To start Excel, click on the Start button on the task bar. Point to All Programs. Point to Microsoft Office, and then click on Microsoft Office Excel. A blank workbook opens. Like other office programs, it has a menu bar, toolbars, scroll bars, a status bar, and a Getting Started task pane. The workspace in Excel displays in the center. It is a series of row and columns. The letter at the top of a column is the column heading. The numbers at the left of a row are row headings. Each block created by intersecting lines is a cell. A cell address is the column letter and row number. When a cell is selected, it displays with a border around its edges, and the name in the box shows the name of the currently selected cell. You will notice this is A1, A2, A3, B1. When an Excel file is opened, it is referred to as a workbook, and it contains worksheets labeled at the bottom of the screen as Sheet 1, Sheet 2, and Sheet 3. Move from one to the other by clicking the sheet number or sheet name.
To create a new workbook, click on File, New. There is a choice here to create a blank workbook or to create a new file from an existing workbook or from templates on Office Online. I'll look first at the blank workbook. Click on "blank," and you have a blank workbook. A second way to create a workbook is to click on "From existing workbook." Once you click on "From existing workbook," the New from Existing Workbook dialog box opens. You will locate a previously created file and then click on Create New. A third option for creating a new workbook is to click on Templates on Office Online. At the Microsoft Office site there is a variety of templates. Scroll to the desired topics. I'll choose "Education" and under Education, choose "For Teachers." From the subject list choose "Tests and Grades." The templates that are available are listed here. Notice the icon, this first one would be an Access template, a Word template, and then we have the Excel templates. Since we are in Excel, any template can be used that has the Excel template symbol. This is a grade book based on averages. This is a grade book based on percentage and a grade book based on points. Click on the thumbnail and then click Download Now. We have a template that can be used to enter grades, the school name, and a variety of information.
There are a number of ways to navigate a worksheet, and we will look at seven of the ways that I think will be most helpful to you. Using the Up Arrow moves up one cell at a time, and the Down Arrow moves down one cell at a time. Using the Right Arrow moves to the right one cell at a time. Using the Left Arrow moves to the left one cell at a time. The Home key moves the cell pointer to the beginning of the current row. We are in Row 7, so touching the Home key should move us to A7. Page Up and Page Down move down one screen at a time or up one full screen at a time. I'll click a cell over here so we can demonstrate using the Control Left Arrow. Control Left Arrow moves the cell pointer to the first cell in the row that contains data. I'll select this cell, the first cell that contains data will be A15, so I am going to use Control and the Left Arrow, and it moves me to the first cell that has data in it. Control + Home moves to the beginning of the worksheet. Control + Home, and we are in Cell A1. Control, End moves to the end of the Worksheet. Here we have the last cell in the worksheet that contains data. Practice using the navigation strokes to move around the worksheet.
We have a template for a grade book. To save that workbook, click on File, Save. Key the name of the file. We will call this "Grade Book for Education 1000." Once the folder is selected, (we wish to save this in a folder named "Excel") we will Save. We now have a copy of an Excel grade book saved.
Changes to the grade book have now been made. Student names have been added to Lines 14-18. We now want to save this grade book under a different name so that we will still have a copy of the template. Click on File and choose Save as. Locate the folder where the file is to be saved. Change the name of the workbook. We will add the words "Fall 2007" and click Save. We now have two copies: the original template filed under the name "Grade Book for Education 1000" and the revised workbook with student names named "Grade Book for Education 1000 Fall 2007."
To close a workbook, click on File, Close. You will notice that if you fail to save the workbook after having made changes to it, you will be prompted with a message asking you whether you want to save the changes. The answer to this question is "Yes" for now. Had we saved it just prior to closing, then the workbook would have closed without the prompt.