Excel 2003 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Excel 2003 for Starters: The Missing Manual

by Matthew MacDonald
Released October 2005
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596553586

Read it now on the O’Reilly learning platform with a 10-day free trial.

O’Reilly members get unlimited access to books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.

Start your free trial

Book description

The dominant spreadsheet program and one of the most widely used software applications in the world, Microsoft Excel is unbelievably powerful--and can be downright intimidating. If you're new to Excel or among the many existing Excel users who are dazed and confused by all that the program can do (and by how little it has actually done for you), Excel for Starter: The Missing Manual is your ideal resource.

For everyone who wants to quickly get up to speed on Excel to create, organize, and present household and/or office data and information, this smart new guide delivers just the essentials: it concentrates on the must-have information and the best, most practical Excel features that people like you can use to maximize your productivity and minimize your spreadsheet confusion and frustration.

Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual demystifies spreadsheets and explains how to use them most effectively and efficiently. Clear explanations (with lots of examples), step-by-step instructions, helpful illustrations, and timesaving advice guide you through all the most common and useful features of Excel 2002 and 2003--including how to build spreadsheets, add and format information, print reports, create charts and graphics, and use basic formulas and functions.

Sure, there are plenty more thorough, more massive Excel books on the bookstore shelves. But why wade your way through a swamp of details you'll never need--or want--to use? Let author Matthew MacDonald, an educator and software developer who also wrote the highly popular Excel: The Missing Manual, be your trusted guide as you learn which Excel features will serve you best and which are best ignored.

Utterly practical and refreshingly funny, this down-to-earth guide gives you nothing more (and nothing less) than what you need to make Excel do exactly what you want it to do. It's a quick read you'll want to keep on hand for reference again and again.

