Aworksheetor spreadsheet is a (blank) sheet where you do your work. An
Excelfileholds a stack of worksheets in aworkbook. You cannamea sheet, put
data on it andsave; later,openand use it. You canmoveorsizeyour windows
bydraggingthe borders. You can also scroll up and down, or left and right,
through an Excel worksheet using the scroll bars on the right side and at the
bottom.
An Excel worksheet consists ofgrid linesformingcolumnsandrows; col-
umns areletteredand rows arenumbered. The intersection of each column and
row is a box called acell. Every cell has anaddress, also called acell reference;
to refer to a cell, enter the column letter followed by the row number. For
example,the intersection of column C and row 3 is cell C3. Cells hold numbers,
text, or formulas. To refer to a range of cells, enter the cell in the upper left
corner of the range followed by a colon (:) and then the lower right corner of
the range. For example, A1:B20 refers to the first 20 rows in both columns A
and B.
You can click a cell to make itactive(for use); an active cell is where you
enter or edit your data, and it’s identified by aheavy border. You can also
define or select a rangeby left-clicking on the upper leftmost cell and dragging
the mouse to the lower rightmost cell. To move around inside a selected range,
press Tab or Enter to move forward one cell at a time.
Excel is software designed to handle numbers; so get a project and start
typing. Conventionally, files for data analysis use rows for subjects and col-
umns for factors. For example, you conduct a survey using a 10-item ques-
tionaire and receive returns from 75 people; your data require a file with 75
rows and 10 columns—not counting labels for columns (factors’ names) and
rows (subjects’ ID). If you made an error, it can be fixed (hit the Del key, which
deletes the cell contents). You can change your mind again, deleting the delete,
by clicking theUndo button(reverse curved arrow). Remember, you can widen
your columns by double-clicking their right borders.
The formula bar (near the top, next to an¼sign) is a common way to pro-
vide the content of an active cell. Excel executes a formula from left to right
and performs multiplication () and division (/) before addition (þ) and sub-
traction (). Parenthenses can/should be used to change the order of calcu-
lations. To use formulas (e.g., for data transformation), do it in one of two
ways: (1) click the cell you want to fill, then type an¼sign followed by the
formula in the formula bar (e.g., click C5, then type¼A5þB5); or (2) click
the cell you want to fill, then click thepaste function icon,f, which will give
you—in a box—a list of Excel functions available for your use.
Thecut and pasteprocedure greatly simplifies the typing necessary to form a
chart or table or to write numerous formulas. The procedure involves high-
lighting the cells that contain the information you want to copy, clicking on the
cut button (scissors icon) or copy button (two-page icon), selecting the cell(s) in
which the information is to be placed, and clicking on the paste button (clip-
board and page icon).
Theselect and dragis very e‰cient fordata transformation. Suppose that
32 DESCRIPTIVE METHODS FOR CATEGORICAL DATA