Spreadsheet using Microsoft Excel

Main Objectives
At the end of the tutorial, the learner
will be able to:
create a spreadsheet (put data such as
text, numbers, dates, etc)
calculate data using functions and
formulas
format the spreadsheet
plot graphs
draw and add graphics to the
spreadsheet
Summarise data
Use of Speadsheets Application

Data calculations using formulae

Graphical data presentation
Performing data analysis
What if? analysis
Exercise
Open Ms Excel
In order to start the Microsoft Excel, do
the following:
1. Click Start button (on the taskbar)
2. Click All Programs
3. Click Microsoft Office
4. Click Microsoft Office Excel
Features of Ms Excel Window
How to enter data
Now you have an Excel spreadsheet. Next step is to enter text as given in the
problem definition.
Follow the following steps.
Click cell A1 and type Allowances for Supervisors
Click cell A2 and type Area
Repeat step 2 for values Supervisor up to Amount (as shown in the picture to
the right)
Then click A3 and type Chingale
Repeat step 4 for values Jali down to Namadidi

Now you have the spreadsheet similar to the one above. When you check properly
you find that Supervisor is much close to S/Date. What can you do?
How to resize the cell
If a value is longer than the
size of a cell, you can
increase the size by doing
the following:
1. Move the pointer to line
between column B and C
(gray area) until it changes
to black small cross.
2. While holding the left
mouse button, move the
cross slowly to the right
until it is in good size (see
the above picture)
3. Then release the button
(see the bottom picture)

If you want to decrease the cell

size you move the cross to the
left.
How to enter text
Let you complete entering names of supervisors.
1. Click cell B3 and type Michael
2. Complete the list of the names
3. When entering text in cells observe the following:
4. Text aligns (goes) to the left of the cell (by default)
5. Text can cover more than one cell as Allowances for Supervisors
How to enter date and time
Date and time in the computer are treated in certain formats therefore when
entering them you need to observe carefully.
Dates are in different formats such as DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY,
etc.
Times are in the format of HH:MM:SS (hours:munites:seconds) e.g
10:34:32
All correct dates/times align to the right of the cells (see cell A2 bottom
picture)
All incorrect dates/times align to the left of the cells (see cell A3 bottom
picture)
How to enter currency
Currency values are entered as normal numbers without any
currency symbol. The currency symbol comes through formatting.
Now enter Rate/Day of the supervisors as follows:
1. Click the cell F3 and type 1500
2. Repeat Step 1 for the rest of values as shown in the picture
3. The next step is to calculate the duration and the amount before
you look on Formatting. But before that let you do some
exercises to summarise the data entry.
How to calculate duration
To calculate the duration, you need to subtract S/Date from F/Date (e.g. 10/07/2004 -
01/07/2004). When entering formulars or functions, you are supposed to use CELL
REFERENCES for the data which is already in the spreadsheet.

Let you try.

1. Click cell E3 and type =D3-C3 (all formulars must start with = sign)
2. Press ENTER key or click the tick
3. The answer is now 09/01/1900 which is the date (bottom picture). But the duration
should be a number of days (not date). .
How to change date to be number
You change the date to be a number
through formatting.
1. Click cell E3
2. Click Format menu and then Cells option

3. Click Number tab (Number, Alignment,

Font)
4. Choose Number from Category list
(General, Number, Currency, Accounting, ..)
5. Put 0 for decimal places
6. You see! Sample box gets now 9.

Now you can click OK

How to use Autofil
The value 9 is not correct. Counting from 01/07/2004 to 10/07/2004 gives 10
days not 9 days. Therefore, go back to the formular and add 1 to get the right
duration i.e. =D3-C3+1
Now the rest of the durations will be calculated automatically by the Excel.
1. Click cell E3
2. Move the pointer to the rigt-bottom corner of the cell E3 (pointer changes to
black cross)
3. While holding the mouse button, move the cross down to cell E8
4. Release the mouse button. Now you get the rest number of days.
5. Let you calculate the Amount yourself. Try it now.
How to enter a function
Follow these steps:
1. Click cell D9 and type Total
2. Click cell E9

3. Choose Function Wizard and

get the window like the picture to
the right
4. Select function SUM from the
function list
5. Then click OK
 How to enter function
6. Confirm the RANGE (e.g. E3:E8 means add values from E3 to E8). Check
the picture to the right
7. Click button OK to get the value as shown below.

