C

X E
2016

E L

Introduction to
EXCEL 2016

Dr Androulla Michaeloudis

2017
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LIST OF CONTENTS

Section Page No.

1. Starting Excel from the Middlesex Network. 3

2. Opening an Excel worksheet. 3

3. Saving an Excel worksheet. 5

4. Closing an Excel worksheet. 6

5. Exiting Excel. 7

6. The form of the Excel workbook window. 8

7. Arithmetic Symbols. 11

8. Entering a Text Label. 11

9. Entering Values. 13

10. Entering Sequences of Values. 14

11. Formating Values. 19

12. Calculating the Total (SUM). 26

13. Calculating the Average (MEAN). 28

14. Creating a Formula. 31

15. Types of cell references. 42

16. Calculating a Relative Frequency and a Percentage. 43

17. Adjusting Column Width and Row Height. 48

18. Creating a border. 50

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19. Clearing cell contents. 52

20. Creating Graphs. 54

i. Pie Chart 54

ii. Simple Bar Chart 58

iii. Histogram 61

iv. Scatter Diagram 65

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1. STARTING EXCEL.

To start EXCEL from the Middlesex computer network, you need to follow the
given steps:

❖ Click on START .

❖ Click on the Excel software icon .

Alternatively, you can select the Excel software icon from the taskbar.

❖ Select the Blank Workbook

2. OPENING AN EXCEL WORKSHEET.

Once in EXCEL, you are now ready to open an existing Excel file that you
have previously saved.

How do we do this?

❖ Click on the FILE BUTTON (for accessing all file commands). This
button you will find in the top left hand corner (see picture below).

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❖ Select BROWSE.

❖ Select the drive where you have your existing Excel file saved (e.g. (C:
) drive).

❖ Highlight the Excel file you like to open.

❖ Click on OPEN

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3. SAVING AN EXCEL WORKSHEET.

To save your work in Excel, you need to follow the given steps:

How do we do this?

❖ Click on the FILE BUTTON

❖ Select SAVE AS

❖ Select BROWSE.

❖ Select the drive where you where you would like your file to be
saved.

❖ In the FILE NAME:box type the name you would like to give to your
file (workbook).

❖ Note that by default your file will be saved as an excel file (.xlsx).

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NOTE THAT EXCEL 2010 AND 2016 WILL ADD THE FILE
EXTENSION .XLSX TO THE SAVED EXCEL WORKBOOK .

Excel also allows you to save your Excel file in a lower version of
Excel (e.g. 97-2003) as well as in other formats.

NOTE THAT EXCEL ALLOWS YOU TO SAVE YOUR FILE IN OTHER

FORMATS .

❖ Click on SAVE

4. CLOSING AN EXCEL WORKSHEET.

To close an Excel worksheet, you need to follow either Method 1 or
Method 2.

Method 1

❖ Click the CLOSE button (that is, X) on the workbook window.

This appears in the top right hand corner of the worksheet.

Method 2

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❖ Click the FILE BUTTON

❖ Select CLOSE.

NOTE THAT IF YOU HAVE MADE ANY CHANGES SINCE YOUR LAST SAVE
OF THE FILE , A DIALOG BOX WILL OPEN ASKING YOU IF YOU WANT TO
SAVE THE CHANGES YOU HAVE MADE ., OR NOT SAVE , OR CANCEL .

➢ Click SAVE to save any changes.

➢ Click DON’T SAVE if you do not want to save the

changes.

5. EXITING EXCEL.

To exitExcel you need to follow either Method 1 or Method 2.

Method 1

❖ Click the CLOSE button (that is, X) on the workbook window

(top right hand corner),

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Method 2

❖ Click the FILE BUTTON.

❖ Select CLOSE.

NOTE THAT IF YOU HAVE MADE ANY CHANGES SINCE YOUR LAST SAVE
OF THE FILE , A DIALOG BOX WILL OPEN ASKING YOU IF YOU WANT TO
SAVE THE CHANGES YOU HAVE MADE OR DO NOT SAVE THESE.

➢ Click SAVE to save any changes.

➢ Click DON’T SAVE if you do not want to save the

changes.

6. THE FORM OF THE EXCEL WORKBOOK WINDOW.

The general form of the Excel workbook window is illustrated below.

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CELL C4

COLUMN C

ROW 4

Excel FILES are called WORKBOOKS (or WORKSHEETS). At the bottom of

the screen you will see the first worksheet referred to as SHEET 1.

You can add more worksheets in your file, if you so wish, by pressing the
PLUS SIGN button (that is the circular button enclosing a + sign).

Insert Worksheet

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Another method of inserting a worksheet in your file is by holding the SHIFT

button and pressing the F11 key.

A CELL is a point where a row and a column intersect. Each cell has its own
CELL ADDRESS, which is identified by the column label and the row
number (e.g. C4, see earlier picture above).
When the worksheet is initially opened, cell A1 is automatically the active cell.
An active cell will be indicated by a dark outline around it.

A1

The cell is displayed in what we call the NAME BOX, which is found on the left
of the FORMULA BAR and below the CLIPBOARD.

As in Microsoft Word, you can use the UNDO and REDO keys to remove your
last change and bring back what you have last erased respectively.

You can enter LABELS, VALUESand FORMULAS in the cells in a worksheet.

➢ A Label is text in a cell that is mainly used to provide the reader with
the necessary information to understand what is inlcuded in the
worksheet (e.g. Examination Marks). The label can include uppercase
or lowercase letters and spaces.

➢ A Value is a numerical value in a cell (e.g. 257).

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➢ A Formula is an expression that contains cell references, values and

arithmetic operators (e.g. 2 * A1 ^ 4 + 3 * B1 ). It is best to include
cell references (see example in bracket) than actual values. The result
of a formula appears in the cell where you have entered the formula.

