options for pasting. When hovering over these Paste
Options you will discover that you can paste only the content from the source (text, value
or formula), or the content including formatting, or the formatting only. There are even
more pasting possibilities, just look at them next to the Paste Special option. Not all pasting
options will be applicable or have an(y) effect here, because the source is a text label.
Hover over the Paste Options and see that in your model the effect (preview of the
result) is displayed if possible. In this case, pointing at the very first paste option will
show the contents in cell A2 of the First Quarter workbook including formatting
in cell A2 of the Second Quarter model.
Now paste the formatting in the target cell: the font size of the text will increase
and the color changes to red.
You can already see the effect of an option or button in the ribbon or a shortcut menu –
usually a formatting issue – just pointing at it. This very useful feature – often called Direct
(pre)view – helps you to choose the right options and formats before you actually set them
(by clicking).
Figure 7.6 Paste Options button
After the content including formatting has been copied and pasted – using any method – a
button appears to the lower right of the cell to choose (other) paste options. At that
moment, you also can press the [Ctrl] key, and then activate the desired option with a letter.
You’d need to know the appropriate shortkeys at that time, because Excel only shows what
letters you may use, when hovering over the options. Moreover, some options are hard to
distinguish from each other – see e.g. the three paste format icons in figure 7.6 – bit still
have their own (different) hotkeys.
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In Second Quarter, right-click cell A11 (with label text Cost), and paste only the
text formatting. This action should not change the text in the cell!
Figure 7.7 Copy formatting only
All paste options can also be found in the Paste button’s drop-down list in the Clipboard
group on the Home tab. At the bottom of that list the option Paste Special brings you into
a dialog with even more pasting possibilities.
Figure 7.8 Special paste options
Study in this window the special Operations you can perform on the values (the contents
of the copied cells) before pasting them at the target location. We do not elaborate further
on it here, just try out these possibilities yourself.
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7.3.2 ALIGNMENT
Excel aligns texts you enter in a cell by default to the left and numbers to the right. But for
both text and values you can set an alignment different from the default, deciding yourself
how to align the contents in a cell.
In Second Quarter, select cell F1 and set the alignment of the text to the right
(use the button in the Alignment group on the Home tab).
Align the percentage right next to it to the left.
Center all labels – in one go, so use multi-selection – above the amounts.
A special formatting option is centering the cell contents across multiple columns. The
Alignment group has a Merge & Center button for this including a drop-down list with
extra features.
Figure 7.9 Merging and centering
In the Second Quarter sheet, select cells A1:E1.

Click the Merge & Center button in the ribbon. The title is now centered across
the five cells.
Study the extra options of the button (if you try them, undo you actions).
Be careful with Merging & Centering: in many situations this form of alignment gives fine
results in the layout of your models, but sometimes it can also be quite annoying, e.g. when
selecting a range in which some of the cells are merged.
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You may also set the vertical alignment of the contents in a cell relative to the top or the
bottom of the cell.
Select F1:G1 (VAT).

In the Alignment group, click the Middle Align button.
As you have seen, during Copy & Paste operations you can in- or exclude features like
column width, alignment, centering over cells, et cetera, to be transferred to the target cells.
Quite remarkable though, this does not apply to the row height.
Select cell range A1:G1 (so everything on the first row, including VAT), and copy it.
Go to the First Quarter workbook and paste the contents of the clipboard into cell
A1. This results in the same contents and layout of the first row in both models.
Try out what results other pasting options (via the [(Ctrl)] button right next to
the pasted range) would give. If necessary undo your actions, so that eventually
the first rows in both workbooks are identical.
7.3.3 FORMATTING TEXT
As for text formatting there are, of course, all kinds of different font types, sizes and properties
to choose from: Calibri (default font in Office), Arial, Times (New) Roman, Verdana, et
cetera, in 10, 12 of any other point size, in bold or italic font style variants and in any text
or background color you like. You can apply these formatting properties to a separate cell,
a range of cells, or an entire worksheet.
In the Second Quarter workbook, select cells A1:G19 (which is actually the whole
model, so you can also select it in a different way we have discussed before – do
you remember how?).
In the Home tab, click the dialog box launcher of the Font group to open the Format
Cells dialog. In this window on the Font tab, you have an overview of the available
fonts and their format features like style, size, color, effects, et cetera.
Set the font to Times New Roman (or anything similar) in a 12 point size and
click [OK].
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Some comments on formatting text:
• All cells get the chosen formatting, including the amounts (which is not text
actually, but also numbers consist of characters).
• The font size is also applied in all cells, so the increased size of the titles in the
model disappears. If you don’t want that, only change the font, not its size.
• Preferably, layout a model after you’ve finished building or designing it.
• It can be a good idea to set a specific font, e.g. from your house style or a
corporate identity, for the entire worksheet or workbook. This may prevent
discrepancies in the format if you expand or change the model later.
Undo the font and size settings.

