This is not a course. It is a... Tip Sheet

COMPUTER SKILLS AND TIP SHEETS

MS Excel 2000 - The Screen


If you have used the computer before you will be familiar with the Title Bar, Menus and Toolbar icons.

Click on the Menus (The words "File", "Edit", "View", "Insert" etc.) to pull down a list of menu options.

Move the mouse pointer  pointer.jpg (769 bytes) over the Toolbar icons to see a description of each icon pop up. For example, move the pointer over the "A" icon to the right of the second row:

icondescr.jpg (3721 bytes)

These icon descriptions are summarised at the end of this page. Note that all the functions that the icons offer are also found amongst the pull-down menus.

The Input line displays the contents of any active cell. You do not use this input line to type data in the cell. To type data in a cell you just click on the cell and type the data. The input line is used to

  1. Edit cell contents once they have already been entered in the cell - click on the cell you want to edit, then click on the input line and edit as if you are using a word processor.
  2. Display formulas (the cell will display the value that results from the formula). For instance if the formula is =3+4, this formula will appear in the input line, while the value resulting from that formula (7) appears in the cell.

screen.jpg (59294 bytes)

Rows are labelled with numbers (1, 2, 3 until 65 536)
Columns are labelled alphabetically (A, B, C until Z, then starting from AA, AB, AC etc. until IV)
Sheets - there are three sheets or equal size. These can be renamed.

The Draw toolbar offers a full range of drawing tools.

Summary of most important icons descriptions

icnewpg.jpg (798 bytes)
Open
new blank
Workbook
tbtxtprop.jpg (6730 bytes) Text
attributes
icopenfl.jpg (864 bytes)
Open
Workbook
iccurr.jpg (984 bytes)
Currency
43 becomes
R43.00
icsavefl.jpg (813 bytes)
Save
Workbook
icperc.jpg (965 bytes)
Percentage
.45 becomes
45%
icprint.jpg (828 bytes)
Print
icdec.jpg (830 bytes)
Decimal
43 becomes
43.00
icprntprvw.jpg (869 bytes)
Print
preview
icadddec.jpg (1070 bytes)
Reduce
decimal
22.28 becomes
22.3
icsplchck.jpg (846 bytes)
Spell check
icdecrdec.jpg (1148 bytes)
Increase
decimal
22.3 becomes
22.28
iccut.jpg (792 bytes)
Cut
bordiconext.jpg (3062 bytes)
Border line
options
iccopy.jpg (826 bytes)
Copy
icpaste.jpg (843 bytes)
Paste
undo.jpg (776 bytes)

redo.jpg (1040 bytes)

Undo

Redo

icfillclr.jpg (937 bytes)
Cell
Background
colour
icautosum.jpg (806 bytes)
Autosum
(Adds values
in a list)
icfillclrext.jpg (5630 bytes)
Colour
options

click the

icsorta.jpg (852 bytes)
Sort
alphabetically
icsortd.jpg (876 bytes)
Sort
descending
icchart.jpg (902 bytes)
Chart
wizard
icdraw.jpg (877 bytes)
Draw tools
ictextclr.jpg (911 bytes)
Text
colour
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