Microsoft Excel XP Tutorial

Section Learning Goals In this section, you will learn: Creating a new workbook Saving a workbook Selecting worksheets Inserting a worksheet Naming worksheets Moving and copying worksheets Deleting worksheets Printing a workbook Closing a workbook

Workbooks

Creating a New Workbook

To create a new workbook:

1. From the File menu, select New.

The New dialog opens.

1. Make sure the General tab is selected, and then double-click Workbook.

A new blank workbook opens.

Tip:

To quickly create a new workbook from the default template, click the New button on the Standard toolbar.

Excel also provides a number of custom templates you can use. These are available on the Spreadsheet Solutions tab in the New dialog.

Saving a Workbook

To save your current (open) workbook, select Save from the File menu, or click the Save button on the Standard toolbar.

If this is the first time you’ve save the workbook, the Save As dialog opens, prompting you to enter a file name and select a location for the file.

To save changes to your open workbook, click the Save button again. Excel saves the file in its current location.

Tip:

To save a copy of your workbook under a new file name, use the Save As command again. In the Save As dialog, enter a new name for the workbook file.

Selecting Worksheets

Use the sheet tabs at the bottom of the Excel window to switch between sheets in a workbook. Simply click on the tab for the sheet you want to activate.

Note:

The active worksheet is the worksheet that’s currently selected; its contents are visible in the Microsoft Excel window. You activate a worksheet in order to work in it.

The scroll buttons to the left of the sheet tabs let you display tabs that may be hidden.

Click the left and right scroll buttons to scroll through the tabs.

You can click the first and last scroll buttons to move to the first and last tabs, respectively.

To see a list of all the available sheets, right-click one of the scroll buttons. Then select a sheet from the shortcut menu to activate it.

Tabs might be hidden if the split bar is positioned far to the left. You can click and drag the split bar to view a larger number of tabs.

Once you’ve repositioned the split bar, use the scroll buttons to scroll back through the tabs. The tabs will appear in the new space you’ve created.

To select multiple sheets in a workbook, click a sheet tab and then hold down the Ctrl (Control) key while clicking each additional sheet tab you want to select. If you’re selecting adjacent sheet tabs, you can click the first tab and then hold down the Shift key while clicking the last tab in the range you want to select.

To select all the sheets in a workbook, right-click one of the sheet tabs and select Select All Sheets from the shortcut menu.

When you select multiple worksheets, the changes you make are applied to all the sheets in the selection.

Inserting a Worksheet

To insert a new worksheet into the open workbook, select Worksheet from the Insert menu, or right-click a sheet tab and select Insert from the shortcut menu.

When the new sheet is inserted, you can name it and, if necessary, move it to the desired location in the workbook.

Naming Worksheets

It’s helpful to name the individual worksheets in a workbook, especially when the workbook contains a number of sheets. The easiest way to do this is to double-click the sheet tab for the worksheet you want to name, and then type the new name and press Enter.

You can also right-click the sheet tab and select Rename from the shortcut menu. This highlights the current name, allowing you to type over it with a new name. Press Enter when you’ve finished.

Moving and Copying Worksheets

To move a worksheet to a new location in the current workbook, use your mouse to drag and drop the sheet tab:

1. Press and hold the mouse button over the sheet tab for the worksheet you want to move.
2. Holding down the mouse button, drag the mouse to the new location.

1. Release the mouse button.

The sheet tab for the worksheet appears in the new location.

You can also copy the worksheet to a new location by holding down Ctrl key while you drag the sheet tab. To copy multiple sheets, press Ctrl while you select each sheet and then release the Ctrl key. Then press the Ctrl key again and, holding it down, drag the group of sheet tabs to the new location.

Finally, release the mouse button, and then release the Ctrl key. The sheets are copied to the new location.

To move or copy worksheets to a different workbook:

1. Open both workbooks-the one that currently contains the worksheets and the one that you want to move or copy the worksheets to.
2. Activate the workbook that currently contains the worksheets by clicking its button on the Windows taskbar.

1. Select the sheets you want to move or copy.
2. From the Edit menu, select Move or Copy Sheet, or right-click the appropriate sheet tab (or group of selected tabs) and select Move or Copy from the shortcut menu.

The Move or Copy dialog opens.

1. From the To book drop-down menu, select the workbook you want to move or copy the worksheet(s) to.

Tip:

You can move or copy the sheets to a new workbook by selecting (new book) instead.

1. Under Before sheet, select the location in the workbook where you want to move or copy the sheets. The sheets will appear before the worksheet you select here.
2. To copy the worksheets to the new location, check the Create a copy checkbox, and then click OK.

To move the worksheets, le
ave the box unchecked and simply click OK.

Deleting Worksheets

To delete sheets from a workbook, select the sheets and then select Delete Sheet from the Edit menu. You can also right-click the sheet tab (or group of tabs) and select Delete from the shortcut menu.

Keep in mind that when you delete a worksheet, you delete all the data and functions that the sheet contains.

Click OK to confirm the deletion.

Printing a Workbook

To print your workbook, the current worksheet, or a selection within the active worksheet, select Print from the File menu, or click the Print button on the Standard toolbar. This opens the Print dialog.

Under Print what:

• Select Entire workbook to print all the sheets in the workbook.
• Select Active sheet(s) to print only the active worksheet.

To print multiple worksheets (but not the entire workbook), select the worksheets by Ctrl + clicking the sheet tabs for the sheets you want to print, and then, in the Print dialog, select Active sheet(s).

• Select Selection to print only the selected cells. For example, to print cells A1 through G10 in the active worksheet, select the cells with your mouse, click the Print button, and then select Selection.

When you’ve defined the print settings, click OK to print.

Defining a Print Area

You can also define a specific print area within a worksheet so that only that area is printed. For example, you may want to print a chart without printing the values you used to create that chart.

To define a print area:

1. Select the cells that comprise the area you want to print.
2. From the File menu, select Print Area, and then Set Print Area from the submenu.

1. To print the contents of the print area, click the Print button and, under Print what, leave Active sheet(s) selected.

Excel prints only the area you’ve defined.

To clear the print area, select Clear Print Area from the Print Area submenu.

Even when you’ve defined a print area, you can still print other cells in the active worksheet. To do so, simply select the cells you want to print, click the Print button, and, under Print what, select Selection.

Closing a Workbook

To close the current workbook, select Close from the File menu, or simply click the Close Window button in the upper right corner of the Excel workbook window.

To close all Excel, along with all open workbooks, click the Close button in the upper right corner of the Excel window.

If you have outstanding (unsaved) changes, Excel will ask you if want to save them before closing. Click Yes to save the changes, or No to close the window and discard the changes.

Section Review In this section, you learned: Creating a new workbook Saving a workbook Selecting worksheets Inserting a worksheet Naming worksheets Moving and copying worksheets Deleting worksheets Printing a workbook Closing a workbook