Introduction to Office Packages I-93
Command Button Description
Italic
Italicizes the selected text.
Underline Underlines the selected text.
Highlight Highlights the selected text.
Font Color Changes font colour of the selected text.
Paragraph Formatting
In addition to desired portions of text, you can also format the entire paragraph at once. Paragraph
formatting includes ‘alignment’ and ‘indentation’ operations. These operations are performed to give
a well-defined ‘structure’ to the document. This gives a professional look to the document. To align or
indent a paragraph, follow the steps given below:
1. Select the paragraph to be aligned or indented.
2. Use buttons on the Formatting toolbar to align or indent the paragraph. Some of the buttons used
in aligning or indenting paragraph are given in Table 5.3.
Table 5.3 Paragraph Formatting
Command Button Description
Align Left
Left aligns the paragraph or selected text.
Center Centre aligns the paragraph or selected text.
Align Right Right aligns the paragraph or the selected text.
Justify Justifies the paragraph or selected text.
Decrease Indent Decreases the indentation of the selected paragraph.
Increase Indent Increases the indentation of the selected paragraph.
Column Formatting
You can format the text in newsletter-style columns flowing from one column to the next on the same
page. To do this, follow the steps given below:
1. Switch to the Print Layout view.
2. Select the text you want to format in columns. You can select the entire document or a part of the
document.
3. Choose Columns from the Format menu to display the Columns dialog box (Figure 5.2).
4. Select the desired option under Presets section or specify a value in the Number of columns box
indicating the number of columns you want to split the text.
5. Select the Line between checkbox if you want the columns to be separated by lines.
6. By default, all the columns are of equal width and have equal spacing in between. If you want the
columns with different widths and spacing, clear the Equal column width checkbox and specify
the desired values.
Table 5.2 (Continued)
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I-94 Computer Fundamentals
7. Select the Whole document option from the Apply to drop-down list box if you want to apply the
changes to the entire document. In case you want to apply changes from the current cursor position
onwards, select This point forward option.
8. Click the OK button to apply the changes and close the Columns dialog box.
8. What do you mean by a spreadsheet? What are its features?
Ans: ‘Spreadsheet’ is computer-based program that provides a better alternation of increasing accu-
racy and (saving time) to manual way of carrying out mathematical calculations and keeping records. The
records may be of different types such as related to accounting information, daily expenses and salary
sheet. Before the advent of spreadsheet, such records and calculations were implemented in notebooks
and registers and it was very much time-consuming. However, with the advancement of computer into our
daily lives, spreadsheets became the popular form of maintaining records by replacing the manual method.
A spreadsheet is used to organize information in a rectangular grid that consists of columns (designated
by letters) and rows (designated by numbers). This enables users to organize and examine data in much effi-
cient way. Apart from this, spreadsheet has got many other features. Some of these features are as follows:
• Ease of use: The spreadsheet programs are easy to learn and use. To learn spreadsheet, formal
training is not required.
• Time-saving: There are many inbuilt functions and formulae in spreadsheet, which save our time
in performing calculations.
• Error-free: Most of the calculations are performed by the computer, so there is less possibility of
error unless we enter wrong data.
• Help option: The spreadsheet programs come with the built-in help option that can be queried to
find any functions or any other feature.
• Sorting: Spreadsheet provides the option of sorting data that enable users to sort data in both
ascending and descending orders.
• Table and graphics: The spreadsheet programs support the use of tables and graphics, which
helps in better understanding of the text.
• Password protected: The work done in spreadsheet programs can be made password protected.
This feature increases the security of the data.
Figure 5.2 Columns Dialog Box
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Introduction to Office Packages I-95
• What-if analysis: This feature of spreadsheet allows automatic recalculation of operation when
some data are modified.
• Easy formatting: This feature allows formatting the text by changing the font, font style, etc. and
increasing the visual clarity of the text.
9. What is MS Excel? Explain the components of Excel window. What are various uses of
MS Excel?
Ans: ‘Microsoft Excel’ (MS Excel) is a spreadsheet application that allows a user to perform various
calculations, estimations and formulations with data. It also provides various facilities such as inserting
charts, creating graphs and analysing situations and helps in decision making. It is one of the best man-
agement tools. Excel provides flexibility to the user to manipulate the data without worrying about the
size of the data for general applications. Excel 2003 permits a wide selection of options to be used in the
creation of worksheets and allows user to create an impressive spreadsheet presentation.
MS Excel Window
Whenever MS Excel is opened, the main screen of the application appears. This main window contains
many parts, which are described as follows (Figure 5.3):
• Title bar: It is located at the top of the application window, which displays the name of the
application and the active workbook.
• Menu bar: The Menu Bar is present below the Title Bar, which contains different menus that have
all the options, functions and commands for the entire MS Excel application. By default, Micro-
soft Office Excel 2003 contains nine menus, each of which has an associated pull-down menu.