Set all labels and titles (in this model) in bold, and the names of the months also
in italic. Use multi-selection if possible.
Mini toolbar
Right-clicking a selected cell or range, displays not only the context menu but also a mini toolbar
above it with some frequently used formatting options for texts and numbers. This may be very
useful, for example, if the Home tab of the ribbon is not on top.
Figure 7.10 Mini Toolbar
The content in a cell can also be rotated. This is useful when in a column the values are
relatively short and the label text is long, which requires much space as column width. For
example, if you had entered in column F the label: Total (including VAT), and then adjusted
the column width accordingly, this would have resulted in a lot of whitespace between
currency symbols and amounts. You can solve this kind of formatting issues by changing
the orientation of the contents in a cell. The Orientation button in the Alignment group
has several options, in figure 7.11 you see some examples:
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Figure 7.11 Orientation of content in cells
Try out the rotation options in a few cells. Using the Format Cell Alignment option
from the button’s drop-down list (or via [Ctrl]+[1]), in the Format Cells window
on the Alignment tab you can design your own custom formatting. As an example,
in the lower left cell in figure 7.11 we set the rotation to 15 degrees.
A major disadvantage of rotating or vertically displaying the content in a cell is that it

affects the row height. This is in terms of layout not always the way you like it. Moreover,
rotating can have unexpected effects when applied to a cell with the outcome of a formula.
Undo all rotations.
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7.4 BORDERS
Although your worksheet with the cells looks like a sheet of paper full of squared boxes,
the gridlines you see on the screen do not appear on paper when you print the sheet. Look
at the print preview in figure 7.12.
Click Print on the File tab.
Figure 7.12 Print preview of your model
Return to the workbook’s editing window (click the round arrow button in the
upper left corner of the window or press [Escape]).
Once you have returned, a dotted line has appeared between columns E and F. This is the
position where Excel inserted an automatic page break. As you can see in the figure above,
column F and everything to the right of it is missing in the preview (of page 1). We will
come back to that later.
Especially at the end of the designing phase of your model, it can be useful to see how
things will be printed without having to switch to the print preview all the time. Many
model designers therefore switch off the gridlines in this stage of the process.
Go to the View tab, and switch off the Gridlines checkbox in the Show group.
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You’ll probably still want to see some lines in your model – in the working area, as well
as in the printed sheet – for example a line above the outcome of a formula with a SUM
function. This can be done by setting borders for the cell(s).
Select E10:F10.
Because in the ribbon the View tab is on top now, the mini toolbar comes in handy.
Right-click inside the selection, and choose Top and Double Bottom Border from
the drop-down list of the Borders button in the toolbar.
Figure 7.13 Borders
Of course, you also could have used the Borders button in the Font group on the Home tab.
We think, it’s a rather strange position in the ribbon for that button, since it has nothing
to do at all with fonts or their formatting, don’t you agree?
More options for the borders you want to use in your model, can be found on the Border
tab of the Format Cells window. This opens via the More Borders option at the bottom of
the drop-down list of the Borders button (see in figure 7.13), or by pressing [Ctrl]+[1].
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Select E19:F19.
Go to the Borders tab in the Format Cells window.
Figure 7.14 More settings for borders
At the bottom of the window, read the information how to proceed. Most
convenient way: first select a style (and if needed a color), and then click on the
border buttons around the preview image where you want to set the borders with
the chosen properties. Use this method to set the borders for the cost totals with
the same properties as for the sales totals.
It is useful to experiment with borders, to examine what the effect is of the Outline button,
and whether or not to display the inside borders in a (large) selection. And look how lines
can be displayed angled over the diagonals of the cell. With all these options you can create
magnificent layouts.
7.5 CONDITIONAL FORMATTING

