Saturday, February 23, 2013

Excel Basics: Anatomy of a Spreadsheet



Here we have a screenshot of a typical spreadsheet point out parts of the sheet. I have also added a few glossary words for your reference below for an explanation of the parts of the screen.

Mini Glossary

1. worksheet/spreadsheet – the grid work space where data is entered and manipulated.
2workbook – an EXCEL (.xls) file . A workbook file can contain more than one worksheet within it. Worksheets are listed as tabs at the bottom of the window. The default names are Sheet 1, Sheet 2 and so forth.
3. rows – usually labeled with letters at the top starting with A.
4. columns – usually labeled with numbers at the right starting with 1
5cell – a grid in a spreadsheet. Each grid has an "address" referring to its row and column location. Cell A1 is the upper leftmost cell. Cell B1 is one column to the right of A1 and cell A2 is one row below A1.
6. toolbar – rectangle above the worksheet with buttons for different commands. Many commands can also be found in the menus.
7. formula – specification for a calculation in Excel. Most formulas begin with an "=" sign and refer to cell addresses. For instance the formula= A1+A2 would mean to add the contents in cell A1 to those in A2.
8. range – specification for a series of cells in a row or column. For instance a range of A1:D1 would refer to the first four cells in the top row. A range of A1:A4 would be the first four cells in the first column.
9status bar – an information area at the bottom of a worksheet.
10. formula bar – the location above the spreadsheet where the formula is displayed.