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Topic 13: Pre-Lab Activity Spreadsheets using Microsoft Excel

A spreadsheet organizes information into a two-dimensional array of cells (a table). Each cell has a row number and column label which combine to represent its address. A cell location can store a number, text, or formula. The power of a spreadsheet is that we can write simple formulas (commands) to perform calculations and immediately see results of those calculations. Spreadsheets are very common in accounting and reporting applications. TASK 1: Open Microsoft Excel (Start->Programs->Office 2010->Excel) and explore its interface.

Basic Editing
Data Entry
Data entry can be performed by typing data into a cell or formula bar. The data entered may be a text label, a value, or a formula. Formulas start with an equal sign ("=").

Selecting Cells
Cells can be selected in a variety of ways:

With the mouse, (left) click and drag the mouse to select a rectangle region of cells. With the keyboard, hold the SHIFT key and use the arrow keys to select a rectangle region of cells. With the mouse and keyboard, while holding the CTRL key, (left) click on individual cells to select non-contiguous cells. Click on a row number to select a whole row. Click on a column header to select a whole column.

Cut, Copy, Paste


The common operations of cut, copy, and paste can be used with spreadsheet cells. However, there are some special features that simplify these activities:

Filling - Grab the bottom right corner of the cell and drag to copy values to adjacent cells. Moving - A cell can be moved by grabbing it on one of the edges and dragging to the target cell.

TASK 2: Enter data as shown below. Use copy techniques to avoid typing!

Formulas
A formula is any expression that begins with an equal sign ("="). The equal sign indicates to the spreadsheet that a calculation must be performed to compute the value of the cell. An aggregate formula computes a summary function over a range of cells. The values can either be literals or cell locations. We will use the SUM() aggregate function for formulas in this lab. TASK 3: Create formulas that calculate values for the Year-to-Date, Total Expenses, and Net Surplus/Deficit cells as below.

Note: Year-to-Date: is the summation of the values in Column B through to Column E. You can use the following function in cell F4: = SUM(B4:E4) and copy it to the rest of the cells in Column F.

Total Expenses: is the summation of the expenses categories in rows 7 to 12 for each month. Net Surplus/Deficit: is the difference of between Income and the Total Expenses. You may use the following formula in cell B16: = B4 - B14 and copy it to the rest of the cells in Row 16.

TASK 4: Save your work as SXXXXXXX Topic 12 Pre-Lab Task to be shown to your Lab Tutor.

End of Pre-Lab

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