Week 1: Toolbox

Keyboard Shortcuts

If a shortcut requires pressing two or more keys at the same time, keys are separated by a +
sign. An exhaustive list of shortcuts is available on the Microsoft Office Support pages. Below
are a small number of shortcuts that we have selected to improve your speed and efficiency.
The list is by no means exhaustive. If different, Mac shortcuts are listed in second position. For
a list of Mac specific keyboard shortcuts see the Microsoft Office ( for Mac) Support page.

Undo/Redo

Possibly some of the most frequently used keyboard shortcuts ever are CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y
| CMD+Z or CMD+Y. Z stands for undo and Y for redo. Both operate on multiple levels,
meaning that you can go back in time a long way. As always there are of course exceptions to
the rule and some actions cannot be undone. In some of these cases, Excel will give you a
warning (e.g., deleting a worksheet that has content in it, cannot be undone and Excel will warn
you about this) and then there are other events that you cannot undo and no warning message
is displayed (e.g. using the 'Move Chart' tool - more on this in Week 6.

CTRL-Y will redo your most recent action which comes in really handy if/when you want to
apply a certain step more than once.

New File/ New Workbook

To create a new workbook or new file, you do not need to go into any menu's. You can simply
press: CTRL+N | CMD+N

Open file / Open Workbook

To open the dialogue box and select an existing file (workbook) you can use the
shortcut: CTRL+O | CMD+O

Close file / Close Workbook

To close your current Workbook, you can click on the 'x' located at the top right (Windows) or
top left (Mac), But as shortcut keys are sometimes quicker, you can press: CTRL+W | CMD+W

Save file / Save Workbook

Saving your work regularly should become second nature. This shortcut will help. If you haven't
saved your file beforehand, Excel will ask you to assign a name and storage location to your
file. If you have, this shortcut will quickly save your file. CTRL+S | CMD+S

Select all

The select all shortcut actually behaves differently based on context. If you are in an empty cell
and select all, you will select the entire worksheet. If the active cell contains data that is part of
a group (cells containing contiguous data) select all will just select the group of cells instead.
You can press it again to select the entire worksheet. The shortcut for select all is: CTRL+A |
CMD+A)

Enter a new line of Text

Sometimes when entering data into a cell, you may want to go to a new line below your current
one, within the same cell. Rather than let Excel choose when this happens you can use this
key press combination to force this behaviour. When editing a cell, press: ALT + Enter

Moving around the worksheet

You can use the arrow keys to move a single cell in any direction. Page Up and Page
Down will move one "page" (the number of rows shown on the screen) up or
down. CTRL+arrow keys will move to the next blank cell in that direction. If you have a large
dataset with no gaps this will move to the edges of the dataset. CTRL+Home takes you to the
first cell that contains data in the top-left corner of the sheet. CTRL+End goes to the last cell in
the bottom-right. On certain keyboards without a Home key, you might need to
use CTRL+Fn+Home to use this shortcut.

Using the keyboard can make your work faster and smoother.

------------------------------------------------

Windows Shortcuts: Microsoft Office Support pages | Mac Shortcuts: Microsoft Office
Support pages

Terminology

Active Cell

The cell in the spreadsheet that is currently selected. It looks like this:
 Cell

A cell is at the intersection between a row and a column. A cell is referenced by the column
letter and row number. The example below show cell B3:

Fill handle

The fill handle is the small black square on the bottom right-hand corner of the active cell.

You can display or hide the fill handle by:

1. Click File > Options. In Excel 2007 only: Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then
click Excel Options.
2. In the Advanced category, under Editing options, select or clear the Enable fill handle and
cell drag-and-drop check box.

For more information, go to https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Display-or-hide-the-fill-

handle-80918200-9ae9-4615-93c9-13d4f1496f81.

Ribbon

The ribbon is the main menu bar at the top of the Excel screen. The ribbon is several tabs. The
HOME tab has some of the most frequently used tools. You can collapse the ribbon to allow
more space for the spreadsheet in the main window by double-clicking on any of the tab labels
(single-click for Mac users). When you repeat the action, the ribbon will re-appear. Once your
ribbon is hidden, you can bring it back temporarily with a single-click, use the tools you needed,
and then make it disappear again with another single-click on the tab or anywhere in the
spreadsheet.

Row

The rows are counted in numbers. There are 1,048,576 rows in an Excel spreadsheet. You can
read more about the specifications and limits of Excel spreadsheets.
Column

The columns are listed in letters. There are 16,384 columns in an Excel spreadsheet. You can
read more about the specifications and limits of Excel spreadsheets.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar sits above the ribbon (can also be customized to sit below the
ribbon). Tools from any of the ribbon tabs can be added for quick access without switching
between tabs.

