An empty folder opens. Let’s create a Microsoft Excel file in it.
To do this, hover the mouse cursor over any free space in the open folder «Task» and click the right mouse button. In the menu window, select «New», and in the next menu window that opens, select «Microsoft Excel Worksheet».
select «Microsoft Excel Worksheet»
The file «Microsoft Excel Worksheet» appeared. We can straightaway rename it to our name «Employees». So, type in «Employees» from the keyboard, and press the «Enter» key on the keyboard.
rename it to our name «Employees»
In the same folder, we will copy the files with the initial information received from the HR department and from the secretary.
Let’s say these files were transferred to us on a flash drive or saved in a shared folder.
To copy files to the «Task» folder, first open a flash drive or a shared folder. In our case, this is a Transcend flash drive. In the folder that opens, right-click on the desired file and select «Copy».
right-click on the desired file and select «Copy»
Then go to our «Task» folder, right-click and select «Paste».
right-click and select «Paste»
Now we can see the file appeared. We will do the same with the second file. First copy and then paste it. Now all three files are in our «Task» folder: two with the initial information, and the third file created by us, «Employees», in which we will prepare the Results.
all three files are in our «Task» folder
Now let’s start filling out the created «Employees» file with information.
We can open the file «Employees» as we opened the folder: hover the mouse cursor, click the right mouse button and select «Open» from the menu. Or we can do it in another way: hover the mouse cursor over the file and double-click with the left mouse button. The file opens.
Introduction to the Interface
The Excel file will open as a blank sheet looking like this. The specific view depends on the computer settings and the version of Excel.
blank sheet looking like this
Let’s get acquainted with what we see.
Control buttons for the main program window
They are located in the upper right area of the Excel window. They allow you to close a file, Minimize it, minimize it into a window, expand the window to full screen.
Control buttons for the Main Program Window
The Quick Access Toolbar is located in the upper left area of the Excel window.
If we often use the same commands, we can bring the command buttons here and run commands from here. For example, the «Save changes» command is often used. If you do not click it, then everything you have done in the file after opening it will disappear after closing the file. The «Undo last action» command is also often used. For example, if you accidentally deleted a column with the necessary information, clicking on this command will return you to the state that was before the deletion.
Quick Access Toolbar – for frequently used commands
If desired, we can add any other commands to the Quick Access Toolbar by clicking on the edit button of the Quick Access Toolbar. Select «More Commands»
Select «More Commands»
and add the necessary ones.
add the necessary commands
Tabs.
Under the quick access toolbar there is a ribbon with available tabs: Home, Insert, Page Layout, Formulas, Data, Review, View. As you can see, each tab has its own set of commands.
each tab has its own set of commands
This set of commands can be edited if desired – you can add or remove commands. I do not recommend beginners to engage in such editing – everything you need is already configured by default. But if we really need to add our own commands, then it’s easy to do: hover the mouse cursor over any point of the tabs, click the right mouse button, select «Customize the Ribbon» and get to the tab editing menu, where we can not only add any command to any tab, but also create our own tab.
select «Customize the Ribbon»
For example, select «New Tab»,
select «New Tab»
name it «Aleksey» (it’s my name),
name it «Aleksey»
and we can add any commands to this tab. Click «OK».
Now, we have a new tab with the name «Aleksey».
a new tab with the name «Aleksey»
Since we don’t actually need this tab, we Remove it.
Remove tab «Aleksey»
And it disappeared.
Tab commands are located under the ribbon with the tabs. When opening a file, we see the commands of the «Home» tab, since the «Home» tab opens by default. If we move to another tab, for example, the «Formulas», then we will see the commands of this other tab.
To access individual cells inside a spreadsheet, the Cell names are used. The Cell name is a combination of its column (denoted by the Latin letter A, B, C, D …) and its row number (1, 2, 3, 4, 5 …). In total, there are more than 16,000 columns and more than a million rows in the Excel file on one sheet, that is, more than 16 billion cells on each sheet.
Cell «A1»
Object name field.
By default, there we see the name of the active cell in which the table cursor is located therefore, the active cell is often called «Highlighted». We can select any object: a cell, a group of cells, a table, a graph and assign (by typing) any name in this field of the object name, for example «Table1», in order to further refer to the named object by its specific name.