Lesson 5: MORE ON THE USE OF THE SPREADSHEET
Making changes to existing spreadsheets
5.1 GETTING STARTED
Showing the Full menus and organizing the Toolbars
In case you're using a computer in a lab or some computer other than your own, you should set the options to Always show full menus, Show the Standard and formatting toolbars on two rows, List font names in their own font, and Show ScreenTips on toolbars. You may recall doing this at the beginning of all the previous lessons. If the computer you're using doesn't already have these settings, here's what you do.
Open Microsoft Excel if you have not already done so (it's probably in your Start menu > All Programs > Spreadsheets), then in the Tools menu, select Customize…, and in the dialog box that pops up, select the Options tab (Fig. 5.1)
While you're at it, check the box next to Show Standard and Formatting toolbars on two rows, List font names in their font, and Show ScreenTips on toolbars
Click the Close button when you're ready
You're going to work with a Gradebook very similar to the one you created in Lesson 4. But for the sake of uniformity, and to avoid confusion, you're going to use documents specially prepared for use with this lesson. As an exercise at the end of the tutorial you will have the opportunity to incorporate these changes into your own gradebook documents (Grade4 2002 and Grades Template) which you created when you completed Lesson 4.
You are going to make some improvements to the layout of the Gradebook, after which you will learn about the LOOKUP function as an introduction to the logic capability of Excel. At the end of the lesson you will learn how to create and modify charts of various kinds.
Open Microsoft Excel then put your Work Disk in the disk drive
Have your Data and Data Backup disks handy, of course, so that you won't forget to make a backup copy of all your work when you're done. You are going to update two documents:
• a gradebook template (called Grades Template, and stored in the Templates folder on your Work Disk);
• and an actual gradebook filled with data (this document has the name Gradebook and is
stored in the Other folder also on your Work Disk).
You will work on the Gradebook document first.
By now you should know the steps to open a document, so go ahead and Open the document Gradebook from the Other folder on your Work Disk
5.2 RECAPITULATION AND REINFORCEMENT
Lesson 4 has Tables of the most useful Excel spreadsheet commands. You might like to put a marker at the relevant pages (pp. 93 and 94) for easy reference while you follow along in this tutorial. Alternatively, you can use the chart that is included at the end of this text (inside back cover). The following sections give you an opportunity to refresh your memory of the basic spreadsheet skills you learned in Lesson 4.
Moving from cell to cell in the spreadsheet
In Excel spreadsheet terminology the cell that is selected (surrounded by a heavier border) is called the current (or active) cell.
Take a moment now to reacquaint yourself with the methods for changing the position of the currently active cell. The arrow keys move the current cell to the adjacent cell left, right, above, or below the current cell.
Press all four of the arrow keys a few times, and watch how the current cell moves around
The TAB key (forward) and the Shift-TAB command (back) also move the cursor to the adjacent cell, but only in a horizontal (right or left) direction—try these two commands now.
The RETURN key (forward) and the Shift-RETURN command (back) also move the cursor to the adjacent cell, but only in a vertical (up or down) direction—try these two commands now
Use the scroll bars when you want to move around the spreadsheet without changing the location of the current cell—try this, too
More cell selection commands
Selecting sets of cells in the spreadsheet
You often may want to highlight all the cells in the spreadsheet --in order to change a font, or copy the data to another document, for example. Here's how you do this.
Click in the empty box above the Row headers and to the left of the Column headers (Fig. 5.2)
Click anywhere to de-select the selected cells
For example, use the mouse to drag diagonally down from cell A1 to cell N23 That's one way.
Click anywhere to de-select the selected cells
Now, click in cell A1, hold down the Shift key, and click in cell N23
The same set of cells is selected. The Shift key is very useful for selecting a range of cells in Excel, or a range of text in Word, or even a range of slides in PowerPoint, which you'll learn about soon enough.
Going to a specific cell anywhere in your spreadsheet
If you are working in a large spreadsheet (consisting of thousands of cells) and you know the approximate coordinates of a cell you want to find, it is sometimes quicker to let Excel find the cell for you. The following steps will make the current cell the one that intersects Column AJ and Row 423, a location deep inside the spreadsheet and a long way from the first cell, cell A1.
From the Edit menu select Go To..., or press Ctrl-g
Type AJ423 (you can use upper case (AJ) or lower case (aj) for the column coordinate)--and click on OK, then check that cell AJ423 has been selected
Check now to see that cell AJ423 is highlighted. Remember that the first (alphabetic) coordinate (AJ) is always the column; the second (numerical) coordinate is always the Row.
