Cells are the building blocks of an Excel spreadsheet, the little rectangles where different
columns and rows intersect. You will need to know how to work with these cells in order
to organize, calculate, and analyze the contents of your spreadsheet.
To select a cell, just click. You can even use the arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate
to different cells, instead of clicking with your mouse. To select more than one cell at
a time, click and drag, and the entire range will be highlighted.
You can enter lots of things into a cell; for example, all of mine contain text. But
cells can contain advanced properties, too, like formatting, comments, formulas, and functions.
We'll take a look at those in another series of lessons. Right now, I'd like to show you
the basics, while we work on filling out this list for an office Christmas party.
Let's start with inserting content into a cell. One of my co-workers has just confirmed
that she's attending, so I'm going to select the cell next to her name, then type an "x."
It appears in the cell and in the formula bar, where you can also enter or edit the
contents of your cell. I'm going to go ahead and change this to a capital "X" so it's consistent
with the rest of the list.
Now for the next person. Whoops, looks like I made a mistake - this person is on the list
twice, here and here. I'm just going to delete the contents of the extra row by finding the
Clear command on the Ribbon (the one with the little eraser), then choosing Clear Contents.
You can also use the Backspace or Delete keys on your keyboard.
So, let's take a look at what that did. It cleared the contents, but the row is still
there. That's okay. If you want to delete the cells all together, all you have to do
is click the Delete command instead. That actually removes the cells from the spreadsheet,
causing the cells underneath to shift up and fill in the gap. Just take care to remember
the difference between clearing the contents and deleting the cell, so you don't accidentally
remove any cells, columns, or rows that you wanted to keep.
Now I'd like to show you how to save some time by copying and pasting content. I need
to mark the rest of the people who are bringing a guest, so I'm just going to select any one
of these cells that contains an "X." Then I'm going to click Copy, select the cells
where I want the "X" to go, then Paste.
To access more paste options, open the drop-down menu here. These commands will be more useful
to advanced users who are working with cells that contain formulas or formatting.
You can also get to these commands by right-clicking a cell in the worksheet. For example, to cut
and paste, select your cells, now right-click, then choose Cut. The original content will
disappear as soon as you paste it in the new location.
There's also the drag and drop technique for moving cells from one place to another. To
drag and drop, first select your cells - for example, this column that's too far off to
the right - then place your cursor on an outside edge, where it will change to a pointer. Now
click, hold, and drag the cells where you want them to go. There, that's much better.
To mark the rest of the people who are going to attend, I'm going use one of my favorite
techniques - filling in cells with the fill handle. You can fill vertically or horizontally
by selecting the cell you want to use, then clicking and dragging the square in the bottom
right corner (that's the fill handle) over the cells you want to fill.
Now you know the basics, including insert and delete; cut, copy, and paste; drag and
drop; and using the fill handle everything you need to work with cells in Excel 2010.