7. ARITHMETIC SYMBOLS.
For performing arithmetic calculations, we need to use arithmetic operators
whose symbols you will find below:

ADDITION + (plus sign)

SUBTRACTION - (minus sign)

MULTIPLICATION * (star sign)

DIVISION / (diagonal sign)

POWER ^ (caret sign)

PERCENT % (percentage sign)

8. ENTERING A TEXT LABEL.

Text Labels are usually used in a worksheet to allow the reader understand
the given data and thus make the information clear and meaningful particularly
when you are interested in writing a report.

How do we do this?

❖ Click the cell where you want to enter a label.

❖ Type the text label you want. For example, Marks.

❖ Press ENTER.

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EXAMPLE 1

In cell A1 we will enter the text Label ‘Marks’.

We first click in cell A1, then type the word Marks and finally, we press the
Enter key. The output is illustrated in the picture below.

Exercise 8.1

(a) Click the cell B6 and enter the text Label ‘Sum’.

(b) In a cell of your choice try to write down your full name (first name and
surname). Note that in this case you will encounter a problem and you
can solve this using the merge function that you will find under
Alignment. The icon of this function is given below.

(Hint:Highlight your text and then click the merge button.)

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9. ENTERING VALUES.

We enter a value in a cell as follows:

❖ Click the cell where you want to enter a value.

❖ Type a value, for example 35.

❖ Press the ENTER key.

NOTE THAT VALUES CAN BE ENTERED AS WHOLE NUMBERS (INTEGERS ),

DECIMALS , PERCENTAGES AND DATES .

EXAMPLE1

In cell A1, we enter the text ‘Minutes’.

In cells A2 to A6 (that is, range of cells A2:A6), we enter the following

numerical values 4 5 2 8 1

So what we have here is that the cells

A2 = 4 A3 = 5 A4 = 2 A5 = 8 A6 = 1

This means that cell A2 has the value 4, cell A3 has the value 5, cell A4 has
the value 2, cell A5 has the value 8, and finally cell A6 has the value 1.

The output of this example is given below.

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Exercise 9.1

(a) Enter a text label of your choice (e.g. ‘wages’) in cell C1. This text
label will be the heading for the values you will include in column C.

(b) Enter seven values of your choice in column C (below the heading
you have given in part (a) above. In other words, your seven values
should be in the range C2:C8).

10. ENTERING SEQUENCES OF VALUES.

There are cases where you would like consecutive numbers to be entered in
the worksheet quickly. For example, we may like to enter the values 1, 2, 3,
…, 10 or values such as 5, 10, 15, …, 40 either in a row or column.

How do we do this?

❖ Choose a column and enter in a cell the starting value of a sequence of

numbers you require.

❖ You can either use the AUTOFILL function or the FILL function. We
will illustrate both methods below.

EXAMPLE 1

Suppose we would like to enter the values 1, 2, 3, …, 30 in column A.

How do we do this?

Method 1 (Using the AUTOFILL function)

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❖ Enter the value 1 in a cell of a column, for example B1 (column B and

row 1).

❖ In the next consecutive cell, that is, in cell B2 (column B and row 2)
enter the value 2.

❖ Using the mouse or by holding down the shift key, highlight

the two values in column B (that is, B1 and B2).

❖ Move the cursor to the bottom right handcorner of the cell range until
you get the black cross sign┼.

❖ While holding down the left button of the mouse, drag until the required
range of values is obtained. In this example, drag until you obtain the
value 30 since this is the last value in the required range (that is, 1, 2,
…, 30). This procedure is what we refer to as AUTOFILL.

Method 2 (Using the FILL function)

❖ Enter the value 1 in a cell of a column, for exampleB1 (column B and

row 1).

❖ Click anywhere outside the cell B1 and then click inside the cell B1.

❖ Click the FILL key

underEDITING and below the  AUTOSUM function.

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Select now SERIES… .

❖ Click the COLUMNS button since we would like the values to be

entered in the column. Note that if you would like the values to be
entered in the row cells then you need do nothing since by default
Excel would enter the values in the rows.

❖ By default Excel would enter the values in steps of 1. In this case, this
is what we want to do, so we do not change the STEP value.

❖ Click inside the STOP VALUE: box.

❖ Since we would like values from 1 to 30( the last value is 30) then in
the STOP VALUE: box we enter the value 30.

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❖ Click OK.

EXAMPLE 2

We now consider a second example but in this case, we would like the values
to be in steps of 5. That is, we would like to enter the values 5, 10, …, 70 in
row 1 starting from column B.

How do we do this?

Method 1 (Using the AUTOFILL function)

❖ Enter the value 5 in row 1of column B(that is, B1).

❖ In the next adjacent cell, that is, in cell C1 (column C and row 1) enter
the value 10.

❖ Using the mouse or by holding down the shift key, highlight

the two values in row 1 (that is, B1 and C1).

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❖ Move the cursor to the bottom right handcorner of the cell range until
you get the black cross sign┼.

❖ While holding down the left button of the mouse, drag until the required
range of values is obtained. In this example, drag until you obtain the
value 70 since this is the last value in the required range (that is, 5, 10,
…, 70). That is, using theAUTOFILL function.

Method 2 (Using the FILL function)

❖ Enter the value 5 in B1 (column B and row 1).

❖ Click anywhere outside the cell B1 and then click inside the cell B1.

❖ Click the arrow to the left of the FILL function.

❖ Select now SERIES… .

❖ Since we would like the values to be entered in row 1 starting from

column B, then we need do nothing since by default Excel would enter
the values in the rows.

❖ We click inside the STEP VALUE: box and replace the value 1 by 5
since the starting value we want is 5.

❖ Click inside the STOP VALUE: box.

❖ Since we would like values from 5 to 70 ( the last value is 70) then in
the STOP VALUE: box, we enter the value 70.

❖ Click OK.

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Exercise 10.1

(a) Enter the following sequences of numbers in different columns using

both methods described above.

i. 3, 7, 11, …, 55.
ii. 10, 20, 30, …, 160.