Excel can format a cell dependent on its content: this is called Conditional Formatting.
In other words, the program applies a specific formatting based on the input and/or the
outcome in the calculation model. For example, you may want to display negative values
in red (there is already an appropriate number format for that, just look it up), or maybe
in blue, or in a cell with a grey or colored background.
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Conditional formatting can be a useful tool in ‘What if ’ analyses, and a compact alternative
to an IF function. You already know this function: in the First Quarter model we used it
to ‘calculate’ whether the sales target was met in that quarter (‘is it more than 10 million?’).
See the formula in cell F10 of the model. The text that appears in column F on the basis
of the Logical_test in the IF-function takes up quite a bit of space. Moreover, we have other
plans for column F: there we are going to calculate the totals including VAT just like in
the other model. So, here it is better to apply a format to the cell(s) with the grand total(s)
based on the condition whether the target has been met or not, as a visual signal instead
of an explaining text. Our condition is: if the target is met, the total is displayed in green,
and if not, in red.
In First Quarter, clear the content of cell F10.

Select E10 (the actual total sales for Quarter 1).
On the Home tab in the Styles group, click the Conditional Formatting button, and
choose New Rule from the drop-down list.
Figure 7.15 Creating a Conditional Formatting rule
At the top of the New Formatting Rule window, choose the option Format only cells
that contain and construct the condition to meet – using the drop-down option
lists – as above in figure 7.15:
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[Cell Value] [greater than or equal to] [10 million] (don’t type separators).
Set the desired [Format...] in that case: text color green.

Close the windows and see what happened to the total: that is displayed green
now, because the sales total is more than 10 million.
Now change a value somewhere in the model so that eventually the outcome in
E10 will be less than 10 million. How is the amount displayed then?
Conditional formatting is also possible using the simpler method of applying rules to
highlight cells. That method has fewer possibilities, but it works too. And sometimes you
even come across the same windows with the extended options.
Make sure cell E10 is selected.

From the Conditional Formatting drop-down list, choose the option Highlight Cells
Rules.
Figure 7.16 Create a highlighting rule
Now, set the format to Red Text if the total revenue is less than 10 million.
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Figure 7.17 Highlighting format
If sales figures were to change so that the target is met again, can you predict what the result
(and formatting) looks like? Just try it (and undo it later on): was your prediction correct?
Apparently, the program has associated both rules with this cell, as you can see in the
Conditional Formatting Rules Manager window (open via Conditional Formatting, Manage
Rules).
Figure 7.18 Managing conditional formatting rules
In this window you can also add new rules, edit existing rules, delete rules, or change the
order of application using the arrow head Move buttons.
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In the First Quarter model, use the Format Painter to transfer the conditional
formatting of cell E10 to the sales total (excluding VAT) of the Second Quarter
model.
The text color as a result of the conditional formatting will be applied correctly, but using
the format painter will reset the top and bottom borders of the cell in the Second Quarter
workbook. How could you prevent this from happening? Try to think of a different method
yourself first, before looking at our solution in the next exercise.
Undo the format painting.

Select cell E10 in the First Quarter workbook (again) and copy it. With this action
the formula and all cell formatting is transferred to the clipboard.
Now select E10 in the Second Quarter model.
In the Clipboard group (on the Home tab of that workbook) choose from the Paste
button’s drop-down list Paste Special.
Click the radio button of the needed option here: All except borders and close the
dialog box with [OK]. The result will show the appropriate text color based on the
conditional formatting rules, and the borders of the cell will stay the same.
Whether the conditions (rules) at the target location are met and result in the desired
formatting, is a matter of testing by varying the sales figures. Of course, you can also open
the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager window to see what rules apply to cell E10 in
this model.
7.6 EXERCISE
In your screen the models for the two quarters still will be shown side by side – if not,
restore the situation – and it’s obvious that they differ considerably from each other. This is
not very useful, especially not when you might want to summarize or consolidate monthly
and quarterly figures from similar models, for example in an annual overview.
Complete the First Quarter model with the necessary formulas to match the model
in the Second Quarter workbook. Use (for your exercise) various techniques to
copy and paste. Be alert to the use of names in formulas: if you correctly copy
entire ranges, it will work fine!
Set all cell formatting in such a way that both models are identical. You can practice
your copying and pasting skills here as well.
Save both workbooks.
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EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Print
8 PRINT
8.1 INTRODUCTION
In the last chapter of this user guide on the basics in Excel we briefly discuss a fast and easy
way to print your worksheets. Every now and then you might want to print the models you
design on paper (or on overhead sheets). We will not elaborate on all details here, you’ll
find more advanced topics on printing in the Model Design ebook in this series.
8.2 SCOPE
When giving a print command Excel assumes by default that you want to print all cells with
content of the current worksheet. Another possibility: make a selection first of what needs
to be printed, and indicate in the print settings in the backstage to print only the selection.
In one of the two models with quarterly figures, go to the Print option in the
backstage (via the File tab or use shortcut key [Ctrl]+[p]). Notice that Excel ‘thinks’
you want to print the active sheet, and the program shows you the result in a
preview on the right.
At the bottom of the Print Preview window pane, you see that there are two pages:
you are now on page 1 of 2. Scroll to the second page.
Probably, this was not what you had in mind when you designed this model and decided
to print it. There are several ways to show all data together, preferably on a single sheet of
paper. In the next exercise we use one of them.
Under Settings, instead of Portrait Orientation, choose Landscape Orientation. The

