Unit IV Homework assignment

CS 1010, Computer Essentials 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit IV Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

4. Apply the principles of basic Excel functions. 4.1 Perform basic functions such as open, save, renaming sheets, and adding additional sheets in

the Excel workbook. 4.2 Use formulas and functions to create totals, subtotals, and averages for data. 4.3 Develop a pie chart.

Reading Assignment In order to access the following resources, click the links below: Domanico, A. (2014). 11 tricks for Excel power users. PC World, 32(5), 91-102. Retrieved from

https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=http://search.ebscohost.com/logi n.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=95929446&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Hart, A. (2014). Spreadsheets gone wild. Accounting Today, 28(7), 14. Retrieved from

https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=http://search.ebscohost.com/logi n.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=97125108&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Jelen, B. (2014). Collaborate in real time. Strategic Finance, 96(1), 52-53. Retrieved from

https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=http://search.proquest.com.library resources.columbiasouthern.edu/docview/1545871648?accountid=33337

Unit Lesson The Unit IV lesson covers spreadsheets. Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool with which the user can find multiple ways to accomplish different functions. As versions change, the program improves with increased functionality. This lesson discusses Excel 2013 specifically; however, the functions remain the same with the later enhancements. There are several ways to calculate a function, which you will see as you move along. The things you can do with Excel seem endless, and it is impossible to go over all the Excel functions in one lesson. This lesson concentrates on some basics. Believe it or not, the electronic spreadsheet, when first developed, did not have a patent because software was not yet a patented item. The father of the electronic spreadsheet is Daniel Bricklin, who came up with the idea in 1978. Daniel and Bob Frankston co-created a software program called VisiCalc, which was considered a top-notch application for personal computers at the time (Power, 2004). Several years later, Lotus 1-2-3 was developed and became the industry standard. Lotus 1-2-3 was the first spreadsheet program to introduce cell naming, ranges, and macros. The next great spreadsheet was Microsoft Excel developed by Bill Gates in 1984-1985, and it was originally developed for the Apple Macintosh. Excel used a graphical interface, taking advantage of the point and click simplicity of a mouse. Microsoft Excel was user-friendly compared to the earlier spreadsheet programs (Power, 2004). Microsoft Excel is a powerful spreadsheet program that can be used to organize, analyze, and attractively present data in many different ways.

UNIT IV STUDY GUIDE

Excel Principles

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Here is a brief timeline in reference to the history of Microsoft Excel and the first electronic spreadsheets:

Key Dates

Versions Attributes

1978 VISICALC The first electronic spreadsheet program originally released for Apple II; capabilities included basic arithmetic operations, instant automatic recalculation, and scrolling.

1980 SuperCalc The spreadsheet application published by Sorcim; Version 3 used iterative calculations to solve circular if statements, gaining an edge over Lotus 1-2-3 (Feigenson, 2008).

1982 MULTIPLAN The early spreadsheet developed by Microsoft; Microsoft used R1C1 addressing.

1983 Lotus 1-2-3 This improvised on all the basics embodied in the first version of SuperCalc and offered integral charting, graphing, and rudimentary database operations (Clarke, 2011).

1985 Excel 1.0 This graphical interface with pull- down menus and a point-and- click capability used a mouse on the Macintosh computer system (Power, 2014).

1987 Excel 2.0 for MS-DOS version 3.0

The first Windows version available had a run-time version of Windows.

1990 Excel 3.0 This introduced toolbars, drawing capabilities, outlining, add-in support, 3D charts, and many more new features.

1992 Excel 4.0 and 4.0a for Windows 3.1

The first popular version of Excel had better mouse implementation, more shortcuts, customizable toolbars, and introduction of fill handle.

1993 Excel 5.0 This major upgrade that included multi-sheet workbooks and support for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is considered a major breakthrough as users could record macros to automate repetitive tasks.

1995 Excel 7.0 for Windows 95/NT

Known as Excel 95, this was the first 32-bit version. It contained almost no external changes, but it was faster and more stable.

1997 Excel 8.0 for Windows Known as Excel 97, it introduced the paper clip office assistant, validations, and a new interface for VBA developers.

1999 Excel 9.0 Known as Excel 2000, it introduced an improved clipboard to hold multiple objects at a time;

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it also introduced the feature of Excel self-repair.