Press Ctrl-g again, type A1, and click on OK
You are now back at the first cell. You could use the various movement options you read about at the beginning of this Reinforcement section. Some would be considerably slower than others, which is why you should take the time to familiarize yourself with all the different methods for moving around the spreadsheet, especially if you become a regular user of the spreadsheet.
5.3 UPDATING AN EXISTING SPREADSHEET
The Gradebook document would benefit from some cosmetic changes, such as the following.
1. There should be double lines to set off different parts of the spreadsheet. It is often useful to include double lines between headers and the data, and before summary totals.
2. It would be useful to include more formulas to increase the information content of the
spreadsheet. For example, an average for each of the sets of grades so that you and your
students can see where they stand in relation to the rest of the class on any particular
assignment or test. A highest score and lowest score for each set of grades would also be
useful.
3. It would be a good idea to lock cells containing data that you consider especially important to prevent you or someone else accidentally destroying the cell contents. It takes time to put together spreadsheet templates and other documents. Some cells will contain functions that were tricky to figure out. Locking them will make it difficult to lose your work.
4. Finally, Excel can do some of the thinking for you if you include a LOOKUP Table to figure out the grades for your students based on their percentage score at the end of a reporting period.
Let's deal with these problems one at a time. In this section you'll learn how to handle the first three improvements. Using the LOOKUP function will be dealt with later in this lesson.
Dividing up the spreadsheet to make it easier to read
After you have fixed change #1, the Gradebook document will look similar to Fig. 5.3.
On the left edge of the screen, click on Row 13 to select the entire empty row
Now you want to reduce the row height so it looks like a double line dividing Rows 12 and 14.
From the Format menu select Row/Height..., then in the Row/Height dialog box type the number 4.5 to replace the default height, and click OK
You need to create a similar dividing line after Row 23, which holds the data for the last student in the roster. This is because you are shortly going to include new formulas in Rows 25 through 27.
Reduce the height of Row 24 in the same way as you did Row 13, then Save the changes you have made
There are a couple of other ways to change the height of a row or the width of a column.
One way is to position the mouse on the line between the row or column headers at the point where you want to change the height or width. The mouse changes to a cross hair with arrows. Then hold down the mouse button and drag to change the height or width of a row or column respectively. A small box appears when you do this (try it for yourself) which tells you the height you are selecting. You already learned in Lesson 4 how to do this for column width.
Another way is to right click in a cell in the row or column whose height or width you want to change. In the pop up menu you would select to adjust row height or column width, and proceed from there. Very simple.
Adding formulas to the spreadsheet
Excel comes with many built-in functions for the spreadsheet. There are ten categories of
functions, including Math & Trig functions, Statistical functions, Logical functions, and
Financial functions, among others. These functions allow the spreadsheet to be tailored to meet the needs of myriad numerical data applications from Accounting to Zoological research.
From the Insert menu select Function... or click on the Insert Function (fx) icon in the data entry bar (Fig. 5.4) to take a look at the functions you can use
Excel displays a dialog box showing a listing of these functions (Fig. 5.5).
Scan through the list of over 200 built-in functions in the Select a Function scroll box
Depending on your math, computing, statistics, or accounting background, you might recognize many of them.
Click on the Cancel button to close the Insert Function dialog box
Experience is the best way to learn how they work. In Lesson 4 you already learned to use the Sum function, and also you created your own formula to calculate the Percentage for each student.
Calculating an average for each of the grade columns
Next, you are going to add three new functions to the Gradebook: the Average, the Max, and the Min functions. You want the value representing the average of the scores in a column to appear in a cell in Row 25 at the bottom of each of the columns where you want to calculate an average.
Fig. 5.6 illustrates how your spreadsheet will look after you have inserted the formulas in the appropriate cells.
Select cell B25, type the label Average, and press Tab twice to move to cell D25
A word about automatic calculation
When Automatic Calculation is switched on, Excel immediately carries out any calculations that are necessary when you make any changes to the data in the spreadsheet. So you don't have to remember to do this yourself. Whenever your spreadsheet is small (like the Gradebook document) you will hardly be aware that Excel is working for you like this. If your spreadsheet were large, however, you might want to wait till you tell Excel to recalculate all the formulas, because of the time it can take to carry out this task.
From the Tools menu select Options... then, in the Options dialog box, click on the Calculation tab (Fig. 5.7)
If not, click on the radio button next to Automatic and click OK
Back to the task at hand
The average is computed by adding (SUMming) the set of scores for an assignment or test, and then dividing by the number of scores in the set. You could put together this function yourself, of course. If you know what it would be for the first column of scores, write it in the box below.
....................................................................................................................................
It would look something like this: =SUM(D14:D23)/10. But since Excel has a built in Average function, you may as well use it. Here is the complete set of steps to include the Average function in your spreadsheet.
Make sure cell D25 is still selected (the cell under the first column of scores), then from the Insert menu select Function...
