Dept. of Computer
Science
CSCI A111
A Survey of Computers and Computing
Fall 1998 - First 8 Weeks
Module 4 - Basic Spreadsheets
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Learning Objectives
At the completion of this module, you will knowä
- What a spreadsheet is and why it's useful
- How to determine the address of a cell or range
- What different data types Excel uses
- How to write a simple formula
- How to identify the different cursors in Excel
- How to change row height and column width
- How to cut, copy and paste ranges
- How to insert rows and columns
- How to use autofill
- How to justify the contents of cells
- How to center across multiple columns
- How to wrap text within a cell
- How to change character formatting
- How to change borders and shading of cells
- How to use styles in Excel
Drills
Electronic Checkbook
Create a simple checking account manager using Excel. You should have columns for check number, for payee, for amount of check, and for new balance. The only formula you need to write will be the one to compute the new balance.
Give yourself a starting balance of $10,000, and make at least 10 entries into the account ledger. You should also take a few moments to format the ledger so that it looks like a checkbook register (i.e. change column widths, format the text, use borders and shading, etc.).
Now, consider the following: How would you handle deposits in your checking account program? Do you need to change the formula?
Interest Comparison
Create a spreadsheet to answer the following question: which is more profitable : a savings account where interest is compounded monthly at 2%, or a savings account where interest is compounded quarterly (i.e. every three months) at 6%?
Use $10,000 as your starting value, and determine the interest produced over a two-year period under both interest schemes.
Math Review
Go through The Better Way's "Arithmetic Refresher" and try entering some of the formulas and expressions into Excel (try multiplication, division, exponents). Also practice changing the data formats of some of these value (change number of decimal places, put a number into scientific notation, etc.)
Guidelines
- Always use built-in data types for dates, times, etc.
- Use ranges to refer to multiple cells whenever possible.
- Never add words to a cell with numbers in it.
- Don't manually enter a value if you can instead refer to a cell.