For example, the File menu contains commands to open, create and print a workbook.
• Toolbar: It is positioned just below the Menu Bar. Toolbar contains buttons and menus or the
combination of both, which allows you to perform many tasks in a single-click. By default, Stan-
dard and Formatting toolbars are displayed in the Excel environment. Additional toolbars such as
Formula Auditing and Chart toolbars can be added by right-clicking on the Menu Bar and selecting
the desired toolbar(s) from the Pop-up menu that appear.
• Name box and formula bar: Generally, the Name Box and Formula Bar are located below the
Toolbars. The Name Box displays the name of the active cell or selected range and can be used
to name a range of cells. The drop-down menu next to the Name Box is used to locate previously
named regions. The Formula Bar displays the contents of the selected cell in the worksheet.
It includes text, numbers, formulae and functions. One can also edit the contents of a cell from the
formula bar.
• Worksheet tabs and scrolling buttons: Worksheet tabs appear at the bottom of the Excel window.
Each tab represents a single sheet. Worksheet tabs allow moving from one worksheet to another
within the same workbook. The scrolling buttons that appear to the left of the worksheet tab allow
a user to scroll more quickly and easily through the sheets. A user can rename a sheet by right-
clicking on the worksheet and selecting Rename from the Pop-up menu that appears.
• Status bar: The Status bar is located at the bottom of the Excel window and displays informa-
tion about a selected command or an operation in progress. When a command is selected, the
left side of the status bar briefly describes the command. It also indicates operations in progress,
such as opening or saving a file, copying cells or recording a macro. The right side of the status
bar shows whether keys such as CAPS LOCK, SCROLL LOCK or NUM LOCK are turned on.
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I-96 Computer Fundamentals
• Worksheet and workbook: Worksheet is the area on a spreadsheet in which all the work is done.
A ‘worksheet’ is made up of horizontal rows and vertical columns. An Excel worksheet contains
65,536 rows and 256 columns and each intersection of a column and a row forms a cell. Individual
worksheets are linked to form a ‘workbook’. Fundamentally, a workbook can be related to a very
sophisticated ledger. It allows the user to work and store various kinds of related data within a single
Excel file. By default, each workbook contains three worksheets (Sheet1, Sheet2 and Sheet3) that
can be accessed by sheet tabs. If user needs more than three worksheets, choose Worksheet from
the Insert menu and to delete any worksheet, choose Delete Sheet from the Edit menu.
• Columns and rows: In MS Excel, ‘column’ is defined as the vertical space from top to the bottom
of the window. There are 256 columns in a single worksheet, which are labelled in alphabetical
order (A, B, C…Z, AA, AB, AC…IV). The maximum number of characters that can be inserted
in a column is 255. A ‘row’ is defined as the horizontal space across the window. The rows are
labelled in a numbered order (1, 2, 3, …, 65536). The maximum limit of the height of a row is 409
points (547 pixels).
• Cells: The basic unit in spreadsheet is a ‘cell’. A cell is formed by the intersection of a row and a
column. This intersection gives the cell a unique address known as ‘cell address’ through which a
cell can be referenced through its ‘column name’ or ‘column letter’ followed by its ‘row number’.
For example, the intersection of row 8 and column E gives cell E8. The cell that denotes the current
position of the insertion point is known as ‘active cell’ and has a dark border around it. Data
written in a cell includes text, decimal numbers, date and time, currency, percentage and scientific
notation.
Uses of MS Excel
Name
box
Title bar
Menu bar
Standard
toolbar
Formatting toolbar
Active cell
Row 8
Worksheet tab
Tab scrolling
buttons
Formula
bar
Column
E
Cell
E8
Figure 5.3 MS Excel Window
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Introduction to Office Packages I-97
MS Excel is used for a variety of office tasks. Some of the popular uses of Excel are as follows:
• It allows users to create professional spreadsheets and charts.
• It performs numerous functions and formulas to assist in projects.
• It is useful in performing various mathematical calculations.
• It is used for transforming information into organized tables. This information is then analysed and
operated according to our needs.
10. Define cell range. How would you name a range of cells?
Ans: A ‘cell range’ (also called ‘block of cells’) is a group of adjacent cells forming a rectangular
area. A colon ‘:’ called ‘range indicator’ is used for indicating range in Excel. For example, range from
‘D4’ to ‘L28’ is written as ‘D4:L8’ in the Excel program. Here, alphabets D and L represent columns,
whereas numbers 4 and 8 represent rows.
A range of cells is formed by selecting a group of adjacent cells in a worksheet. Naming a cell or
range of cells adds clarity and speeds up productivity especially when dealing with a very large spread-
sheet. To name a range of cells in MS Office Excel 2003, follow the steps given below:
1. Select the cell or range of cells.
2. Click inside the Name Box to highlight the existing name of the cell.
3. Type in the name for the selected cell or range of cells and press the Enter key (Figure 5.4).
Figure 5.4 Naming a Range
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