Select the Statistical category, then select the AVERAGE function from the list of Statistical functions and click OK
Excel pastes the function into the data entry bar towards the top of the spreadsheet window and then selects the cells in the column above the cell in which you want to put the average function.
It also presents a new dialog box (Fig. 5.8).
This Function Arguments dialog box selects the set of cells above the cell containing the new formula, explains what the Average function does, and asks you to confirm the formula by clicking the OK button. At this stage, you can change any of the cell addresses in the data entry box.
Notice that Excel has included cell D24 (an empty cell) as part of the set of cells to be averaged. This will not affect the result because Excel assumes that an empty cell is not to be included in the calculation of the function’s result.
The formula in the Data Entry bar towards the top of the spreadsheet window should read
=AVERAGE(D14:D24). Is this the exact wording of the formula on your screen?
If it is, click OK; if it is not, correct it, then click on OK
Now look at cell D25. It should contain the average for the scores in Column D. There are three problems that can occur:
1. If you see a series of pound signs (#######...) this indicates that you need to widen the
column a little so there is enough space for the average score. Either use the Format
Column/Width... option, or drag with the mouse to make the column wider. If you don't see the pound signs (#######...), all well and good.
2. If a Bad Formula prompt pops up on the screen, check the formula in the entry bar again, compare it to the Average formula above, and make any corrections.
- If the values being averaged have no decimal places, then the default number of decimal places will be zero (0). But it would be useful to show at least one decimal place. Here are the steps to change the precision of a decimal number.
From the Format menu select Cells..., then in the Format Cells dialog box (Fig. 5.9) select the Number category, and set the number of decimal places (also called precision) to 1 and click on OK
Cell D25 should still be selected
Use the mouse to point at cell D25, then hold down the mouse button and drag across to Column H (so cells D25, E25, F25, G25, and H25 will all be selected) then from the Edit menu select Fill/Right...
That's all there is to it. Adjust the column widths if you see pound signs (#) instead of averages. It's all good practice.
Time to save all that hard work (Ctrl-s)
Displaying the Highest and Lowest scores for each column of scores
Now that you know how to use the Function... option from the Insert menu, and in particular since you just used it to put the Average function in your spreadsheet, you can complete the exercise that follows. You might find it best to read over the directions before carrying them out, since they're a bit tricky at first.
Put a heading in cell B26 (Max score) and in cell B27 (Min score)
Put the Max function in cell D26 (listed as Max( ) in the Statistical category in the Insert Function dialog box)—this function is used to find the highest score for each set of scores
Drag down with the mouse to select cells D14 through D23, the cells you want included as arguments in the Max function (D14:D23), and click OK
In cell D27 put the Min function (listed as Min( ) in the Statistical category in the Insert Function dialog box) and drag with the mouse to select cells D14 thru D23 once again, then click OK
Just as you did when you worked on the Average function, copy the new Max and Min functions across to the corresponding cells under columns E thru H using the Fill/Right... option in the Edit menu
When you're done, your spreadsheet should resemble that illustrated in Fig. 5.10 on the next page.
Locking (protecting) important cells
Excel allows you to protect the contents of a cell by locking or protecting it. This means that neither you nor anyone else will be able to change the contents unless you remove the protection. This feature is useful to prevent accidental loss of data, and will also help prevent others from interfering with the data you have collected.
Since all the data in a Gradebook are important, it would be a good idea to protect
everything. The process to do this is the same as if you were protecting a single cell, or a few cells, except that you select every cell.
Press Ctrl-a to Select All the cells in the spreadsheet
From the Tools menu select Protection/Protect sheet..., then click on OK in the dialog box that pops up on the screen
Notice that you have the option to include a password to remove protection (unlock the locked cells). Now all the cells in the Gradebook are unable to be changed unless you select Unlock Cells from the Option menu. If you wanted to lock just certain cells you would first select the cell or cells and turn on the Protection tool for just that cell or those cells.
If you try to change a locked cell, you will get a warning dialog box (Fig. 5.11) telling you that you can’t change anything unless you first remove the protection.
remove the protection on cells in order to make updates.
Time to save the changes you have made to the Gradebook (ctrl-s). This should be becoming instinctive for you by now.
Dividing the spreadsheet into panes
Often a spreadsheet, or any type of Excel document for that matter, will be too long or too wide to view all at once on the screen. Excel has a useful feature called panes.
You can split any window horizontally or vertically into sections. This will allow you, while working or scrolling in one section, to keep the other section(s) fixed in place.
To see how this works, from the Window menu select Split...
Excel immediately divides up the worksheet into four sections, using a vertical and a horizontal split bar (Fig. 5.12).
