1

LONDON SCHOOL OF HYGIENE & TROPICAL MEDICINE | SEP 2016

Excel 2016 INTRODUCTION: FORMULAE, FUNCTIONS & FORMATTING

CONTENTS

CREATING A NEW WORKBOOK ............................................................................................................... 1

ADDING AND NAMING WORKSHEETS .................................................................................................. 1

To name a worksheet .............................................................................................................................. 1

To change the tab colours ...................................................................................................................... 1

ENTERING DATA ............................................................................................................................................ 2

ADJUSTING COLUMN WIDTHS AND ROW HEIGHTS ....................................................................... 2

SELECTING ROWS AND COLUMNS, CELLS, AND WORKSHEETS ................................................ 2

Selecting rows and columns .................................................................................................................. 2

Selecting cells .............................................................................................................................................. 2

Select a worksheet .................................................................................................................................... 3

WRAPPING TEXT ........................................................................................................................................... 3

TO CLEAR THE CONTENTS OF A CELL .................................................................................................. 3

INSERTING AND DELETING COLUMNS AND ROWS ........................................................................ 3

FIXING ROWS AND COLUMNS .................................................................................................................. 4

HIDING ROWS AND COLUMNS ................................................................................................................. 4

MOVING AND COPYING SHEETS .............................................................................................................. 4

FORMATTING DATA ..................................................................................................................................... 5

AUTOFILL .......................................................................................................................................................... 5

Autofill days and months ....................................................................................................................... 5

Autofill a number series ......................................................................................................................... 6

Other autofill options ............................................................................................................................... 6

BORDERS AND SHADING ............................................................................................................................ 6

To add shading to a data range ............................................................................................................ 6

To add a border to a data range........................................................................................................... 6

TRANSPOSING DATA .................................................................................................................................... 7

CALCULATING WITH FORMULAE ........................................................................................................... 7

Copying formulae ...................................................................................................................................... 8

CALCULATING WITH FUNCTIONS .......................................................................................................... 8

Autosum ...................................................................................................................................................... 10

RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE CELLS AND RANGES ........................................................................... 10

Absolute cells and ranges ..................................................................................................................... 10

Mixed cells and ranges .......................................................................................................................... 10

Naming cells and ranges ....................................................................................................................... 11

SORTING AND FILTERING ........................................................................................................................ 11

Autofilter .................................................................................................................................................... 12

SPLITTING CELL CONTENTS ................................................................................................................... 13

MORE FUNCTIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 14

Trim .............................................................................................................................................................. 14

Concatenate ............................................................................................................................................... 14

CountA ......................................................................................................................................................... 15

CountIF ........................................................................................................................................................ 15

IF .................................................................................................................................................................... 15

1

CREATING A NEW WORKBOOK

A workbook is an Excel file with the file extension .xlsx

To create a new workbook:

Open Excel 2016 and click on BLANK WORKBOOK.

ADDING AND NAMING WORKSHEETS

Worksheet tabs are displayed in the bottom left of the screen.

By default there is a single sheet displayed in all new workbooks.

To add a new worksheet press the ‘+’ sign next to the Sheet1 tab.

To name a worksheet

Right click on the sheet tab and select RENAME.

To change the tab colours

Right click on the sheet tab and select TAB COLOUR.

2

ENTERING DATA

You can either type directly into a cell or click on the cell and enter information into the

formula bar (see below).

ADJUSTING COLUMN WIDTHS AND ROW HEIGHTS

Click on the lines between the columns – you should see a cross that looks like this

Click on the cross, then hold down the left mouse button while you drag the cross to the

width/height you want. Double click on the cross to ‘autofit’ to contents.

SELECTING ROWS AND COLUMNS, CELLS, AND WORKSHEETS

Selecting rows and columns

To select an entire row or column click on the column heading or row label, then hold down

the CONTROL key to select further ranges.

e.g. Select column A, then hold down the

CONTROL key to select column C.

Selecting cells

To select a single cell simply click once in the cell. To select multiple cells, click once in the

first cell, then hold down the CONTROL key while selecting additional cells.

3

Select a worksheet

To select an entire worksheet, click on the triangle in the top left hand corner of the sheet

WRAPPING TEXT

If you type more than a few letters/numbers of text into a cell the contents will disappear

once they have reached the edge of the cell. To ‘wrap text’ (i.e. to have the cell expand so you

can see all of the text) click in the cell and select WRAP TEXT on the HOME tab.

TO CLEAR THE CONTENTS OF A CELL

To clear the contents of a cell (or cells) click on the cell (on a group of cells), then RIGHT

CLICK and select CLEAR CONTENTS.

INSERTING AND DELETING COLUMNS AND ROWS

To insert a column or a row into your worksheet first select the column or row next to which

you would like to insert another column or row.

Select a column row by clicking at the top of the columns (on the letter which labels the

column) or on the left of the rows (on the number which labels the row).

