Excel Tutorial, Part 1
How to: Excel Spreadsheets
Part 1
Excel comes bundled in Microsoft Office and Microsoft Works. It’s available on university machines.
Note: Some functions in this tutorial cannot be performed without the "data analysis" add-in. To see if you have it, go to TOOLS. If there is no option for "data analysis," you need to add it in. Under TOOLS, click on ADD-INS...
A window will open up. Check "data analysis" and it will automatically install for you (for free)
Note: click here to download the excel workbook that is referenced in this page
General Startup
Entering data:
When you open Excel, you have the option of either opening a workbook or starting from a blank sheet. Excel files are saved as “.xls”
The columns are lettered and run along the top; the rows are numbered and run along the left hand side. The point at which they intersect is called a cell. Each cell is named by the column and row it lies in.
In row one, put the column headings so you don’t get lost in your data. Then, simply enter your data accordingly:
Printing data:
Before you print anything, you have to set your PRINT AREA. To do this, use the arrow to draw a box around the data you want to print. This will shade it a different color. Then, go to File > Print area > Set print area. A dotted line will appear around the selected data. If it exceeds one page in any direction, a dashed line will appear at the page break. If you want to change the page setup so the data fits on one page, go to File > Page setup and follow the directions.
The Basics
Note: this is just a small sample of everything you can do on excel. For a more complete list, click the fx button on the Excel toolbar.
This gives you listing of every test you can do on Excel and also shows you how to do it.
Mean:
1. To display the mean, type in an empty cell “=AVERAGE( “ When you do this, a small window will pop up, saying “(number1, number2).
a. At this point, you can enter manually the numbers you want averaged. Say you want the average score for student number 1. In cell E3, type “=Average(B3:D3)” The colon simply means that you want the data in B3, D3, and everything in between.
b. Or, you can type in “=Average(“ and then use your mouse to highlight the cells you want averaged.
2. Close the parentheses.
Median:
1. Finding the median is similar to finding the mean. In an empty cell, type “=MEDIAN(“ and a small window will pop up, saying (number1, number2).
a. At this point, you can either enter the data manually by typing in the cell range you want (in this example, b3:b14), closing the parentheses, and hitting “enter”…
b. Or you can use the mouse to draw a box around the numbers for which you want to find the median.
2. Don’t forget to close the parentheses.
Mode:
1. Again, the method is the same. In an empty cell, type “=MODE( “ and a small window will pop up, saying (number1, number2).
a. At this point, you can either enter the data manually by typing in the cell range you want (in this example, b3:b14), closing the parentheses, and hitting “enter”…
b. Or you can use the mouse to draw a box around the numbers for which you want to find the mode.
2. Don’t forget to close the parentheses
3. Note: if you have a data set in which no number appears more than once, the cell will display “N/A” instead of the mode, because there is none.
Sum:
1. In an empty cell, type “=SUM( “ and a small window will pop, saying (number1, number 2).
a. At this point, either enter the data manually by typing in the cell range you want, closing the parentheses, and hitting “enter”…
b. Or you can use the mouse to draw a box around the numbers for which you want to find the sum.
2. Don’t forget to close the parentheses.
Standard Deviation
1. In an empty cell, type “=stdev( “ and a small window will pop up, saying (number1, number 2)
a. At this point, either enter the data manually by typing in the cell range you want, closing the parentheses, and hitting “enter”…
b. Or you can use the mouse to draw a box around the numbers for which you want to find the sum
2. Don’t forget to close the parentheses
Back to computer tutorial
To part two: Graphing Data
References:
All images acquired from Microsoft Excel. Data is ficticious.