Try this for practice— position the mouse arrow on either the vertical or horizontal split bar (you'll get a cross-hair cursor) and hold down the button while you drag across or down the screen
Notice how easy it is to compare different parts of a spreadsheet in this way. The pane or
splitting screen feature is available in all Excel applications, but you probably will find that you use it most frequently while working with spreadsheets, especially large ones. Removing panes
From the Window menu select Remove Split
Your spreadsheet should be restored to its original format.
5.4 MORE CHANGES TO THE APPEARANCE OF THE GRADEBOOK
SPREADSHEET
In Lesson 4 you learned how to change the size of columns and rows. Now you are going to remove the grid lines, and put borders around some cells.
Putting a border around a cell or set of cells
You may want to put a box around the Class info in cells A4 through B6. This will make the information stand out in a report. Let’s try this now.
Drag across cells A4 through B6 to select the set of Class info
The cells of the spreadsheet are still protected, and you’ll have to unprotect them before you can make any changes to the cells.
From the Tools menu, select Protection/Unprotect sheet, then from the Format menu select Cells... to bring up the Format Cells dialog box Click on the Border tab in the dialog box (Fig. 5.13)
As you can see, the Border dialog box gives you various options.
Click on the Outline preset icon and click on OK, then from the Tools menu select Protection/Protect Sheet... and click OK to restore protection to the sheet’s cells
As you can see, the Class Info now has a border around it, setting it off nicely (Fig. 5.14).
Grid lines and column and row headers are essential when developing a spreadsheet or when one is updating the data. But for reporting purposes it may look better, perhaps even easier to read, if they are removed. Try this for yourself.
From the Tools menu select Options... to see the Options dialog box (Fig. 5.15) and click on the View tab to select the View options
In the Window options section of the dialog box, remove the check mark in the boxes next to Gridlines, and Row & column headers, then click on OK
Practice makes perfect
Open the Templates folder on your Work Disk and load the Grades Template document onto the Desktop
Now you’re going to go ahead and make the same changes to the Grades template that you just made to the Gradebook document. You’ll update the Grades Template, except you won’t transfer any of the actual data from the Gradebook document to the Grades Template spreadsheet—you’ll just update the functions and other formatting features in the same way as you did with the Gradebook document.
What you’re doing is making sure that the Grades Template spreadsheet has the same format and functions as the Gradebook document so that you can use it with other classes you may have in the future.
The directions following Fig. 5.16 will help you in this reinforcement task. Hint: Use Copy and Paste to complete many of the tasks.
- As illustrated in Fig. 5.16 above, tile the two spreadsheets so you can see them side by side on the screen. Here’s how to do this.
From the Window menu select Arrange...
The Tiled option is selected by default, so click on OK
- It will be easier to complete these tasks if you bring back the gridlines and the column and row headers in the Gradebook document.
Click anywhere on the Gradebook window to make sure the Gradebook is the active window
From the Tools menu select Options..., then in the Options dialog box click on the View tab
In the Window options section put the check mark back in the boxes next to Gridlines and Row & column headers, then click on OK
3. If necessary, step again through the section you have just completed (5.4 MORE
CHANGES TO THE LOOK OF THE SPREADSHEET) completing the same tasks in
the Grades Template document that you just completed for the Gradebook document.
Be sure to save the Grades Template when you have finished making the changes.
When you have finished updating the Grades Template, from the index in the Window menu select the document Gradebook so as to make this once again the current document on the Desktop
It might be a good idea to take a break at this point in the tutorial. If you are unable to finish everything in one sitting, you should save the Gradebook and the Grades Template documents on your Data disk and your Data Backup disk before shutting down the computer. You should know how to do this by now, but if you need help with this task, the directions are at the end of the lesson.
5.5 USING THE LOOKUP FUNCTION
The concept of the LOOKUP function
The spreadsheet LOOKUP function is a little tricky to understand, so stand up, step back from the keyboard for a while and stretch some of those muscles that are stiff from sitting through the first part of this tutorial. When you are ready, read quietly through this section to understand how the LOOKUP function works.
The LOOKUP function is a simple logic tool that you can use to automatically assign grades to your students based on the numbers in the Percentage column of your spreadsheet (column L).
You are probably aware by now that if you have the automatic calculation option selected, Excel carries out function-based calculations as you make changes in a spreadsheet. Thus, once you have programmed Excel to LOOKUP the grades, the system will automatically update each student's Letter Grade, along with Totals and Percentages, even as you enter new scores for assignments, homework, tests, and so forth.
Thus, with no effort on your part, you will be able to keep students informed at any time
during the semester as to exactly what grade they currently carry for the class.