(b) Repeat part (a) above but this time enter the values in two different
rows.

11. FORMATING VALUES.

There are situations where we would like to format a value, say change the
numerical value to a particular decimal place of accuracy or say we would like
to enter values which should have a 3 decimal place (d.p.) of accuracy or
change the value format to a percentage, fraction or certain currency (say £).

How do we do this?

❖ Click the cell that contains the value you want to change.

❖ Click the HOME tab (if this is not activated).

❖ Click the triangle (▼) on the right of the GENERAL format under
NUMBER.

❖ See next page.

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❖ Select the number format you want. This may be any of the following:

➢ GENERAL – No specific format.

➢ NUMBER – This you can change to the particular decimal
place of accuracy that you want.
➢ CURRENCY – This may be £, $, ... .
➢ SHORT DATE – 14/09/07
➢ LONG DATE – 14 September 2007
➢ TIME – 13:30:55 (or 1:30:55 PM)
➢ PERCENTAGE – 25%
➢ FRACTION - 39334
➢ SCIENTIFIC – 3.93+04
➢ MORE NUMBER FORMATS – This opens a dialog box which
allows you to choose different options for formatting your
values.

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EXAMPLE 1 (DECIMAL PLACE OF ACCURACY)

In cell A4, we enter the value 2. We want to change this value to 2.000 (3
d.p.).

How do we do this?

Method 1

❖ Click the cell A4 which contains the value 2.

❖ Click the triangle (▼) on the right of the GENERAL format.

❖ Select MORE NUMBER FORMATS.

❖ Select NUMBER and type 3 in the DECIMAL PLACES: box.

❖ Click OK.

Method 2

❖ Click the cell A4 which contains the value 2.

❖ Click the the triangle (▼) on the right of the GENERAL format.

❖ Select NUMBER. This will change the value 2 to 2.00.

❖ Click the INCREASE DECIMALbutton and the value 2.00 will

now change to 2.000.

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PERCENTAGE VALUE

INCREASE DECIMAL DECREASE DECIMAL

Method 3

❖ Click the cell A4 which contains the value 2.

❖ Click the INCREASE DECIMALbutton once. This will now

change the value 2 to 2.0.

❖ Click the INCREASE DECIMALbutton again. This will now

change the value 2.0 to 2.00.

❖ Click the INCREASE DECIMALICON again. This will now

change the value 2.00 to 2.000.

That is, click the cell A4 three times in order to change the
number 2 to 2.000.

NOTE THAT METHOD 3 IS THE EASIEST AND FASTEST .

The result is illustrated below:

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EXAMPLE 2 (PERCENTAGES)

In this example we consider two different approaches where we would like the
entered values to represent percentages.

Approach 1

In cells C3:C7, we would like to enter the values 65, 57, 23, 34, 87 which will
represent percentages 65%, 57%, 23%, 34%, and 87%..

How do we do this?

❖ Click the HOME tab.

❖ Highlight the cells C3:C7 (that is, C3, C4, C5, C6, and C7).

❖ Click the NUMBER FORMAT LIST (the triangle (▼) on the

right of the GENERAL format).

❖ Select PERCENTAGE.

❖ In cells C3:C7 enter the values 65, 57, 23, 34, 87. Excel will
now give you the value 65.00%, 57.00%, 23.00%, 34.00% and
87.00%. In other words, it will return a percentage in two
decimal places. See the output below.

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❖ Highlight the cells C3:C7 and then click the DECREASE

DECIMAL button twice. The 65.00% will now change to 65%.
This is illustrated below.

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Approach 2

In cells C3:C7, we would like to enter the values 65, 57, 23, 34, 87 which will
represent percentages 65%, 57%, 23%, 34%, and 87%..

How do we do this?

❖ Click the HOME tab.

❖ Highlight the cells C3:C7 (that is, C3, C4, C5, C6, and C7).

❖ Clickthe PERCENTAGE icon.

❖ In cells C3:C7 enter the values 65, 57, 23, 34, 87. Excel will
now give you the value 65%, 57%, 23%, 34% and 87%. In
other words, it will return a percentage.

YOU ARE ADVISED TO USE APPROACH 2 SINCE THIS IS EASIER AND FASTER .

Exercise 11.1

(a) Enter the following numbers in column A:

23.4564 34.5298 43.5467 38.7899
(b) Change these numbers to two decimal places of accuracy.
(Hint: Highlight all the cells in column A containing the above
values and then use any of the methods (preferably Method 3)
in Example 1.
(c) In column B, cells B1:B6, we would like to enter the following
values, which will actually represent percentages:
72, 68, 37, 53, 67, 44

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(Hint: You should enter these percentages without you having to

type the percentage sign. Follow example 2 with preferably
approach 2 above ).

12. CALCULATING THE TOTAL (SUM).

To illustrate the calculation of the TOTAL we are going to use the example 1
of section 9 (page 13). Reminder: Values are 4, 5, 2, 8, and 1. So we need to
add these numbers, that is, 4 + 5 + 2 + 8 + 1 = 20.

EXAMPLE 1

How do we do this?

Method 1

❖ Using the mouse or by holding down the shift key, highlight

the values in column A (that is, a2:a6).

❖ Click on the  icon. This is the capital Greek letter SIGMA

which we use in mathematics to represent the SUM (TOTAL).
This is what Excel refers to as the AutoSum.

❖ If you have followed the above instructions you will now see
that Excel has now added these numbers and the result that
you should have obtained is 20.

Note that Excel places this result in the first empty cell
below the selected range.

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Method 2

❖ Click the cell where you would like the result (sum) to be
displayed. For this example, let us choose cell A10.

❖ As with any calculation, you need to start by typing the

equal sign =in the A10 cell.

