Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Office 2003 in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You!
  • Introduction
  • Who Should Read This Book?
  • What This Book Does for You
  • Can This Book Really Teach Office 2003 in 24 Hours?
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Part I. Working with Office 2003
  • Hour 1. Getting Acquainted with Office 2003
  • Part II. Processing with Word 2003
  • Hour 2. Welcome to Word 2003
  • Hour 3. Formatting with Word 2003
  • Hour 4. Managing Documents and Customizing Word 2003
  • Hour 5. Advanced Word 2003
  • Part III. Computing with Excel 2003
  • Hour 6. Understanding Excel 2003 Workbooks
  • Hour 7. Restructuring and Editing Excel 2003 Worksheets
    • Worksheet Editing
    • Inserting and Deleting
    • Working with Worksheet Ranges
    • Using Formulas
    • Recalculating Worksheets
    • Working with Functions
    • Introduction to Worksheet Formatting
    • Making Format Changes
    • Summary
    • Q&A
  • Hour 8. Using Excel 2003
  • Hour 9. Formatting Worksheets to Look Great
  • Hour 10. Charting with Excel 2003
  • Part IV. Presenting with Flair
  • Hour 11. PowerPoint 2003 Presentations
  • Hour 12. Editing and Arranging Your Presentations
  • Hour 13. PowerPoint 2003 Advanced Features
  • Hour 14. Animating Your Presentations
  • Part V. Organizing with Outlook 2003
  • Hour 15. Communicating with Outlook 2003
  • Hour 16. Planning and Scheduling with Outlook 2003
  • Part VI. Tracking with Access 2003
  • Hour 17. Access 2003 Basics
  • Hour 18. Entering and Displaying Access 2003 Data
  • Hour 19. Retrieving Your Data
  • Hour 20. Reporting with Access 2003
  • Part VII. Combining Office 2003 and the Internet
  • Hour 21. Office 2003 and the Internet
  • Hour 22. Creating Web Content with Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint
  • Part VIII. Publishing Eye-Catching Documents
  • Hour 23. Publishing with Flair Using Publisher 2003
  • Hour 24. Adding Art to Your Publications
  • Part IX. Appendixes
  • Appendix B. Business Contact Manager and Office Extras
  • Part X. Bonus Hours
  • Hour 25. Using FrontPage 2003 for Web Page Design and Creation
  • Hour 26. Managing Your Web with FrontPage

Worksheet Editing

The better you are at editing worksheets, the more Excel will enhance your productivity. You already know that entering numeric data is error-prone at its best; the faster you edit cell values accurately, the faster you complete accurate worksheets. The following sections show you the primary editing techniques in Excel and explain how you can leverage those techniques to produce more accurate worksheets.

Selecting Cells

You can select a cell, a row of cells, or a column of cells just by clicking and dragging your mouse. As you drag your mouse, Excel selects a rectangular region, called a range. You notice as you drag your mouse that Excel displays the number of rows and columns you have selected. You see the message 10R X 4C appear in the toolbar's name box as you select 10 rows and 4 columns, for example. When you release your mouse, Excel displays the selection's upper-left corner cell name inside the name box, as Figure 7.1 shows.

Figure 7.1 Drag your mouse to select multiple cells.

Not only can you select an adjacent rectangular region of cells, but you can also select nonadjacent regions. Select the first area, and then press Ctrl while you click another cell and drag the mouse to select the second region. The highlighted selection appears in both places on your screen. Remove any selection (either adjacent or nonadjacent) by clicking your mouse on any cell or by pressing an arrow key.

Editing Cell Contents

Much of your Excel editing requires that you correct numeric data entry. Of course, if you begin to type a number (or a formula) into a cell but realize you have made a mistake, press Backspace to erase your mistake or press the arrow keys to move the cell pointer back over the entry to correct something.

To Do: Correct Cell-Entry Mistakes

If you have already moved to another cell when you recognize that you have entered an error, quickly correct the mistake as follows:

1. Move the cell pointer to the cell you need to correct. (Click the cell to move the pointer there.)
2. Press F2, which is the standard Windows editing shortcut key. (If you still have your hand on the mouse, you can double-click the cell to edit the cell's contents.) You know Excel is ready for your edit when you see the cell pointer appear in the cell.
3. Use the arrow keys to move the cell pointer from the end of the cell to the mistake.
4. Press the Insert key to change from Overtype mode to Insert mode or vice versa. As with Word, Overtype mode enables you to write over existing characters, whereas Insert mode shifts all existing characters to the right as you type the correction.
5. Press Enter to anchor the correction in place.

If you want to reverse an edit, click the Undo button. To reverse an undo, click the Redo button. As you can see, after you have mastered one Office product (as you have Word), you know a lot about the other products.

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