Such information is invaluable. Knowledge is power. When a student is aware of an
inadequate grade early on, extra effort can be applied to improve the situation before it is too late. It is surprising how often students are unaware of how they stand with regard to their progress through a course. The teacher who fails to provide adequate feedback when directing students in their pursuit of academic objectives deserves at least some of the blame if students do not progress as well as they should. When students are kept apprised at all times of where they stand they tend to take more responsibility for the outcomes of their efforts--or lack of them.
Fig. 5.17 illustrates the LOOKUP Table that will be the outcome of this exercise.
Does that make sense? An example will help. Suppose the student's percentage is 87%. Well, in the table above the highest value in the first column that is still less than or equal to 87% is 80%, is it not? 70%, 60%, and 0% are less than or equal to 87%, but they are not the highest value that is less than or equal to 87%. So 80% is the value that Excel will select from the Range column in its LOOKUP of the table. The letter grade from the corresponding cell in the second column--in this case a "B"--will then be posted to the GRADE column of the gradebook proper.
Once you understand the concept of "the highest value less than or equal to another number", the rest is easy. Here are a few student percentages to try for yourself. Complete the exercise that follows.
From Fig. 5.17, column 1,
what is the highest value less than or equal to 45%? _____________
what is the highest value less than or equal to 67%? _____________
what is the highest value less than or equal to 59%? _____________
what is the highest value less than or equal to 100%? _____________
The answers are in the footnote at the bottom of the page.1
There are two parts to incorporating the Excel LOOKUP function into your Gradebook. First you must build the LOOKUP Table into the spreadsheet. Second you must enter into the appropriate cells the LOOKUP function that will instruct Excel to carry out the LOOKUP operation.
Building the LOOKUP Table
You’ll need both the Gradebook and the Grades Template spreadsheets open to complete the remainder of this tutorial, so if these documents are not on the desktop, open them both from the Work Disk before proceeding
Next, from the Window menu select the Gradebook document if it is not already the active window on the screen
Since all the cells are protected in the Gradebook document, you’ll need to unlock them first in order to make changes.
From the Tools menu select Protection/Unprotect sheet...
Now, let’s build the Lookup table that’s illustrated in Fig. 5.17. The first column of the
LOOKUP Table (the lookup vector) has a set of numbers which Excel calls the lookup_vector. A vector is just another name for a single column of numbers. This is the set of values against which Excel compares the data from a selected cell in the Gradebook.
Let’s create this column (vector) of the LOOKUP table first.
Select cell O1 and type the column header Range (%) then press Enter to move down to cell O2
Type 0 (the number zero (0) that is) in cell O2 and press Enter to move down to cell O3
1 0%, 60%, 0%, 100%
Type 0.6 (this is equivalent to 60% in mathematical terms) and press Enter again to select cell O4
Type 0.7 and press Enter to make O5 the current cell, then type 0.8 and press Enter once more
Type 0.9 in cell O6 and press Enter to make O7 the current cell, then type 1 (this is equivalent to 100% in mathematical terms) and click on the Accept (
) button
) button Now you must change the cell attributes of this first column of the table so as to display the numbers in percent form (with the percent (%) symbol). You did this before in Lesson 4, so the following is just a reminder of how to do this.
Drag down to highlight all 6 of the scale values from cell O2 to cell O7
In the Format tool bar click on the % (Percent) symbol to change the format of the decimal numbers to percentages
That completes the first column of the table. Now for the second column with the letter grades--what Excel calls the result vector. These are the values which Excel returns to the gradebook cell in which is the formula which calls the LOOKUP function.
Select cell P1 and type the header Grade (A-E), then press Enter to move down to cell P2
Type the letter E (or whatever you would use for a failing grade) and press Enter to go to cell P3
Type a D and move down to cell P4, then type a C and move down to cell P5
Type a B and move on down to cell P6, then type an A and move down to cell P7
Finally type an A again in cell P7 and click on the Accept () button
) button The table is now almost ready for use. A couple of cosmetic adjustments will improve its
appearance.
Select columns O and P by dragging across the letters O and P at the top of the columns
In the Format toolbar select Center alignment, then in the Format menu select Column/Width and make the width 10
Your LOOKUP Table should now look like Fig. 5.17 above. When you are done, don't forget to save all your hard work before proceeding with the tutorial.
Using the clipboard to copy cells from one document to another
Now that you have completed the task of building the LOOKUP Table in the Gradebook
document you should update the template document Grades Template along the same lines. The easiest way to do this is to copy the relevant cells from the Gradebook document into the Grades Template document using Copy and Paste.
First you must copy the relevant cells (those used for the LOOKUP Table) from the Gradebook document to the clipboard. Here are the steps.
Select cell O1 and drag down diagonally across the LOOKUP Table to cell P7
Press Ctrl-c to copy the LOOKUP Table to the clipboard
Now you must switch to the Grades Template document.