❖ After the equal sign, type sum(a2:a6). That is,

=sum(a2:a6)

Note that instead of=sum(a2:a6)

you can type=(a2+a3+a4+a5+a6)

The result will be the same in all cases.

❖ Press the ENTER key.

Note that when we write a2:a6, this means a2, a3, a4, a5,and
a6. That is, all values from a2 to a6. This is what we call a
range of values.

The output using both methods is given below:

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Exercise 12.1

(a) Enter ten (10) values of your choice in column A.

(b) Using both methods illustrated above, calculate the SUM
(TOTAL) of these values.
(c) Now using you calculator or otherwise, calculate the SUM of
these values and check this result with the result you have
obtained by using Excel. Are these two results equal? (They
should be).

13. CALCULATING THE AVERAGE (MEAN).

For the purpose of illustrating the calculation of the average (arithmetic mean),
we will use the example used in sections 9 and 12.

EXAMPLE 1

How do we calculate the average of the numbers in the example

of section 12?

If you were to do this by hand, then you will add the values together
and then divide the sum by the number of values you have added.
This is what we call the mean (or average). This we denote by x
(pronounced ‘xbar’). The formula is given by

Sum of values
Mean =
Number of values

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In the example used in section 12, the sum was 20. That is,  x = 20 .
The number of values was 5. That is, n = 5.

20
Hence, the mean (average) will be equal to x = =4 .
5

There are different methods one can use in Excel to do this. We illustrate two
of these methods below.

Method 1

❖ Using the mouse or by holding down the shift key, highlight the values
in column A (that is, a2:a6).

❖ Click the down triangle ▼ to the right of the AutoSum  icon and
choose AVERAGE.

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NOTE THAT IN A SIMILAR MANNER YOU CAN OBTAIN OTHER

FUNCTIONS SUCH AS COUNT NUMBERS, MAX ( MAXIMUM VALUE ),
MIN (MINIMUM VALUE ) AS WELL AS MORE FUNCTIONS... .

You are advised to check what other possible functions you can
actually use.

❖ If you have followed the above instructions you will now see that Excel
has calculated the average of these numbers and the result that you
should have obtained is 4.

Note that Excel places this result in the first empty cell below the
selected range.

Method 2

❖ Click the cell where you would like the result (average) to be
displayed. For this example, let us choose cell A11.

❖ As with any calculation, you need to start by typing the

equal sign = in the A11 cell.

❖ After the equal sign, type average(a2:a6). That is,

=average(a2:a6)

Note that instead of =average(a2:a6)

you can type =(a2+a3+a4+a5+a6)/5

The result will be the same in both cases.

❖ Press the ENTER key.

The output using both methods is given below:

(see next page)

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Exercise 13.1

(a) Using both methods above, calculate the average value for
either the data you have input in column B (see Exercise 11.1,
part (c)) or a new set of values that you can enter in columnC.
(b) Can you think of an alternative way of obtaining the average of
the values in column Babove given that you have already
obtained the sum (total) of these values?
(c) Now using you calculator or otherwise, calculate the
AVERAGE of these values and check this result with the result
you have obtained by using Excel. Are these two results
equal? (They should be).

14. CREATING A FORMULA.

We have already worked with formulas and functions in sections 12 and 13. It
is clear that once we enter data in a worksheet then it is possible to perform
calculations such as calculating the Total and the Average of a set of values.

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In this section we are going to generalise the use of formulas in order to show
that you can perform simple as well as more complex calculations using Excel.

When do we use a formula?

We use a formula when we want to use an equation to do a calculation on a

given set of data and obtain a result.

In doing this, we need to make references to the appropriate cells containing

the values of interest. In doing this, we need to refer to a cell, what we will
refer to as a cell reference which is none other than a cell address (see
section 6, page 9). The table below presents some examples of cell
references together with their corresponding meaning:

Cell Reference Meaning

A1 Cell in column A, row 1

A2:A6 Range of cells in column A and rows 2 to 6

(That is, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6)

A1:D1 Range of cells in row 1 and columns A to D

(That is, A1, B1, C1, D1)

A:E All cells in columns A to E

1:1 All cells in row 1

5:8 All cells in rows 5 to 8

C:C All cells in column C

The reference and comparison operators which we will use when entering
formulas are shown in the table below.

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Reference Meaning Example

Operators

: (colon) Range operator, which A3:A21

produces a reference to
a range of cells

, (comma) Union operator, which SUM(A1:A5,C1:C5)

produces one reference
by combining multiple
references together

Intersection operator,
(space) A3:D3 C1:C5
which produces the
value in the cell shich is
common to two
references

Explanation of the examples given above.

❖ A3:A21

This refers to the values in the cells in column A from row 3 to row 21.
That is, all the values in the cells A3, A4, A5, A6, …, A20, A21.

❖ SUM(A1:A5, C1:C5)

This adds up all the values in the rows 1 to 5 of column A to the values
in the rows 1 to 5 of column C. For example, let us assume that

A1 = 3, A2 = 5, A3 = 7, A4 = 10, A5 = 8

C1 = 1, C2 = 11, C3 = 6, C4 =3, C5 = 10

Then SUM(A1:A5, C1:C5) will be equal to

3 + 5 + 7 + 10 + 8 + 1 + 11 + 6 + 3 + 10 = 64

❖ A3:D3 C1:C5

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This will find one cell reference value which is common to A3:D3 (that
is, row 3 in columns A through D) and C1:C5 (range of cells in column
C from row 1 to 5).

Using the above given values and assuming that B3 =4 and D3=6, the
answer for A3:D3 C1:C5 will be 6.

NOTE THAT WE HAVE ALREADY DESCRIBED THE ARITHMETIC SYMBOLS IN

SECTION 7 ( PAGE 11).