2001 Excel 10.0 This part of Office XP added useful features such as background formula-auditing which identifies potential errors in the formulas and capability to recover spreadsheets whenever Excel crashes.

2003 Excel 11.0 Known as Excel 2003, it was part of Office 2003; it included features like improved support for XML, a new list range feature, and the smart tag enhancements.

2007 Excel 2007 This introduced .xlsx format and .xlsm format for workbooks with macros; the major change was the introduction of ribbon menu systems.

2010 Excel 14.0 Known as Excel 2010, it was a major upgrade; new features included extended image editing capabilities, sparkline graphics, improved pivot tables, ability to customize the ribbon, and more conditional formatting options.

2013 Excel 15.0 Known as Excel 2013, it had lots of new features like Powerview, Flashfill, and 50 new functions (Kaul, n.d.).

Let us briefly discuss Microsoft Excel. The files are called the workbooks. In the workbooks, you have worksheets. A worksheet consists of rows and columns. The cell is the basic unit of the worksheet. The cell is the intersection of the row and column. A couple of basic formulas are sum and average. For instance, if you wanted to find the sum of several numbers, the command would look something like this: =SUM(B2:B5). Basically, this would be the sum of everything in cells B2 through B5. SUM is a basic formula. There are other ways to sum up in excel. The formula for Average works the same way. There are some tricks of the trade when it comes to Microsoft Excel. For instance, on a personal computer (PC), “Ctrl + A” yields select all for Microsoft Excel 2013 and earlier versions. The same shortcut works in Excel for Mac OS by typing “Command + A.” One huge headache with Excel is opening multiple spreadsheets. The cure to this headache is using the PC or Mac “Ctrl + Tab” key, which allows the user to shift between different spreadsheets. Another trick to add new rows or columns to a spreadsheet is to drag and select the number of rows or columns. All the user needs to do is right-click the highlighted rows or columns and choose insert from a drop-down menu. Now, the user will see new rows inserted above the row or to the left of the column the user first selected. Another great trick is the search wildcard. The question mark and the asterisk can be your best friend. A vague search can be conducted with these two wildcards; when used in a search dialog, the question mark (?) represents any single character, and the asterisk (*) represents more than one character. The user must use a tilde (~) in front of the question mark or asterisk to activate this function. For example, if you type “~g*t” in the search dialog box, Excel will return results of any length for words that start with a “g” and end with “t” within the worksheet. If you type “~g?t” in the search dialog box, Excel will return all three character words that start with a “g” and end with “t.” This can be useful for searching through long lists of names when you are not certain of the spelling.

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Excel 2016 has all the functionality as the other versions of Excel but has added enhancements. It is best that you use the following websites to take a look at the new enhancements: Microsoft. (n.d.). Office help and training. Retrieved from https://support.office.com/?ui=en-US&rs=en-

US&ad=US&fromAR=1 Microsoft. (n.d.). What’s new and improved in Office 2016 for Office 365. Retrieved from

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/What-s-new-and-improved-in-Office-2016-for-Office-365- 95c8d81d-08ba-42c1-914f-bca4603e1426?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Microsoft. (n.d.). What’s new in Excel 2016 for Windows. Retrieved from https://support.office.com/en-

us/article/What-s-new-in-Excel-2016-for-Windows-5fdb9208-ff33-45b6-9e08-1f5cdb3a6c73?ui=en- US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Training is also available on the above website for all the versions of Excel to date. Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool in which the user can find multiple ways to accomplish different functions. Newer versions of the program improved the functionality. This lesson concentrated on Excel 2013; however, the functions remain the same with enhancements in the newer versions.

References

Clarke, G. (2011). Word and Excel creator: How Gates, Jobs, and HAL shaped Office. Retrieved from http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/28/charles_simonyi_on_word_excel_films/

Feigenson, W. (2008, August 14). How spreadsheets came to have iterative calculations. [Blog post].

Retrieved from http://feigenson.us/blog/?p=10 Kaul, A. (n.d.). History of Microsoft Excel 1978-2013. Retrieved from www.exceltrick.com/others/history-of-

excel/ Power, D. J. (2004). A brief history of spreadsheets. Retrieved from

http://dssresources.com/history/sshistory.html

Suggested Reading In order to access the following resources, click the links below: The following video file illustrates how to subtotal data. Rocks, D. (August 9, 2008). See the "big picture" with Excel's subtotal function [Video file]. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5w5uWJDct8