osborne books Working with Spreadsheets UPDATE SUPPLEMENT 2015 The AAT has recently updated its Study and Assessment Guide for the Spreadsheet Software Unit with some minor additions and clarifications. This Supplement has been drawn up by Osborne Books to provide additional material for the Working with Spreadsheets textbook. Each change is dealt with on a page-by-page basis and should bring students fully up-to-date with what they might expect to encounter in their assessment. The current Osborne Books text remains fully valid for study purposes. PA g E 4 ( e n d o f t h e r o w s, c o l u m n s a n d c e l l s p a r a g r a p h ) The faint lines separating the rows and columns are called gridlines. They define the boundaries of each cell. PA g E 1 4 ( e n d o f t h e c o l u m n w i d t h s e c t i o n ) If a cell contains a date, number or result of a formula, and the column is not wide enough to display the whole of the value, you will see ###### displayed in the cell instead. To resolve this, just make the column wider until all is displayed. t u r n i n g o f f g r i d l i n e s If you do not wish to see gridlines when you are working on your spreadsheet, they can be turned off. To turn off gridlines: select the File menu
2 w o r k i n g w i t h s p r e a d s h e e t s t u t o r i a l u p d a t e s u p p l e m e n t 2 0 1 5 select Options select Advanced scroll down to Display options for this worksheet, and uncheck Show gridlines To turn gridlines back on again, repeat the above, and check Show gridlines. Note: Gridlines do not appear on your printed output unless you request them to appear in your printing selections. PA g E 4 0 ( b e f o r e d a t e f o r m a t s ) To unmerge cells: select the required cells right click on the selection select Format Cells select the Alignment tab on the text control section click the Merge cells checkbox so that it is unchecked PA g E 4 2 ( a f t e r t h e s e c o n d i m a g e ; b e f o r e H e a d e r s a n d F o o t e r s ) p r i n t a r e a If you want to print a selection of cells on your spreadsheet, you can set a print area. This could be different for each worksheet and the details of any print areas are saved when the workbook is saved. To set a print area: select a range or group of cells select the Page Layout menu select Print Area select Set Print Area
w o r k i n g w i t h s p r e a d s h e e t s t u t o r i a l u p d a t e s u p p l e m e n t 2 0 1 5 3 To clear a print area: select the Page Layout menu select Print Area select Clear Print Area PA g E 4 3 ( b e f o r e t h e s e n t e n c e A n e x a m p l e o f ) There are a number of additional items which can be inserted into either a header or a footer, these are available if you select Custom for your header or footer, and then pick the items you want and where you want to position them. For example: text date or time filename picture This can be seen in the image below:
4 w o r k i n g w i t h s p r e a d s h e e t s t u t o r i a l u p d a t e s u p p l e m e n t 2 0 1 5 PA g E 6 7 ( e n d o f t h e s e c t i o n o n d a t a v a l i d a t i o n ) It is also possible to apply data validation to cells that already contain data. For example, suppose we had values in column A as shown below. We want to restrict the values in cells A2 to A11 to numbers between 1 and 10. To do this: Select cells A2 to A11, Select Data Validation, Settings, And set as follows: Allow: whole number Data: Between Minimum: 0 Maximum: 10 As shown in the image on the next page.
w o r k i n g w i t h s p r e a d s h e e t s t u t o r i a l u p d a t e s u p p l e m e n t 2 0 1 5 5 Note, although we now have data validation on these cells, invalid values are not automatically highlighted. To identify any invalid values: Select Data Validation, Circle Invalid Data And as shown below, the -9 value is highlighted. To remove the red validation circles: Select Data Validation, Clear Validation Circles
6 w o r k i n g w i t h s p r e a d s h e e t s t u t o r i a l u p d a t e s u p p l e m e n t 2 0 1 5 PA g E 7 9 ( e n d o f s e c t i o n o n f o r m u l a s ) Note: If a formula contains a reference to a cell, and the cell is then deleted, the error #REF! will appear in the result cell. To correct this, you will have to adjust the formula as appropriate, or restore the deleted cell. Note: If a formula attempts to divide by zero or an empty cell, an error #DIV0! will be displayed in the result cell. PA g E 1 6 5 ( a b o v e t h e t w o i m a g e s ) Note: Within the chart menu, Column is used to create vertical bar charts, and Bar to create horizontal bar charts. PA g E 1 7 4 ( e n d o f t h e p a g e ) p r i n t i n g a c h a r t Once you have created a chart it is possible that you may wish to print just the chart. To print a chart: click on the chart to select it select Print and adjust Page Setup as required
w o r k i n g w i t h s p r e a d s h e e t s t u t o r i a l u p d a t e s u p p l e m e n t 2 0 1 5 7 PA g E 2 0 8 ( i m m e d i a t e l y b e f o r e t h e D r i l l D o w n s e c t i o n ) p i v o t c h a r t s From the pivot table which we have created, it is possible to produce an interactive chart, which allows you to view subsets of the data graphically. To create a Pivot chart for your table: select the pivot table select Insert select your chart type eg column A chart will be created as shown in the image below: In the bottom left you can see a button labelled Country, and in the top right a button labelled Product. Each of these buttons provides a drop down list so that you can refine the data that is included in the graph. In the example on the next page we have chosen to show all Products, and only in the UK.
8 w o r k i n g w i t h s p r e a d s h e e t s t u t o r i a l u p d a t e s u p p l e m e n t 2 0 1 5