Introduction to Microsoft Excel 2010 and its components


Objective: This tutorial will navigate through Introduction to Microsoft Excel 2010 and its components. Knowledge of windows environment will be helpful, however tutorial is prepared for a computer novice.

Open Microsoft Excel 2010
Microsoft Excel is an electronic spreadsheet that can be used to organize data rows and columns, to perform mathematical calculations quickly and can also be programmed to send your mails at pre-defined time.

If you have purchased a valid licensed copy of Microsoft Excel 2010 then open it following the instructions given below:
1. Go to Start --> All Programs --> Microsoft Office --> Microsoft Excel 2010


The Microsoft Excel 2010 Window
The Microsoft Excel 2010 window appears and our screen looks similar to the one shown here.
Screen always might not look exactly like the screen shown. In Excel 2010, display of window depends on the size of the monitor and the resolution to which the monitor is set. Resolution determines how much information the computer monitor can display. A low resolution means less information fits on the screen, but the size of text and images are larger. Inversely, a high resolution means more information fits on the screen, but the size of the text and images are smaller. Also, settings in Excel 2010, Windows Vista, and Windows XP allow you to change the color and style of your windows.


The Microsoft Office Button
Look at the upper-left corner of the Excel 2010 window, it is the Microsoft Office button. When you click this button, a menu will appear. This menu can be used to create a new file, open an existing file, save a file, and perform many other tasks.


The Quick Access ToolBar


Right to the Microsoft Office button is the Quick Access toolbar. The Quick Access toolbar gives access to commands we frequently use. By default, Save (to save your files), Undo (to rollback an action), and Redo (to reapply an rolled back action) appear on the Quick Access toolbar.


The Title Bar


Next to the Quick Access toolbar is the Title bar. On the Title bar, Microsoft Excel displays the name of the workbook, which is currently in use.


The Ribbon


We use commands to tell Microsoft Excel what to do. In Microsoft Excel 2010, we use the Ribbon to issue commands. The Ribbon is located near the top of the Excel window and below the Quick Access toolbar. At the top of the Ribbon are several tabs; clicking a tab displays several related command groups. Within each group are related command buttons. Buttons are clicked to issue commands or to access menus and dialog boxes. You may also find a dialog box launcher in the bottom-right corner of a group. When you click the dialog box launcher, a dialog box makes additional commands available.


The Formula Bar

If the Formula bar is turned on, then in the Name box (located on left side) it displays the cell address of the cell you are in. Cell entries which can be a values or formulas are displayed on the right side of the Formula bar. To turn on the Formula bar in Excel 2010 window, perform the following steps:

1. Click the View tab.
2. Click Formula Bar in the Show/Hide group. The Formula bar appears.


The Status Bar



The Status bar appears at the bottom of the Excel 2010 window and provides quick information such as the count, sum, average, minimum, and maximum value of selected numbers. We can change what displays on the Status bar by right-clicking on the Status bar and selecting the options we want from the Customize Status Bar menu. We just need to click a menu item to select it and click it again to deselect it. A check mark appearing next to an item means the item is selected.



The Worksheet



Microsoft Excel 2010 consists of worksheets (Default Names are "Sheet1", "Sheet2" and "Sheet3"). Each worksheet contains columns and rows. The columns are lettered A to Z and then continuing with AA, AB, AC to AZ and then continuing with AAA, AAB and so on up to XFD (total columns are 16384); the rows are numbered 1 to 1,048,576.

The combination of a column coordinate and a row coordinate defines a cell address. For example, the cell located in the upper-left corner of the worksheet is cell A1, meaning column A, row 1. Cell C7 is located under column C on row 7. We enter our data into the cells on the worksheet.



1. Enter Data in a Cell.
a. Select the cell in which you want to enter the data.
b. Type some data and press Enter.
c. If you need to correct what you've entered, please read the next post or type backspace before step b.

2. Delete Data from a Cell.
a. Select the cell of which you want to delete the data.
b. Press Delete.
*Note: Read next post (How to edit a cell?), if you only need to delete some characters, not the whole data of a cell.





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