Select Grades Template from the list in the Window menu to make it the active document on the Desktop (or click on the Grades Template window on your screen)
Click on cell O1 to make it the current cell
Press Ctrl-v to paste the LOOKUP Table from the clipboard to the Grades Template
Notice that the width of columns O and P in the Grades Template is the default width of 13, which is wider than you need for the table.
In the Grades Template window, change the width of columns O and P to 9, then save your work (Ctrl-s) once more
Entering the LOOKUP function into the spreadsheet
Recall that the LOOKUP function instructs Excel to look up a table that you have built and come back with a corresponding result to store in the spreadsheet proper. Still confused? Maybe the following will help you figure it out.
The LOOKUP function has the following parts to it:
=LOOKUP(lookup _value,lookup_vector,result_vector)
Let us examine each part of this function in order to understand how it works.
· As you know, the "=" symbol at the start of the function simply tells Excel that a function is in the cell, as opposed to regular data such as numbers or labels.
· The word LOOKUP tells Excel the task it has to carry out (look something up in a list).
· lookup_value, lookup_vector, and result_vector are variables (control values) that Excel uses when it is looking up the table:
Ø the lookup_value is either a number or text (such as a person's name); this value will be the "key" that Excel will use as it searches through the cells in the lookup_vector or column;
Ø the lookup_vector is the column of cells that Excel has to check in its lookup of the table (column O in Fig. 5.16);
Ø the result_vector is the column of cells in which Excel will find the result of the LOOKUP operation.
Still confused? Maybe an example will help you understand how the Lookup function works. It will be easiest for you to follow the next exercise if you have an actual gradebook to work with.
Begin by switching back to the Gradebook document on the Desktop (use the Window menu for this or click on the Gradebook document on your screen)
As you follow along, make sure you have the LOOKUP Table (columns O and P) showing on the screen, as well as the last two columns of the gradebook document (columns L and N) containing the PCNT and GRADE data.
Scroll over as far as necessary until you have columns L through P showing on the screen with the top of the LOOKUP Table (Row 1) at the top of the screen
Select cell N14
This is the first cell in the GRADE column. You want Excel to use the LOOKUP function to figure out the letter grades for each student and display it in this column (Column N). So this is where the LOOKUP function must go.
From the Insert menu select Function... or click on the Insert Function icon (fx) in the data entry bar towards the top of the spreadsheet window
In the Insert Function dialog box select the Lookup & Reference category, then scroll down and click on LOOKUP in the Select a Function: scroll box, and click on OK
This brings up the Select Arguments dialog box (Fig. 5.18).
The entry bar now contains the basic LOOKUP function, ready for you to add the three (3) arguments for the LOOKUP function—the lookup_value, the lookup_vector, and the
result_vector. Excel also presents a dialog box for you to enter these arguments.
Entering the lookup value in the dialog box
Notice that the cursor is positioned for you to enter the first parameter of the LOOKUP function (the lookup_value). You must select the cell which contains this lookup_value. Cell L14 contains the Percentage for the first student. Well, each student's Percentage will determine the grade, so the percentage is what we want Excel to use to find the letter grade from the Lookup Table.
Click on cell L14
Excel enters this cell's coordinates as the first of the LOOKUP parameters, the lookup_value. You are telling Excel that it must use this first student's percentage as the value to check against the first column of the LOOKUP Table (O2 through O7).
Entering in the lookup_vector
Cells O2 through O7 are the lookup_vector for the LOOKUP Table.
Click in the second data entry box in the LOOKUP dialog box, the lookup_vector entry area, so you can enter the cells which contain the lookup_vector
Use the mouse to drag down from cell O2 to cell O7 in the spreadsheet
Notice that Excel fills in the second of the LOOKUP parameters, the lookup_vector. Check this in the Data entry bar, too.
Entering the result_vector
Cells P2 through P7 are the result_vector for the LOOKUP Table.
Click in the third box in the LOOKUP dialog box so you can specify the cells that contain the result_vector
Now drag down from cell P2 to cell P7 in the spreadsheet
Notice, once again, that Excel fills in the third of the LOOKUP parameters, the result_vector.
Check the data entry bar to see that the LOOKUP function is now complete Finally, click on OK
Applying the function
Excel will look for "the highest value in cells O2 through O7 that is less than or equal to the student's percentage".
Take a look at cell N14 now and see if it contains the correct grade according to the value in cell L14 (the percentage for this first student)
So, once the LOOKUP function has located the correct cell in column 1 of the Lookup Table (the Range column), all that remains is for Excel to make a note of the letter grade that is in the corresponding cell in column 2 of the table (the Grade column), and copy of that grade into cell N14.