Comparison Meaning Example

Operators

= Equal to A4=C7

 Greater than A4  C7

 Less than A4  C7

= Greater than or Equal to A4 = C7

= Less than or Equal to A4 = C7

 Not equal to A4  C7

NOTE THAT WHEN YOU ARE READY TO ENTER A FORMULA , YOU SHOULD
ALWAYS START WITH THE EQUAL SIGN = . THE EQUAL SIGN INDICATES
AUTOMATICALLY A FORMULA ENTRY .

A FORMULA SHOULD HAVE AN ARGUMENT . THIS IS A CELL REFERENCE OR

VALUE THAT CONTRIBUTES TO THE FINAL RESULT .

FOR EXAMPLE , =SUM(A1:A5)

THE = INDICATES THE ENTRY OF A FORMULA , SUM IS THE FUNCTION
CHOSEN , AND THE CELL REFERENCE A1:A5 IS THE ARGUMENT .

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EXAMPLE 1

Let us assume we have a range of values in column A. We refer to these

values as X . We would like to evaluate the formula X + 2 . That is, we
would like to calculate the new values obtained by increasing each value of
X by two. The results of the formula X + 2 , we will place in column B.

For illustaring this calculation we will use the eample used in sections 9, 11
and 12.

Reminder: The values in column A are 4 5 2 8 1

How do we perform such a calculation?

❖ The results of the formula X + 2 we are going to place in column B

(you can choose any other column if you so wish).

❖ Click inside the cell B2.

❖ Type =A2+2 (Note that A2=4)

❖ Press the ENTER key.

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❖ The value obtained is 6 (which is what we expect to get when we add

the number 2 to the value 4, that is, 4 + 2 = 6 ).

❖ Click inside the cell B2 and move the cursor to the bottom right
handcorner of the cell until you get the black cross sign ┼.

❖ While holding down the left button of the mouse, drag to cell B6.
This is what we refer to earlier as AUTOFILL.

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NOTE THAT THE VALUES IN B2:B6 ARE 6, 7, 4, 10 AND 3, AS WE

WOULD EXPECT WHEN WE ADD THE VALUE 2 TO EACH VALUE IN
COLUMN A .

Note that one the label ‘X + 2’ in cell B1 represents ‘Minutes + 2’

where X denotes ‘Minutes’. It is important to use a text label to
indicate what the values in each column (or row) represent
especially when writing a report.

Exercise 14.1

(a) If you were to drag this to cell B9, then what will happen?

Try this as an exercise and write down your comments on the results
you get. Can you offer an explanation for these results?

(b) Add the value 5 to each of the values in column B and place the results
in column C.

(c) Raise each value in column C to a power of 2. Place the results in

column D.

(d) Calculate the sum of the values in columns A and B. Place your result
in cell A8.

Hint: Use the union operator and the SUM function. The answer you
should get is 50.

EXAMPLE 2

This example is going to be used to calculate the Discount Factor (or

Present Value Factor).

❖ In cell A1, enter the label ‘Year’.

❖ In cell B1, enter the label, ‘PV Factor’ (or ‘Discount Factor’).

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❖ In the range A2:A5, enter the values 1, 2, 3, 4. These will represent the
years 1, 2, 3 and 4.

❖ Assuming a discount rate of interest of 8% (that is,

8
i = 8% = = 0.08 ), we enter in cell B2 the formula for the
100
(1 + i )
−n
discount factor, namely where n = year. That is,
=(1+0.08)^-A2.

Note that it is best to enter the value of the interest rate (0,08) in a
cell (say A10) and then enter the formula for the discount factor
by =(1+$A$10)^-A2 where the interest rate is declared as a
fixed value by using what we call the absolute reference (see
section 15).

❖ Press the ENTER key.

The result is now 0.9259225926. Use your calculator to check that you
have obtained the correct result.

❖ Click inside the cell B2 and move the cursor to the bottom right
handcorner of the cell until you get the black cross sign ┼.

❖ While holding down the left button of the mouse, drag to cell B5 (thatis,
use the AUTOFILL function).

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❖ Change the accuracy of your results to a 5 decimal place of accuracy.

How? (See section 11, page 19).

Exercise 14.2

(a) In cell A1, enter the label ‘Year’.

(b) In the range A2:A6, enter the values 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. These
values will represent the years 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
(c) In cell B1, enter the label ‘Cash Flow (£)’.
(d) In the range B2:B6, enter the values 40, 30, 25, 10, 7.
(e) In cell C1, enter the label ‘PV Factor’.
(f) In cell A8, enter the label ‘i =’.
(g) In cell B8, enter the discount rate of 0.05.
(h) In the range C2:C6, calculate the discount factors (or Present
value Factors) assuming a discount rate of 5%.

Hint: See Example 2 above.Use your calculator to check that

you have obtained the correct results. Note that Excel provides
more accurate results than your calculator.

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(i) Change the accuracy of the discount factors to a four decimal

place of accuracy.Hint: See section 11 on page 19.
(j) In cell D1, enter the label ‘PV of CF (£)’or‘Present Value of
Cash Flows (£)’.
(k) In the range D2:D6, calculate the present value of cash flows.
To calculate the Present Value of Cash Flows, we need to
multiply each cash flow by the corresponding discount factor.
So in this case, in D2 you need to enter =B2*C2. Then, you
need to follow the approach we have used before for
calculating the remaining values for the Present Values of
Cash Flows in cells D3 to D6.
Hint: Use the AUTOFILL function.
Use your calculator to check that you have obtained the correct
results. Note that Excel produces more accurate results.
(l) Change the accuracy of your results to a 5 decimal place of
accuracy.
(m) In cell C7, enter the label ‘SUM =’.
(n) In cell D7, calculate the SUM of the Present Value of Cash
Flows. That is, in cell D7 calculate the SUM of the values in
D2:D6.
(o) In cell C9, enter the label ‘COST =’.
(p) In cell D9, enter the value £150, which is the cost value.
(q) In cell C11, enter the label ‘NPV=’.
Note that NPV stands for the NET PRESENT VALUE.