Publisher resources

View/Submit Errata

Table of contents

  1. Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual
    1. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
    2. A Note Regarding Supplemental Files
    3. The Missing Credits
      1. About the Author
      2. About the Creative Team
      3. The Missing Manual Series
    4. Introduction
      1. What Excel Does
      2. About This Book
        1. About the Outline
        2. About → These → Arrows
        3. Examples
      3. About MissingManuals.com
        1. Safari® Enabled
    5. One. Worksheet Basics
      1. 1. Creating and Navigating Worksheets
        1. 1.1. Creating a Basic Worksheet
          1. 1.1.1. Starting a New Worksheet
          2. 1.1.2. Adding the Column Titles
          3. 1.1.3. Adding Data
        2. 1.2. Editing Data
        3. 1.3. Navigating in Excel
          1. 1.3.1. The Menus
          2. 1.3.2. The Task Pane
          3. 1.3.3. The Toolbars
            1. 1.3.3.1. Moving toolbars
            2. 1.3.3.2. Toolbars with missing buttons
            3. 1.3.3.3. Toolbar tricks
          4. 1.3.4. The Formula Bar
          5. 1.3.5. The Status Bar
        4. 1.4. Saving Files
          1. 1.4.1. Saving Your Spreadsheet in Other Formats
          2. 1.4.2. Saving Your Spreadsheet with a Password
          3. 1.4.3. Disaster Recovery
        5. 1.5. Opening Files
          1. 1.5.1. Opening Multiple Spreadsheets at Once
          2. 1.5.2. Searching for Files
      2. 2. Adding Information to Worksheets
        1. 2.1. Adding Different Types of Data
          1. 2.1.1. Controlling Your Data Types
            1. 2.1.1.1. How Excel decides your data is text
            2. 2.1.1.2. How Excel decides your data is numeric
            3. 2.1.1.3. How Excel decides your data is a date or time
        2. 2.2. Quick Ways to Add Data
          1. 2.2.1. AutoComplete
          2. 2.2.2. AutoCorrect
          3. 2.2.3. AutoFill
            1. 2.2.3.1. Custom AutoFill lists
          4. 2.2.4. AutoFit
          5. 2.2.5. Undo and Redo
            1. 2.2.5.1. Undo quirks
      3. 3. Moving Data Around a Worksheet
        1. 3.1. Selecting Cells
          1. 3.1.1. Making Continuous Range Selections
          2. 3.1.2. Making Non-Contiguous Selections
          3. 3.1.3. Automatically Selecting Your Data
          4. 3.1.4. Making Selections with the Keyboard
        2. 3.2. Moving Cells Around
          1. 3.2.1. A Simple Cut-and-Paste or Copy-and-Paste
          2. 3.2.2. A Fancy Cut-and-Paste or Copy-and-Paste
          3. 3.2.3. The Clipboard
          4. 3.2.4. Special Pasting
        3. 3.3. Adding and Moving Columns or Rows
          1. 3.3.1. Inserting Columns
          2. 3.3.2. Inserting Rows
          3. 3.3.3. Inserting Copied or Cut Cells
          4. 3.3.4. Deleting Columns and Rows
      4. 4. Formatting Worksheets
        1. 4.1. Formatting Cell Values
          1. 4.1.1. Formatting Numbers
            1. 4.1.1.1. General
            2. 4.1.1.2. Number
            3. 4.1.1.3. Currency
            4. 4.1.1.4. Accounting
            5. 4.1.1.5. Percentage
            6. 4.1.1.6. Fraction
            7. 4.1.1.7. Scientific
            8. 4.1.1.8. Text
          2. 4.1.2. Formatting Dates and Times
          3. 4.1.3. Special Formats for Special Numbers
        2. 4.2. Formatting Cell Appearance
          1. 4.2.1. Alignment and Orientation
          2. 4.2.2. Fonts and Color
            1. 4.2.2.1. Special characters
          3. 4.2.3. Borders and Patterns
        3. 4.3. Smart Ways to Apply Formatting
          1. 4.3.1. Shortcuts with the Toolbars
            1. 4.3.1.1. Drawing borders
            2. 4.3.1.2. Formatting individual characters
          2. 4.3.2. AutoFormat
          3. 4.3.3. The Format Painter
          4. 4.3.4. Using Styles
            1. 4.3.4.1. Creating a style
            2. 4.3.4.2. Applying a style
            3. 4.3.4.3. Transferring styles
          5. 4.3.5. Conditional Formatting
      5. 5. Managing Worksheets and Workbooks
        1. 5.1. Worksheets and Workbooks
          1. 5.1.1. Adding, Removing, and Hiding Worksheets
          2. 5.1.2. Naming and Rearranging Worksheets
          3. 5.1.3. Grouping Sheets
            1. 5.1.3.1. Moving, copying, deleting, or hiding grouped worksheets
            2. 5.1.3.2. Formatting cells, columns, and rows in grouped worksheets
            3. 5.1.3.3. Typing in data or changing cells in grouped worksheets
            4. 5.1.3.4. Cutting, copying, and pasting cells in grouped worksheets
            5. 5.1.3.5. Adjusting printing and display options in grouped worksheets
          4. 5.1.4. Moving Worksheets from One Workbook (Excel File) to Another
        2. 5.2. Find and Replace
          1. 5.2.1. The Basic Find
          2. 5.2.2. More Advanced Searches
          3. 5.2.3. Finding Formatted Cells
          4. 5.2.4. Finding and Replacing Values
        3. 5.3. Spell Check
      6. 6. Viewing and Printing Worksheets
        1. 6.1. Controlling Your View
          1. 6.1.1. Zooming
          2. 6.1.2. Viewing Distant Parts of a Spreadsheet at Once
          3. 6.1.3. Freezing Columns or Rows
          4. 6.1.4. Hiding Data
          5. 6.1.5. Saving View Settings
          6. 6.1.6. Viewing Multiple Workbooks at Once
        2. 6.2. Printing
          1. 6.2.1. How to Print an Excel File
          2. 6.2.2. Customizing Print Settings
            1. 6.2.2.1. Page settings
            2. 6.2.2.2. Margins settings
            3. 6.2.2.3. Creating headers and footers
            4. 6.2.2.4. Sheet settings
          3. 6.2.3. Getting a Print Snapshot
          4. 6.2.4. Page Break Preview: A Bird's-Eye View of Your Worksheet
    6. Two. Worksheet Power
      1. 7. Building Basic Formulas
        1. 7.1. Creating a Basic Formula
          1. 7.1.1. Excel's Order of Operations
          2. 7.1.2. Cell References
          3. 7.1.3. How Excel Formats Cells that Contain Cell References
          4. 7.1.4. Functions
          5. 7.1.5. Specifying Cell Ranges
          6. 7.1.6. Formula Errors
          7. 7.1.7. Logical Operators
        2. 7.2. Formula Shortcuts
          1. 7.2.1. Point-and-Click Formula Creation
          2. 7.2.2. Point-and-Click Formula Editing
          3. 7.2.3. Using the Insert Function Button to Quickly Find and Use Functions
        3. 7.3. Copying Formulas
          1. 7.3.1. Absolute Cell References
          2. 7.3.2. Partially Fixed References
      2. 8. Templates
        1. 8.1. Understanding Templates
        2. 8.2. Starting from a Template
          1. 8.2.1. Spreadsheet Solutions Templates
          2. 8.2.2. Discovering the Finer Points of Templates
          3. 8.2.3. Office Online Templates
          4. 8.2.4. Searching for Office Online Templates
        3. 8.3. Creating Templates
          1. 8.3.1. Understanding Custom Templates
          2. 8.3.2. Building a Custom Template
      3. 9. Creating Basic Charts
        1. 9.1. Charting 101
          1. 9.1.1. Embedded and Standalone Charts
          2. 9.1.2. The Chart Wizard
        2. 9.2. Basic Tasks with Charts
          1. 9.2.1. Moving and Resizing a Chart
          2. 9.2.2. Changing Chart Options
          3. 9.2.3. Editing and Adding to Chart Data
          4. 9.2.4. Printing Charts
            1. 9.2.4.1. Embedded charts
            2. 9.2.4.2. Standalone charts
        3. 9.3. Practical Charting
          1. 9.3.1. Charts with Multiple Series of Numbers
          2. 9.3.2. Controlling the Data Excel Plots on the X-Axis
          3. 9.3.3. Data that Uses a Date or Time Scale
          4. 9.3.4. Non-Contiguous Chart Ranges
        4. 9.4. Chart Types
          1. 9.4.1. Column
          2. 9.4.2. Bar
          3. 9.4.3. Line
          4. 9.4.4. Pie
          5. 9.4.5. XY (Scatter)
          6. 9.4.6. Area
          7. 9.4.7. Donut
          8. 9.4.8. Radar
          9. 9.4.9. Surface
          10. 9.4.10. Bubble
          11. 9.4.11. Stock
          12. 9.4.12. Cylinder, Cone, and Pyramid
    7. Three. Appendix
      1. A. Getting Help in Excel
        1. A.1. Asking Questions
          1. A.1.1. Searching Without the Web in Excel 2003
          2. A.1.2. Browsing the Help System
        2. A.2. The Office Assistant
        3. A.3. Other Help Menu Options
    8. Index
    9. About the Author
    10. Colophon
    11. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly

Product information

  • Title: Excel 2003 for Starters: The Missing Manual
  • Author(s): Matthew MacDonald
  • Release date: October 2005
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596553586