Print Preview will be adjusted accordingly.
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Figure 8.1 Landscape orientation
That is better, you can now see everything of your model on a single page (see the page
number at the bottom). Using the Print button in the top left you may print it with
your currently selected printer (go ahead if you find it useful, but of course, it will cost
unnecessary ink and paper).
Return to the model (for example, with [Escape] or clicking the top left arrow
button). This step is not needed if you actually have printed the worksheet.
In one of the models, select the range A1:E10.
Go to the Print option again and under Settings, choose to print only the selection.
The Print Preview should only show the sales data and totals (without VAT)
now. They would even fit on a portrait oriented page, so switch back to Portrait
Orientation to check it.
Leave the backstage and return to the model.
8.3 PRINTING LARGE SHEETS

The bigger your worksheets, the harder it is to correctly and completely print them on paper.
In the following exercise we create a larger model using copy and paste, to demonstrate
another important aspect when printing.
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Go to the First Quarter workbook and on the File tab, use Save As to make a
copy of the file with the name Annual Overview.
In the Second Quarter file, copy the area B3:E19 and paste the selection into cell
F3 (!) of Annual Overview using the paste option Keep Source Column Widths.
Using that option will save you the trouble of having to adjust all column widths
later when all data would have been pasted in (too) narrow columns. By the way,
this copy action overwrites column F: so be it.
Figure 8.2 Pasting keeping the column widths of the source
Paste the copied quarterly figures two more times next to the existing data. Where
necessary, change the names of the months, preferably using the fill handle (you
can leave the figures unchanged, it’s only an exercise here).
Now let’s take a look how this larger model will be printed. We view it in Page Break
Preview, an alternative to the Print Preview in the backstage.
Activate the Page Break Preview using the button left of the Zoom tool at the bottom
of the window (you may also change the view on the View tab, in the Workbook
Views group).
Figure 8.3 Change View
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Maximise the window with Annual Overview and, if necessary, zoom to see the
entire model (whether you can read it is not important here).
In your model (see also figure 8.4) you can tell from the blue (dotted) lines that the first
quarter will fit neatly on a (portait oriented) page. But that does not apply to the other
quarters on page 2, 3 and 4. To doublecheck it you may also take a look in the Print Preview.
Go to the Page Layout tab, and in the Page Setup group, click on the Print Titles
button.
Enter in the Columns to repeat at left box the reference $A:$A as shown in the figure
below. This indicates that column A to column A – it may also be more (adjacent)
columns – should be printed on the left side of each page.
Figure 8.4 Print titles
Should you click [OK] (but don’t do that right now), you would immediately see
the vertical dotted lines that indicate the page breaks move to the new positions:
in all quarters right next to the totals. But now, switch from here directly to the
[Print Preview] using the button at the bottom of the Page Setup window.
Scroll through the four pages and see that the labels appear on the left side of
each page.
Return to the Annual Overview model in Page Break Preview and check where the
page breaks are located now.
Save the file and close it.
With the knowledge and experience you have gained so far, you can already create a useful
model and also print it adequately on paper. Be sure to practice the skills we presented here
whenever possible, and get them into your system. You will need them if you are going
to study the next ebooks in this series when we’ll discuss the more advanced options and
features in Excel!
98
EXCEL 365 BASICS: CALCULATING ON THE COMPUTER Appendix
APPENDIX
In the table below a brief description of our ebooks on Excel 365, published by
www.bookboon.com.
Our ebooks (user guides) on spreadsheets in Excel 365
With Excel you can create calculation models, for example, for financial
controlling and accounting, for calculating a tax declaration form,
Basics - Calculating
for compiling an annual report, and so on. In this user guide you’ll
on the computer
learn the basic skills, functions, features and options of this popular
spreadsheet program.
Make your figures more transparent and comprehensible by presenting