Status bar

The Status Bar is below the spreadsheet. It contains several useful areas. The Zoom tool,
access to three different view options as well as, by default, several calculation results which
display dynamically whenever data is selected in the spreadsheet:

Workbook

The term workbook refers to the entire Excel file. The file name of each workbook is at the top
of the file window.

Worksheet

A workbook can contain several worksheets. You can add worksheets at the bottom left by
clicking on the plus sign next to the last worksheet tab. Right-click on the worksheet tab and
you can rename the worksheet and execute a range of other commands.
 Ninja Tips for the Week:

Take charge of those endless rows and columns

One of the amazing features of Excel is the sheer endless number of rows and columns.
However, sometimes they add to the confusion more than they help. You can actually hide the
ones you don't need. Open one of this week's workbooks and try this out step-by-step. Here is
how

 Select the first column you don't need to see and then press the keyboard shortcut
CTRL+SHIFT+right arrow (for MAC use Command+Shift+right arrow). Right-click anywhere in
this new selection and select HIDE.
 Select the first row you don't need to see and then press the keyboard shortcut
CTRL+SHIFT+down arrow (for MAC use Command+Shift+down arrow). Right-click anywhere
in this new selection and select HIDE.

Tada :)

P.S: Just in case you want them back, simply select the last visible row and column and click
on 'unhide'. Everything is back to the way it was.

Week 2: Toolbox
Keyboard Shortcuts:

Windows Shortcuts: Microsoft Office Support pages | Mac Shortcuts: Microsoft Office
Support pages

CTRL + Z -- Undo previous action

F4 (fn + F4 / CMD + T) -- Cycle through all 4 types of cell references. (Absolute, Mixed x2,
Relative)

CTRL + ~ (CTRL + `) -- Show formulas in the worksheet

SHIFT + F3 (CTRL + A) -- Open Formula Builder/ Function Wizard

CTRL + PgUp (CMD + PgUp) -- Go to the previous sheet.

CTRL + PgDn (CMD + PgUp)-- Go to the next sheet.

Excel Terminology

Formula

A formula is entered into a cell to perform a calculation. A formula always starts with an equal
sign (=) and once committed (press Enter), the result is displayed in that cell. At its most basic,
formulas can be simple mathematical calculations with values much like you would type into a
calculator. An example of a formula would be: =A1+B1 which would take whatever value was
entered into cell A1 and add it to the value that was typed into B1. After typing the formula and
pressing the Enter key, the resulting value will be displayed in the cell in which you entered the
formula.

Function

A function is what we referred to in the videos a 'mini-program' that you can use to make more
complex calculations. Functions are used inside formulas and therefore, you need to start with
an equal sign (=). Formulas operate with cell references and are very powerful. One commonly
used function is SUM, which will add up the values in a defined range. The
function: =SUM(A1:A12) will sum up all values contained in cells A1through to A12 and return
the result once you commit the function by pressing the ENTER key.

Formula Bar

The formula bar is located underneath the ribbon. The first edit line shows cell reference of the
currently active cell - this is called the Name Box. The second edit line provides space to enter
cell content and a helper tool to enter formulas:

Once you enter an equal sign into the active cell, frequently used functions appear in the Name
Box on the left - a drop-down menu offers more options.
Value

Values are numeric data that is entered into a cell. When text is entered into a cell without
being assigned a number format, we refer to them as labels. When data is formatted as a value
type, it can be referred to in formulas and functions and used in calculations.

Range

A range refers to two or more cells. When these cells are together, we call this an adjacent
range. Consider this example:

This adjacent range covers all the cells from A1 through to C2 - or in Excel syntax this is
written as A1:C2. The colon (:) basically stands for 'through to'. Whenever we want to define a
range of cells that are not all in one place, we talk about non-adjacent ranges:

This range includes cells A1:A2 and C1:C2. In Excel syntax this is written as A1:A2,C1:C2.

Reference, relative

A relative cell reference is one that changes relative to the direction in which it is copied.
Consider this example:
A2 and B2 are relative cell references. When we copy the formula in C2 downwards
into C3 and C4 with the fill handle, then Excel will assume that you want to conduct the same
calculation in rows 3 and 4 as you did in row 2. In other words, Excel will perform the
calculation A3*B3 in C3 and A4*B4 in C4. Excel effectively updates the row number in each of
the cell references for every row that you copy your formula downwards.

Reference, absolute

Or, as we like to fondly call it, the dollar thingy. A cell reference is absolute when it does not
change whenever it is copied. To make a cell reference absolute, you must include a $ before
each element of the cell reference: $A$1. This can be a bit cumbersome. The keyboard
shortcut to turn a cell reference into an absolute cell reference is to press F4.

Ninja Tip for the Week

Order of basic mathematical operations

Calculations in Excel follow the general mathematical rules for calculations, in other words,
Multiplication (*) and Division (/) come before Addition (+) and Subtraction (-). So, when you
are using these arithmetic operators in your calculations, you need to keep these general rules
in mind.