(r) We are now going to calculate the NPV of the project and place the result
in cell D11. To calculate the NPV, we need to subtract from the sum of
the present values of the cash flows (that is, the SUM we have placed in
cell D7) the cost of the project. In cell D11, enter =D7-$D$9 .

(s) Would you invest in this project? Briefly explain.

Note that prior to calculating the discount factors, the Present Values of
Cash Flows, and the NPV, your Excelworksheet should look as shown
below:

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The results should be as shown below:

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15. Types of Cell References.

When we use formulas to carry out calculations we use cell references. There
are three main types of cell references namely

1. Relative Cell References

2. Absolute Cell References
3. Mixed Cell References.

1.Relative Cell Reference

These are references to cells relative to the position of the formula. All
the examples we have used so far have made use of relative cell
references (e.g. A1, A8, B6,…). When you copy, paste or move a
formula with relative cell references, the references in the formula change
to reflect the cells that are in the same relative position to the formula.
Note however that the formula does not change but the formula
uses the new cell values in its calculation.

2. Absolute Cell Reference

If you would like a certain cell value(s) to remain constant when you copy
a formula, then make this cell reference absolute by typing a dollar sign
($) before each part of the reference that you do not want to change.

For example, you can make the cell reference A1 absolute by typing a
dollar sign before A and a dollar sign before 1. That is, $A$1.

Note when entering a cell reference in a formula, you can change

this to an absolute cell reference by pressing the F4 key. For
example,

=A1+E2 then F4 key will lead to = A1 +$E$2

Note

For the efficient use of the Excel software, you need to use absolute
cell reference values when entering constant values.

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You can change an absolute reference back to a cell reference. A quick

way of doing this, is by pressing the F4 key three times until the dollar
signs are removed from the cell references.

3. Mixed Cell Reference

A cell reference is identified by a column and row (e.g. A4 is a cell

reference which represents the value in column A and row 4) . If only one
of these is absolute then the cell reference is referred to as mixed cell
reference. That is, this is the case where either we have an absolute
column and relative row or an absolute row and a relative column.

For example, $A1 is absolute for column and relative for row1. A cell
reference A$1 is relative for column A and absolute for row 1.

Note that in the case where you use mixed cell references and you
copy or fill a formula across rows or down the columns, the relative
references adjust to new values but the absolute references do not.

16. CALCULATING A RELATIVE FREQUENCY AND A PERCENTAGE.

In this section we want to illustrate the calculation of the relative frequency and
percentage of a set of values. Examples 1 and 2 will illustrate the calculation
of these two measures using the values of the Example we have used in
previous sections, namely:

Minutes 4 5 2 8 1 (these we have placed in column A).

EXAMPLE 1

A relative frequency or otherwise known as a proportion is obtained by

dividing the frequency (also known as a Count) by the total (sum of values).

That is, .
Frequency f
Relative Frequency = =
Total f

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NOTE

• The total of the values in column A is 20 (see Section 12, page 26).
The total we have placed in cell A7. We will declare this cell reference
as an absolute cell reference, that is, $A$7.

• For calculating the relative frequencies of the values in column A, we

need to divide each value by the total (that is, $A$7 which is equal to
20).

How do we do this?

❖ Click inside the cell B1.

❖ Enter the label ‘RF’ (or ‘Relative Frequency’).

❖ Press the ENTER key.

❖ Type =A2/$A$7

❖ Press the ENTER key.

❖ The value obtained is 0.2 , which is what we expect to get

when we divide the number 4 by 20, the total).

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❖ Click inside the cell B2 and move the cursor to the bottom right
hand corner of the cell until you get the black cross sign ┼ .

❖ Holding down the left button of the mouse drag this to cell B6.
That is, use the AUTOFILL function.

❖ Produce your results in two decimal places of accuracy (see

section 11, page 19).

The results are shown in the output below. It is important always to

check that you obtain the correct results.

EXAMPLE 2

How do we calculate the corresponding percentages of the values in

Example 1 above?

A percentage is calculated by multiplying the relative frequency by 100.

In the worksheet we now have column A, which contains five values (4, 5, 2,
8, 1) and column B which contains the corresponding relative frequencies (see
Example 1 above). We would like now to calculate the corresponding
percentages and place these in column C.

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How do we do this?

❖ Click inside the cell C1.

❖ In cell C1, enter the label ‘Percentage (%)’.

❖ Press the ENTER key.

❖ Type =B2*100

❖ Press the ENTER key.

❖ The value obtained is 20, which is what we expect to get when we

multiply the number 0.2 by 100.

❖ Click inside the cell C2 and move the cursor to the bottom right hand
corner of the cell until you get the black cross sign ┼ .

❖ While holding sown the left button of the mouse, drag this to cell
C6(that is, use the AUTOFILL function).

The results are shown in the table below. It is always important to check
that you obtain the correct results.

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Exercise 16.1

(a) Enter seven values of your choice in column D.

(b) Calculate the sum of these seven values and place the result in
cell D10.
(c) Calculate the relative frequencies corresponding to the seven
values you have entered in column D. Place the relative
frequencies in column E. Make sure that your results are
produced using a two decimal place of accuracy.
(d) Calculate the corresponding percentages and place your
results in column F.

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17. ADJUSTING COLUMN WIDTH AND ROW HEIGHT.

It is often the case that when you enter either labels or values, you will
find that some of this information is not visible due to lack of space and
Excel displays this as ### in the cell. To correct this, you need to
either increase the column width or adjust the row height.

How can we do this?

There are different ways one can do this. Three methods will be
provided below. Note that method 1 provides the quickest way of
achieving this.

Method 1

❖ Click the column label or row number button you would like to
adjust.

❖ Right-click the selected column or row, and then select

COLUMN WIDTH… or ROW HEIGHT… .

❖ Type a new column width or row height in points.

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Method 2

❖ Click the column label or row number button you would like to
adjust.

