CS 100 (Learn) — CS 100 (Web) — Module 04
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Note: This video transcript has been slightly modified. Corrections are marked with strikethrough, and alternative wording has been placed in [square brackets] to correct some of the awkward or confusing phrasing in the videos.
In this video, we are going to give a very brief introduction to the interface of Excel. If you have never used Excel before it can be a little overwhelming because there is a lot of stuff on the screen. Even if you are an expert at Excel and you have been doing lots of Excel, hopefully you will learn a few new things.
We are using Excel 2016 for Windows. If you are using a slightly different version of Excel on the Mac or on the web, things may look a little different, but for the most part you should be able to follow along.
When you launch Excel it is going to ask you: "do you want to start with an existing workbook [or] do you want to use a template?"
For now we are just going to use a blank workbook. I am going to click on [Blank Workbook]... and welcome to Microsoft Excel.
The very first thing you are going to notice is the main region of the screen [consists of] a bunch of cells. There are [many] different cells, and each cell has a [corresponding] row and column.
The column is [specified] by a letter of the alphabet. We can see here "A, B, C and D" and the row is specified by a number.
[For example, the cell] "D10", [and I can] move the box [or cursor] over to [B3].
The way to remember that columns go vertically is if you remember those old ancient buildings with those pretty columns: they go up and down. That is how you remember that columns are vertical and then [conversely,] rows go horizontal.
If you go past all the letters... "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"... now as you know the children's song has to be modified, so now we go.. "AA AB AC AD"... I can't keep going, but it goes keeps adding "A" in front of [each letter until] it goes all the way up to "AZ" and then "BA" and then if you keep going all the way down it goes all the way up to "XFD" and if you want to go all the way down to the bottom of the spreadsheet you can see that we have over a million rows possible. If you are using that many rows and columns in your Excel spreadsheet, you should probably be using something other than Excel.
Next, I want to show you the basics of what is on the screen. There [are] a few things that you might accidentally click on that have [confused students]. We have had panicked emails from students: "I have done this, how do I get out of it?"
I will show you a few of the "gotchas" [that] we have seen students [do] in the past.
The very first thing to point out is at the top, it will show you what the name of your workbook [is]. [There are additional icons], for example, there is a Save icon and [if you] notice, when I hover over it with the mouse, [it] shows you what the keyboard shortcut is.
If you are going to be an Excel master, learning the keyboard shortcuts will save you a lot of time. I am not going to dwell on it, and there will be slightly different keyboard shortcuts for different versions of Excel, but when you hover over things and you learn those keyboard shortcuts it will save you time in the long run.
At the very top, [there are] things that you might be doing frequently: there is undo and [other operations] like that. You can actually customize this and add [more] stuff up there yourself.
A lot of the interface for Excel is very customizable. If you have customized your screen it might even look completely different than the one I have here.
If you are going to become a power user in Excel these are things you might want to start thinking about.
This interface is called the ribbon: it was introduced in Excel 2007, [and] it was a little controversial at the time, but now most people have gotten used to it. The most modern version of windows use ribbons.
The idea is [that] we have different tabs up [top]. We have a "home" tab, "insert", "page layout", "formulas"... these [tabs] group together common things that you might be doing. The "home" [tab] is a catch-all, where it has a whole bunch of different things you might want to do.
For example if you want to change the font of your text. Here [, on the "home" tab,] are common things that you might want to change.
I am going to go to cell D2 and I am going to type "hello". If I go back to that cell you will notice the "formula bar". We will talk a bit about that more later, but notice [that] it shows me what the contents of the [current] cell, [which is known as the] active cell (the cell I am working on right now).
[The active cell's] contents [are] "hello", but if I go up [to the ribbon], I can change the font... I can make it look a little fancier, and I can make it really big. I can even turn the background to a different color.
What may not be obvious to you, [is that] there is a little tiny button here that says "pop out" and it says "font settings", and it even shows me the keyboard shortcut for it (Ctrl+Shift+F). If I click on that, it will give me even more options [regarding] things that you might want to do with the font.
Not everything appears in the ribbon: if you really want to do something fancy, you can use one of these pop-ups. For example, if I want to do strikethrough, (I don't want to say hello).
There are other things here we are going to play with as the course goes on. The file tab is a little special, [because] it brings up a different window. It might ask you about "opening" and "saving" and "printing" and other things. [The file tab] changes the main screen.
Sometimes people [have] accidentally lost the ribbon. For example, if you hit this little [chevron] button way over [on the right], you may lose your ribbon and [this may cause] some people [to] panic. If you notice, there is a little button [on the upper right] that says "show tabs and commands", it will bring back your ribbon.
Another thing people have done is have more than one worksheet in their workbook. [At the bottom], I am going to [click] add a new sheet (we will talk about this later in a different video), but essentially you can have multiple sheets [in a] workbook. Sometimes people accidentally click on a different sheet and lose what they are doing and [worry]. I just want to make sure[that] if you are working on your "hello [sheet]" and you are very happy with [it], and then you accidentally click [on a different sheet], it looks like you have lost what you have done. Double check to make sure you are always on the right worksheet.
Another thing people have done in the past by accident is [on the columns, they] right-click and then [click] "hide column". People have done that by accident, and often it looks like they have lost something. [If you look, ] the alphabet now goes "ABCE": we have eliminated D from the alphabet. To get this back, you can highlight the area where they [you are] missing [a] letter and then right click again and [click "unhide"].
Those are some of the things that students have done in the past that have got them into trouble.
There are lot of things to explore but that was a [brief] introduction to [Excel].