Part I: Getting Started with Excel
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Entering Text and Values into Your Worksheets .................................................................
To enter a numeric value into a cell, move the cell pointer to the appropriate cell, type the
value, and then press Enter or one of the navigation keys. The value is displayed in the cell and
also appears in the Formula bar when the cell is selected. You can include decimal points and
currency symbols when entering values, along with plus signs, minus signs, and commas (to
separate thousands).Note
If you precede a value with a minus sign or enclose it in parentheses, Excel considers it to be a negative
number. n
Entering text into a cell is just as easy as entering a value: Activate the cell, type the text, and then
press Enter or a navigation key. A cell can contain a maximum of about 32,000 characters — more
than enough to hold a typical chapter in this book. Even though a cell can hold a huge number of
characters, you’ll find that it’s not possible to actually display all these characters.Tip
If you type an exceptionally long text entry into a cell, the Formula bar may not show all the text. To display
more of the text in the Formula bar, click the bottom of the Formula bar and drag down to increase the height
(see Figure 2.2). Also useful is the Ctrl+Shift+U keyboard shortcut. Pressing this key combination toggles the
height of the formula bar to show either one row, or the previous size. n
What happens when you enter text that’s longer than its column’s current width? If the cells to the
immediate right are blank, Excel displays the text in its entirety, appearing to spill the entry into
adjacent cells. If an adjacent cell isn’t blank, Excel displays as much of the text as possible. (The
full text is contained in the cell; it’s just not displayed.) If you need to display a long text string in a
cell that’s adjacent to a nonblank cell, you can take one of several actions:l Edit your text to make it shorter.l (^) Increase the width of the column (drag the border in the column letter display).
l Use a smaller font.
l (^) Wrap the text within the cell so that it occupies more than one line. Choose Home ➪
Alignment ➪ Wrap Text to toggle wrapping on and off for the selected cell or range.