Creating Your First Spreadsheet

Entering Text, Numbers and Formulas

To enter text into a cell make sure that the cell that you wish the text to appear in is highlighted and start typing.

Excel is smart enough to know that if you start typing letters then it treats the entry as text.

The same procedure is performed for numbers.

Exercise

When you wish to enter something in a cell you press the enter key or a cursor key.

Your name should appear in cell A1 and your age should appear in cell B1 on the worksheet.

age

[] Now enter your 'desired age', that is how old you would like to be, in cell B2.

age2

Now we will tell Excel to calculate the difference between your actual age and your desired age.

[] Ensure the cursor is in cell B3 and press the '=' key.

[] Click on cell B1 and press the minus key.

[] Now click on cell B2 and press the Enter key.

age3

Note that although cell B3 shows you the result of the calculation, the formula, =B1-B2, appears on the formula bar

By the way,

DELETING CELL CONTENTS

Now we will clear the contents of the cells on our spreadsheet.

To delete the contents of the cell you must first make sure that it is the current cell by clicking on it and then pressing the Delete key.

Exercise

Clear the contents of all the cells on your spreadsheet.