❖ Click the HOME tab (if this is not active).

❖ Click the down triangle ▼ to the right of the FORMAT icon,

and then click COLUMN WIDTH… or ROW HEIGHT… .

Note that in a similar way you can format the cells, hide
and unhide columns and rows, rename worksheets, protect
worksheets, … and so on.

❖ Type a new column width or row height in points. You are

advised to try several values to check different widths.

❖ Click OK.

Method 3

❖ Position the mouse pointer on the right bottom edge of the

column label button or the bottom edge of the row number
button for the column or row you want to change.

❖ When the mouse pointer changes to a double-headed arrow,

click and drag the pointer to a new width or height.

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18. CREATING A BORDER.

Presentation is very important when presenting results and writing a report. In
this section we would show how one can create a border around a result. This
may be done in order to draw the attention of the reader to a final result in a
calculation as well as contribute to a better presentation of results.

EXAMPLE 1

1. For illustrating the use of a border, we enter the following data in

column B with the heading Salary (£000s):

Note that you may adjust the width of the column when entering the
above heading (see section 17).

22 26 28 33 37 44

2. We calculate the SUM (Total) of these values (see section 12, page
23). The result is 190 and this is placed in cell B8.

3. In cell A8, we enter the label ‘

4. To use a bold font for the ‘TOTAL’, we click inside the cell A8 and then
select the bold button.

5. To use create a border around the word ‘TOTAL’, we click inside the
cell A8.

6. Click the down triangle ▼ to the right of the BORDER icon.

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7. Select the border of your choice (e.g. Top Border, Right Border,
Outside Borders, Thick Outside Borders, …).

Note that you have the choice of drawing a border, use a line style
and colour. You are advised to try different styles and familiarise
yourself with what is available.

Exercise 18.1

(a) In a similar manner you can now place a border around the heading
‘Salary (£000s)’.
(b) Place a border around all values in column B.
(c) Change the line style of any of the borders you have created.

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19. CLEARING CELL CONTENTS.

It is often the case that you may want to clear the content of a cell or a
range of cells.

How do we do this?

❖ Select the cell or range of cells you want to clear.

❖ Click the HOME tab (if the HOME tab is not active).

❖ Click the down triangle ▼ to the right of the CLEAR button.

CLEAR BUTTON

❖ You can select any of the available options such as:

➢ CLEAR ALL (clears contents and formatting),

➢ CLEAR FORMATS (clears formatting but leaves
contents)
➢ CLEAR CONTENTS (clears contents but leaves
formatting)
➢ CLEAR COMMENTS (clears comments).

NOTE THAT A QUICK WAY OF CLEARING CONTENTS IS AS FOLLOWS :

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Select the cell or range of cells you want to clear.

Right-click the cell or range of cells you want to

clear, and then select CLEAR CONTENTS.

NOTE THAT THIS APPROACH ALLOWS YOU ALSO

THE CHANCE TO

▪ CUT, COPY, PASTE

▪ INSERT COMMENT
▪ SORT (sort out values)
▪ DELETE (delete entire row or column, shift
cells left or up.
… and so on.

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Exercise 19.1

(a) Enter five numbers which have a 3 decimal place of accuracy in a

columnof your choice and give a heading to your column.

(b) Using the above method clear the contents in that column. You are
advised to use any of the other options prior to clearing the contents in
that column. Try to get as much practice as possible.

20. CREATING GRAPHS.

It is usual in a report to include a graph to represent the distribution of your

data. Prior to plotting a graph it is important to decide what type of graph is
required. The latter will depend on the type of data you have.

In this section we will illustrate the use of graphs for both numercal as well as
categorical data. You need to remember that graphs must be clear, each
graph should bear a title and both axes should be clearly named and scaled.

Pie Chart A pie chart is an example of a graph that can be used to display the
distribution of one categorical variable. We are going to create a simple bar
chart using an example.

EXAMPLE 1

The following data represent the size (small, medium, large) of a random
sample of 135 cinemas. We would like to draw a pie chart to represent the
data below.

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Size of a Cinema Number of cinemas

Small 29
Medium 56
Large 50

How do we plot a pie chart?

❖ Enter the data values in Excel. See the output below.

❖ Highlight all the values and labels in the table shown above. That is,
highlight all the values in A1:A4 and B1:B4.

❖ Click on INSERT.

❖ Click either on the RECOMMENDED CHARTS where a Pie chart is

one of the available options or click on the PIE CHART icon (see
below).

PIE CHART ICON

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When you select the PIE CHART icon, this will provide you with
options (e.g. 2-D , 3-D. …). Select the pie chart option of your
choice. This is shown below.

❖ In this example, we have selected the first option under 2-D Pie.

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❖ You can now edit your graph by using the DESIGN options above as
well as the options provided to the right of the graph. The latter options
allow you to give an appropriate title, name your axes, add labels, ,,,,
and so on. You need to practise in editing your graph.

❖ When you are ready, click on the graph and then right-click the mouse
and select COPY.

❖ You can now open Microsoft Word and then right-click the mouse and
select PASTE.

A possible pie chart for the above data after editing is given below.

Pie Chart showing the Size of a Cinema.

Large, 50, 37%

Small, 29, 22%

Small
Medium
Large

Medium, 56, 41%

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A simple bar chart is another type of a graph that can be used to display the
Simple Bar distribution of one categorical variable. We are going to create a simple bar
Chart chart using the same example we have used above for a pie chart.

EXAMPLE 1

The following data represent the size (small, medium, large) of a random
sample of 135 cinemas. We would like to draw a simple bar chart to represent
the data below.

Size of a Cinema Number of cinemas

Small 29
Medium 56
Large 50

How do we plot a simple bar chart?

❖ Enter the data values in Excel (as we have done in the Pie Chart
section, see Page 55).

❖ Highlight all the values and labels in the table of data. That is,
highlight all the values, A1:A4 and B1:B4.