Not wrapped Wrapped

4

Once you have selected a column or row, click on the HOME TAB and select INSERT.

NOTE: New rows are inserted above the active row and new columns to the left of the active

column

To delete a column or row, first select it, then click DELETE.

FIXING ROWS AND COLUMNS

You can fix rows and columns in Excel so that they always display on the screen. This is

useful if you want to keep your header row in view when you scroll through a worksheet.

To fix the first row or column click on the View tab and click on FREEZE PANES.

Select either FREEZE TOP ROW or FREEZE FIRST

COLUMN.

To ‘unfreeze’ a column or a row select the frozen

column or row and click on FREEZE PANES. Select

UNFREEZE PANES.

To freeze more than just the top or left pane (e.g. if you

wanted to freeze the top two rows), click on the first

row or column that you don’t want frozen (e.g. if you wanted to freeze the top two rows

then you would click on the third row), then select FREEZE PANES, and select FREEZE

PANES.

HIDING ROWS AND COLUMNS

On a large spreadsheet it can be useful to hide columns or rows of data that you are not

working with.

To hide rows or columns click on the column heading(s)/row label(s) to select the area that

you want to hide. Once the columns or rows you wish to hide have been selected, RIGHT

CLICK and select HIDE.

To unhide rows and columns click and drag on the column headings/row labels to either side

of the hidden area (e.g. if column H is hidden then select the columns to either side: G and I),

then RIGHT CLICK and select UNHIDE.

MOVING AND COPYING SHEETS

To move or copy a worksheet, first select it (see ‘Select a worksheet’ above)

5

On the HOME tab select FORMAT, then select MOVE OR COPY

SHEET.

A Move or Copy pop-up box will appear.

FORMATTING DATA

Cells formatting is automatically set to General which means no

specific formatting is applied.

To format numbers with decimal places, currency, date formats etc,

click on the drop down list next to GENERAL on the HOME tab and

select the appropriate category.

AUTOFILL

Instead of entering data manually on a worksheet, you can use the Auto Fill feature to fill

cells with data that follow a pattern.

Autofill days and months

Excel will automatically fill a series of cells for days and months

if you type the first value

Click in the bottom right hand corner of the cell containing the

first value and use the autofill handle (i.e. this cross ‘+’) to drag

the series values down the column.

To move the worksheet to a new workbook click here

To move the worksheet to a new location in the same workbook click here

Tick this box to make the newly moved worksheet a copy of the original (i.e. there will be two identical worksheets, the original, and the one you have moved)

6

Autofill a number series

To fill a number series type the first value, use the fill handle to

drag the values down the column then select FILL SERIES.

Other autofill options

If you want to autofill according to a more complex pattern e.g.

increment numbers by five or combine letters and numbers, you need to

enter and select enough cells for Excel to recognise the pattern. Once

you have done this select the cells in the series and use the fill handle to

drag down the column.

BORDERS AND SHADING

To add shading to a data range

Select the cells to which you wish to add shading.

Click on the FILL tool on the HOME tab (it looks like a

paint pot).

Select the fill colour you require

To add a border to a data range

Select the cells to which you wish

to add a border.

Click on the BORDERS tool on

the HOME tab.

Choose an option from the drop

down list or select MORE BORDERS to see further options

7

TRANSPOSING DATA

The transpose command allows you to switch your rows and columns.

To transpose a data range, first select the range, then RIGHT CLICK

and select COPY.

Click in the cell where you want the new data range to start.

Click the drop down arrow under PASTE in on the HOME tab.

Select the TRANSPOSE icon.

CALCULATING WITH FORMULAE

A formula is a set of mathematical instructions that can be used in Excel to perform

calculations. Formulae (and functions, see next page) always start with an = sign.

Formulae contain the following:

References: the cells or cell ranges that you want to use in your calculation

Operators: Symbols (+, -, *, / etc.) that specify the calculation to be performed

Constants: numbers or text values that do not change

Operators are as follows:

Subtraction: minus sign ( - ) Addition: plus sign ( + ) Division: forward slash ( / ) Multiplication: asterisk (* ) Exponentiation: caret (^ )

The order of operations is:

Brackets Exponents Division Multiplication Addition Subtraction

To create a basic formula, click in the cell, then type the ‘=’ sign followed by the cell

references and the operators as shown below:

8

Press ENTER.

Formulae can also be typed into the formula bar directly above the worksheet (shown

below). When you click on a cell containing a formula, the formula is always shown here.

Copying formulae

To copy a formula across a column or down a row use the autofill handle (see page 9)

CALCULATING WITH FUNCTIONS

Functions are built in formulae in Excel which allow you to perform specific, often more

complex calculations than formulae. They are grouped logically in the Function Library on

the FORMULAS tab (see below).

9

You can also access a full list of functions by clicking on the Insert Function icon on the

formula bar.

Functions are built using the = sign, the function name/command e.g. SUM, COUNT,

AVERAGE and the cell range(s) usually in parenthesis e.g. = SUM(A10:B20)

Below is an example of using the SUM function to add the contents of two cells.