Copying the LOOKUP function into the rest of the GRADE column
The first student's grade is taken care of. Now you must copy this function from cell N14 down to all the other cells in the GRADE column (column N).
If you want to try and do this on your own (you will need to understand the concept of
Absolute and Relative references!), go ahead. If you are successful you can skip the rest of this sub-section. If you need help, read on to follow the steps to Fill down the LOOKUP function to the remaining cells in column N.
First you must make a small change to the function itself. You also need to put your thinking cap on, because if this is the first time you've used a Lookup function, it can get mighty confusing.
You may recall learning about Relative and Absolute cell references in Lesson 4. The
function =LOOKUP(L14,O2:O7,P2:P7) will work fine for the first student, but if you copy it to the other cells as is, Excel will assume that all the cell references in the function are relative to the cell into which they are being copied, and will therefore adjust them accordingly.
But the references to the LOOKUP Table (O2:O7 and P2:P7) are absolute references--they must not change) because the LOOKUP Table will always be found in these particular cells.
So you must tell Excel to leave these LOOKUP Table references unchanged when copying the LOOKUP function into the other cells in column N. The reference to the lookup_value (cell L14 for the first student), is relative, and should change for each student. So the reference for the second student will be L15, and so on.
Here is a reminder of the steps to tell Excel to treat certain cell references as Absolute
References.
Click on cell N14
The LOOKUP function is spelled out in full in the Data Entry bar at the top of the screen.
Click immediately before the reference to cell O2 in the function in the Data entry bar at the top of the spreadsheet
Now put a dollar ($) sign in front of every reference (rows and columns) to the LOOKUP Table (8 $ signs in all) as illustrated in Fig. 5.19
Click the Accept button () to accept the LOOKUP function into cell N14
) to accept the LOOKUP function into cell N14 Here now are the steps to copy the function from cell N14 by Filling Down into the remaining cells of the GRADE column (Column N).
Make sure the current cell is still cell N14 Drag down column N from cell N14 to the last cell in the column that contains a percentage (cell N23) From the Edit menu select Fill/Down...
Excel now takes a moment to complete the copy operation, which includes figuring out the grade for each student based on the function that is now embedded in each cell of the GRADE column. And you should see the correct letter grade for each student in column N.
While you have the cells in column N highlighted, center the grades in the
Column
Protect all the cells in your spreadsheet (Tools menu) since you don't want to lose all your hard work
Save the Gradebook document once again (Ctrl-s)
If you need to think about this a little more, go carefully back over what you have just done. Once you have a clear idea of how the LOOKUP function works, you and your students will be able to apply it in myriad situations when you build spreadsheets of your own.
Practice makes perfect
Your task now is to switch to the Grades Template document again, and add the LOOKUP function there, too. Since you do not have any data in the template (or at least you shouldn’t have!), your LOOKUP function will produce a column of meaningless grades (all E’s!) in the GRADE column, just as was the case when you built a function into the PCNT column of the template document when you were working on Lesson 4. This is no problem, because the data will be relevant when you use the spreadsheet with an actual class and enter meaningful sets of scores.
You either can add the functions to the Grades Template document the long way, by
repeating all the steps you just carried out for the Gradebook document, or you can use the Copy (ctrl-c) function as you did a short while ago to copy the LOOKUP Table from the one document to the other.
Don't forget to save the changes you have made to the Grades Template spreadsheet
5.6 CREATING CHARTS BASED ON THE SPREADSHEET DATA
The concept of using charts
A spreadsheet user can benefit from charts based on the numbers stored in its rows and columns of cells. Charts enable the user to visualize the data. "A picture," as you know, "is worth a thousand words." By the same token, a well-designed chart can help you make sense of a thousand numbers. Charts are also useful to increase the impact of any oral or written presentation.
For this exercise you’ll open a new spreadsheet document so you can practice creating
charts.
Open the document Charts which is in the Other folder on your Work Disk Your spreadsheet should look like Fig. 5.20.
Charts are easy to create using the Excel spreadsheet. You may create a chart from information gathered from most any spreadsheet. There are dozens of different types of charts that you can create.
Creating a bar chart
The values represented in a chart are called a data series. In the chart you are about to create, the number of students in the various grade ranges will be represented by bars. The chart may have a title and a legend which has the names related to the data series.
Most charts, except pie charts, have axes which are the perpendicular lines along which the data is plotted or displayed. The Y axis is the vertical axis, which shows the number of students in each grade range. The X axis is the horizontal axis, which shows the grade range. First you have to designate the part of the spreadsheet that you want included in the chart. This is called the chart range.
Select by dragging and highlighting from cell A1 through F2, then click in the Standard tool bar on the Chart Wizard button (Fig. 5.21)
Take a few moments to look over the variety of charts and options that Excel offers.
