Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual By Matthew MacDonald ............................................... Publisher: Pogue Press/O'Reilly Pub Date: October 2005 ISBN: 0-596-10154-6 Pages: 396 Table of Contents | Index 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 popularExcel: 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. Excel for Starters: The Missing Manual By Matthew MacDonald ............................................... Publisher: Pogue Press/O'Reilly Pub Date: October 2005 ISBN: 0-596-10154-6 Pages: 396 Table of Contents | Index Copyright The Missing Credits About the Author About the Creative Team The Missing Manual Series Introduction What Excel Does About This Book About MissingManuals.com Part One: Worksheet Basics Chapter 1. Creating and Navigating Worksheets Section 1.1. Creating a Basic Worksheet Section 1.2. Editing Data Section 1.3. Navigating in Excel Section 1.4. Saving Files Section 1.5. Opening Files Chapter 2. Adding Information to Worksheets Section 2.1. Adding Different Types of Data Section 2.2. Quick Ways to Add Data Chapter 3. Moving Data Around a Worksheet Section 3.1. Selecting Cells Section 3.2. Moving Cells Around Section 3.3. Adding and Moving Columns or Rows Chapter 4. Formatting Worksheets Section 4.1. Formatting Cell Values Section 4.2. Formatting Cell Appearance Section 4.3. Smart Ways to Apply Formatting Chapter 5. Managing Worksheets and Workbooks Section 5.1. Worksheets and Workbooks Section 5.2. Find and Replace Section 5.3. Spell Check Chapter 6. Viewing and Printing Worksheets Section 6.1. Controlling Your View Section 6.2. Printing Part Two: Worksheet Power Chapter 7. Building Basic Formulas Section 7.1. Creating a Basic Formula Section 7.2. Formula Shortcuts Section 7.3. Copying Formulas Chapter 8. Templates Section 8.1. Understanding Templates Section 8.2. Starting from a Template Section 8.3. Creating Templates Chapter 9. Creating Basic Charts Section 9.1. Charting 101 Section 9.2. Basic Tasks with Charts Section 9.3. Practical Charting Section 9.4. Chart Types Part Three: Appendix Appendix A. Getting Help in Excel Section A.1. Asking Questions Section A.2. The Office Assistant Section A.3. Other Help Menu Options Colophon Index Copyright © 2006 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O'Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O'Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (safari.oreilly.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or [email protected]. Printing History: October 2005: First Edition. The O'Reilly logo and The Missing Manual are registered trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. Pogue Press, the Missing Manual logo, For Starters, and "Exactly what you need to get started" are trademarks of O'Reilly Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed are capitalized. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained in it. ISBN: 0-596-10154-6 [M] The Missing Credits About the Author About the Creative Team The Missing Manual Series About the Author Matthew MacDonald is an author, educator, and programmer extraordinaire. He's the author of over a dozen books about .NET programming, including Beginning ASP.NET: Novice to Professional (Apress), The Book of VB .NET (No Starch), and Microsoft Visual Basic.NET Programmer's Cookbook (Microsoft Press). In a dimly remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoretical physics. About the Creative Team Emily Moore (editor) Emily Moore has authored or edited fourteen books to date (including this fine tome). She lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and daughter. Email: [email protected]. Sarah Milstein (editor) is O'Reilly's senior editor for Missing Manuals and co-author of Google: The Missing Manual. She's thrilled to have learned the Excel status bar trick described on Section 3.2. Email: [email protected]. Peter Meyers (editor, original edition) is pleased to report that, now that he understands Excel's Lognormdist function, he'll never actually have to use it. At O'Reilly Media, he works as an editor on the Missing Manual series. Peter lives with his wife and cat in New York City. Email: [email protected]. Michele Filshie (copy editor) is O'Reilly's assistant editor for Missing Manuals and editor of four Personal Trainers (another O'Reilly series). Before turning to the world of computer-related books, Michele was all literature, all the time, and spent many happy years at Black Sparrow Press. Email: [email protected]. Michael Schmalz (tech editor, previous edition) thinks Excel is the coolest thing since the Color Computer III. He's the author of Integrating Excel and Access (O'Reilly) and has tech-reviewed several books for O'Reilly. Email: [email protected]. Rose Cassano (cover illustration) has worked as an independent designer and illustrator for 20 years. Assignments have ranged from the nonprofit sector to corporate clientele. She lives in beautiful Southern Oregon, grateful for the miracles of modern technology that make working there a reality. Email: [email protected]. Web: www.rosecassano.com. The Missing Manual Series Missing Manuals are witty, superbly written guides to computer products that don't come with printed manuals (which is just about all of them). Each book features a handcrafted index; cross-references to specific page numbers (not just "see Chapter 14"); and RepKover, a detached-spine binding that lets the book lie perfectly flat without the assistance of weights or cinder blocks. Recent and upcoming titles include: Access for Starters: The Missing Manual by Kate J. Chase AppleScript: The Missing Manual by Adam Goldstein AppleWorks 6: The Missing Manual by Jim Elferdink and David Reynolds Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald Dreamweaver 8: The Missing Manual by David Sawyer McFarland eBay: The Missing Manual by Nancy Conner Excel: The Missing Manual by Matthew MacDonald FileMaker Pro 8: The Missing Manual by Geoff Coffey and Susan Prosser FrontPage 2003: The Missing Manual by Jessica Mantaro GarageBand 2: The Missing Manual by David Pogue Google: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by Sarah Milstein and Rael Dornfest Home Networking: The Missing Manual by Scott Lowe iLife '05: The Missing Manual by David Pogue iMovie HD & iDVD 5: The Missing Manual by David Pogue iPhoto 5: The Missing Manual by David Pogue iPod & iTunes: The Missing Manual, Third Edition by J.D. Biersdorfer iWork '05: The Missing Manual by Jim Elferdink Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition by David Pogue Office 2004 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual by Mark H. Walker and Franklin Tessler Photoshop Elements 4: The Missing Manual by Barbara Brundage QuickBooks: The Missing Manual by Bonnie Biafore Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Tiger Edition by David Pogue and Adam Goldstein Windows XP for Starters: The Missing Manual by David Pogue Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by David Pogue Windows XP Pro: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by David Pogue, Craig Zacker, and Linda Zacker Introduction What Excel Does About This Book About MissingManuals.com Most people don't need much convincing to use Excel, Microsoft's premier spreadsheet program. That's because Excel comes pre-installed on a lot of computers, making it the obvious choice for millions of number crunchers. Despite its wide use, however, few people know where to find Excel's most impressive features or why they'd want to use them in the first place.