Click ALL to see a complete list of

functions.

When you select a function using

the INSERT FUNCTION

command, a brief description of

what the function will calculate

appears below the list of

functions.

You can also click on HELP

WITH THIS FUNCTION

for examples of how to use

the function.

10

Autosum

Some of the more popular functions also appear on the HOME tab in the AUTOSUM drop

down menu to the far right of the commands.

You can also access a full list of functions from here.

RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE CELLS AND RANGES

In the previous examples when you copied formulae and functions the cell ranges which

were calculated adjusted to recalculate the values in the new location e.g. =SUM(A1:A5)

became =SUM(B1:B5) when copied to column B. This is known as relative cell addressing.

In some cases you may want to keep the same cell (or row or column) as a constant in a

formula. In such a case we need to fix the cell (or row or column) which we do in Excel using

the $ sign.

Absolute cells and ranges

To fix a cell or a range use $ signs before the row and the column references

e.g. $A$1 or $A$1:$C:$5

Mixed cells and ranges

To fix a column only use $A1

To fix a row only use A$1

When constructing a function you can also set a cell or a range to absolute by pressing the

F4 key whilst the cell is active.

11

Naming cells and ranges

In Excel you can name a cell or a cell range, rather than using the cell

references. This allows you to go directly to the range (using the

FIND & SELECT, and GO TO. command on the HOME tab). You

can also use named ranges in formulae e.g. =[income]-[expenditure]

To name a cell or a range select the cell or range, type the name in the

Name box to the left of the Formula bar and press Enter (shown

below).

NOTE: Names cannot contain

spaces

To go directly to a named range, on the HOME tab choose FIND & SELECT, and then

select GO TO…

Named ranges in your spreadsheet will appear in a list

SORTING AND FILTERING

You can sort your data using the SORT & FILTER options to the right of

the HOME tab. To sort by a particular column, you need to place your

cursor in the column first.

To sort on multiple columns e.g. first by column A, then by column B use

the CUSTOM SORT... command. Select the initial sort, then choose ADD

LEVEL to add sub-sorts.

12

Autofilter

To filter data click on SORT & FILTER group on the HOME

tab and select the FILTER option. When you do this you will

see small drop-down arrows next to the top of each column.

Click on the drop-down arrow to see the options for filtering

that column.

Use the drop down arrows which appear at the top of

each column to filter according to your criteria.

Click OK

To remove a filter click on the filter drop-down arrow and

select CLEAR FILTER FROM ...

13

SPLITTING CELL CONTENTS

Sometimes you may want to split data in one cell into two or more cells. You can do this

using the Convert text to Columns wizard. Your cell contents must be delimited in some

way e.g. by spaces or commas or fixed width.

First select the column of data, then click on TEXT TO COLUMNS command on the DATA

tab.

Follow the instructions in the wizard.

14

MORE FUNCTIONS

Trim

The Trim function removes all spaces in a text string with the exception of

one space between words.

To use the function first click on the destination cell then select TRIM from

the drop down menu under TEXT in the FORMULAS tab.

Click on the cell reference you wish to trim and click OK

You can copy the formula down a column as necessary.

Concatenate

Concatenate allows you to join text strings together from different cells (it is

kind of the reverse of the converting text to columns command).

To use the concatenate function, click first in the destination cell

then select then select CONCATENATE from the drop down

menu under TEXT in the FORMULAS tab.

Click on the cells you want to join together (concatenate) in the

correct order.

Click OK.

15

CountA

If you need to count the number of numeric values in a cell

range you can use the COUNT function. For non-numeric

values you use the function COUNTA. COUNTA counts

any cells within a range, with the exception of blank cells.

To use COUNTA, click on the destination cell, select the

COUNTA function from the MORE FUNCTIONS

STATISTICAL group on the FORMULAS tab.

Insert the cell range and click OK.

CountIF

COUNTIF allows you to count cells according to a criteria

that you specify e.g. the number of cells which contain the

word ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

To use COUNTIF, click on the destination cell, select the

COUNTIF function from the MORE FUNCTIONS

STATISTICAL group on the FORMULAS tab.

Insert the cell range that you want to evaluate.

In the Criteria box type the value that you want to count and

click OK.

IF

The IF function allows you to perform calculations according to a criteria that you specify

e.g. to calculate a percentage increase on figures over a certain

amount. You can also tell IF to return a text string according to

your criteria such as ‘positive’ or ‘negative’.

To use IF click on the destination cell and select the IF function

from the drop down menu under LOGICAL in the FORMULAS

tab.

16

The LOGICAL_TEST is

the cell you want to

evaluate and the criteria

e.g. J9<350

VALUE_IF_TRUE is

what you want to do if

the cell meets your

criteria (it can be a

calculation or a text

value).

VALUE_IF_FALSE is

what you want to do if the cell does not meet your criteria

Click OK.