Getting Familiar with Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets

Open up Microsoft Excel and start getting familiar with the various features. The more you play with it, the more comfortable you'll become with the various features of this helpful spreadsheet program.

1. Click the "File" or "Office" button at the top of your Microsoft Excel program and select "New" to create a blank spreadsheet and start navigating the various elements of the document and program.

2. Look at the bottom of the spreadsheet first. Click the tabs named "Sheet2" and "Sheet3" (or similar). These are the other worksheets within the spreadsheet. You can create as many worksheets as you need in Excel containing separate charts and data. Right-click on one of the worksheets and select "Insert" or "Copy" to add a new worksheet to the spreadsheet.

3. Click your mouse on one of the boxes (called cells) in one of the worksheets and start typing information. Get familiar with typing letters and numbers into each cell then press "Tab," or "Enter" to go to a new cell. Each cell is assigned a letter-number combination, like "A3" or "T2"-the numbers label rows and letters label columns in the worksheet.

4. Press the equal sign (=) then type in an equation containing mathematical operators and numbers to learn how to do a quick calculation in an Excel spreadsheet. For example, if you type in "=2+2" (no quotes) then press "Enter" the cell will display "4." You can also enter cell IDs instead of numbers in your formulas, like "=A1+B2" (without quotes). Choose the "Formulas" tab or button on the Excel toolbar to view even more formulas that you can use.

5. Right-click each cell and select "Format Cells" to change the look and feel of the cells in your spreadsheet. You can add a new font, change the alignmnet, add a border, or even fill the cell box with a different color.

6. Select a few cells in your database then click "Charts" on the "Insert" menu to add graphs and charts to your spreadsheet. The charts represent the data in a visual manner-the charts include pie, scatter, line, and bar diagrams.

7. Select the top tab of a column (contains a letter) in the spreadsheet, which selects the entire column, and click "Sort" on the "Data" menu or toolbar. This option allows you to sort the data in an order from smallest to largest and vice versa. You can also select multiple columns before sorting.