them in a chart. You learn how to design them in Excel, which
(combined) types you can choose from, and how to add the required
Charts
captions. Further, this ebook discusses how to discover trends in your
figures by drawing trendlines or sparklines. By using charts your
models and figures can get more predictive power.
Excel has numerous tools to help you designing your models, checking
your formulas, finding solutions or creating scenarios, and the like.
You’ll also learn to fill cells with (own) lists of labels or data, to
Advanced Options
add comments to your models, and to create planning schedules.
and Techniques
Furthermore, some advanced topics are discussed such as (external)
references, security, and the (saving in a certain) format of your
workbooks.
In a spreadsheet program it is all about designing and building an

appropriate model: what is the purpose of it, what should it calculate,
what do we want to find out, analyse of even predict, and so on? In
Model Design this ebook we discuss various (advanced) model designs in Excel such
as outlines, consolidations, data tables, pivot tables, and forecasts.
Also, we cover some topics on searching and filtering in models, and
elaborate formatting and printing in more detail.
With the Visual Basic for Applications programming language on board

in Excel, you can edit recorded macros as you desire, but also program
your own applications, or add additional functionality. For example,
VBA Programming
in Excel you could create dialog boxes to ask questions like ‘What is
the starting value for the calculation?’, ‘Where is the data?’ or ‘What
report do you want to print?’.
99

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Excel 365 Basics

Calculating on the Computer

EXCEL 365 BASICS

4 Formulas and functions 43

5 Navigating and selecting 56

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Figure 2.1 Start Excel by searching in Windows 10

Click on Blank workbook.

Figure 2.2 Excel program window

2.3 BASIC CONCEPTS

Figure 2.3 The active cell

2.4 WHAT YOU SEE IN THE WINDOW

2.4.1 TITLE BAR

2.4.2 THE RIBBON

Figure 2.5 Home ribbon

By default, the ribbon contains the following main tabs:

Figure 2.7 Help

Figure 2.8 Hiding the Ribbon

Figure 2.9 Shortcut letters and numbers

Figure 2.10 Convenient or complex?

Figure 2.11 Display a group in a narrow ribbon

Figure 2.12 Close the Clipboard window pane

Figure 2.13 Tabs in the Format Cells window

Figure 2.14 Extra space between the elements on a (touch) screen

Figure 2.15 Tabs for (new) worksheets

2.4.4 FORMULA BAR

Figure 2.16 Icons in the formula bar

• Cancel (the X icon) to cancel the input of characters;

2.4.5 STATUS BAR

• On the left you see the status of the program: Ready

2.4.6 QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR

Figure 2.17 Customize the Quick Access Toolbar

Figure 2.18 Delete commands from the Quick Access Toolbar

Figure 2.19 Customize the toolbar via Options

Figure 2.20 Quick Access Toolbar under the collapsed ribbon

2.4.7 THE FILE TAB

Figure 2.21 The items in the backstage (Info selected)

3.2 ENTERING TEXT

Figure 3.1 Entering and formatting text

Figure 3.2 Column width fits the text

3.3 FILL HANDLE

Figure 3.3 The Fill handle

Figure 3. 4 Quick entry of quarters

Figure 3.5 Select Columns

Figure 3.6 Delete with the fill handle

3.4 ENTERING NUMBERS

Figure 3.7 Long Date format

Figure 3.8 Setting the width by dragging

Set the format of the date to Short Date.

Enter the following (large) numbers into your model.

Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4

Revenue 8945365 7347115 8699250 10458522

Cost 7288511 7544721 7154887 8956559

Figure 3.9 Accounting Number Format

Figure 3.10 Quarterly figures

3.7 SAVING YOUR WORKBOOK

3.8 CLOSING THE WORKBOOK

3.8.1 A NEW WORKBOOK

Click in the backstage (File tab) the New option.

Figure 3.12 New workbook based on templates

Figure 3.13 Back to the templates start page

3.8.2 NEW WORKBOOK IN WINDOWS