Try to calculate the total

amount yourself now.
Formatting Spreadsheet
Formatting a Spreadsheet covers the
following:
Formattting text
Formatting dates
Formatting currency
At the end you get the formatted spreadsheet
like shown below
Formatting Text
You try to format the heading of the spreadsheet (Allowances for Supervisors).
Do the following:
1. Select the title as shown in above picture.
2. Choose B for Bold on the toolbar
3. Choose Font Size of 12
At last you get the title as shown in the bottom picture.
 Format Text
You try to format the column headings (Area, Supervisor, S/Date, F/Date, Duration,
Rate/Day, Amount). Do the following:
1. Select the headings (Area, Supervisor, S/Date, F/Date, Duration, Rate/Day, Amount) as shown in
above picture.
2. Choose Format menu and then Cells
3. Choose Font Tab to get the bottom-right picture
4. Select Bold Italic from Font Style
5. Select Red from Color
6. Then click OK
Now you get RED Italic Bold Headings as
shown below
Format Dates
When formatting date and time you follow the same procedure as on page 3 (using Format
menu)
You are asked to format the dates on the spreadsheet by following the steps below:
1. Select the dates from Cell C3 to Cell D8 as shown in the above picture
2. Choose Format menu and then Cells
3. Choose Number Tab and then Date from Category list
4. Go to Location and choose English (United Kingdom), if not chosen
5. Select the Date Type e.g. 14 March 2001
6. Click OK to apply the format

Dates change the format as shown below:

Format Currency
To format the currency, do the following:
1. Select the dates from Cell F3 to Cell G9 as shown in the above picture
2. Choose Format menu and then Cells
3. Choose Number Tab and then Currency from Category list
4. Choose Custom from the Category list to enter your own currency
5. In the Type box, delete $ (Dollar) and put K for Kwacha
6. Click OK to apply the format
Now the amount is in Kwacha
Formatted Spreadsheet
Select Data to plot
When selecting data to plot, you must select column headings and row
headings of the data. These headings are treated as labels on your charts.
You plot a first chart (Pie Chart) of the Amount given to each supervisor. Do the
following:
1. Select the Amount column excluding the total
2. Hold down Control key (Ctrl) while selecting the Supervisor column as shown in the
picture

3. Choose the Chart Wizard Icon to call the wizard

The Supervisor column is required because you need the chart to have the
names of the supervisor.
Choose Chart Type
The Chart Wizard has got 4 steps. The first step is for you to choose what type
of chart you want
The Pie Chart is required.
1. Choose Pie from the Chart type box
2. Choose first box in the Chart sub-type options
3. Click Next> to proceed to the next step
See the picture.
Choose Source Data
The next step is to choose the data
to plot (Chart Source Data). You are
luck. The data is already selected.
Just confirm that the selection is
correct.
Check in the data range. You have
=Sheet1!$B$2:$B$8;Sheet1!
$G$2:$G$8
1. Sheet1!$B$2:$B$8; means selection
from B2 to B8 (Supervisor column).
Names are already put on the chart.
2. Sheet1!$G$2:$G$8 means selection
from G2 to G8 (Amount column).
Title "Amount" is already written by
the Wizard.
3. Click Next> to proceed to the next
step
See the picture.
Chart Options
In step 3 you specify the labels for your chart. You can change the
options to the way you want.

Poverty Reduction Project – Training on Basic Computing Skills (May 2006)

Choose Chart Location
The last step is asking you to choose where to put your chart. You have
only two options.
1. As new sheet - your chart will be on the separate sheet (on its own)
2. As object in - your chart will inserted in the sheet where your spreadsheet is.
Here you choose the second option (As object in) for checking with the
original data.
Click Finish to end the plotting exercise
Final Pie Chart
Plot Line Graph
In the previous chart you plotted the chart with only one set of data
(Amount). In this exercise you will plot a line chart with two sets of
data (Rate/Day and Amount) to check the relationship.
1. Select Supervisor, Rate/Day and Amount columns (see the picture)

2. Choose the Chart Wizard Icon to call the Wizard

You follow the same steps as in the previous exercise.
Choose Chart Type & Source Data
Chart Options
Final Line Chart
Exercise
Revision Exercise
You are asked to plot a chart of Duration against Supervisor and
you will get the chart like the one below.

Please try this exercise.