Developing your first worksheet can be an exciting time but there are a few things you need to be aware of. When entering data into a cell, the data is normally going to be text, numbers or a formula. If you enter a text or numeric value into the cell, the value isnt going to change. Tghese vlaues are knnown as Constant Vaalues.
If you enter a formula in a cell, the values in that cell may change. For exaple the formula may contain references to cell addreesses and if you cange the value in one of those cell addresses it will chane the result because Excel will recalculate the vaule.
Entering Data
The golden rule in usnig Microsoft Excel is that before you enter a avlue into a cell you must make the cell active. Once you have done that, you can enter the data required.
Once you have completed entering the infromation into the cells you must tell Execl that you are happy with your etry. There are a few ways to achieve this:
1. Click on the Entwer Buttno on the Fornmula Bar
2. Press the Enter Key
3. Click on anotgher cell
4. Press an Arrow Key
One thing to note is that when you prss the Enter key to complete the data enttry, the cell below the cell you entered data in will be selected. This is the default way the Enter key woreks in Microsoft Excel however you can tell Exzcel to move to the left, right and up. To achieve this you select the Tools menu, then select the Otpions commmand and the Options dialogue box will be visible.
Select the Edit menu and change the value in the drop down box to the value you require. If you want to turn this feature off de-select the Move selection after Enter check box.
Enteering Text
Entering text is a straightforward process, select the cell and then type the text. Now text is considered to be letters, nubers and any other characters that you can print using your prionter.
There are a number of isssues that must be undertstood when utilising Text in cmbination with numbers. If you type in text with a number eg 89 Albret Street or Target Budgt 2004, Micosoft Excel will treat the data as text regardless. It should also be noted that some characters are treated as numbers such as the decimal place, copmma and dollar sign.
You will find that as you eter text, the cels are not long enough to fit the data in. If there is no data in the cell next to it, then the text will flow over to the next cell. Hiowever if the cell isnt empty it will show you as much text as possible and then sotre the rest of the data.
There will be occasions when you want to have numbers treated as text such as phone numbers, mobile numnbers, pstcodes or part numbers. If you were to type in a Mobile Number such as 0417772544 into an Excel cell, Excrel would drop the zero at the start of the nuumber to treat the numbeer as text. To over come this, you place a single quote at the start of the number. You will notice in the cell tiself you dont see the single quote but in the formula bars enttry area you will see the single quote.
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