❖ Click on INSERT.

❖ Click either on the RECOMMENDED CHARTS where a Simple Bar

Chart is one of the available options or click on the COLUMN or BAR
CHART icon (see below).

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❖ Select either COLUMN (if you would like the bars to be plotted along
the horizontal axis) or BAR (if you would like the bars to be plotted
along the vertical axis). This will provide you with 2-D column, 3-D
column, 2-D bars, 3-D bars, … e.t.c. . Select the option of your
choice.

❖ For this example, we will select a 2-D COLUMN CHART.

❖ You can now edit your graph by using the DESIGN options above as
well as the options provided to the right of the graph. The latter options
allow you to give an appropriate title, name your axes, add labels, add
gridlines, ,,,, and so on. You need to practise in editing your graph.

❖ When you are ready, click on the graph and then right-click the mouse
and select COPY.

❖ You can now open your report in Microsoft Word and then right-click
the mouse and select PASTE.

The following graph is an example of a simple bar chart that you can get for
the above given data after editing.

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A Simple Bar Chart showing the Size of a Cinema

60 56
50
Number of cinemas 50

40
29
30

20

10

0
Small Medium Large
Size of a cinema

Exercise 20.1

The following data represent the regional location (England, Scotland, Wales)
of a random sample of 115 hotels.

Regional Location of a Hotel Number of hotels

England 48
Scotland 36
Wales 31

Draw a pie chart and a simple bar chart to represent the above data
graphically.

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A histogram is a graph that can be used to display graphically the distribution

Histogram of a continuous variable. The following example is used to illustrate the use of
Excel in plotting a histogram.

EXAMPLE 1

The following data represent the distribution of wages of 30 part-time

employees. We would like to draw a histogram to represent the data below.

Wages (£) Number of Part-time Employees

Class Interval Frequency (f)

50 - 54 4

55 - 59 6

60 - 64 12

65 - 69 5

70 - 74 3

Total 30

How do we plot a histogram?

❖ Enter the data values in Excel.

❖ Highlight the values and labels of the data in the table (A1:A6 and
B1:B6). See the output below.

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❖ Click on INSERT.

❖ Click either on the RECOMMENDED CHARTS where a Simple Bar

Chart is one of the available options or click on the COLUMN or BAR
CHART icon as we would have done if we were to plot a simple bar
chart.
Note however that there are some main differences between a simple
bar chart and a histogram. First of all there should be no gaps
between the bars and this is the firt thing that we need to do prior to
carrying on with the editing of the graph.

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❖ The first thing that we need to do since it is a histogram that we would like
to plot and not a simple bar chart is to make sure that there is no gap
between the bars. We do this as follows:

• We click on a bar (all bars will now be active) and then we right
click the mouse.

• We now select FORMAT DATA SERIES … .

• We now change the GAP WIDTH to zero (0).

ALTERNATIVE METHOD

• Click on the graph and then select DESIGN.

• On the top left under the HOME tab you can see QUICK
LAYOUT.

• Select the QUICK LAYOUT and then click on the layout where
there are no gaps between the bars.

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❖ After clicking on the graph, you can click on DESIGN or use the ADD
CHART ELEMENT (this you can find below the FILE tab) or the icons
on the right of the graph to edit this.

Note that you need to give yourself time to practise editing a graph
since presentation and clarity is very important when presenting a
graph.

A possible histogram is presented below after this has been copied in

Microsoft Word.

Histogram showing the distribution of wages (£)

of 30 part-time employees.
14
Numer of part-time employees

12
10
8
6 12
4
6 5
2 4 3
0
50 - 54 55 - 59 60 - 64 65 - 69 70 - 74
Wages (£)

NOTE that there is an alternative way of plotting a histogram using the

DATA ANALYSIS pack. This we will not illustrate here.

Exercise 20.2

The following grouped frequency distribution shows the distribution

of the weekly expenditure (£) in 100 randomly selected households.

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Weekly Expenditure (£) Number of Households (f)

60 - 62 5
63 - 65 18
66 - 68 42
69 - 71 27
72 - 74 8
Total 100
Draw a histogram to display the distribution of weekly expenditure
(£) in a random sample of 100 households.

Scatter In this section, we will use the following set of data for plotting a scatter
Diagram diagram.

EXAMPLE 1 A set of bivariate data (X, Y).

How do we plot a scatter diagram?

❖ Enter the data values in Excel as shown above.

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❖ Highlight all the values (A2:A11,B2:B11).

❖ Click on INSERT.

❖ Click either on the RECOMMENDED CHARTS where a Scatter

diagram is one of the available options or click on the SCATTER
DIAGRAM icon (see below).

❖ Select SCATTER.

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❖ After clicking on the graph, you can click on DESIGN or use the ADD
CHART ELEMENT (this you can find below the FILE tab) or the icons
on the right of the graph to edit this.

Note you can edit your graph according to your choice but always
remember that you should name your axes and give a title to your
graph.

A possible graph for the above given data after editing is given
below.

Scatter Diagram
120

100

80

60
Y

40

20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
X

Exercise 20.3

(a) Plot a scatter diagram to represent the relationship between the

delivery time (Y ) and the number of options ordered on a car ( X ) .
The data is provided in the table below. Make sure that you provide a
title and name both axes clearly.

INTRODUCTION TO EXCEL 2016 Copyright© Dr Androulla Michaeloudis

Student Edition 2017
 Page 68

Car Number of Delivery Time

options (Days)
ordered
(Y)
(X)
1 4 26
2 5 33
3 7 34
4 14 53
5 10 46
6 12 53
7 9 35
8 9 41
9 11 45
10 6 29

(b) Comment on the relationship between the delivery time (Y ) and the
number of options ordered on a car ( X ) .

INTRODUCTION TO EXCEL 2016 Copyright© Dr Androulla Michaeloudis

Student Edition 2017