Example: =3+4*5

Excel reads the formula from left to right, so one might assume that it adds 3 and 4 together
before it multiplies the result by 5. However, as multiplication takes precedence over addition,
Excel will calculate 3 plus the result of 4 multiplied by 5. If you wanted Excel to choose the first
path, you need to 'tell' this to Excel with the help of parentheses. The formula should look like
this: =(3+4)*5

Week 3: Toolbox
Keyboard Shortcuts:
Windows Shortcuts: Microsoft Office Support pages | Mac Shortcuts: Microsoft Office
Support pages

CTRL + SHIFT + & (CMD + OPTION + 0) -- Add a border around the outside of selected cells

CTRL + B (CMD + B) -- Change selection to Bold Text

CTRL+Arrow keys (CMD+Arrow keys) -- Go to first/last cell in a row, column.

CTRL+Home (CMD+Home) -- Select the first non-blank cell.

CTRL + End (CMD+End) -- Go to the last non-blank cell.

Ninja Tips for the Week:

Format Painter

You can double-click on the Format Painter and it will remain active as long as you need it.
When you are done, simply press Escape. This is very cool - switch over to Excel and try it out
now!

Widening Columns

So, you have been entering data into your spreadsheet but all of sudden you notice that one
entry has turned into this: #####.Don't panic, your data is still there - Excel is just giving you a
nudge to let you know that your column is not wide enough to display all of the data. There are
three easy ways of widening your column. Option 1: Double click on the black line between
your column and the next. Your column will automatically widen to display your number. Option
2: Hover your mouse cursor over the little black line between your column and the next, then
drag it to the desired width. Option 3: right-click on the column and select 'Column Width' from
the context menu, then enter a width of your choosing.

Week 4: Toolbox
Keyboard Shortcuts
Windows Shortcuts: Microsoft Office Support pages | Mac Shortcuts: Microsoft Office
Support pages

CTRL + 0 (CMD + 0) -- Hide the column containing the selected cell.

CTRL + 9 (CMD + 9) -- Hide the row containing the selected cell.

CTRL + SHIFT + 0 (CMD + SHIFT + 0) -- Unhide the column containing the selected cell.
(Select cells surrounding hidden column) In some versions of Windows, this shortcut is
assigned to a Windows feature. If you have difficulty getting this keyboard shortcut to work you
should follow the instructions in this article to disable the shortcut for that feature.

CTRL + SHIFT + 9 (CMD + SHIFT + 9) -- Unhide the row containing the selected cell. (Select
cells surrounding hidden row)

CTRL + SHIFT + L (CMD + SHIFT + F) -- Add or remove a filter

Excel Terminology

Filter

Applying a filter to a column (or columns) quickly displays only those rows that contain the
information you are looking for. There are three different ways to access the filter tool: the right-
click context menu, the Home tab, or the Data tab. The filter tool allows you to control the data
that is displayed on your screen. Any data contained in rows that don't meet the selected
criteria will remain hidden as long as the filter is applied. Once the filter is cleared, the data
display will return back to normal.

Sorting

The Sorting tool helps you to arrange your data in a specific order. There are three different
ways to access the sorting tool: the right-click context menu, the Home tab, or the Data tab.
The sorting tool is quite powerful and allows you to sort by multiple levels, match case and sort
from left to right as well as from top to bottom. When you want to sort your data, simply click
anywhere in your data set and then open up Sorting.

Conditional Formatting

At its most basic, Conditional Formatting allows you to automatically apply formatting whenever
certain criteria are met. Access the tool in the Styles group on the Home tab once you have
selected the data you want to format conditionally. There are a number of options available:

Conditional formatting is a great tool with lots of versatile use cases. The formatting updates
dynamically based on new values entered which make it super-useful.

Ninja Tip of the Week

Conditional Formatting vs. Filtering

They both let you show data based on specific criteria or conditions. Why would you choose
one over the other?
Filtering will only show data that matches the criteria. You can provide multiple filters, but only
data that matches all conditions will be visible.

Conditional formatting will show data that fits any of the conditions chosen. It also provides
more visual and graphical elements.

Week 5: Toolbox
Keyboard Shortcuts

CTRL + P | CMD + P: Open Print dialogue

CTRL + X | CMD + X: Cut selection

CTRL + C | CMD + C: Copy selection

CTRL + V | CMD + V: Paste data (from previous cut/copy action)

CTRL + F2: Open Print Preview window

Selecting cells with your keyboard and mouse:

The SHIFT key: When you use the SHIFT key in conjunction with your mouse to select cells,
you can select whole ranges. Single click on your first cell, press down Shift - hold it down,
then single-click the last cell of your selection. All cells between your first and last cell will be
selected.

