Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual

Description

The dominant spreadsheet program and one of the most widely used software applications in the world, Microsoft Excel is unbelievably powerful--and can be downright intimidating. If you're new to Excel or among the many existing Excel users who are dazed and confused by all that the program can do (and by how little it has actually done for you), Excel for Starter: The Missing Manual is your ideal resource.

For everyone who wants to quickly get up to speed on Excel to create, organize, and present household and/or office data and information, this smart new guide delivers just the essentials: it concentrates on the must-have information and the best, most practical Excel features that people like you can use to maximize your productivity and minimize your spreadsheet confusion and frustration.

Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual demystifies spreadsheets and explains how to use them most effectively and efficiently. Clear explanations (with lots of examples), step-by-step instructions, helpful illustrations, and timesaving advice guide you through all the most common and useful features of Excel 2002 and 2003--including how to build spreadsheets, add and format information, print reports, create charts and graphics, and use basic formulas and functions.

Sure, there are plenty more thorough, more massive Excel books on the bookstore shelves. But why wade your way through a swamp of details you'll never need--or want--to use? Let author Matthew MacDonald, an educator and software developer who also wrote the highly popular Excel: The Missing Manual, be your trusted guide as you learn which Excel features will serve you best and which are best ignored.

Utterly practical and refreshingly funny, this down-to-earth guide gives you nothing more (and nothing less) than what you need to make Excel do exactly what you want it to do. It's a quick read you'll want to keep on hand for reference again and again.

 

The Missing Credits

Introduction

     What Excel Does

     About This Book

     About MissingManuals.com

 

Part ONe:. Worksheet Basics

Chapter 1. Creating and Navigating Worksheets  13

     Creating a Basic Worksheet

               Starting a New Worksheet

               Adding the Column Titles

               Adding Data

     Editing Data

     Navigating in Excel

               The Menus

               The Task Pane

               The Toolbars

               The Formula Bar

               The Status Bar

     Saving Files

               Saving Your Spreadsheet in Other Formats

               Saving Your Spreadsheet with a Password

               Disaster Recovery

     Opening Files

               Opening Multiple Spreadsheets at Once

               Searching for Files

Chapter 2. Adding Information to Worksheets  61

     Adding Different Types of Data

               Controlling Your Data Types

     Quick Ways to Add Data

               AutoComplete

               AutoCorrect

               AutoFill

               AutoFit

               Undo and Redo

Chapter 3. Moving Data Around a Worksheet  87

     Selecting Cells

               Making Continuous Range Selections

               Making Non-Contiguous Selections

               Automatically Selecting Your Data

               Making Selections with the Keyboard

     Moving Cells Around

               A Simple Cut-and-Paste or Copy-and-Paste

               A Fancy Cut-and-Paste or Copy-and-Paste

               The Clipboard

               Special Pasting

     Adding and Moving Columns or Rows

               Inserting Columns

               Inserting Rows

               Inserting Copied or Cut Cells

               Deleting Columns and Rows

Chapter 4. Formatting Worksheets  113

     Formatting Cell Values

               Formatting Numbers

               Formatting Dates and Times

               Special Formats for Special Numbers

     Formatting Cell Appearance

               Alignment and Orientation

               Fonts and Color

               Borders and Patterns

     Smart Ways to Apply Formatting

               Shortcuts with the Toolbars

               AutoFormat

               The Format Painter

               Using Styles

               Conditional Formatting

Chapter 5. Managing Worksheets and Workbooks  161

     Worksheets and Workbooks

               Adding, Removing, and Hiding Worksheets

               Naming and Rearranging Worksheets

               Grouping Sheets

               Moving Worksheets from One Workbook (Excel File) to Another

     Find and Replace

               The Basic Find

               More Advanced Searches

               Finding Formatted Cells

               Finding and Replacing Values

     Spell Check

Chapter 6. Viewing and Printing Worksheets  193

     Controlling Your View

               Zooming

               Viewing Distant Parts of a Spreadsheet at Once

               Freezing Columns or Rows

               Hiding Data

               Saving View Settings

               Viewing Multiple Workbooks at Once

     Printing

               How to Print an Excel File

               Customizing Print Settings

               Getting a Print Snapshot

               Page Break Preview: A Bird's-Eye View of Your Worksheet

 

Part two:. Worksheet Power

Chapter 7. Building Basic Formulas  237

     Creating a Basic Formula

               Excel's Order of Operations

               Cell References

               How Excel Formats Cells that Contain Cell References

               Functions

               Specifying Cell Ranges

               Formula Errors

               Logical Operators

     Formula Shortcuts

               Point-and-Click Formula Creation

               Point-and-Click Formula Editing

               Using the Insert Function Button to Quickly Find and Use Functions

     Copying Formulas

               Absolute Cell References

               Partially Fixed References

Chapter 8. Templates  275

     Understanding Templates

     Starting from a Template

               Spreadsheet Solutions Templates

               Discovering the Finer Points of Templates

               Office Online Templates

               Searching for Office Online Templates

     Creating Templates

               Understanding Custom Templates

               Building a Custom Template

Chapter 9. Creating Basic Charts  297

     Charting 101

               Embedded and Standalone Charts

               The Chart Wizard

     Basic Tasks with Charts

               Moving and Resizing a Chart

               Changing Chart Options

               Editing and Adding to Chart Data

               Printing Charts

     Practical Charting

               Charts with Multiple Series of Numbers

               Controlling the Data Excel Plots on the X-Axis

               Data that Uses a Date or Time Scale

               Non-Contiguous Chart Ranges

     Chart Types

               Column

               Bar

               Line

               Pie

               XY (Scatter)

               Area

               Donut

               Radar

               Surface

               Bubble

               Stock

               Cylinder, Cone, and Pyramid

 

Part three:. appendix

Appendix. Getting Help in Excel  345

     Asking Questions

     The Office Assistant

     Other Help Menu Options

Index