Basics of Excel

Cell Edit Mode

• The most basic way to enter data into Excel is to simply select a cell and type directly into it.
• When you do this, the cell is automatically put in to edit mode.
• If you then press Enter or select a different cell in your spreadsheet, the typed content remains in the cell and the cell exits edit mode.








• If you later select the same cell and begin to type, this will overwrite the existing cell contents with the new text.
• If you simply want to add or edit text without deleting the content of the text, you need to put the cell back into edit mode before you start to enter the new data.
1. Double clicking on the cell or
2. Selecting the cell you want to edit and then clicking in the formula bar or pressing F2.

Entering a single value into a Range of cells.

• Type the value or text into the active cell and drag the mouse by selecting that cell.

Inputting a series of values

• If you want to enter the series of value into a range of cells.
• The Excel autofill feature can be used to populate a range of cells with either a repeat value, or with a series of numeric values.
• Click on the 'Auto Fill Options' box, it will appear at the end of your selected range.

Copy cells: Copy the initial cell across the selected range.
Fill series: Fill the selected range with a series of values starting with the initial cell value.
Fill Formatting only: Fill the selected range with the formatting, but not the values of the initial cell.
Fill without Formatting: Fill the selected range with values, but do not copy the formatting from the initial cell.

Autofill using More than one starting cell value.

• Fill Days.
• Fill Weekdays.
• Fill Months.
• Fill Years.

Notes