Click on several of the chart types (Bar, Line, Pie, etc.)
To see how a chart will eventually look, click on the button that tells you to "Press and hold to view sample"
When you have checked out several of the chart types, select the first Chart type: called a Column chart
In the Chart sub-type section of the dialog box, click on the fourth of the seven samples (the clustered column with a 3-D visual effect—see Fig. 5.22 above), then click on the Next> button
Step 2 in the Chart Wizard prompts you for the Data Range (the set of cells that contain the data you want to use for the chart). You have already selected the data range by dragging across the set of cells containing the data for the chart.
Click on the Next> button
Step 3 allows you to enter a title for the chart, as well as descriptions for each axis of the chart. These are your next tasks.
For the chart title enter: Grades for Semester 1, Grade 4
In the X axis box enter: Grades
In the Z axis box (it’s a 3-D chart) enter: Number of Students
Click on Next> to proceed to Step 4 of the Chart Wizard
Finally, click on the Finish button to accept the default of saving the chart as
part of the Charts worksheet
Immediately Excel creates the chart (Fig. 5.23) and displays it on the screen.
You can easily make changes to the chart if you want. Try this now.
Slide the Chart toolbar off to the side if it’s sitting on top of your chart
Right click on any piece of the chart (title, any other text, the bars, the chart background, the gridlines, the chart area as a whole, the legend, the axis numbers or letters)
Notice the handles that immediately appear around the object you've selected. Also notice that each part of the chart has different options in its pop up menu.
Select an option from the menu that pops up and interact with the dialog box to change fonts, colors and so forth
Try several variations on the look and feel of the chart—experiment; you can always undo anything you don't like
When you're done practicing, save a copy of the bar chart (use Save As) with the name Bar Chart
Creating a pie chart
Left click near the edge of the Bar chart to select it, then from the Edit menu select Cut (Ctrl-x) or hit the Del(ete) key
Creating a pie chart will be straightforward if you just successfully completed the bar chart. You will use the same set of data for the next exercise.
Drag again from cell A1 through F2
In the Standard tool bar click on the Chart Wizard button again
Select Pie for the Chart type: in the Chart Wizard dialog box
Now select the Second of the Pie chart sub-types (Fig. 5.24), and click on Next>
You already selected the chart source data so click on Next> again
Enter the chart title: Class Grades and click on Next>
There’s nothing to change in Step 4, since you want the chart to be saved with the spreadsheet.
Click on Finish and click in cell A1 to clean up the screen
If all went well, your pie chart is completed and should like the one in Fig. 5.25.
When you're done experimenting, save a copy of the pie chart with the name Pie Chart, then close the spreadsheet by selecting Close from the File menu
5.7 PRINTING THE UPDATED SPREADSHEET
Selecting a section of the spreadsheet for printing
From the Window menu select the spreadsheet document Gradebook
You're going to print out the gradebook twice. When you first print out your Gradebook, you do not want the LOOKUP Table to appear on the printed report. You want to print only that block of cells that contains the data pertaining to student grades for the semester. This includes columns A through N and Rows 1 through 27. The steps that follow will show you how to select just this block of cells for printing.
Make sure the printer is turned on, and the paper set up correctly
Next you must select (highlight) the range of cells that you want to print.
Drag down diagonally from cell A1 to cell N27 (this will include the Average, Max Score, and Min Score summary lines at the bottom of the Gradebook), but not the cells with the LOOKUP table
From the File menu select Page Setup and make sure you have the option for Landscape orientation selected for the spreadsheet and click OK
From the File menu select Print
Your spreadsheet has just one page. Here are the steps to print just that section of the spreadsheet that you have selected.
In the Print what section, click on the radio button next to Selection
If you wanted to check on how many pages there are in a spreadsheet before printing, you would select Page View from the Window menu, and zoom out as you did earlier in this tutorial by clicking the zoom tool in the Standard toolbar. This will enable you to figure how many pages you need to select in the Print dialog box.
Notice also that in the Print dialog box you can opt to Preview the worksheet before printing.
Click on Preview now
The printed spreadsheet will look better if you remove column and row headers as well as the cell gridlines.
Click on Setup... at the top of the Preview window, then click on the Sheet tab
Click to remove the check mark from the boxes next to Gridlines and Row and column headers, then click on OK
Notice how different the spreadsheet looks without the gridlines.
Save your gradebook one more time, then click on the Print button at the top of the Preview window to print out a hardcopy of your gradebook
Now print a second copy of the Gradebook document, but this time include the Lookup Table, along with the gridlines and row and column headers
If you are completing the lesson for a class at school, hand in both copies of the spreadsheet to your instructor