The CTRL key: When you hold the CTRL key and click cells/columns/rows with your mouse
you can select multiple items that are non-contiguous. Non-contiguous means the items are
not directly next to each other.

Windows Shortcuts: Microsoft Office Support pages | Mac Shortcuts: Microsoft Office
Support pages

Excel Terminology
Print titles

You can find this tool on the PAGE LAYOUT tab. In the dialogue box that opens you can
configure a number of settings. In these two edit boxes you can set which rows/columns to
repeat at the left and top of every printed page. In this sense, printing titles works a bit like
Freeze Panes - except that Freeze Panes has no bearing on the printed page.

Print area

The Print area of a spreadsheet is set up in the Print Titles dialogue box (see Print Titles). This
is a great tool to use when you are working with large sets of data and you are intending to
print only one particular section of it.

Page break

Page breaks in Excel divide a worksheet into separate pages for printing. There are two types
of page breaks: automatic (dotted blue line) and manual breaks (solid line). Automatic page
breaks will adjust to other page layout settings such as orientation, margins, and scale. Access
 the Page Break tool via the PAGE LAYOUT tab. The page break view is accessible through
the VIEW tab or the Status bar.

Ninja Tip of the Week

Font size vs Zoom slider

It can be tempting to enlarge a sheet's font so you can see things better on the screen. The
problem is though that the font size is relative to a printed page and something that looked
great on the screen, is oversized once we print. Remember to use the zoom slider in the Status
Bar to enlarge data on the screen instead.

Week 6: Toolbox
Keyboard Shortcuts

Windows Shortcuts: Microsoft Office Support pages | Mac Shortcuts: Microsoft Office
Support pages

F11 (F11*) -- Insert new Chart sheet from selection.

* To use the Function keys in Excel on a Mac you will need to use the fn key in addition to the
function key.

If you don't want to press the fn key each time, you can change your Apple system
preferences:

1. On the Apple menu, press System Preferences.

2. Select Keyboard.
3. On the Keyboard tab, select the check box for Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard
function keys.
 This will now mean you need to use the fn key in addition to the Function key of choiceto
perform the special operations (change volume for instance)

Some function keys may be set to Operating System tasks. F11 may show your desktop rather
than creating a chart. If you wish to modify this behavior you can do change this from the Apple
System Preferences:

1. On the Apple menu, press System Preferences.

2. Select Keyboard.
3. On the Shortcuts tab, select mission control
4. Uncheck Show Desktop

You may find other Function keys are set to certain Operating System behaviors also. You can
change the key associated with the behavior, or disable it. Please exercise caution when
modifying the key to perform a behavior as this will override other expected behavior
performed by the key.

Excel Terminology

Chart Area

The chart area refers to the entire chart; typical elements are the data series, axes, titles and
legends.

Chart Sheet

A chart sheet is a worksheet that only contains one chart. If you want to move your chart to a
chart sheet, you need to use the Move Chart tool on the CHARTS/DESIGN tab. When charts
appear on worksheets along with other information, they are embedded.

Data Label

Extra information associated with a data point. Often used to show the actual value of a data
point, e.g. the height of a bar or percentage of a pie slice. Data labels are not always displayed
on the chart.

Data Points
Values from cells on worksheets, displayed as bars, lines, columns, pie slices or other shapes
on a chart.

Data Series

A collection of related values plotted on a chart.

Embedded Chart

The chart is embedded as an object on the worksheet, alongside the data it is generated from.
The chart can be printed as part of that sheet or as a separate item. Best used when the data
needs to be shown in the context of the worksheet data.

Gridlines

Lines across the plot area, allowing the eye to travel more easily back to the values on the
axes.

Legend

The legend is displayed in a location outside of the grid framed by the axis. A key that appears
in a small box beside your chart, showing which colours and symbols represent each data
series.

Plot Area

The part of the chart bound by the vertical and horizontal axes and their opposing sides.

X & Y Axes

The X axis lies along the bottom of the chart and is usually used for categories. The Y axis
goes up one side and is used for data series values. The axes are reversed on bar charts.

Ninja Tip of the Week

Don't underestimate the right-click

Right-clicking on a chart in Excel allows you to alter pretty much any part and aspect of a chart.
The right-click gives you quick and convenient access to most options for a productive and
efficient workflow.

Transposing columns into rows (and vice versa)

Every now and then you create a nice set of data only to realise that you would have preferred
that the data that is currently in columns to appear in rows (or the other way around). Excel
provides a little-known feature that allows you to do change your rows and columns by
transposing them.

Sometimes you’ll be working with data formatted in columns and you really need it to be in
rows (or the other way around). Simply copy the row or column you’d like to transpose, right
click on the destination cell and select Paste Special. A checkbox on the bottom of the resulting
popup window is labeled Transpose. Check the box and click OK. Excel will do the rest.